BLACK COBRA Chronomega (Southern Lord) cd 15.98
Do you like riffs? Do you like heavy as fuck sludged out goodness that at times reaches cosmic proportions? Do you like the band Karp? If you answered yes to any of these, then the chances are good you will do real well with the latest sonic missive from the two headed metal machine known as Black Cobra, their first for Southern Lord. Chronomega is so chock full of subharmonic super low tuned guitars, pummeling war drums, and mean ass vocals that you probably won't even notice (or care) that there is no bass. This band is INSANELY heavy, and they truly understand the possibilities that a two man lineup can shoot for and achieve if they've got the right pedigree. Considering that these dudes have served time in Cavity and 16, you can bet your sweet ass they have that pedigree. The band manages to be both loose and precise, swinging and propulsive, and one could easily imagine Black Cobra at home somewhere in the center of the earth, or maybe in a giant cave. Their sound is brutal but also quite melodic at times, and it's pretty clear that these two know what the fuck they're doing. The results are strangely hypnotic, it's as if there is an ever present hum from the vibrations of the guitar strings as the drums carry things forward into the center of a volcano.
Obviously for fans of the aforementioned Karp (as well as Big Business), the Melvins, and maybe even the more thuggish elements of bands like Mastodon and Baroness. Get this now!
MPEG Stream: "Negative Reversal"
MPEG Stream: "Catalyst"
MPEG Stream: "Lightning In His Hand"

BLACK COBRA Feather And Stone (At A Loss) cd 13.98
Two man heavy riff-machine Black Cobra return with another pummeling release on At A Loss. Picking up right where Bestial left off, Feather And Stone shreds from the start. Brutally punishing circular riffs, heavy as all hell doomy moments, throat ripping screams, and incredibly hard hitting and precise drums. The fact that this massive sound comes from two fellas is pretty damn amazing. The album has all kinds of peaks and valleys. Amidst the constant time signature shifting, and brain-burning riff heavitude, there are a couple of beautifully dark intros and outros thrown in, giving the album a very balanced feeling. But it's mostly just crushingly heavy and ripping. If you can imagine a heavier, much more misanthropic Karp, that's kind of what they remind us of. Feather And Stone is a must for anybody needing a little taste of thrashing triumphant, sometimes doomy and dark, sometimes fast and techy, but always heavy and punk as fuck ROCK music. It tastes good. This is also an enhanced disc, including some pretty righteous footage of the Cobra ripping at Roadburn! Proving these guys really are that HEAVY, even with just the power of two! For fans of Cavity, Karp, Floor, Torche, and things that kill shit!
MPEG Stream: "Five Daggers"
MPEG Stream: "Ascension"

BLACK COBRA Feather And Stone (At A Loss) lp 17.98
Finally available on vinyl!!
Two man heavy riff-machine Black Cobra return with another pummeling release on At A Loss. Picking up right where Bestial left off, Feather And Stone shreds from the start. Brutally punishing circular riffs, heavy as all hell doomy moments, throat ripping screams, and incredibly hard hitting and precise drums. The fact that this massive sound comes from two fellas is pretty damn amazing. The album has all kinds of peaks and valleys. Amidst the constant time signature shifting, and brain-burning riff heavitude, there are a couple of beautifully dark intros and outros thrown in, giving the album a very balanced feeling. But it's mostly just crushingly heavy and ripping. If you can imagine a heavier, much more misanthropic Karp, that's kind of what they remind us of. Feather And Stone is a must for anybody needing a little taste of thrashing triumphant, sometimes doomy and dark, sometimes fast and techy, but always heavy and punk as fuck ROCK music. It tastes good. This is also an enhanced disc, including some pretty righteous footage of the Cobra ripping at Roadburn! Proving these guys really are that HEAVY, even with just the power of two! For fans of Cavity, Karp, Floor, Torche, and things that kill shit!
MPEG Stream: "Five Daggers"
MPEG Stream: "Ascension"

BLACK COBRA Invernal (Southern Lord) cd 14.98

BLACK DAHLIA MURDER Miasma (Metal Blade) cd 13.98

BLACK DAWN Blood For Satan (Necropolis) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This has got to be one of the best black metal album covers EVER. A close-up of two corpsepainted mouths, drooling thick, viscous blood. Nice. Blazing fast, old-school black metal. Almost all blast beats and shrieks (the vocals sounding quite a bit like Cradle Of Filth, although the music is way more simple and 'classic' sounding) but with those half time sort-of-marches and creepy atmospherics every once in a while, and the occasional crack of thunder or pitch shifted demon voice. Just so you know this is 'true black metal', a note on the back says "BLOOD FOR SATAN should only be listened to during the practice of self-mutilation".
RealAudio clip: "A Hymn To Grand Darkness"
RealAudio clip: "Of Blackest Witchcraft"

BLACK ELK s/t (Crucial Blast) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Toggle"
MPEG Stream: "My Lil"

BLACK ELK MEDICINE BAND Santa Ana / As The Sun Rose On December 29, 1890 (Valley King) 7" 9.98
The latest from local label Valley King, is the first release from Black Elk Medicine Band, the solo project of Isaiah Mitchell of recent aQ Record Of The Weekers Golden Void, as well as psych rock shredders Earthless, and in BEMB, at least on this single, Mitchell is joined by Phil Manley (Trans Am, Life Coach, The Fucking Champs, etc.) and John McBain of the mighty Monster Magnet (and Carlton Melton!). You'd never know it on the B side, which just happens to be the one we listened to first - a dark, brooding, seventies sounding psychedelic drift, swirling soft tangles of slow burn guitar shred smolder, draped over a thick, ominous sprawl of sinister synth buzz, sounding like Mitchell's homage to Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain", the same sort of dark psych brood, tense and emotional and moody.
But flip the record over, and Mitchell and crew let loose with a heady barrage of spaced out psych that wouldn't sound out of place on a Golden Void or Earthless record. A simple skeletal programed rhythm pulses away beneath clouds of heavily flanged riffage, and yep, some seriously soaring heart of the sun shredding, sounding almost like a snippet of a much longer jam, fading in, the action already underway, the band locked into some seriously tripped out psychedelic mesmer, Mitchell laying down another blast of tangled super emotive guitar god leads, over a tranced out motorik background, eventually fading out, as if the actual jam, the one we just got a single side glimpse of, continued well on into the forever.
LIMITED TO 500 NUMBERED COPIES!! In a swank sleeve featuring all new artwork from artist Alan Forbes, each one signed!
MPEG Stream: "As The Sun Rose On December 29, 1890"
MPEG Stream: "Santa Ana"

BLACK FUNERAL Ordog (Behemoth) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We like to think we have pretty good taste in music, but lately we've discovered something pretty strange. Many of our favorite records we discovered, even pursued, after being told that they were terrible. Not sure what it is, but when a review of some record is so completely harsh, sometimes we think the reviewer just missed the point, or that the work being reviewed was just too strange to be properly described by the average review. In one instance, we read a review of a record by a black metal band we already really liked, and the reviewer gave it a ONE out of a possible TEN, going on at great length about why the record was so bad. But strangely, all of his complaints about the songs and sounds did nothing but make us more and more intrigued. After months of trying to track this record down (the label had folded and it was never properly released) we did finally get our hands on a cd-r copy, and you know what? It was absolutely amazing. Fucked up, sure. Retarded? Maybe. But by now, you know that's the sort of stuff we love (it was Old Forest if you must know, but we have had no luck tracking down the band or the label, and we'd be more than willing to put it out ourselves! Old Forest, if you're reading this get in touch!).
A similar thing happened with this, the latest from USBM outfit Black Funeral. A review we read complained that their otherwise kick ass grim and cult black metal, had morphed into a noisy, almost industrial sound, a buzzy blurry blast that was apparently too weird and not really 'black metal' enough. We were immediately envisioning a band that sounded like Spektr or Blut Aus Nord. Which would be a very good thing for sure. Other reviews described Ordog as "tuneful white noise", "Nargaroth or Graveland combined with Einsturzende Neubaten", another compared them to Benighted Leams (!!!). But it was the review that described Ordog as sounding like an untuned AM radio that really pushed us over the edge.
And you know what? It sounds a little like ALL of those things!!
This is definitely black metal. Appropriately harsh and buzzy. But from there all bets are off. A disturbing exploration of some mysterious fog enshrouded pit of despair. The vocals are harsh and way up in the mix, over weirdly atonal riffing and machinelike programmed drums. The melodies drift and drone, some almost sound like the most melancholy Depeche Mode song bits transplanted into a way more creepy and harrowing black metal wasteland. But the path through each track is a meandering circuitous journey, one fraught with peril. Wide expanses of fuzzy haunted mansion keyboard, jagged shards of metallic what-the-fuck laid over monster like growls and thick drones, rippling sheets of warped black noise, and a gritty and dense wall of fuzz draped over EVERYTHING. You can definitely here Spektr, Blut Aus Nord, Benighted Leams, but the twisted and looped buzzdrone aspect really reminds us of Wold, but where Wold were more spacey and ambient, Black Funeral apply the same sonic approach to a more blackened buzz. So fucking awesome!
The whole record is thematically based on the occult, Persian mythology, Satanism and especially vampirism, two tracks actually feature lyrics written by convicted serial killer / cannibal Nico Claur, to whom the record is also dedicated. Weird.
And non-music related tidbit. Black Funeral is in fact 2/3 female, which is most definitely an anomaly in black metal (and the band photos inside definitely had the AQ metal boys swooning. Black Funeral's Lux Ferro and Dana Dark are some seriously ultrafoxy, gloomy, gothy raven haired black metal queens of the underworld!)
MPEG Stream: "Harbingers Of Pestilence"
MPEG Stream: "Hymn To Ahriman"
MPEG Stream: "Mummu Chaos"

BLACK FUNERAL Ordog (Perverted Taste) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now on vinyl!!!
We like to think we have pretty good taste in music, but lately we've discovered something pretty strange. Many of our favorite records we discovered, even pursued, after being told that they were terrible. Not sure what it is, but when a review of some record is so completely harsh, sometimes we think the reviewer just missed the point, or that the work being reviewed was just too strange to be properly described by the average review. In one instance, we read a review of a record by a black metal band we already really liked, and the reviewer gave it a ONE out of a possible TEN, going on at great length about why the record was so bad. But strangely, all of his complaints about the songs and sounds did nothing but make us more and more intrigued. After months of trying to track this record down (the label had folded and it was never properly released) we did finally get our hands on a cd-r copy, and you know what? It was absolutely amazing. Fucked up, sure. Retarded? Maybe. But by now, you know that's the sort of stuff we love (it was Old Forest if you must know, but we have had no luck tracking down the band or the label, and we'd be more than willing to put it out ourselves! Old Forest, if you're reading this get in touch!).
A similar thing happened with this, the latest from USBM outfit Black Funeral. A review we read complained that their otherwise kick ass grim and cult black metal, had morphed into a noisy, almost industrial sound, a buzzy blurry blast that was apparently too weird and not really 'black metal' enough. We were immediately envisioning a band that sounded like Spektr or Blut Aus Nord. Which would be a very good thing for sure. Other reviews described Ordog as "tuneful white noise", "Nargaroth or Graveland combined with Einsturzende Neubaten", another compared them to Benighted Leams (!!!). But it was the review that described Ordog as sounding like an untuned AM radio that really pushed us over the edge.
And you know what? It sounds a little like ALL of those things!!
This is definitely black metal. Appropriately harsh and buzzy. But from there all bets are off. A disturbing exploration of some mysterious fog enshrouded pit of despair. The vocals are harsh and way up in the mix, over weirdly atonal riffing and machinelike programmed drums. The melodies drift and drone, some almost sound like the most melancholy Depeche Mode song bits transplanted into a way more creepy and harrowing black metal wasteland. But the path through each track is a meandering circuitous journey, one fraught with peril. Wide expanses of fuzzy haunted mansion keyboard, jagged shards of metallic what-the-fuck laid over monster like growls and thick drones, rippling sheets of warped black noise, and a gritty and dense wall of fuzz draped over EVERYTHING. You can definitely here Spektr, Blut Aus Nord, Benighted Leams, but the twisted and looped buzzdrone aspect really reminds us of Wold, but where Wold were more spacey and ambient, Black Funeral apply the same sonic approach to a more blackened buzz. So fucking awesome!
The whole record is thematically based on the occult, Persian mythology, Satanism and especially vampirism, two tracks actually feature lyrics written by convicted serial killer / cannibal Nico Claur, to whom the record is also dedicated. Weird.
And non-music related tidbit. Black Funeral is in fact 2/3 female, which is most definitely an anomaly in black metal (and the band photos inside definitely had the AQ metal boys swooning. Black Funeral's Lux Ferro and Dana Dark are some seriously ultrafoxy, gloomy, gothy raven haired black metal queens of the underworld!)
MPEG Stream: "Harbingers Of Pestilence"
MPEG Stream: "Hymn To Ahriman"
MPEG Stream: "Mummu Chaos"

BLACK FUNERAL Waters Of Weeping (Season Of Mist) cd 14.98
The last Black Funeral record, Ordog, was one of our favorite black metal records of last year. We already liked the band quite a bit previously, but with Ordog, the buzzing blackness was transformed into some sort of experimental black noise metal, reminding us of bands like Spektr and Blut Aus Nord and Phobos, a sort of processed industrial vibe, lots of drones and ambient interludes peppered with machine like riffing and all sorts of black atmosphere. We should be used to it by now, but while we were blown away, much of the BM community shied away, not at all digging Black Funeral's new damaged direction.
So we were pretty psyched to finally hear Waters of Weeping, the brand new record, to see where they took their black sounds next. And as much as we were secretly hoping they would do something super radical, WoW is actually more of a straight ahead black metal record, but then it's all relative. This is still plenty weird, just compared to Ordog, it's a bit more traditionally black and buzzy.
The sound and the vibe are very reminiscent of Xasthur and Leviathan and the like, the new wave of depressive black buzz-ers, with long drawn out minor key dirges, dense clouds of washed out buzz, loping blackened dirges, dense convoluted song structures, lots of creeped out ambience, but thankfully, here and there lurk some of that crumbling industrial blackness left over from Ordog. In fact, those are probably our favorite moments, like track 4, "Sha'arimrath, The Eighth Hell Ð HOD (Smal/Adramalech) Ð Mercury", an almost Godflesh worthy ultradistorted industrial dirge, with strange processed alien growls and pounding percussion, all wrapped up in buzzing synths and FX drenched guitars. But then the next track is a classic, old school sounding slab of relentless black metal buzz. But before you know it, we're on to track 6, and back to Ordog territory, "Lord Of The Dead Ð Tiphereth (Belphegor/Paimon) Tagahrim" another slowed down, black industrial buzz drenched plod that is SO fucking dismal and bleak and amazing. The more we listen to this disc, the more it all sounds so perfect. More and more and more like some meticulously assembled black artifact. The buzzing blackness spilling into the industrial pound, long streaks of minor key dirge wrapping inky tendrils around bursts of relentless black blasts... It's hard to explain exactly, but any of these tracks, take on their own, sounds pretty dang great, but taken together, as a sort of hellish suite, an extended ritual, they mesh into a grim and black, buzzy and blown out, haunting and soul wrenching sonic journey...
MPEG Stream: "Nehemoth Ð Malkuth (NAMVTh) - Earth"
MPEG Stream: "Sha'arimrath, The Eighth Hell Ð HOD (Smal/Adramalech) Ð Mercury"

BLACK HELL How The Rest Was Lost (Sounds Of Battle And Souvenir Collecting) cd-r 9.98
Upon first hearing the name "Black Hell", you can get at least a vague of idea of where this quartet lies on the sonic spectrum. Then you see the wordless album cover, a beautiful and clear image of a mighty desert rock formation haloed by a shock of pink light and surrounded by a series of optical cubes. Nice cover, for sure, but for some reason it conjures what you might expect from some experimental album or what have you. They say you can't always judge a book by its cover. And maybe that means something, somewhere... Because a few seconds into How The Rest Was Lost, everything clicks and it all makes sense: Oh, this is heavy as fuck cosmic STONER ROCK! From the deserts of Arizona, no less. So you can totally judge a book by its cover.
Black Hell deal in, like we said, heavy as fuck cosmic stoner rock, emphasizing the groove and looking way beyond the stars. There is a good deal of melody too, sort of melancholy, and totally catchy, with absolutely huge sounding production to give you a nice dose of mountainous drumming and totally rifftastic guitars that sound loud enough to fill all the open space on the album cover. The vocals are cool, and somewhat atypical of the genre, maybe higher than what you sometimes get with heavier groups, but definitely not in a bad way. It's actually quite similar to the guy in The Sword. Not quite as high as the dude in Mammatus, and not as whiney as the guy in Kyuss - the singer's voice is clean and expressive, not guttural or booming or anything. With song titles like "Lunar Procession", "Storms of Jupiter", "Lycanthropy", "Planet Maker", and "Celestial Conquest" (that was all of them, they're just pretty fucking cool), you should know whether or not this is for you. We say bring it on.
MPEG Stream: "Lunar Procession"
MPEG Stream: "Lycanthropy"

BLACK HOLE Land Of Mystery (Andromeda Relix) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We finally got a tiny handful of these back in, actually a new 2010 digipak repressing of this reissue, with for some reason just 2 bonus tracks instead of the 4 found on the 2006 edition we originally had. Still, if you like weird, psychedelic doom, and you missed it before, here you go, it's like the devil worshipping Italian version of Dwarr...
This Italian band's sole album from 1985 is a tough one to figure out. An oddity all right. They're definitely a metal band at heart - the fast-paced, pre-album demo track "Midnight Madman" included as a bonus cut on the original reissue (but not here) is proof of that - but on their album itself, they somehow created a much more unexpectedly PSYCHEDELIC and spacey, synthy sound. Totally dark and gothic in a metal way, yeah, but lost in space at the back of a black hole (of course), a slowed-down, doomed-out, dosed-with-cough-syrup vibe, splicing bits of Voivod with the likes of Jacula... in fact, the lurching music on this crackly disc (mastered directly from a none-too-pristine vinyl copy, the original reels having been lost to time, and sounding to us all the better for it!) could be AQ-faves Jacula given an '80s metal makeover... the church organ strains that open "Demoniac City" surely set that tone. Meanwhile, the title track cops a riff from Sabbath's "Electric Funeral", as if to give the nod to their biggest influence we're pretty sure. But the doomy compositions of vocalist/bassist/organist Robert Measles (great name!!) also derive from phantasms far beyond our plane, we're pretty sure of that as well.
Those in the know about Italian '80s metal acts like Death SS, Paul Chain, Bulldozer and Dark Quarterer are aware that a bizarre, poverty-stricken sort of prog weirdness often infects the proceedings, and Black Hole are no exception. In their case, on this album, it makes for something really strange and special, creating a cultish legacy that led to this cd reissue. We're glad to get to hear it! Now it's time to burn the black candles and visit Black Hole's "Spectral World" ruled by "Blind Men And Occult Forces"...
MPEG Stream: "Land Of Mystery"
MPEG Stream: "Blind Men And Occult Forces"

BLACK HOLE Land Of Mystery (Shadow Kingdom) cd 14.98
This is the THIRD time we've had a reissue of this album to list, and so if you missed it before, pay attention, 'cause there's good reason it keeps getting reissued (& slightly differently each time, too). Black Hole is highly recommended to anyone into weird, psychedelic doom, especially of the '80s cult variety - it's like the devil worshipping Italian horror version of Dwarr...
This Italian band's sole album from 1985 is a tough one to figure out. An oddity all right. They're definitely a metal band at heart - the fast-paced, pre-album demo track "Midnight Madman" included as a bonus cut on the original reissue (but not here) is proof of that - but on their album itself, they somehow created a much more unexpectedly PSYCHEDELIC and spacey, synthy sound. Totally dark and gothic in a metal way, yeah, but lost in space at the back of a black hole (of course), a slowed-down, doomed-out, dosed-with-cough-syrup vibe, splicing bits of Voivod with the likes of Jacula... in fact, the lurching music on this crackly disc (mastered directly from a none-too-pristine vinyl copy, the original reels having been lost to time, and sounding to us all the better for it!) could be AQ-faves Jacula given an '80s metal makeover... the church organ strains that open "Demoniac City" surely set that tone. Meanwhile, the title track cops a riff from Sabbath's "Electric Funeral", as if to give the nod to their biggest influence we're pretty sure. But the doomy compositions of vocalist/bassist/organist Robert Measles (great name!!) also derive from phantasms far beyond our plane, we're pretty sure of that as well.
Those in the know about Italian '80s metal acts like Death SS, Paul Chain, Bulldozer and Dark Quarterer are aware that a bizarre, poverty-stricken sort of prog weirdness often infects the proceedings, and Black Hole are no exception. In their case, on this album, it makes for something really strange and special, creating a cultish legacy that led to this cd reissue (and to the previous reissues of this as well).
This latest reissue, courtesy of cult metal specialists Shadow Kingdom, comes in a jewel case, and boasts 4 bonus tracks (all demos circa '86: "Overture", "Angels Of Lucifer", "Crying Puppets", and "End Of All Times"). It also boasts a nice domestic price unlike the previous reissues we've had.
Now it's time to burn the black candles and visit Black Hole's "Spectral World" ruled by "Blind Men And Occult Forces"...
MPEG Stream: "Land Of Mystery"
MPEG Stream: "Blind Men And Occult Forces"

BLACK HOLE GENERATOR Black Karma (Ars Magna Recordings) cd ep 11.98
From the same label that brought us the amazing Animus disc a while back, a gorgeously buzzy depressive melancholic chunk of emotional blissed out blackness, comes this, the debut from Black Hole Generator, a blackened supergroup of sorts, featuring members of Taake, Grimfist, Aeternus and others. Unlike the washed out dreamy buzziness of the Animus record, Black Karma is a furious frosty blast of ultra technical riffing, strange atmospheres, loping doomic passages, grand sweeping melodies, gnarled alien vocals and convoluted arrangements with plenty of weird stop/starts and confusional tempo changes.
We have to admit, we were a bit skeptical at first because of the band name. It made us think of some cheesy industrial black metal band, all programmed drums and recycled death metal riffing. But this is anything but. You can almost imagine some strange planet, floating in space, wreathed in ice and debris, blood red in the blackness of space, bizarre lights barely visible through the planet's hazy atmosphere, closer investigation though reveals that this is no planet, instead, it's some sort of aeons old machine, assembled by a mysterious ancient race, designed to create an endless series of black holes, which over time, will swallow up everything in the universe, enabling said race to begin anew, creating new worlds from the black void left by the Black Hole Generator. A black and barren universe designed to mirror their ancient home. Black Karma is the soundtrack, futuristic and furious, but grim and frosty and and subtly bizarre.
Each song a chapter of that epic tale, every chapter a maelstrom of relentless buzzing riffage, so blown out they're nearly transformed into a furious black ambience. The rhythms careening from light speed blur to loping seasick groove, blast beats underpinning thick shards of jagged distorted grind, occasionally slipping into some strangely catchy hook, before being blown apart into another dense cloud of black buzz. The vocals crawl and slither everywhere, like weird eyeless alien beasts, emitting guttural moans and weird strangled crooning that sounds a little like a throat singing Popeye. Here and there, the blackness recedes, revealing stretches of super dreamy melodic black bliss, arpeggiated melancholy melodies hovering over churning metallic swirls, before the Black Hole Generator sputters to life once more, and Black Karma slips right back into staccato bursts of machine gun like rhythms and planet razing streaks of black metal brutality. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "The Age Of Anxiety"
MPEG Stream: "When Hell Is Full The Dead Shall Walk The Earth"
MPEG Stream: "The Screaming Skull"

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY Sonic Brew (Spitfire ) cd 15.98
Former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde (he of the trademark pick squeals) rocks with a brand of hard, dirgy rock. Southern-tinged (a la CoC) stoner metal? 'Cause it's Zakk the stoner metal contigent might not pick up on this, but it actually blows away most other efforts in the genre: it's super heavy, full of (of course) great guitar playing and some excellent songwriting. Zakk handles the vocals too, with a voice again reminescent of CoC's Pepper Keenan. For fans of Acid Bath, Alice in Chains, Down, etc.

BLACK LEAGUE, THE Utopia A.D. (Spinefarm) cd 14.98
This might be the first time Finland's Spikefarm (home to Dead Beginners, Shape Of Despair, Finntroll and others) may have dropped the ball. A friend of ours, who we don't always necessarily believe, swears by this band. Loves 'em. We're not sure why. To me they just sound like Metallica circa 'The Black Album', just a little bit heavier. Only a little bit. Right down to the Hetfield-ish vocals. Features members of Impaled Nazarene and the original lead singer from Sentenced. The Spikefarm website describes The Black League as "Stone-Cold Chaos-Rock & Dead-Heavy Prog'n'Roll" but to me it's just boring and generic. Pass.
RealAudio clip: "Transit Gloria Mundi"
RealAudio clip: "Empiria"

BLACK MASS RISING (Black Mass Rising) dvd 36.00
Before we get too far into this review, we're just gonna list all the bands involved, all of whom have contributed EXCLUSIVE tracks to this sprawling psychedelic eye popping brainmelt, a fantastically tripped out and visually sumptuous film, created by Shazzula Nebula, from the French band Aqua Nebula Oscillator, whose records sadly, we've never been able to track down for the list (but will eventually!). Anyway, prepare yourselves, aQ-ers, cuz it's as if she made the movie just for YOU. The list basically reads like a killer aQ New Arrivals list: Master Musicians Of Bukkake, The Entrance Band, Bobby Beausoleil, Makoto Kawabata, Sylvester Anfang II, Mater Suspiria Vision, Ga'an, Menace Ruine, Demonologists, Aluk Todolo, Burial Hex, Yoga, Kinit Her, Sum Of R, L'Acephale, Cultus Sabbati, Sayona, Horror Illogium (from Portal), Shazzula, In Zaire, Mourning Ring and Rose Croix. Music from all of those folks set to some of the trippiest visuals we've seen in ages. The movie is split into two parts, the first half in color, a dizzying hypercolored freakout, that slips from mirrored kaleidoscopic patterns, to super-8 shots of what looks like some strange witchy rituals, from grainy blown out shots of robed figures in sun dappled graveyards, to gothy figure studies, the music blasting a long, slipping from, rhythmic psychedelic churn, to abstract cosmic shimmer, heavy and heady one second, tribal and electronic the next.
When the film shifts to black and white, the music seems to follow suit, growing darker and more ominous, dark piano chords ringing out over chanting monklike vox, rumbling drones, lumbering industrial rhythms, buzzing blackened dirges, tripped out doom folk drifts, and some seriously intense black noise and blown out psychedelic synth damage, the visuals again, perfectly complimenting the music, harrowing and high contrast, shapes and figures, mysterious patterns, jagged edits, lots of greys and whites blurred into textural swirls, the whole film, soundtrack and all definitely following an ever darkening arc, fantastic stuff, and even sans visuals, probably the best modern psych/space/noise/post-industrial/rhythmic/witch-house/doom-folk mix tape you'll ever hear.
LIMITED TO 666 COPIES. The ones we got, came a little beat up from their travels overseas, so the plastic cases are not quite perfect, which means anal collector types steer clear (or put it in a new case). Each one is hand numbered, and comes with a nice printed gold metallic on black booklet and cover/insert.

BLACK MAYONNAISE Ttssattsr (Emperor Jones) cd 13.98
Our good pal Cayce, who sadly passed away back in 2007, was as obsessive about freaky and fucked up music as we are, and was the first to bring this record to our attention, which we might have otherwise ignored on account of the somewhat dodgy sounding band name they possess. Black Mayonnaise? Eww. But Black Mayonnaise are definitely AQ-material, Cayce was right. Self-described (it says it right on the back cover) as "Warped Lunar Sludge-core", this band is akin to a lo-fi melding of SUNNO))) and Godflesh. It is sludgy and doomy, but not so much heavy or riffy, more just ominous and creepy and droney and dubby and distorted... Imagine plodding, repetitive, hypnotic, echoey drum machine hits mixed with mellow Merzbow-ian drone, whilst gargling, not-even-vocals bubble up from a tarpit of rumbling bass, amidst sundry sci-fi synth noises and the distant wails of whales and wookies. And there's a 'cover' song on here too, "Graveyard" by the Butthole Surfers, a choice that speaks volumes.
Listening to this disc is like stumbling through a miasma AND slowly sinking into a mire. We love it! Chances are there's only one guy behind Black Mayonnaise, and he recorded this in his bedroom -- but it sounds more like it was recorded in a moist, dark cave...perhaps the cavernous stomach of some extraterrestrial monster. Gastro-intestinal, interstellar doom, anyone? If that sounds good to you like it does to us, then this is quite recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Narcotic Fog"
MPEG Stream: "Floating Body II"

BLACK MAYONNAISE Unseen Collaborator (Resipiscent) cd-r 11.98
Ahhhh, how we love Black Mayonnaise. Not the foodstuff. Although to be fair, we've never really tried it. No we're talking about the weird blackened musical one man band who years ago graced us with the mindblowing and soul melting Ttssattsr album, and who has now returned with a brand new disc of self described "Warped Lunar Sludge-core", and if anything it's even noisier, heavier and more freaked out and fucked up.
Ttssattsr, as best as we could describe it, sounded like some fractured blend of Godflesh and SUNNO))), and while that element is still present, things seem to have gotten a lot more abstract, with many tracks eschewing rhythms altogether, or burying them under an avalanche of grinding throbbing churning blackened buzz.
The first track is one long static drone, thick and tangled layers of blurred out buzz all tangled up into one huge ropy mass, above it float monstrous froglike croaks, impossible low end gurgles, while beneath a skittery rhythm lurks, barely audible, more like a thready pulse, all dubbed out, a rickety rhythmic skeleton supporting the blackened hide of the Black Mayonnaise beast. While heavy and intense, it's also weirdly dreamy and blissed out, a sort of soft doom-drone.
But the next track takes care of that, the drums finally kick in, the croaking frog still belching out noxious clouds of vocals, the guitars and drums locked into a doom plod, everything wreathed in space-y FX, like a slow motion doom metal Hawkwind.
Track three is super reminiscent of the first BM record, a very Godflesh sounding dirge, the industrial drumming, the thick riffing, but all melty and murky with those awesome croaked grunted rumbles over the top.
Probably the biggest surprise is the Flaming Lips cover, that sounds nothing like the Lips AT ALL, instead, it's a caustic slab of furious fuzzed out distorted in-the-red buzz and relentless blast beats, as close to blacknoise as BM gets, there are all sorts of groaning creaking sounds, as well as squiggly streaks of hiss, but they are practically swallowed whole. There's also a Flipper cover, which seems and sounds much more Black Mayonnaise appropriate, a murky lurching trudge through a world of sonic black tar. Everything black and dripping, but shot through with lazer blast FX, and those creepy vocals again.
The thirteen minute closer is totally out of left field, a garbled synthscape, very abstract and freaky, plenty of whirring buzz, and bleeps and bloops, slippery squiggles, like intercepted alien radio broadcasts, a sputtering, squelchy glitchy not-quite ambience that does manage to actually get pretty hypnotic.
Gorgeously packaged in a silkscreened black-on-black cardstock sleeve, while inside there's a black-on-metallic-silver printed insert, BUT be warned, it is in fact a cd-r, not an actual cd, but really it hardly matters, you'll forget about everything but what the hell is happening to your ears, and our brain, and your soul the second you press play.
MPEG Stream: "Low Twelve"
MPEG Stream: "Threshold"
MPEG Stream: "Pilot"

BLACK METAL CASSETTE GRAB BAG 10 Cassettes 10 x cassette 40.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Once again, we got a whole batch of killer black metal cassettes, too many to review, but all of them weird and grim, buzzing and black. Some are super fucked blacknoise, others are damaged stumbling outsider black buzz, while others are old skool blackness, raw and hateful and brutal, while still others fall somewhere in between. But all of them cool. Andee again bought one of each if that makes you feel any better (his room is starting to look like it did in high school, minus the Motley Crue and W.A.S.P posters, who thought at 37 he'd be contemplating buying a "cassette rack" for all his tapes).
Okay, now we're talking. Ten tapes is some serious shit. The demons and dark underlords are starting to take notice. There is a bit of scuttlebut in the halls of hell, you are dark, bleak and black. Of soul, of heart, of spirit. Ten tapes will keep your Walkman bleeding black while you apply all that corpsepaint. While you sharpen that axe and practice making those scary faces for your series of ultra grim Myspace videos. That goth girl at the video store might finally notice you. C'mon! You are the elite. The black legion. The black tape legions.
Remember, only tapes that have NOT been reviewed are eligible for the grab bag and the bargain price.
That means we pick, it is random, and it will not include any tapes you have seen on the AQ list, or any tapes scheduled to be reviewed in the near future.
Also, this is a whole new batch of tapes, none of which we have had before, so even if you grab bagged a few lists back, you can go for it again and not worry about getting the same titles. All right!

BLACK METAL CASSETTE GRAB BAG 20 Cassettes 20 x cassette 80.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Once again, we got a whole batch of killer black metal cassettes, too many to review, but all of them weird and grim, buzzing and black. Some are super fucked blacknoise, others are damaged stumbling outsider black buzz, while others are old skool blackness, raw and hateful and brutal, while still others fall somewhere in between. But all of them cool. Andee again bought one of each if that makes you feel any better (his room is starting to look like it did in high school, minus the Motley Crue and W.A.S.P posters, who thought at 37 he'd be contemplating buying a "cassette rack" for all his tapes).
The legions of hell shall now tremble before you, they will supplicate themselves before the newly appointed, Mr. Evil Lord of The TWENTY RANDOM BLACK METAL TAPES. You are the blackest. The most foul. You truly are the embodiment of unspeakable audial evil. You are a cassette tape warlord. Your tiny speakers spew blackness. Your ear buds are a direct link to the dark one...
There will indeed be a final battle. To the death, the future of mankind hangs in the balance. It will not be determined by the number of demons in your army, the number of horns on your head, the sharpness of your blade or the quickness of your tongue, NAY, the deciding factor will undoubtedly be cassette tapes. It has been written. IN THE BIBLE!! Or somewhere, but it has been written: "The more tapes you have, the more prepared you shall be for battle. You shall not be defeated easily, those twenty tapes are like a huge flaming pentagram, warding off all who would dare challenge you." But as we warned you before, be wary of he with more than twenty black metal tapes. He will be your ruination. His twenty five or even thirty tapes will spell your doom. The only way to defeat him is to ORDER ALL THE TAPES. If you dare. And, if you daren't, well, then, you shall just take your chance with twenty!!!! BE NOT AFRAID!!! Twenty is indeed a whole lot!!
Remember, only tapes that have NOT been reviewed are eligible for the grab bag and the bargain price.
That means we pick, it is random, and it will not include any tapes you have seen on the AQ list, or any tapes scheduled to be reviewed in the near future.
Also, this is a whole new batch of tapes, none of which we have had before, so even if you grab bagged a few lists back, you can go for it again and not worry about getting the same titles. All right!

BLACK METAL CASSETTE GRAB BAG 3 Cassettes 3 x cassette 12.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Once again, we got a whole batch of killer black metal cassettes, too many to review, but all of them weird and grim, buzzing and black. Some are super fucked blacknoise, others are damaged stumbling outsider black buzz, while others are old skool blackness, raw and hateful and brutal, while still others fall somewhere in between. But all of them cool. Andee again bought one of each if that makes you feel any better (his room is starting to look like it did in high school, minus the Motley Crue and W.A.S.P posters, who thought at 37 he'd be contemplating buying a "cassette rack" for all his tapes).
This three pack is perfect for the black metal newbie, you're bound to get something you'll like, but if not, you can shrug it off and try desperately to wipe the foul blackness from your soul. But odds are you'll be hooked and want more. Black metal. AND cassettes.
Remember, only tapes that have NOT been reviewed are eligible for the grab bag and the bargain price.
That means we pick, it is random, and it will not include any tapes you have seen on the AQ list, or any tapes scheduled to be reviewed in the near future.
Also, this is a whole new batch of tapes, none of which we have had before, so even if you grab bagged a few lists back, you can go for it again and not worry about getting the same titles. All right!

BLACK METAL CASSETTE GRAB BAG 6 Cassettes 6 x cassette 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Once again, we got a whole batch of killer black metal cassettes, too many to review, but all of them weird and grim, buzzing and black. Some are super fucked blacknoise, others are damaged stumbling outsider black buzz, while others are old skool blackness, raw and hateful and brutal, while still others fall somewhere in between. But all of them cool. Andee again bought one of each if that makes you feel any better (his room is starting to look like it did in high school, minus the Motley Crue and W.A.S.P posters, who thought at 37 he'd be contemplating buying a "cassette rack" for all his tapes).
This six pack is for the slightly more serious black metalhead. Six tapes is a like dipping a toe into the darkside, having an itsy bitsy peek at the blackness that lurks beneath, 6 tapes says you just might be serious. You might one day pledge your allegiance to the dark lord. The again you may not. 6 tapes, you could go either way. But 6 plastic slabs of grim and brutal black buzz stuffed in your Walkman will definitely be plenty to while away long nights skulking around graveyards, and definitely enough to keep your car stereo buzzing on the way to see where Anton LaVey's house once was or to burn down a church or whatever. All hail YOU!
Remember, only tapes that have NOT been reviewed are eligible for the grab bag and the bargain price.
That means we pick, it is random, and it will not include any tapes you have seen on the AQ list, or any tapes scheduled to be reviewed in the near future.
Also, this is a whole new batch of tapes, none of which we have had before, so even if you grab bagged a few lists back, you can go for it again and not worry about getting the same titles. All right!

BLACK METAL OF THE AMERICAS Vol. III magazine 3.00
Fuck yeah, another awesome new metal mag (new to us at least, they're on currently on issue three), this one hailing from Chicago, and BMoTA is full on old school style classic zine action, folded 8 1/2" x 11" paper, stapled in the middle, photocopied, and brimming with cool underground shit, most notably, a super lengthy interview with SF eco-terrorist drum and dulcimer black metal one man band Botanist! There's also Alaskan (!!) black metallers Bound By Entrails, aQ fave electro-black metal / black noise weirdo(s) Jute Gyte, Kentucky black metal horde Merkaba (who recently released a split with another aQ fave, Wheels Within Wheels), Canadian black metal duo Skagos, a Sutekh Hexen show review, and a handful of record reviews. Fans of Oaken Throne, Chips & Beer, Rape & Honey, Convivial Hermit, Gallery Of The Grotesque, etc. can now add Black Metal Of The Americas to their essential metal mag reading list!!
LIMITED FIRST RUN OF JUST 55 ISSUES!! Each one hand numbered!

BLACK METAL: BEYOND THE DARKNESS (Black Dog Publishing) book 29.95
Much has been written about black metal, especially all the tabloid worthy murders and church burnings of the early years, but more recently, as black metal has become more mainstream, there's been a focus on what black metal is now, today, to different people, to a whole new set of listeners, not to mention the diehards who have been there since the beginning. The various approaches to this music have ranged from hyper academic writings, to oral histories, and beyond, many of which are gathered up here in this new collection, simply and succinctly titled Black Metal: Beyond The Darkness. And it does definitely live up to its subtitle, looking beyond the usual BM stuff and focusing on lesser known international scenes, labels and stores (both tUMULt and aQuarius are featured!), distros, the aesthetics of BM, how the music ties in to fine art, and how the sound has changed, how the focus of the music has transformed.
And so this book acts both as a pretty excellent primer for newbies, and a good read for BM vets. Beginning with a history of black metal, starting way back during the days of aforementioned murders and church burnings, and focusing on the various scenes from Greece to Italy, France to Poland, and featuring bands like Mutiilation, Mortuary Drape, Vlad Tepese, Septic Flesh, Rotting Christ, Behemoth, Graveland, Thor's Hammer and a bunch more. Lots of cool rare pix too. There's an interview with Peteris Kvetkovskis from Skyforger about being in a black metal band in Russia pre/post Soviet Union, there's a reprint of Brandon Stosuy's American black metal primer, as well as an oral history, originally published in the Believer and featuring our very own Andee (aQ/tUMULt) as well as Aesop from Ludicra / Agalloch / Vhol, Imperial from Krieg, Josh from Velvet Cacoon, Chris Bruni from Profound Lore Records, Umesh from Brown Jenkins, Tyler from the Ajna Offensive, along with members of Negative Plane, Inquisition, Vrolok, The Howling Wind, Cult Ov Azazel, Cult Of Daath, Wrath Of The Weak, Bahimiron and more.
There's an essay by Imperial from Krieg, a looong and almost ridiculously academic essay on 'transcendental black metal' by Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, a very divisive figure in modern black metal, and mastermind behind USBM combo Liturgy, an essay on 'black metal theory' by Nicola Masciandaro, who set up the Hideous Gnosis Symposium, a book of some of the presentations we reviewed a while back, an essay on black metal in American writing by Diamuid Hester, an essay on the selling and distribution of black metal by the editor Louis Pattison, which includes an interview with our very own Andee about aQ, as well as interviews with Northern Heritage, Terratur Possessions, Teutonic Satan, HMV, and Crucial Blast.
There's an interview with Jon Kristiansen, whose legendary Slayer zine was recently compiled into a book by Bazillion Points, there's an interview with Jon Jamshid, who published an obscure BM zine called Petrified Zine, there's a piece on CS (Conservative Shithead) Journal which focuses on links between art and extreme metal, an interview with Trine + Kim Design Studio, who are responsible for many iconic BM album covers, an interview with metal graphic designer Justin Stubbs, an interview with Lord Of The Logos Christophe Szpajdel, and pages of his amazing and ultra iconic logos, an essay on the visual language of black metal by Nick Richardson, and a short final piece from legendary black metal band Ulver. Wow.
Beyond that, there are TONS of rare photos, album reproductions, a pretty extensive discography and more more more. A nice oversized soft cover coffee table book, in color and black and white. Of course black metalheads are gonna want this, no, NEED this, and obviously if you're looking for something to buy for a corpsepainted loved one, well, here you go!

BLACK MOUNTAIN Druganaut (Jagjaguar) cd 10.98
We loved the recent full length Black Mountain record (except for the first track, see the full length review for more on that) a bastard mix of Sabbathy stoner rock, weird white soul and drone-y VU style dope rock. The best track by far was the massive "Druganaut", with it dueling male / female slacker vocals and THAT riff, the chorus that got our heads banging everytime it came on, no matter how hard we tried to fight it. The extended version here blunts the power of THAT riff just a bit, but not without good reason, as the whole track is stretched waaaaay out, and drenched in reverb, as well as all sorts of buzzy noodly synths and a thick layer of hiss, which makes the whole thing sound just that much more fucked up and drugged out. It sounds what we imagine the orginal would sound like if you were doped to the gills! The extra tracks are pretty killer too. "Buffalo Swan" is a droney, blissed out hypnotic drug jam, with plenty of ambient shimmer and bass driven breakdowns. Creepy and mysterious. "Bicycle Man" is a rollicking fuzz bass, jangle pop garage rock workout complete with nonsense lyrics and harmonica! And finally "No Satisfaction (Campfire Version)" sounds just like you would think, a simple Dylan / Stones piano and strummed acoustic guitar sing along, with a stomping rhythm and lazily drawled boy / girl vocals. A pretty kick ass (and pretty lengthy at 25 minutes) slab of druggy, seventies soul infused groove rock!
MPEG Stream: "Druganaut (extended)"

BLACK MOUNTAIN s/t (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98
Definitely buy this record. But whatever you do, for chrissakes, SKIP THE FIRST TRACK. At least for now. Both Allan and Andee had written this band off completely, having only made it about 2 minutes into the first song, which is sort of limp wristed, east village, white dude soul brother, Beck meets the Velvet Underground with saxophone bouncy call and response lite rock. Ugh. It makes more sense in the context of the record. Sort of. First, skip to track two and prepare to be blown away. A totally stoned, seventies metal groove with flanged fuzz guitar, playing that sort of riff that you just can't help bob your head and rock out too. And then there's the vocals, sort of Queens Of The Stoneage rasp mixed with Palace style falsetto warble. The whole thing is perfect, like it's 1975, and you're high as a kite, sitting in the corner of a filthy Village squat, and the band playing is just blowing your fucking mind. Flares and frizzy long hair and probably even a smoke machine. Either that or the room is full of smoke already anyway. The next track is just as good. A funky boppy bass groove, that just sort of shimmies lazily for a few minutes, with minimal vocals ("uh huh....uh huh huh") and simple drumming, Until a truly Zeppelin worthy riff drops, with weird soulstyle vocals, male vs. female, hard to explain but they just sound perfect. And evoke that weird seventies burnout, White Panther metal vibe. Strangely, the rest of the record sort of drifts off in all directions, Bowie-ish glam rock, moody folky ballads, drum heavy Santana-ish psych rock, slow and moody prog rock, and almost Eagles-ish country, which is just about when that first track starts to make at least a little more sense. A little. Although we do find ourselves playing track 2 and 3 over and over and over, the whole record has really grown on us. Had this just been a 7" with those two tracks, it would have been the single of the year. SINGLE OF THE CENTURY! But as it is, it's just a big ol' beautifully druggy, slightly schizophrenic seventies style hard rock, rhythm and soul record that just happens to contain two of the heaviest grooves in recent memory!
MPEG Stream: "Don't Run Our Hearts Around"
MPEG Stream: "Druganaut"

BLACK OATH s/t (Subject To Suffering) cdep 9.98

MPEG Stream: "Black Initiation"
MPEG Stream: "Obsessed By Moonlight"

BLACK OATH s/t (Subject To Suffering) cdep 9.98

MPEG Stream: "Black Initiation"
MPEG Stream: "Obsessed By Moonlight"

BLACK OATH The Third Aeon (I Hate Records) cd 17.98
Doom metal bands aren't exactly uncommon these days - which is a good thing, as we can remember when there were only like five or six of them, really! - but we know that I Hate Records can be counted on to bring us the best. Also, this band, Italy's Black Oath, we already were familiar with due to an earlier, self-titled cdep that we never could get enough of to list (though we might still have a copy or two in stock if you ask). We liked that, and we like this. What's not to like? Ultra heavy, fuzzy guitar chords surge solemnly forth like black rays from some sub-Hell, weighty riffs churn and crunch, with mournful, melodic vocal lamentations rising up over it all. Black Oath incorporate additional church organ atmospherics as well, adding to the idea that doom metal monks are making this music (and also giving us a suggestion of '70s prog a la Jacula). The album is strong throughout, coming to an epic close with the eleven minute title track, that manages, within the confines of their monkish aesthetic, to really "rock out" at the end, while also bringing in rainstorm sounds and classical strings.
Most simply put, Black Oath manifest themselves like sludgier version of Candlemass, with plenty of Italy's occult metal tradition (Jacula, Death SS/Paul Chain, Black Hole, and AQ fave Tony Tears) prominent in the mix as well. This sombre, majestic album ought to find favor with fans of the aforementioned, also Griftegard, The Wounded Kings, Fall Of The Idols, Thunderstorm, and maybe Moss too, though this isn't so "ultra" doom as the latter. A delectable, despairing dose for all discerning doom hounds.
MPEG Stream: "Death As Liberation"
MPEG Stream: "Growth Of A Star Within"

BLACK PRIEST OF SATAN We, As Shadows Of Satan (Black Priest Of Satan Recordings) cd ep 6.66
Most long time readers of the aQ list are familiar with the stumbling weirdo surf guitar flecked outsider black metal of the German horde Varghkoghargasmal, whose peculiar brand of 'wooden metal' was a huge hit around here. So much so that our very own Andee released Varghkoghargasmal's Drowned In Lakes on his tUMULt label. Varghkoghargasmal mainman Avenger has more up his sonic sleeve, including not one, but two other projects on this week's list, one of which is this twisted blackened duo, appropriately monikered Black Priest Of Satan, which finds Avenger teamed up with the also awesomely named Molestor Kadotus, the two conjuring up a sound that's not all that far removed from Varghkoghargasmal actually. The drums are murky and stumbly, the guitars fuzzed out, the whole sound is loose, off kilter and home brewed, some seriously raw primitive satanic black doom, which is only further twisted by the crazed vocals, multiple vocal lines, some growled, others almost chanted, and still others soaring into shrieked falsettos, with voices overlapping, getting all tangled up, drenched in reverb and delay, giving the vokills, and the whole sound, a seriously dubbed out, almost psychedelic vibe. The music itself lurches from slo-mo black metal buzz, to sludgey Sabbathy doom, to lumbering chaotic thrash, always on the verge of collapse, and always wreathed in a seriously fucked up occultic ritualistic vibe, that makes this sound like some lost tape traded artifact from the late eighties or early nineties! Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "We, As Shadows Of Satan"
MPEG Stream: "Graves And Misty Mornings"

BLACK PYRAMID II (MeteorCity) cd 12.98
As you can guess from the title, this is the second album by Massachusetts psychedelic sludge doomsters Black Pyramid, sequel to their self-titled full-length from 2009, also on the MeteorCity label. We somehow missed that one, much like we did with the first Elder, another MeteorCity act from the Bay State that we recently highlighted the 2nd album by... and boy are these bands kinda similar in other ways, yep both stoner sludge trios, both kicking out the double digit length jams, both (like a lot of MeteorCity bands) worshipping at the altar of Sleep and the like, and worshipping 'em well. If you like Elder and WhiteBuzz, you oughtta check out BP!
The disc starts off with the very metal "Endless Agony", one of those galloping, triumphant, leading-beserker-troops-into-bloody-battle sort of songs. And that's the vibe on a lot of this record, storming stuff that fans of Sleep's aggro offshoot High On Fire should cotton to. Certainly the first couple of tracks take no prisoners... then they get REALLY Sleep-y (but not sleepy), on "Night Queen" which has that swinging Sleep-like lope, a la "Dragonaut". (And a la Black Sabbath too of course.) That then leads into the disc's first true epic, the 12-minute plus "Dreams Of The Dead", which interweaves Black Pyramid's crushing riffage with introspective psych explorations and milder melodic moments. They follow that with a brief, beautiful instrumental acoustic number, "Tanelorn", as if to serve as an intermission of sorts, a quick, quiet break before the rest of "side two", the second half of the album mirroring the first, containing both raging metal ("Sons Of Chaos") and lumbering doom ("The Hidden Kingdom"), culminating in another double digit epic, "Into The Dawn", complete with classic riffing, gruff but glorious clean vocals, Melvins-y grind, delicate guitar bits, and spacey synth drone over the course of its nearly 16 minutes. All kinds of awesome there. BP could be likened to a sludgier Saviours, in fact, when we're not hammering on the Sleep comparisons. Again if you liked the recently-reviewed Elder on the same label, you should give Black Pyramid a go!
MPEG Stream: "Endless Agony"
MPEG Stream: "Mercy's Bane"
MPEG Stream: "Night Queen"

BLACK QUEEN The Anthropocalypse (Catastrophic Sound) cdep 7.98
The up and coming local metal/punk/experimental label Catastrophic Sound releases its second cd, following the debut by death metallers Sangre Amado. This one is a four-song ep by another local band, Black Queen, who have perfected a black metal influenced, somewhat weird and skronky assault. Choppy rhythmic complexity and a near-constantly deployed guitar squeal are the band's most obvious trademarks, but these four tracks range from raging death metal brutality complete with guttural vocal growling to some quieter, textural instrumental passages. "The Anthropocalypse" is heavy, varied and quite interesting. I've yet to see 'em play live but if this disc is any indication they must be pretty great on stage. On the other hand, I hope they spend their free time in the recording studio so we will someday have a full-length album to behold.

BLACK SABBATH Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970-1978 (Warner Bros. / Rhino) 8cd + dvd box 96.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For the 35th anniversary of Black Sabbath, Rhino unveils this massive box set collecting in their entirety the eight studio albums by the original Ozzy Osbourne-fronted Black Sabbath line-up. And that's just great, fantastic. But actually I (Allan) personally think something even more substantial is in order for the band that, more than anyone, invented heavy metal -- a physical monument, perhaps a Gothic cathedral to be built in Birmingham England, where their music could be constantly playing on hidden loudspeakers 24-7? Something like that. But then again, they are pretty much my favorite band of all time. There's not room here to explain why, but I'd say Sabbath are in a large part responsible for my fanatical interest in music of all kinds and thus my job here at Aquarius Records. Seriously. The heaviness, the riffs, the emotion, the sincerity, the originality, the love, the darkness, the mystery, the humanity... Black Sabbath stand above all others.
So... anyway this box set gets a hardy recommendation from me. Basically, if you don't already have all the remastered cds of the Ozzy-era albums, then you should BUY THIS. It's a deal. 12 bucks an album, plus a felt-covered 78-page hardback book and a bonus DVD! And we're talking about some of the BEST ALBUMS EVER. Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master Of Reality, Vol. 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Sabotage, Technical Ecstasy, Never Say Die. Ask me to list the top 20 heavy metal albums -- nay, rock and roll albums -- of all time and at least the first six of these will be on it! (Actually, please don't ask me, but you get my point.) The DVD consists of four songs performed live on the German Beat Club TV show, with that great psychedelic early '70s video effects processing. You've probably seen "Iron Man" or "Paranoid" from this before, they show 'em on VH-1 or MTV sometimes. But there's also "Black Sabbath" (dig the extreme close-ups on Ozzy's anguished face as he sings) and their rockin' cover of "Blue Suede Shoes"! Sabbath fans might already have these, though, as they've been available before. The book contains lots of great pictures, a detailed Sabbath timeline, two lengthy essays about the original Sabbath's rise and fall, and (at last!) printed lyrics from all eight albums...the surreal drugged-out poetry of the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath lyrics in particular are brilliant. Lots to pour over here, and even a Sab fan like myself learned somethings (like, it's Tony Iommi, not Ozzy, coughing in the intro to "Sweet Leaf"). Maybe the one unnecessary thing in the book are the celebrity blurbs that litter the pages -- Sabbath don't really need the endorsement of Beck or Henry Rollins, do they?! And I also must complain that nowhere in the band history or timeline does the post-Ozzy Sabbath even get a mention: Ronnie James Dio at least deserves better than that!
The whole set is packaged smartly in, of course, a black box. There's two smaller cardboard slip-case style boxes (labeled 1970-1972 and 1973-1978 respectively) that fit in there with the book, each of 'em holding four digipack cds, with the original album art. The cds themselves are remastered. Sadly, there's not much in the way of extras -- no bonus tracks to speak of (the only one being "Evil Woman" from the UK edition of their debut). But Sabbath weren't a band that recorded a lot of throw-away b-sides or un-issued song demos. After all, these eight albums were from a span of eight years, the first four from just 2 years. So they were quite prolific but it all ended up on their albums -- and what's so amazing is that there's no filler. For the first six albums at least, almost EVERY SONG is great, and contains a riff eternal. That's why they're gods. However, I do think that they could have dug up some live material (there's bootlegs of lots of good stuff) or the rumoured demos from pre-Sabbath incarnation Earth. Too much to hope for I guess. And the DVD could have included more than the Beat Club footage: what about the California Jam or Don Kirschner's Rock Concert or their promotional videos? Oh well. Again, that's only gonna matter to extreme fans like myself, everyone else should be more than satisfied with just the timeless, legendary music from the albums anyway.
MPEG Stream: "Solitude"
MPEG Stream: "It's Alright"

BLACK SABBATH Born Again (Castle) cd 14.98
Previously hard-to-find on cd, the last great Sabbath album, 1983's "Born Again" sees Ian "Deep Purple" Gillan stepping up to the mic, replacing Ronnie James. This lineup only lasted one album, but it's one of our favorites.

BLACK SABBATH Heaven And Hell (Castle) cd 14.98
First post-Ozzy outing, Dio's Sabbath debut.

BLACK SABBATH Live At Last (Castle) cd 14.98
Live with Ozzy in '74 or so. Finally remastered and available on a non-shoddy label.

BLACK SABBATH Master Of Reality (Castle) cd 14.98
Essential. We probably don't have to tell you that Master Of Reality is one of Black Sabbath's best, heck one of the best elpees EVER, with Tony, Geezer, Ozzy and Bill whumping out such classics as "Sweet Leaf", "Children of the Grave", "Into The Void", "Lord Of This World" - good grief every track on here is brilliant!

BLACK SABBATH Master of Reality (Get Back) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We probably don't have to tell you that Master Of Reality is one of Black Sabbath's best, heck one of the best elpees EVER, with Tony, Geezer, Ozzy and Bill whumping out such classics as "Sweet Leaf", "Children of the Grave", "Into The Void", "Lord Of This World" -- good grief every track on here is brilliant!

BLACK SABBATH Mob Rules (Castle) cd 14.98
Their second album with Dio, and despite the absence of drummer Bill Ward, it's an all time metal classic with some of Sabbath's best songs.

BLACK SABBATH Never Say Die! (Castle) cd 14.98
The final Ozzy-era Sabbath disc.

BLACK SABBATH Paranoid (Castle) cd 14.98
Essential.

BLACK SABBATH Paranoid (Get Back) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Essential.

BLACK SABBATH Past Lives (Sanctuary / Divine Recordings) 2cd 21.00
Forget about the Ozzfest reunion tours, this is live Black Sabbath (the BEST BAND EVER, sez Allan) from their '70s heyday, with the original, Ozzy-fronted line-up. Two discs worth of the heaviest of metal from the originators of the form. Super-exciting but for one thing: many Sabbath fans probably already have disc one, formerly known as the "Live At Last" album (recorded in 1973, released in 1980 against the band's wishes at the time -- 'cause they'd fired Ozzy and Ronnie James Dio was now their singer. Now, of course, they've got no problem with it). Still, one whole disc of previously (officially) unreleased live Sabbath is worth more than the 21 bucks this is going to cost you. And it comes with (while supplies of this handsome limited edition digipack version last) a poster and guitar pick, plus three bonus tracks too that aren't on the regular jewelcase edition.
Here's the track listing:
(Disc One) Tomorrow's Dream, Sweet Leaf, Killing Yourself To Live, Cornucopia, Snowblind, Children of the Grave, War Pigs, Wicked World, Paranoid, (Disc Two) Hand of Doom, Hole in the Sky*, Symptom of the Universe, Megalomania*, Iron Man*, Black Sabbath, N.I.B., Behind the Wall, Fairies Wear Boots. (Asterisks indicate bonus tracks only on this digipak verison.)
As a live band, Black Sabbath kill -- absolutely charismatic, energetic, and creative. And of course, HEAVY. Plus, you get to enjoy Ozzy's stage banter ("Are you high? Are you high? So am I!"), and variant, improvised lyrics/solos. In the middle of "Wicked World" on disc one, Tony Iommi gets a melodic, medieval solo, then they go into a jazz break, then jam on a whole 'nother riff, with Ozzy making up lyrics, that could have been a great song but never made it into the studio in this form, and then charge into "Supernaut", followed by a Bill Ward drum showcase, then back to "Wicked World"...
So, "Past Lives" is pretty incredible, from a musical standpoint. Of course, they could have included a lot more -- there's lots of pics from Sabbath's appearance at 1974's California Jam but as far as I can tell, no tracks from it. And where's "Blue Suede Shoes"??
Further complaints: although there's plenty of cool old pics of the Ozzy and the boys, and it's a nicely designed package, they should have gotten a Sabbath fan to proofread the liner notes (their third album is Master of Reality, not Masters of Reality, for instance -- and I think it's the Birmingham Town Hall they played at in 1972, not Burmingham Town Hall) but that's a quibble. What really does suck is that the tracks on disc two are given no specific dates and venues of recording -- it just says "recorded live at various locations & dates during the seventies". Lame! It seems from the track selection and Ozzy's between-songs comments that the majority of the second disc dates from around 1975, right before the release of their Sabotage album (they do "Megalomania"!!). Is this from the Philadelphia show recently bootlegged as a triple LP box set? Other songs are from their December 20th, 1970 show at the Olympia in Paris. I've got a bootleg of that and the tracks here certainly sound better than they do on the boot. Now, why the people who put this together didn't think we'd want to know where and when the tracks were from I can't imagine... But anyway, especially if you don't already have Live At Last and probably even if you do, this is an essential purchase for Sabbath fans.
RealAudio clip: "Snowblind"
RealAudio clip: "Hand Of Doom"
RealAudio clip: "Hole In The Sky"

BLACK SABBATH s/t (Castle) cd 14.98
Only one of the most important debut albums in the history of rock and roll!!! Essential.

BLACK SABBATH s/t (Get Back) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Only one of the most important debut albums in the history of rock and roll!!! Essential.

BLACK SABBATH Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Castle) cd 14.98
Essential.

BLACK SABBATH Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Get Back) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Essential.

BLACK SABBATH Sabotage (Sanctuary) cd 14.98
Remastered version of the Sabs' most "prog" album, the masterpiece known as "Sabotage". Essential. Digipack.