COLD MOURNING Colder Than Thou (Buried By Time and Dust) 2lp 29.00
The Buried By Time And Dust label, as their name implies, specialize (mainly) in digging up dusty old treasures from the vaults... of DOOOOM! In the past, they've brought us vinyl reissues by such doom metal legends as Witchfinder General, Pagan Altar, and Solstice.
This latest release digs even deeper into the underground. Cold Mourning were (are?) a bona fide cult doom metal band, from the '90s, based in the "misty and miserable" locale of Monterey, California. They released one full-length cd back in the day, Lower Than Low on Game Two Records, and also did a lot of splits, with the likes of While Heaven Wept, Officium Triste, and Twisted Tower Dire.
If you haven't heard of Cold Mourning before, you might still be familiar with their guitarist Angelo Tringali 'cause he's member of AQ faves Slough Feg (he replaced Hammers Of Misfortune's John Cobbett on second lead guitar some years back). While Slough Feg have their occasionally doomy moments, Cold Mourning are a much sludgier proposition, inspired especially by Saint Vitus, but more grim and freezing.
Their songs from the abovementioned splits are all found here, along with demos, previously unreleased rehearsal recordings, and more, circa 1995-'98, including their track "Boggy Creek" from the Miskatonic Records cd comp At The Mountains Of Madness.
True doom fiends will definitely want to get their doom on with Colder Than Thou. 'Tis for fans of Vitus as well as The Gates Of Slumber, for instance.
Deluxe gatefold double vinyl, packaged with an eight page booklet full of b&w live photos, demo tape covers, lyrics, etc. Suitably thick and heavy, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

COLD MOURNING Lower Than Low (Game Two) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Indeed. The self-proclaimed California underground doom metal kings Cold Mourning present their first full-length cd release. Simple, slow, crushing stuff, almost more punk than metal (they even do a Discharge cover). Definitely one for Saint Vitus fans, although the vocals are a bit...rough. So if you're a stickler for good vocals, take a pass. But if sub-Sabbath heaviness is more your priority, go ahead and check 'em out.

COLD NORTHERN VENGEANCE Domination and Servitude (Bindrune) cd 11.98
Although, from their not particularly atypical name and logo, you might expect just another business-as-usual Nordic black metal horde, corpsepainted and kvlt-y, this is NOT just another BM (or, USBM in their case as they hail from New Hampshire) band. Nosirree. We figured that out right away, when the vocals started up on "A Dangerous Wayfaring" and weren't a grim rasp, but rather a faux-British accented chorus. The more usual sort of guttural gruffness also soon appears, but CNV had piqued our interest, and we kept listening with curious anticipation that was quickly rewarded by this album's unexpected and unusual blend of underground black metal, goth rock, and industrial. Actually CNV also had our attention 'cause this comes from the same label, Bindrune, who last brought us Blood Of The Black Owl's A Feral Spirit, another unique and experimental metal offering.
This isn't quite as weird as that record, but this eclectic effort certainly captivates chaotically with majestically catchy riffage, Gobliny soundtrack synths, clean vocal singalongs, and even all-acoustic mellow moodiness ("The Shores Of New England"). Our favorite element though is what might be termed their Satanic industrial sound, with sampling and sequencing, the best example of which is "The By-Paths To Chaos", a rhythmic exercise in sinister, cut-and-paste percussive clockwork. Very cool. Hail Cold Northern Vengeance!!
MPEG Stream: "A Dangerous Wayfaring"
MPEG Stream: "The By-Paths To Chaos"
MPEG Stream: "A Past Forgotten"

COLDNESS Poisoned Gift (Goatowarex) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another killer release from Australian label Goatowarex, who also released the two amazing Urfaust records and the Planet Aids record reviewed elsewhere on this list. Coldness is ultra sick, ultra raw, ultra grim black metal. Guitars so raw each riff is like having a swath of flesh flayed off and set afire. Thrashy and midtempo, with stretches of doomy dirge as well as burts of overblown vocals and blasts of hyperspeed rrroaaarrrrrr. Insane vocals that go from raw demonic howls to paint peeling shrieks to inhuman squeals. This is some truly weird, super lo-fi black metal for sure. It's not just the music. The cd booklet lists the band "line-up" as "Coldness = Nocturnus Horrendus, Nocturnus Horrendus = one minus one." Huh? Then there are the messages printed throughout: "N.H. bows to P.B.C., alcohol and all the rest that contributes to make life harder to live but no doubt more interesting", and "Lick the joy out of my rotten essence", or "P.B.C. a poisoned gift / grant, a poisoned gift / demand." Huh, again? And then finally there's the photo collage inside the booklet of Nocturnus Horrendus masturbating into a wine glass, then cutting his arm and bleeding into the same glass, and then of course drinking it all down. Weird indeed. For fans of all things brutal and sick and grim and evil!!
MPEG Stream: "I Destroyed The I"
MPEG Stream: "Living A Lie"
MPEG Stream: "That Is All"

COLDWORKER Rotting Paradise (Relapse) cd 14.98

COLDWORKER The Contaminated Void (Relapse) cd 14.98
Although lots of folks consider death metal to be dead, and around these parts, it takes something pretty fucking mindblowing to get us all excited about death metal again, at least one of us (Jason) still thinks death metal is alive and kicking. Granted, we have to admit to the fact that a lot of so called death metal these days is mostly played by asymmetrical-haircut/eyeliner/women's jeans-wearing EMO dudes, and even though we do dig a lot of that stuff, it is NOT really death metal! Or even real metal for that matter.
"Real" death metal still exists, but it takes a creative mind, a knack for original arrangements, as well as the ability to "shred", and those elements can be found in abundance on the debut album from former Nasum drummer Anders Jakobsons' new grindbeast Coldworker.
Surrounding himself with a few more-than-capable young guns with riffs and chops to spare, the boys in Coldworker come right out of the gate at full throttle -- not quite a full blast-beating grind, but this is DEATH METAL first and foremost! The tempo stays pretty much at a breakneck pace throughout the entire CD, with the occasional thick breakdown and raging thrash blasts scattered throughout making the record not so monotonous and "same old-same old" that seems to be plague lots of metal records these days.
You can tell that this is definitely "Nasum-influenced" -- Mr. Jakobson has a pretty unique and unmistakable signature sound, Coldworker still stands on its own. But if you need one of those "recommended if you like" things, it would probably be safe to that if you dig the brutal dirt-grindage of Brutal Truth or Hellchild mixed with classic Left Hand Path era Entombed (yes!), the precise riffing of Necrophagist and the off-kilter "quantum physics" and tortured throat roar of Converge or Coalesce, then this will definitely hit the spot. It's definitely the perfect music for packing mail order at 8:30 in the morning, so it should work for you as well, anytime!
A killer debut for a band that we hope to see raise the bar for other bands attempting to blur the line between death/thrash/tech and grind metal.
Good luck with that...
MPEG Stream: "The Interloper"
MPEG Stream: "D.E.A.D."
MPEG Stream: "An Unforgiving Season"
MPEG Stream: "The Contaminated Void"

COLDWORKER The Contaminated Void (Relapse) lp 16.98
Although lots of folks consider death metal to be dead, and around these parts, it takes something pretty fucking mindblowing to get us all excited about death metal again, at least one of us (Jason) still thinks death metal is alive and kicking. Granted, we have to admit to the fact that a lot of so called death metal these days is mostly played by asymmetrical-haircut/eyeliner/women's jeans-wearing EMO dudes, and even though we do dig a lot of that stuff, it is NOT really death metal! Or even real metal for that matter.
"Real" death metal still exists, but it takes a creative mind, a knack for original arrangements, as well as the ability to "shred", and those elements can be found in abundance on the debut album from former Nasum drummer Anders Jakobsons' new grindbeast Coldworker.
Surrounding himself with a few more-than-capable young guns with riffs and chops to spare, the boys in Coldworker come right out of the gate at full throttle -- not quite a full blast-beating grind, but this is DEATH METAL first and foremost! The tempo stays pretty much at a breakneck pace throughout the entire CD, with the occasional thick breakdown and raging thrash blasts scattered throughout making the record not so monotonous and "same old-same old" that seems to be plague lots of metal records these days.
You can tell that this is definitely "Nasum-influenced" -- Mr. Jakobson has a pretty unique and unmistakable signature sound, Coldworker still stands on its own. But if you need one of those "recommended if you like" things, it would probably be safe to that if you dig the brutal dirt-grindage of Brutal Truth or Hellchild mixed with classic Left Hand Path era Entombed (yes!), the precise riffing of Necrophagist and the off-kilter "quantum physics" and tortured throat roar of Converge or Coalesce, then this will definitely hit the spot. It's definitely the perfect music for packing mail order at 8:30 in the morning, so it should work for you as well, anytime!
A killer debut for a band that we hope to see raise the bar for other bands attempting to blur the line between death/thrash/tech and grind metal.
Good luck with that...
MPEG Stream: "The Interloper"
MPEG Stream: "D.E.A.D."
MPEG Stream: "An Unforgiving Season"
MPEG Stream: "The Contaminated Void"

COLDWORLD Melancholie 2 (Cold Dimensions) cd 17.98
One of our big time 2009 BM faves, finally re-pressed and available again!! (AGAIN!)
Quite possibly, one of the best depressive black metal records we've ever heard. Although defining Melancholie2 as a depressive BM record might be a bit reductive. It will make more sense, read on...
A dizzying mix of lilting melancholia, furious blackened blasts, epic morose arrangements, awesome drumming (a definite shortcoming in most bands), kick ass and ridiculously catchy riffing, and most importantly, incredibly evocative atmosphere and ambience, even when a song is buzzing along frantically, beneath the surface there is always some sort of drifting crystalline melody, or whirring drone, or chant like vocal line, it sounds a bit confusing, but the mix is magical.
The sound on Melancholie2 is so dynamic, so majestic and heavy, no lo-fi boom box recording here, the guitars are massive, thick and crunchy and buzzy, the vocals raw and primal, the keyboards and synths lush and shimmery, the drums somehow perfectly audible amidst all the buzz. And as with most black metal records, buzz is a key component, and here that buzz is all encompassing, warm and expansive, coating everything in its warm embrace.
The slower tracks are definitely Burzumic, the lumbering riff, the plodding rhythm, underpinned by a gorgeous keyboard melody, the midtempo tracks are like a less weird Lifelover, the music hooky, and weirdly poppy, but still grim and black, slipping from melodic lilt to intense speaker shredding blowout, rare that a band, or man as the case may be is equally adept and crafting doomy dismal blackness AND intense blasting black metal. The ambient tracks are surprisingly effective, moving and lovely, most black metal bands use cheesy synth sounds, but here, those parts sound like antique music boxes, or the soundtrack to a soft snowfall in some forgotten forest, dark, and haunting, but definitely beautiful and breathtaking, only moreso when they lead directly into another intense burst of blackness.
Some of the tracks are dangerously poppy, but the band manages to pull it off, channelling the sweeping sound of Katatonia, but adds some truly bizarre, almost robotic sounding vocals, which definitely sounds goofy, but in fact, the effect is anything but. It's more some sort of abstract alien doom, that is truly creepy and otherworldly. A few of the tracks are gorgeous sprawls of washed out sorrowful doom, but at least one shifts part way through into a strange pounding bit of minor key midtempo black metal, before slipping back into that depressive plod.
It's really hard to do this music justice. It's at once so familiar, embodying so much of what we already love about this sort of music, at the same time, it manages to sound unlike anything we've heard before, every song manages to be both heavy and wistful, depressive, but weirdly rocking, as a whole it's an incredible, expansive song suite, culminating in the final track, a skittery glitched out ambient landscape, bits of static and hiss drift between simpler percussion, and a shuffling rhythm, moody minimal guitar, slightly twangy, all draped over a swoonsome bit of minor key drone, with a crunchy metallic middle, before slipping back into more skittery melancholic drift. So goddamn good.
Easily one of our new favorite records, black metal or otherwise!
MPEG Stream: "A Dream Of A Dead Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Tortured By Solitude"
MPEG Stream: "Winterreise"

COLISEUM House With A Curse (Temporary Residence) cd 14.98
Not sure why, but we never really paid much attention to Louisville sluggers Coliseum, they maybe seemed too punk, or something, whatever it was, we're sort of kicking ourselves now, cuz this new one, their third, is a serious barnburner, although from what we hear their sound has changed quite a bit, still punk for sure, but super melodic, a bit metallic, and catchy as all get out. Maybe somewhere between the pop sludge of Torche, the muscly cock rock of Turbonegro and the post Kyuss hard rock of Queens Of The Stoneage, big chugging churning guitars, crushing powerhouse drums, killer hooks, thick fuzzed out bass, and the vocals, probably the most distinctive element, a harsh raspy howl that manages to be fierce and melodic, rough and raw, super intense and emotional, perfectly paired up with the throb and crush of the music pounding away beneath. The more we listen to this, the more these songs get stuck in our heads, and the more we dig 'em!
Features guest spots from Bonnie Prince Billy and members of Jawbox, Rodan, Squirrel Bait, Shipping News and Rachels, a sort of who's who of Louisville underground rock...
MPEG Stream: "Blind In One Eye"
MPEG Stream: "Everything To Everyone"
MPEG Stream: "Crime And The City"
MPEG Stream: "Cloaked In Red"

COLISEUM House With A Curse (Temporary Residence) lp 21.00
Not sure why, but we never really paid much attention to Louisville sluggers Coliseum, they maybe seemed too punk, or something, whatever it was, we're sort of kicking ourselves now, cuz this new one, their third, is a serious barnburner, although from what we hear their sound has changed quite a bit, still punk for sure, but super melodic, a bit metallic, and catchy as all get out. Maybe somewhere between the pop sludge of Torche, the muscly cock rock of Turbonegro and the post Kyuss hard rock of Queens Of The Stoneage, big chugging churning guitars, crushing powerhouse drums, killer hooks, thick fuzzed out bass, and the vocals, probably the most distinctive element, a harsh raspy howl that manages to be fierce and melodic, rough and raw, super intense and emotional, perfectly paired up with the throb and crush of the music pounding away beneath. The more we listen to this, the more these songs get stuck in our heads, and the more we dig 'em!
Features guest spots from Bonnie Prince Billy and members of Jawbox, Rodan, Squirrel Bait, Shipping News and Rachels, a sort of who's who of Louisville underground rock...
MPEG Stream: "Blind In One Eye"
MPEG Stream: "Everything To Everyone"
MPEG Stream: "Crime And The City"
MPEG Stream: "Cloaked In Red"

COLOSSLOTH Antipathy (Doom-Mantra) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another entry in the ever expanding field of sound making we've dubbed doomdronedirge, from a group called Colossloth. It's a sound we've come to love, we just can't get enough of that creepy downtuned crawl, that sprawling rumbling ambience, it's doomy, but not metal, heavy, but not riffy, it's more like dronemusic infused with a degree of menace, an ominous blackness, think Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Wicked King Wicker, R.Y.N., Amort, Haptic, Grief No Absolution, and yeah even SUNNO))) to a certain degree.
Colossloth add their own twist to the proceedings, injecting their sound with a hit of industrial ambience, and some haunting piano, the result is entrancing, totally bleak and beautiful, a single epic doomscape, split into two side long drifts, all simple looped pounding rhythms and layered feedback, laced with muted bits of crunch and whir, rumble and creak, while throughout, a piano plays out a mournful melody, strings are plucked, melodies surface and unfurl before slipping back into the miasma, a mysterious minor key sonic dirge, some sort of funereal martial industrial doom drone trudge, mesmerizing and cinematic, this would be the perfect soundtrack for some Italian horror film, with the main character, in some sort of fugue state, hallucinating, wandering through an old empty house and out into the black forest...
Gorgeous and creepy and intense, but also weirdly pretty, the hushed melodic creep constantly battling with the crunch and hiss of the gloomy industrial drift, woven into a perfectly ominous dirgedronedoomdreamscape. AWESOME.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!!

COLOUR HAZE Tempel (Elektrohasch) cd 16.98
Customers have been bugging us for a while now to track down some music from German psychedelic stoner rock outfit, and boy are we glad we did. Huge Hendrixian guitars, sun baked and lysergic, like someone snuck into Kyuss's old practice space and swiped THAT guitar tone, but then somehow managed to make it even MORE druggy and fuzzy. Furious blown out space rock jams, that are HUGE and THICK with snarling psychedelic guitars and pounding drums. But Color Haze balance these drug fueled freakouts with long stretches of jazzy shuffle, shimmering cymbals, muted riffing, simple throbbing bass, but it only sets you up to have you head caved in when the hammer falls. And fall it does, hard and heavy and so gloriously downtuned and freaked out.
And the Hendrix thing is actually not all that far off, we might mention Santana too. Color Haze are a weird mash up of epic heart-of-the-sun space rock a la Monster Magnet and Hawkwind, super overblown acid fried stoner rock a la Kyuss, but with plenty of that classic Hendrix guitar fuzz, and dreamily psychedelic Santanian stretched out jams.
Not sure exactly what it is about these guys, but when they lock into a jam, we get totally lost, completely carried away, and when the track finally winds down, we sort of shake our head, all bleary eyed, and try to remember where the hell we are and how we got there. Which probably tells you all you need to know about the potency of these super stoned, drug drenched, space rock freakouts for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Aquamaria"
MPEG Stream: "Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Tempel"

COLOUR HAZE Tempel (Elektrohasch) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Customers have been bugging us for a while now to track down some music from German psychedelic stoner rock outfit, and boy are we glad we did. Huge Hendrixian guitars, sun baked and lysergic, like someone snuck into Kyuss's old practice space and swiped THAT guitar tone, but then somehow managed to make it even MORE druggy and fuzzy. Furious blown out space rock jams, that are HUGE and THICK with snarling psychedelic guitars and pounding drums. But Color Haze balance these drug fueled freakouts with long stretches of jazzy shuffle, shimmering cymbals, muted riffing, simple throbbing bass, but it only sets you up to have you head caved in when the hammer falls. And fall it does, hard and heavy and so gloriously downtuned and freaked out.
And the Hendrix thing is actually not all that far off, we might mention Santana too. Color Haze are a weird mash up of epic heart-of-the-sun space rock a la Monster Magnet and Hawkwind, super overblown acid fried stoner rock a la Kyuss, but with plenty of that classic Hendrix guitar fuzz, and dreamily psychedelic Santanian stretched out jams.
Not sure exactly what it is about these guys, but when they lock into a jam, we get totally lost, completely carried away, and when the track finally winds down, we sort of shake our head, all bleary eyed, and try to remember where the hell we are and how we got there. Which probably tells you all you need to know about the potency of these super stoned, drug drenched, space rock freakouts for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Aquamaria"
MPEG Stream: "Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Tempel"

COMBAT ASTRONOMY Dreams No Longer Hesitate (Zond) cd 11.98
A couple years back, we raved about a disc called The Dematerialized Passenger, the first album from this unique band (or perhaps we should say project), remember? In case you don't, here's the deal: Combat Astronomy are a USA/UK collaboration, creating a crushing industrial/jazz/prog hybrid. Imagine Godflesh with a free improv horn section, saxophones squealing amidst the metallic riffage. Or Scorn taking a skronked-out stab at chamber music. Like their earlier release, this new Combat Astronomy opus is again laced with punishing, rigid drummachine beats, along with heavy, uber-low-end fretless bass shaking each song with doomic distortion. Which establishes an absurdly heavy context for sax, clarinet, flute and bassoon to freak out organically, like wild weeds creeping through cracks in giant slabs of concrete, on the floor of an abandoned factory somewhere.
But unlike their all-instrumental debut, this time Combat Astronomy have recruited a female vocalist, Elaine di Falco, who also plays some piano, to add yet another unusual dimension to their mashup of extremes, now reminding us slightly of James Plotkin's now forgotten post-Old project Flux. (Hmm, maybe Kayo Dot and later Ulver could be other comparisons now too.) If the addition of her vocals makes this a bit more overtly melodic, it's still no less extreme overall. And certainly just as intricate, her delicate vocal arrangements in themselves quite complex, multi-tracked, as on the urban R&B influenced (???? no, we're crazy) "Touch The Moon" and the album's whispery coda, "Ordinary Miracles". And the focus of CA is still on the ominous grooves, ambient electronics, and battling horn bleats... tracks like "Alive Inside Eternity" and "Sentinel" are lengthy epics (12:36 and 16:49, respectively) of serious beats and blats and skree, in the challenging, compelling, militant manner to which actually only Combat Astronomy can truly lay claim. The vocals, when present, then take it into another, equally unlikely, atmospheric realm of twisted prog-pop. Pretty darn cool!
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Breathe"
MPEG Stream: "Lightning In Her Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Alive Inside Eternity"

COMBAT ASTRONOMY Earth Divided By Zero (Zond) cd 11.98
You don't really hear much about Combat Astronomy, except from us at Aquarius Records (do you?). Which is weird, 'cause this band should be a lot better known than they are, among fans of heavy and/or freaky music, considering they're already on their third (and a half, counting a split) cd release, one that has been long awaited, for a certain subset of AQ-customers in the know. For those not in the know, we'll say that basically CA sound like a Justin Broadrick or Kevin Martin industrial metal act (Godflesh or God, something along those lines) mixed up with freeform improv horn-skree, for results both brutal and beautiful. This band, or we should say this collaborative trans-Atlantic project, to be precise, is the unholy spawn of American sub-bass sludge technician Jamie Huggett and British improv reedsman Martin Archer (and friends). Thus they don't play live that often, which might have something to do with their low profile. They're self-described as an "intense hypnagogic industrial/jazz/prog/doommetal hybrid", and we can't think of any other outfit that better fits that mouthful. As we now know to expect, CA's new disc dishes out uber heavy doomic annihilation, bludgeoning with squelching bass and machine-like beats, the entire thing in fact percussive in its distorted rhythmic impact, amidst ominous organ and rising electronic drone. Yet CA also has a prog/classical side, thanks to Archer's woodwinds and also some female vocals, first introduced to this previously all instrumental act on their 2nd album Dreams No Longer Hesitate, returning here only wordessly, to eerie, avant garde effect. With that in mind, and all the heavy bass, Magma fans might find this to be their extreme sludge combo of choice. We'd also of course recommend Combat Astronomy to those who appreciate the likes of Painkiller, 16-17, Scorn, and even UFOmammut...
And Earth Divided By Zero might just be their best disc yet, keeping the expanded palette of sounds found on their last outing, but leaving aside that disc's occasional surprise explorations of vocal (prog) pop song-ishness, instead forging a more organic synthesis of what we REALLY dig about this unit, the grinding low end and squealing sax skronk, the heavy rhythms and atmospheric, ambient-ish interludes. Not that it's without melodic surprises, like how track two tries to lull us with a placid piano intro, shades of Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore... but soon enough the bass and distortion attack is back in force. Punishing, but such sweet punishment.
MPEG Stream: "Astralized"
MPEG Stream: "Parallax Of One Arc Second"
MPEG Stream: "Earth Divided By Zero Part 1"

COMBAT ASTRONOMY Flak Planet (Zond) cd 11.98
With the arrival of Combat Astronomy's fourth album, welcome once again to that unlikely alternate universe inhabited by us at Aquarius Records (and a few others too, like you?), where this intense instrumental outfit is as HUGE as their sonic footprint, their ultra-heavy hybrid of avant garde jazz and post metal industrial doom resounding planetwide in giant concert halls... if 21st century classical chamber deathjazz sludge were the next big thing, they'd be the biggest.
Whereas, heck, in real life, we don't even know if they tour, probably not, since some of the group live in England, with another crucial band member based here in the USA. When they get together (however they do it) it must be a cathartic experience for everyone involved. As they say themselves about this album, it's "LOUD BASS LOUD HORNS LOUD DRUMS MASSIVE RIFFS" all the way. Well, with some quasi-ambient interludes, and bits of melody amidst the mayhem. But for the most part, thick drone, rumbling bass, punishing programmed rhythms, screaming horn blurt. It's kinda like if Godflesh were to record an album for Tzadik, armed with an arsenal of horns and woodwinds. Combat Astronomy use and abuse a variety of saxophones and clarinets, various flutes, bassoon, bass recorder, reindeer horn (?), along with fretless 5 string bass, organ, electronics, zither, tambourine...
On Flak Planet, the formula has been perfected. The disc's opening track "The Stone Tape", is both cinematic and assaultive, it's jazz, but for the squelching sub bass and trudging jackboot rhythms. As the disc spins, there's outbursts of maniacal piano, jarring prog complexities, stretches of exotic atmospheric drone, and more monolithic thud.
Brutal yet beautiful, as we've said before, for fans of 16-17 (natch) as well as, we'd bet, possibly PIVIXKI, Master Musicians of Bukkake, Ehnahre, and assorted RIO ensembles.
MPEG Stream: "The Stone Tape"
MPEG Stream: "Zona"
MPEG Stream: "Inverted Universe (Part 1)"

COMBAT ASTRONOMY The Dematerialised Passenger (Discus) cd 10.98
A grinding, rumbling distorto sub-bass death march with jackhammering machine beats... sounds kinda Godfleshy at first... but then, what's this? Heavy-duty blasts of saxophone, flute and bassoon?? Yes indeed, Combat Astronomy combine industrial metal with freaked out free jazz and prog, making for maybe the heaviest "jazz" record since Switzerland's under-exposed and now defunct 16-17 assaulted our ears with Gyatso back in '94. Yet there's also interludes of calm -- doomy passages of ambient moodiess with droning, multitracked reeds. And then it's back to the grind. The rhythms are punishingly mechanical, but also interestingly off-kilter. The weird timing adds to the sense of unease that's also built up by the squonky, skronky sax bleating and ominious electronics... Who's responsible for this brutal, beautiful madness? Well, Combat Astronomy's all-instrumental album The Dematerialized Passenger is a trans-Atlantic collaboration, built upon the foundation of the distorted bass, guitar and programmed beats of one James Huggett from Minnesota USA, in collusion/collision with the saxes, clarinet, violin and effects of Sheffield UK's Martin Archer. Remember that Masayo Asahara cd we reviewed a while back? Saint Agnes Fountain, the supposed long-lost '70s Japanese minimalist drone-prog album that was actually the work of a current-day British musician? He's *that* guy. Two of Archer's pals join in on flute and bassoon as well. The results are likely to alienate all but the most adventurous jazz, metal, and prog fans...which is why we figured a lot of AQ customers might like it! Could certainly be a good one for fans of Godflesh, God, 16-17, Aufgehoben, Last Exit, Zdrastvootie, and other far out outfits on the extremes of industrial, prog and/or improv.
MPEG Stream: "Greedy Angels"
MPEG Stream: "Orion"

COMBAT WOUNDED VETERAN This Is Not An Erect, All-Red Neon Body (No Idea) cd 13.98
This isn't metal exactly, but it is HEAVY. And it's not punk, although it is raucous, unruly and unkempt. It's not screamo though there is a LOT of screaming. And it's not noise, but boy is it noisy! And it's for sure not powerviolence, even though it is indeed quite powerful and most definitely violent. This is more like a drum kit, a bunch of guitars, a bass, HUGE amps, and a guy screaming his lungs out, all loaded into a cannon and fired at your ear, mere inches away, blowing you head into a million pieces. Grinding, thrashing, chaotic, relentless, brutal metallic punk rock noise. Wow. 42 songs, 32 minutes, average song length about :40 (the shortest clocking in at :10, the longest still a brief 1:30) and some of the best song titles EVER: "Dead Parents, Yea!", "We Sticks Butter", "My Foot, The Catheter", "Plastic Bullets Are So '84", "Also Comes In Red, Orange And Fuck You", "Shit 3:16", "Q: What Kind Of (A Band) Name Is Scrotum Grinder? A: A Terrible One.", "Cumbersome Ant People" and thirty six more!
MPEG Stream: "Shit X 1000"
MPEG Stream: "Plastic Bullets Are So '84"
MPEG Stream: "The Rise Of A Thousand Prosthetic Limbs"
MPEG Stream: "Also Comes In Red, Orange And Fuck You"
MPEG Stream: "Q: What Kind Of (A Band) Name Is Scrotum Grinder? A: A Terrible One."

COMITY ...As Everything Is A Tragedy (Candlelight) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "17"
MPEG Stream: "28"
MPEG Stream: "42"
MPEG Stream: "59"
MPEG Stream: "83"

COMMIT SUICIDE Human Larvae (Willowtip) cd 14.98
Remember the old days, when if you sang about suicide, or even hinted at suicide in your songs, dipshit kids all over the world would listen to your records and kill themselves, and then their parents would sue you and ultimately lose since it's absurd to blame anyone but the kids or their parents. We always joked about having songs called 'You Suck, Give Up And Kill Yourself' or 'Nobody Likes You, You Might As Well Die' and stuff like that. But a lot sure has changed since the old days. Movies are more violent, TV is more nasty, music and especially lyrics are way more extreme. You have to go soooo much further to even seem the least bit shocking or offensive. This band just reminded me of how cool it would have been 'back then' to have a band called Commit Suicide. No beating around the bush, no backward masking, no subtle lyrics, just a big 'kill yourself' sort of band name! And in keeping with the misanthropic band name, Commit Suicide spew ugly gobs of grinding death metal, or metallic grindcore with lots of blazing guitars, chugging downtuned riffs, insane blast beats, stop start ultra complex songs and glass-gargling cookie monster vocals. Good stuff.
RealAudio clip: "Ablation"
RealAudio clip: "Silence Beyond The Delicate"
RealAudio clip: "Cyclic Vomiting"

COMMIT SUICIDE Synthetics (Willowtip) cd 14.98
Pittsburgh grinders return with their second full-length of fierce death metal, and it's a doozy indeed. With Synthetics, Commit Suicide have achieved that rarest of accomplishments -- delivering a follow-up album that stays completely true to all of their original elements while bolstering every component that made them such an immediately powerful force on their debut. Everything seems just punched up a notch here. Be forewarned, this is relentless death metal without the slightest breach of accessibility for those not interested in the fastest most aggressive style of music possible. But if you're willing to submit, the execution is flawless. Non-stop blazing riffage with a million stops and changes between speeds varying from fast to pretty fast to full-on blasting, with a vicious growler roaring overtop. There really isn't a single stand-out member though -- the band functions seamlessly as a whole, with all changes felt on guitar bass and drums as one. For fans of Death, Dying Fetus, Morbid Angel and the like, look no further for uncompromising brutality.
MPEG Stream: "Earthly Cleansing"
MPEG Stream: "Resonance"

COMMON GRAVE Il Male Di Vivere (Eerie Art) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's tough to resist a black metal record that is, according to the label: "an ambitious and profound concept album about the "spleen", the suffering of everyday life". Hmmm. Do they really mean the spleen? Does the spleen represent the suffering of everyday life? Weird. Guess they must be archaically referencing the melancholy humor, not the internal organ. Although a customer suggests it could very well be the Baudelaire poem Spleen, which makes way more sense! Regardless, these Italian miserablists have crafted a single massive 64 minute epic, divided into eight movements, each flowing smoothly into the next, a sprawling doomic depressive emotional black metal, that spends as much time soaring majestically, or drifting melodically as it does blasting grimly.
The perfect mix of classic old school doom, a la My Dying Bride or Paradise Lost, and the more modern depressive folk infused black metal like Drudkh as well as plenty of darkened suicidal buzz (think Shining, Forgotten Tomb). Bleak and austere, the guitars seem to weep and moan, the melodies mournful and emotional, the vocals an anguished wail, a deep bellowing howl more than a black shriek, the drums relentless, even the midtempo parts underpinned by frenetic double kicks, all very moody and evocative, sweeping long stretches of epic blackened doom, separated by lilting clean guitar folk interludes as well and bursts of furious blackness, even some gnarled bits of mathy Deathspell style weirdness, but through it all runs a weary black sonic stream, a melodic thread that turns these songs into one epic songsuite, a gorgeous sprawling expanse of doom-ed melodic blackness.
MPEG Stream: "Il Male Di Vivere"
MPEG Stream: "Memories"

CONAN Horseback Battle Hammer (Aurora Borealis) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Obviously, if you're gonna call your band Conan, your sound had better be pretty darn burly! And barbaric. Well, this UK doom outfit is definitely worthy of the name. Their music is not by, nor for, wimps. Slow, low, and loud = HEAVY. Even Arnold might have had trouble bench pressing these riffs! The plodding, shuddering distortion on display here is kinda like ultradoom in the vein of Moss or Bunkur, but not quite so slow, speeding up as necessary when the crushing riffs are really ready to go in for the kill. The production is amazing, as are the downtuned sounds these dudes get out of their guitars and amps, sooooooo bludgeoningly blown out. Conan's a guitar/bass/drums trio but sounds more like bass/bass/bass/bass/bass/bass/bass... oh yeah and drums which hold up their end of the heaviness equation just fine. Meanwhile, the vocals, when there are any, are a distant bellow, a high wailing, soaring over and staying out of the way of the massively occupied bass frequencies. They make us think of Yob for sure, but quite not so Geddy Lee, a bit more shout-y, so Harvey Milk would be another good comparison. For a lot of this, actually, not just the vocals. And the Melvins too, say one of their epic sludgeathons like "Charmicarmicat" or "Night Goat". And as long as we're namechecking other bands, how 'bout godheadSilo? Corrupted? Early Sleep (circa Volume One)? Yeah Conan is worthy of being cited amongst such legends. Again, they'd better be, with a name like Conan.
Originally released on limited vinyl last year by Throne over in Spain, sadly, we didn't get any of those. But now thanks to Aurora Borealis, we have it on compact disc, in a nice silver and black digipack. 4 songs, 33 minutes, infinite heaviness.
MPEG Stream: "Krull [excerpt 1]"
MPEG Stream: "Krull [excerpt 2]"
MPEG Stream: "Satsumo"

CONDENADOS A Painful Journey Into Nihil (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98
Shadow Kingdom sure has become one of those labels, that whatever they put out, whether it be some rare '80s metal reissue by a band we've never heard of, or an equally unknown release by a brand new band, we know want to hear it, 'cause the label is definitely focused on the sort of obscure cult metal we love, usually doomy, often epic, quite classic and sometimes a bit eccentric. From lost NWOBHM treats like Wolfbane and Deep Switch to modern day doom like Garden Of Worm and Crowned In Earth, they've been bringing it.
So, listen up, here's another good one from 'em. A Painful Journey Into Nihil is the debut full-length from Chilean doomsters Condenados (which means "Doomed" in Spanish, we're not surprised to learn). Of course, we immediately thought of Procession, another doom trio from Chile that we happen to love (and who have a new album out we hope to be getting soon!), and that's not far off the mark. Both bands traffic in trudge, extruding glacially epic dark doom that sounds a bit like Swedish gods Candlemass, but even more bummed out and despairing, maybe 'cause Candlemass was actually a pretty successful band, while these guys are struggling away in the depths of South America...
The six sluggish songs on here, the first two sung in Spanish, the others in English, are straight up serious quality old school doom all right, heavily weighted with lumbering, fuzzed out riffs in ye olde Sabbathy style, but even sadder and slower, their grinding graced with deep, somber vocals (rising to a higher pitch at some choice moments), and some nicely gnarly guitar solos amidst the melody. And we're pleased to report that Condenados has thrown a little flute in here too, just to make the album even better (and proggier). Keyboards and samples are also used to atmospheric effect. But none of that wimps this out, at all, it's HEAVY, regally so. A track like "Centuries Of Darkness" sounds like a classic that true doom devotees should have already been (slowly) banging heads to for, well, centuries.
Highly recommended to fans of the likes of Candlemass, Warning, Reverend Bizarre, The Wizar'd, Procession... and something about "Welcome To My Grave" reminds us a bit of The Obsessed.
MPEG Stream: "Las Puertas De La Catedral"
MPEG Stream: "Centuries Of Darkness"

CONEY HATCH Outa Hand (Rock Candy) cd 17.98

MPEG Stream: "Don't Say Make Me"
MPEG Stream: "Shake It"
MPEG Stream: "First Time For Everything"

CONEY HATCH s/t (Rock Candy) cd 17.98

MPEG Stream: "Love Poison"
MPEG Stream: "We Got The Night"
MPEG Stream: "Victim Of Rock"

CONFESSOR Live In Norway (Season Of Mist) dvd 14.98

CONFESSOR Sour Times EP (Season Of Mist) cd 12.98
"A fucked up mix of Trouble and Watchtower" is how Arch Enemy/Spiritual Beggars guitarist Michael Amott characterizes North Carolina's Confessor, who were Earache labelmates with Amott back in his days in Carcass in the early '90s. That is indeed a very accurate and -- if you know who Trouble and Watchtower both are -- useful description of cult metal act Confessor's sound. Definitely one of the more idiosyncratic pioneers of absurdly technical metal. Not death, not doom, not grind, not thrash... but all of the above, somehow. Confessor's main ingredients are uber-insane drumming (Stephen Shelton is a god), complex song structures being navigated by two guitars and bass, and high-pitched love 'em or hate 'em vocals that seem to follow their own wailing logic, as if the singer isn't even listening to the same music as the rest of the band. Yet it works. Though perhaps not to everyone's taste. Well, after making one amazing album, 1991's Condemned, and an ep that included a Trouble cover, Confessor disappeared into even deeper obscurity, seemingly gone but not forgotten by hardcore fans of tech-metal madness (I recall our pal Josh Smith, formerly of The Fucking Champs, telling me that the Champs used to have a rule of ONLY listening to Confessor when on their way to play a show). Recently, Shelton re-surfaced in the band Loincloth, but even cooler than that, now Confessor themselves are back! Yes! This ep, with two new 2004-recorded songs (definitely in their old style of proggy doom mastery, with the vocals now somewhat deeper and grungier), is but a teaser for their upcoming comeback full-length entitled Unraveled due in September! This limited-edition ep itself we'd pretty much have to recommend to pre-existing Confessor fans of the dedicated variety since aside from the two new songs ("Sour Times" and, fittingly, "Hibernation") it includes a 1990 demo version of the title track to Condemned, a radio edit of "Sour Times" (why?) and such for-fans-only "enhanced cd" extras as a screen saver and archive of band photos. However, if you're a fan on the fence about spending $13 for basically two songs, be aware that this also includes five minutes or so of Quicktime video footage of them live 1996, which proves that the singer can hit those high notes even as he's jumping around on stage. Wicked!
MPEG Stream: "Hibernation"

CONFESSOR Unraveled (Season Of Mist) cd 16.98
Earlier this year, North Carolina tech/doom metal cult act Confessor emerged from "retirement" with an ep called Sour Times, the teaser to this here full-length -- the band's second ever album and first since 1991! We were pretty excited that Confessor was back, so we gave that ep a big write-up. Here's a bit of a recap of what we wrote for those that missed it:
"A fucked up mix of Trouble and Watchtower" is how Arch Enemy/Spiritual Beggars guitarist Michael Amott characterizes Confessor, who were Earache labelmates with Amott back in his days in Carcass in the early '90s. That is indeed a very accurate and -- if you know who Trouble and Watchtower both are -- useful description of cult metal act Confessor's sound. Definitely one of the more idiosyncratic pioneers of absurdly technical metal. Not death, not doom, not grind, not thrash... but all of the above, somehow. Confessor's main ingredients are uber-insane drumming (Stephen Shelton is a god), complex song structures being navigated by two guitars and bass, and high-pitched love 'em or hate 'em vocals that seem to follow their own wailing logic, as if the singer isn't even listening to the same music as the rest of the band. Yet it works. Though perhaps not to everyone's taste. Well, after making one amazing album, 1991's Condemned, and an ep that included a Trouble cover, Confessor disappeared into even deeper obscurity, seemingly gone but not forgotten by hardcore fans of tech-metal madness (I recall our pal Josh Smith, formerly of The Fucking Champs, telling me that the Champs used to have a rule of ONLY listening to Confessor when on their way to play a show). Recently, Shelton re-surfaced in the band Loincloth, but even cooler than that, now Confessor themselves are back! Yes!"
We went on to say that the new Confessor material as heard on the ep was definitely in their old style of proggy doom mastery, with the vocals now somewhat deeper and grungier. Unraveled pretty much follows suit, with two of the ep's tracks appearing again. The lugubrious tempos, downer riffs and sorrowful vocal wailings make this sound something like a mix of Solitude Aeturnus and Alice In Chains, but way more technical (with lots of "parts" and shifting rhythms). And the drumming is as godly as ever. The way this flows, we'd say maybe this will be a little bit easier on most folks' ears than some of their old stuff, and yet it's still unmistakably Confessor and definitely worthy of their cult status.
MPEG Stream: "Cross The Bar"
MPEG Stream: "The Downside"

CONFESSOR Unraveled (Southern Lord) lp 13.98
Now on vinyl via Southern Lord!
Last year, North Carolina tech/doom metal cult act Confessor emerged from "retirement" with an ep called Sour Times, the teaser to this here full-length -- the band's second ever album and first since 1991! We were pretty excited that Confessor was back, so we gave that ep a big write-up. Here's a bit of a recap of what we wrote for those that missed it:
"A fucked up mix of Trouble and Watchtower" is how Arch Enemy/Spiritual Beggars guitarist Michael Amott characterizes Confessor, who were Earache labelmates with Amott back in his days in Carcass in the early '90s. That is indeed a very accurate and -- if you know who Trouble and Watchtower both are -- useful description of cult metal act Confessor's sound. Definitely one of the more idiosyncratic pioneers of absurdly technical metal. Not death, not doom, not grind, not thrash... but all of the above, somehow. Confessor's main ingredients are uber-insane drumming (Stephen Shelton is a god), complex song structures being navigated by two guitars and bass, and high-pitched love 'em or hate 'em vocals that seem to follow their own wailing logic, as if the singer isn't even listening to the same music as the rest of the band. Yet it works. Though perhaps not to everyone's taste. Well, after making one amazing album, 1991's Condemned, and an ep that included a Trouble cover, Confessor disappeared into even deeper obscurity, seemingly gone but not forgotten by hardcore fans of tech-metal madness (I recall our pal Josh Smith, formerly of The Fucking Champs, telling me that the Champs used to have a rule of ONLY listening to Confessor when on their way to play a show). Recently, Shelton re-surfaced in the band Loincloth, but even cooler than that, now Confessor themselves are back! Yes!"
We went on to say that the new Confessor material as heard on the ep was definitely in their old style of proggy doom mastery, with the vocals now somewhat deeper and grungier. Unraveled pretty much follows suit, with two of the ep's tracks appearing again. The lugubrious tempos, downer riffs and sorrowful vocal wailings make this sound something like a mix of Solitude Aeturnus and Alice In Chains, but way more technical (with lots of "parts" and shifting rhythms). And the drumming is as godly as ever. The way this flows, we'd say maybe this will be a little bit easier on most folks' ears than some of their old stuff, and yet it's still unmistakably Confessor and definitely worthy of their cult status.
MPEG Stream: "Cross The Bar"
MPEG Stream: "The Downside"

CONIFER Crown Fire (Important) cd 14.98
If we had to pick a favorite, out of all the post rock / math rock / post metal hordes, a sound we do admittedly dig a whole lot, and one we can't seem to get enough of, Maine's mighty Conifer would be right there at the top. Which is saying something, as up until this brand new full length, we'd only heard from them twice, their debut, and a split with Ocean. As compared to some of the other bands who have released 2, 3, 4 maybe more records in the same amount of time. The first Conifer disc was fresh when it came out, taking classic math rock and beefing it up with huge swells of Neurosis crush, but the thing with Conifer is that they never completely buried that post rock vibe, even at their most metallic, when they were slipping into full on doom territory, they hung on to those loping rhythms, those fractured melodies, and figured out a way to infuse those elements into the roiling heaviness. On the debut we were hearing Slint and Bastro and Seam as much and as often as Isis or Neurosis, probably even more so.
In that way, the sound of Conifer hasn't changed all that much, their sound is still rooted heavily in mathrock, the metal elements more adorning the postrock instead of the other way around. In fact more than ever, they sound like a nineties mathrock band supercharged and transported to the oughts. Even at their heaviest, they don't get HEAVY, as in metal heavy, they get louder, and more dynamic, more intense, the sound gets fuller and more expansive. And this time around the band we can't help but hear all over this record is Polvo. The guitar parts are all woozy and warbly and angular and sort of seasick, the opening track is the perfect example, it almost sounds like some metal band covering the opening track from Polvo's Cor Crane Secret, with its multiple parts, its liquid arrangements, the clean guitars, layered and indeed woozy, the drum part and the arrangements, loping and mathy and not a little bit groovy. We hate to go on and on about mathrock and Polvo, cuz it could all be a big ol' coincidence, but we doubt it. Every song on Crown Fire is mathy and melodic, sometimes locking into repeating figures for just a tad longer than would be comfortable for most bands, opening up and drifting through wide open spaces, all glimmering harmonics and shuffling rhythms, backwards guitars floating in a sea of muted soft drones, tripped out almost Pink Floyd action here and there, complete with space-y synths and fluttery flutes. "Into The Gauntlet" almost sounds like a heavier Codeine, a bit doomy, with a strange lurching arrangement beneath glistening sparkling chimes, and flurries of shuffling snare drum and floor tom. Hard to say what it is exactly,
as it should be with music, but regardless, this is definitely a new high for a genre that becomes more and more overpopulated every day. Whenever we find ourselves listening to one of these new post rock / metal hybrids, as much as we love metal, and we do, we find ourselves longing way more for the intricacies and arrangements and dynamics of the post rock side of the equation, it's too easy to just turn it up and let downtuned guitars chug, and Conifer prove that you can make a super heavy, super catchy, epic record, without even bothering with faux metal chug, which is something else for sure.
If that weren't enough, the record closes with the 13 minute title track, featuring Eugene from Oxbow on guest vocals (normally Conifer are instrumental). The result is pretty excellent, and finds the band, doing their best Oxbow, a sort of abstract bluesy groove, that over the course of the song gets a little bit mathier and more complex, while Eugene sing-talks, howls, mewls, wails, growls, shrieks, moans, The track is super spare until about halfway through where it dials up the metal, offering up being churning chords and pounding drummage to support Eugene's increasingly unhinged and manic vocals, the song building to a furious climax, before drifting out in a haze of whispered mutterings and fractured electronics. It's a pretty awesome track for sure, but for us, it somehow works better when taken almost as a separate record. The first 6 tracks are so perfect together, a brilliant 38 minute post-math-metallic-rock suite, which just so happens to come with an equally brilliant bonus single song, 13 minute ep, featuring Conifer backing up Oxbow's Eugene Robinson.
However you slice it, WAY recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Surface Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Cruciform Empennage"
MPEG Stream: "Crown Fire"

CONIFER Crown Fire (Important) 2lp 27.00
Available on vinyl, limited to only 500 copies, includes a massive bonus track NOT on the cd!!
If we had to pick a favorite, out of all the post rock / math rock / post metal hordes, a sound we do admittedly dig a whole lot, and one we can't seem to get enough of, Maine's mighty Conifer would be right there at the top. Which is saying something, as up until this brand new full length, we'd only heard from them twice, their debut, and a split with Ocean. As compared to some of the other bands who have released 2, 3, 4 maybe more records in the same amount of time. The first Conifer disc was fresh when it came out, taking classic math rock and beefing it up with huge swells of Neurosis crush, but the thing with Conifer is that they never completely buried that post rock vibe, even at their most metallic, when they were slipping into full on doom territory, they hung on to those loping rhythms, those fractured melodies, and figured out a way to infuse those elements into the roiling heaviness. On the debut we were hearing Slint and Bastro and Seam as much and as often as Isis or Neurosis, probably even more so.
In that way, the sound of Conifer hasn't changed all that much, their sound is still rooted heavily in mathrock, the metal elements more adorning the postrock instead of the other way around. In fact more than ever, they sound like a nineties mathrock band supercharged and transported to the oughts. Even at their heaviest, they don't get HEAVY, as in metal heavy, they get louder, and more dynamic, more intense, the sound gets fuller and more expansive. And this time around the band we can't help but hear all over this record is Polvo. The guitar parts are all woozy and warbly and angular and sort of seasick, the opening track is the perfect example, it almost sounds like some metal band covering the opening track from Polvo's Cor Crane Secret, with its multiple parts, its liquid arrangements, the clean guitars, layered and indeed woozy, the drum part and the arrangements, loping and mathy and not a little bit groovy. We hate to go on and on about mathrock and Polvo, cuz it could all be a big ol' coincidence, but we doubt it. Every song on Crown Fire is mathy and melodic, sometimes locking into repeating figures for just a tad longer than would be comfortable for most bands, opening up and drifting through wide open spaces, all glimmering harmonics and shuffling rhythms, backwards guitars floating in a sea of muted soft drones, tripped out almost Pink Floyd action here and there, complete with space-y synths and fluttery flutes. "Into The Gauntlet" almost sounds like a heavier Codeine, a bit doomy, with a strange lurching arrangement beneath glistening sparkling chimes, and flurries of shuffling snare drum and floor tom. Hard to say what it is exactly,
as it should be with music, but regardless, this is definitely a new high for a genre that becomes more and more overpopulated every day. Whenever we find ourselves listening to one of these new post rock / metal hybrids, as much as we love metal, and we do, we find ourselves longing way more for the intricacies and arrangements and dynamics of the post rock side of the equation, it's too easy to just turn it up and let downtuned guitars chug, and Conifer prove that you can make a super heavy, super catchy, epic record, without even bothering with faux metal chug, which is something else for sure.
If that weren't enough, the record closes with the 13 minute title track, featuring Eugene from Oxbow on guest vocals (normally Conifer are instrumental). The result is pretty excellent, and finds the band, doing their best Oxbow, a sort of abstract bluesy groove, that over the course of the song gets a little bit mathier and more complex, while Eugene sing-talks, howls, mewls, wails, growls, shrieks, moans, The track is super spare until about halfway through where it dials up the metal, offering up being churning chords and pounding drummage to support Eugene's increasingly unhinged and manic vocals, the song building to a furious climax, before drifting out in a haze of whispered mutterings and fractured electronics. It's a pretty awesome track for sure, but for us, it somehow works better when taken almost as a separate record. The first 6 tracks are so perfect together, a brilliant 38 minute post-math-metallic-rock suite, which just so happens to come with an equally brilliant bonus single song, 13 minute ep, featuring Conifer backing up Oxbow's Eugene Robinson.
However you slice it, WAY recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Surface Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Cruciform Empennage"
MPEG Stream: "Crown Fire"

CONIFER s/t (Not Common / Lax Wax) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bands have been naming themselves after all manner of objects and creatures since the beginning of rock and roll. Heavy bands tending toward the mighty, the fierce or at least the very large. All manner of monsters and demons, various tigers and lions and even some sea creatures have been represented. But the largest, most imposing objects in nature have been sadly neglected as a source for inspiration and band-naming. TREES. So we have Conifer to right that wrong. And in doing so, judging from this ferocious slab of indie rock / metal sludge hypno-pummel, you'd certainly be forgiven for thinking this particular tree could take on any of the rock demons and metallic beasties that came before.
Conifer sleepily trawl through the dark recesses of post rock, taking the languorous slow burning churn of bands like Slint or Seam Or Bastro, all dark and brooding, simple and insistent, and stretching the riffs and melodies into expansive stretches of moody melancholy, swathed in Pink Floydian swoosh and whirl, before dropping the bomb. Massive downtuned guitars explode, splitting post rock atoms into clumps of corrosive riffage, peppered with raspy howls and screeching banshee melodies, sometimes gaining momentum and becoming unstoppable exercises in epic doomy drone-metal ala Neurosis or Isis, sometimes becoming glacial explorations into slow motion doom a la Khanate, and other times employing distorted ghostly computer vocals and buzzing psychedelia into Butthole Surfers-like sonic freakouts. A lot of this does definitely sound like Isis, Neurosis, Pelican or Buried At Sea, which is obviously a good thing, but more often it sounds like a doom-sludge A Minor Forest or a post rock Boris or a very metal Slint. Which is an even better thing!
MPEG Stream: "Turning Sand Into Glass"
MPEG Stream: "Albuquerque Reprise"

CONIFER / OCEAN split (Important) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's pretty hard to go wrong with two heavy hitters like Conifer and Ocean, and predictably, this split lp is about as right as it gets. It's been ages since we heard from Conifer, one of our favorites of the new breed of post rock / metal hybrids, due in no small part to the fact that they tend toward the mathy / post rock side of that sound. And if anything, on this latest track (yep, one sidelong epic) they seem to have jettisoned any sort of metal completely. Not to say it's not heavy, it most certainly is, it's just not really sludgy, or that metallic, and it suits them. Right out of the gate, they lock into a super intense, relentless propulsive krautrock groove, hypnotic, mathy, complex, unfurling a super mesmerizing jam. But things shift dramatically when the vocals kick in, the band lurch into serious Harvey Milk territory, which is a very good thing, a strange crooned vocal line over a strange convoluted rhythm. Catchy, melodic, and weirdly poppy.
But the last 10 minutes or so totally seal the deal (if it wasn't already), a super stripped down Southern style (?) kraut jam, looped riff, simple propulsive drumming, and some killer guitar harmonies that go from epic and soaring to weird and warbly, and it's all we can do to not use one of our three wishes to get that last part to go on until the end of time...
The flipside features Maine's Ocean, not to be confused with THE Ocean, these guys aren't so much a part of that post rock metal thing as they are glacial doom merchants, and here they offer up a sidelong slab of multiple o'd dooooom. Things start out as a super pretty slowcore crawl, before a black hole wall of guitars drop and it's still a slowcore crawl, just a massive crushing funeral dirge of a slowcore crawl! Plodding and epic, but still haunting and weirdly lovely, sounding a lot like a metallized Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, depressive and mournful, mysterious and haunting... The vocals are a hellish howl, the guitars grinding and buzzing, a lot of this actually sounds like some unearthed slab of nineties funeral doom, albeit with that Bohren-y prettiness mixed in.
Packaged in super swank Important Records style, this time a black and white printed sleeve inside a grey and orange silk screened vinyl outer jacket, giving it a cool sort of 3-D affect. And as you might have assumed, SUPER LIMITED, only 1000 copies...

CONTRA IGNEM FATUUM Detritus (Supernal Music) cd 11.98
Those of you who managed to catch Andee and Allan guest DJing on Brian Turner's show On WFMU a few months back got an earful of all the craziest metal they could muster (if you didn't hear it, go to WFMU.org and you can listen to the whole thing!) in a desperate attempt to stump Brian the musical genius. Of course we cheated and played a bunch of unreleased demos!! One of which was some amazingly damaged keyboard heavy black-drone metal, a record called Halcyon Mockery from a band called Circumscriber. Well, we just discovered that Circumscriber changed their name to Contra Ignem Fatuum, and the disc we played on WFMU will indeed be coming out soon on Benighted Leams' label Supernal, but for now, here's a brain melting three (long) song taster and the sound here is everything we loved about the forthcoming CIF (formerly Circumscriber) disc, that same ultra repetitive black drone metal that never fails to blow us away. We weren't sure what to expect from the whole record as the majority of Detritus is ambient. No drums, no guitars, just dreamy streaks of smeary sound, delicate ghostlike melodies, warm synthesizers, chanting monklike vocals, majestic melodic swells, distant martial percussion, a bit like In The Nursery or Dead Can Dance or a lot like the recently listed Dark Ages disc. The second of the three tracks is the little black secret here, bookended on both sides by ethereal ambience, the 14 minute long title track is a brutal and mega-catchy, completely hypntoic, endlessly repeating KILLER riff, a swarm-of-locusts kind riff, buzzing and twisting, pounding and pulsing repeating over and over, a bit like a black metal Circle or more heavy metal Pharoah Overlord or even a way heavier Gore. The track builds and builds until the drums burst into a blazing fast blast beat and utter chaos is unleashed, the whole track becoming a swirl of demonic vocals, shrieking, swarming guitars, warm washes of keyboard and spastic lighting fast drumming, as everything becomes less and less distinct and more a black flurry of sound. Wow. When the riff kicks in, you'd have to be totally ROCK-less to not leap out of your chait and start banging your head and whipping your hair around like a windmill. It's like that Khold riff, the sort of riff bands kill for. So fucking great. So enjoy this while you can and steel yourself for the eventual arrival of Halcyon Mockery.
MPEG Stream: "Blood Upon The Horizon"
MPEG Stream: "Hyperborean Ascension"

CONVERGE Axe To Fall (Epitaph) cd 15.98
Some bands mellow with age. That's just the way it is... sometimes. Converge is definitely NOT one of those bands, and almost two decades into their career, they're still just as furious as ever and showing no signs of age (though they were only teenagers when they started, it's not like they're a bunch of old dudes). It's almost unbelievable to think how a band like this could maintain such an insane amount of energy, but we're happy to report that things don't appear to be slowing down by any measure. There's tons of crazy guitar leads, super aggressive bass playing that holds things down like an anchor, tight as fuck drumming, and of course, frontman Jacob Bannon's throat-ripping banshee screams.
Axe To Fall, like the other post-Jane Doe Converge records, retains the unfathomable brutality of that definitive record and adds an approach that, as weird as it may sound, seems to exude a heavy rock n' roll influence. There's really no other way to put it: this shit rocks hard. Perhaps the best thing about Converge is, even in the moments of sheer metallic evil (which is most of them), they are still highly musical and catchy, and the band's incredible musicianship allows them to take things where few other hardcore groups are capable of going. Yep, nothing quite hits the spot like Converge. Featuring contributions from an assortment of noteworthy heavies, including dudes from Cave In, Entombed/Disfear (the awesomely monickered Ufe Cederlund), Himsa, Neurosis, Genghis Tron, and probably some others. Awesome stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Dark Horse"
MPEG Stream: "Reap What You Sow"
MPEG Stream: "Axe To Fall"

CONVERGE Jane Doe (Equal Vision) cd 13.98
It's raining blood in Boston with the release of this new, state-of-the-art Converge album. These New England metalcore masters (the closest rivals to the now-defunct Coalesce) have produced their most vicious, best-sounding disc yet; pummelling, complex, and super heavy. There's dizzying changes and lots of textures, from razor-sharp guitar riffing to theremin squiggles to throat-shredding screams. Going beyond your usual technical metal/hardcore brutality, Converge utilize Shellac/Slint style post-rock style dynamics and non-screaming vocals as well, as on the moody yet frantic "Hell To Pay". And they slow down their manic pace for such tracks as the dirgey, droney "Phoenix In Flight". If you're already a Converge fan, of course you need this, and if you're a fan of the likes of the aforementioned Coalesce, or Today Is The Day, or even AQ-faves Old Man Gloom (with whom Converge share a member), you should love "Jane Doe" too. Packaged in a slipcased jewelbox with a super-thick artsy booklet of hard-to-decipher lyrics. With so much great new metalcore coming out (see elsewhere this list) it was hard to come up with non-redundant superlatives to describe this new Converge effort, but certainly it deserves 'em, 'cause it kills.
RealAudio clip: "Concubine"
RealAudio clip: "Hell To Pay"
RealAudio clip: "Fault And Fracture"
RealAudio clip: "Phoenix In Flight"

CONVERGE Jane Doe (Equal Vision) 2lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on vinyl! ...It's raining blood in Boston with the release of this new, state-of-the-art Converge album. These New England metalcore masters (the closest rivals to the now-defunct Coalesce) have produced their most vicious, best-sounding disc yet; pummelling, complex, and super heavy. There's dizzying changes and lots of textures, from razor-sharp guitar riffing to theremin squiggles to throat-shredding screams. Going beyond your usual technical metal/hardcore brutality, Converge utilize Shellac/Slint style post-rock style dynamics and non-screaming vocals as well, as on the moody yet frantic "Hell To Pay". And they slow down their manic pace for such tracks as the dirgey, droney "Phoenix In Flight". If you're already a Converge fan, of course you need this, and if you're a fan of the likes of the aforementioned Coalesce, or Today Is The Day, or even AQ-faves Old Man Gloom (with whom Converge share a member), you should love "Jane Doe" too. Packaged in a slipcased jewelbox with a super-thick artsy booklet of hard-to-decipher lyrics. With so much great new metalcore coming out (see elsewhere this list) it was hard to come up with non-redundant superlatives to describe this new Converge effort, but certainly it deserves 'em, 'cause it kills.
RealAudio clip: "Concubine"
RealAudio clip: "Hell To Pay"
RealAudio clip: "Fault And Fracture"
RealAudio clip: "Phoenix In Flight"

CONVERGE No Heroes (Epitath) cd 13.98
Metalcore is sort of a dirty word these days it seems; conjuring up images of Warped Tours and Hot Topic's. All the short haired emo guys are now playing brutal-tech-death metal while the dirty long haired metalhead guys are slowing it down, making all kinds of epic post rock and convoluted math rock. What gives? Converge continue to blaze their own path and break down the boundaries between hardcore and metal, while incorporating bits of noise and other weird sounds, the REAL crossover.
Converge were sort of always the hardcore black sheep, too noisy, too metal, not punk enough. Going on 15 years now, Converge have been the kings of the underground, subtly or not so subtly influencing all the metalcore outfits that have gone on to be HUGE. It's time for the world to recognize that Converge have been making some of the most progressive, and beautifully fucked up metallic punk rock music of the last two decades.
No Heroes falls sonically somewhere between the all time metalcore milestone Jane Doe and their more recent, but equally as punishing and original You Fail me.ĘThe pace is furious, hovering around warp speed most of the time, but these guys are masters, and amidst the cacophonous, chaotic din lurk all sorts of sonic surprises, tone of space and atmosphere, discordant, jagged, chunky, choppy riffs, incredibly complex rhythms, as well as hooks galore, all masterfully whipped into a glorious metalcore frenzy.
Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Heartache"
MPEG Stream: "Hellbound"
MPEG Stream: "Grim Heart / Black Rose"
MPEG Stream: "Trophy Scars"

CONVERGE No Heroes (Epitaph) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Also on lp... Metalcore is sort of a dirty word these days it seems; conjuring up images of Warped Tours and Hot Topic's. All the short haired emo guys are now playing brutal-tech-death metal while the dirty long haired metalhead guys are slowing it down, making all kinds of epic post rock and convoluted math rock. What gives? Converge continue to blaze their own path and break down the boundaries between hardcore and metal, while incorporating bits of noise and other weird sounds, the REAL crossover.
Converge were sort of always the hardcore black sheep, too noisy, too metal, not punk enough. Going on 15 years now, Converge have been the kings of the underground, subtly or not so subtly influencing all the metalcore outfits that have gone on to be HUGE. It's time for the world to recognize that Converge have been making some of the most progressive, and beautifully fucked up metallic punk rock music of the last two decades.
No Heroes falls sonically somewhere between the all time metalcore milestone Jane Doe and their more recent, but equally as punishing and original You Fail me.ĘThe pace is furious, hovering around warp speed most of the time, but these guys are masters, and amidst the cacophonous, chaotic din lurk all sorts of sonic surprises, tone of space and atmosphere, discordant, jagged, chunky, choppy riffs, incredibly complex rhythms, as well as hooks galore, all masterfully whipped into a glorious metalcore frenzy.
Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Heartache"
MPEG Stream: "Hellbound"
MPEG Stream: "Grim Heart / Black Rose"
MPEG Stream: "Trophy Scars"

CONVERGE The Long Road Home (Deathwish) dvd 18.98
What to say about the mighty Converge? Not sure I can top Allan's description from a few lists back:
"Pummelling, complex, and super heavy. There's dizzying changes and lots of textures, from razor-sharp guitar riffing to theremin squiggles to throat-shredding screams. Going beyond your usual technical metal/hardcore brutality, Converge utilize Shellac/Slint style post-rock style dynamics and non-screaming vocals as well."
Converge are probably one of, if not our favorite metalcore bands ever (along with Coalesce, Heaven Shall Burn, From Autumn To Ashes and a few select others) and have continued to progress musically, taking their Slayer meets NYHC to completely new and original places.
This DVD basically chronicles the hundreds of live performances from 1994 to the present. It's cool to see this stuff live, it's way more palpable and dangerous, and the virtuosity takes a back seat to the sweat and aggresion and fury and chaos and fun. Swirling pits and bouncing band members and flailing stage divers. Recorded at huge festivals, little clubs and tiny low-ceilinged basements. Super intimate and really cool. Two sided disc, with the first side being the feature, 20 or so songs, recorded live all over the world, some on film, some on video, all varying degrees of sound/picture quality, but all furious and awesome to watch. The bonus footage on side 2 is three entire live shows as well as a super arty music video.

CONVERGE Unloved And Weeded Out (Deathwish) cd 14.98
Converge just happen to be responsible for quite possibly the best metalcore record of last year (maybe ever?!?), Jane Doe. Pummelling, and complex, heavy and brutal but drone-y and dirgey, death metal mixed with hardcore mixed with punk rock mixed with post rock mixed with grindcore. A totally unique musical statement, stretching the envelope of the often too predicatable hardcore/metalcore sound. So how did they get to that point? Well here's a singles/rarites collection that gives us a little glance into the past to see how this band turned into the powerhouse they are now. Singles, compilation tracks, as well as a handful of previously unreleased tracks make this essential for the Converge completist as well as a decent introduction for the uninitiated, to a band that continues to blow our minds, although if you are taking your first plunge, we might recommend the godlike Jane Doe instead.

RealAudio clip: "Downpour"
RealAudio clip: "Jacob's Ladder"

CONVERGE You Fail Me (Epitaph) cd 14.98
Converge have always been one of the best metalcore bands around. But with the release of Jane Doe a few years back they quickly moved right to the head of the line, having crafted what is most definitely the most amazing, heaviest, most complex, catchiest and most chaotic metalcore record ever. EVER. So once again we're faced with what would almost have to be a massive disappointment after the total Godhead that was Jane Doe. But we should know better than to doubt Converge. While this record may not be quite as good as Jane Doe, it almost doesn't matter. In fact it's a whole different kind of record. Not nearly as dense and chaotic as Jane Doe, You Fail Me is strangely melodic and dare we say almost new wave at times. Now don't get all scared off. You Fail Me is still heavier and more brutal than almost any record you'll hear this year, but there's a lot more weirdness going on. A lot more space, and more experimentation. Not so much being 'experimental' per se, but more dabbling in some distinctly un-Converge like sounds, pop melodies, acoustic guitars, clean singing, angular new wave-ish guitar, bouncy almost emo-ish rhythms, folky ambience, but all safely ensconced in a jagged, prickly nest of swirling metallic guitars, chugging downtuned riffs, ridiculous drumming and throbbing punch-in-the-gut bass. Definitely weirder, but quite possibly just as good as Jane Doe. Just in a wonderfully different way.
MPEG Stream: "Last Light"
MPEG Stream: "Black Cloud"
MPEG Stream: "Drop Out"

CONVERGE You Fail Me (Epitaph) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now on LP!!
Converge have always been one of the best metalcore bands around. But with the release of Jane Doe a few years back they quickly moved right to the head of the line, having crafted what is most definitely the most amazing, heaviest, most complex, catchiest and most chaotic metalcore record ever. EVER. So once again we're faced with what would almost have to be a massive disappointment after the total Godhead that was Jane Doe. But we should know better than to doubt Converge. While this record may not be quite as good as Jane Doe, it almost doesn't matter. In fact it's a whole different kind of record. Not nearly as dense and chaotic as Jane Doe, You Fail Me is strangely melodic and dare we say almost new wave at times. Now don't get all scared off. You Fail Me is still heavier and more brutal than almost any record you'll hear this year, but there's a lot more weirdness going on. A lot more space, and more experimentation. Not so much being 'experimental' per se, but more dabbling in some distinctly un-Converge like sounds, pop melodies, acoustic guitars, clean singing, angular new wave-ish guitar, bouncy almost emo-ish rhythms, folky ambience, but all safely ensconced in a jagged, prickly nest of swirling metallic guitars, chugging downtuned riffs, ridiculous drumming and throbbing punch-in-the-gut bass. Definitely weirder, but quite possibly just as good as Jane Doe. Just in a wonderfully different way.
MPEG Stream: "Last Light"
MPEG Stream: "Black Cloud"
MPEG Stream: "Drop Out"

CONVERGE / HELLCHILD Deeper the Wound (Deathwish) cd 14.98
Split cd with Boston's Converge and Japan's Hellchild. Converge take their normal metal core sound and twist it a bit, adding weird stop-start arrangements and bizarre keyboards making for a super heavy prog workout. And then try their hand at a Depeche Mode cover! Done pretty straight, but it's cool.
Hellchild slow down their grinding metal to a more midtempo 80's thrash. One new song and a Bulldozer cover! Both bands finish up with some live tunes. Pretty great.
RealAudio clip: CONVERGE "Thaw"
RealAudio clip: HELLCHILD "1"

CONVIVIAL HERMIT, THE Issue 5 magazine 8.98
We're always on the lookout for new music metal magazines, cuz as much as we love Decibel and Terrorizer, it's the cool DIY mags that really cover the stuff we love, in a way that seems totally genuine, driven purely by a love of the music, whether it's the now defunct Oaken Throne, or Salt (not strictly metal), or Asgard Root, we can't get enough. Which is why we were so thrilled to discover the curiously named Convivial Hermit, while at the same time confused as to how we missed the first 4 issues of this incredible magazine. Based in Warmonster, Pennsylvania (!!!), TCH covers a wide array of dark and heavy underground music, black metal, doom, psychedelic folk, industrial, and pretty much everything in between, as well as artists and filmmakers and whatever the hell else they feel like. This is issue five, and it's a doozy, featuring legendary slowcore doomlords Skepticism, Chinese neo-folk outfit Baishui, USBM horde Nechochwen, Korean metallers Sad Legend, Norwegian metal outfit Wallachia, filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, Orson Welles' film Mr. Arkadin, mysterious Russian black metallers Walknut, black metallers Algaion, symphonic neo-folk group Rome, longtime aQ fave Steven R. Smith, Russian doom metal label Solitude Productions, Lovecraftian metal weirdos Fungoid Stream, funeral doom outfit Helllight, an essay on the dying art of compilations and reviews of some of the editor's faves, French Illustrator Chris Moyen, death metallers Affliction Gate, Spanish black metallers Beelzeb, German black metal horde Drengskapur, Italian black metal unknowns Adversam, an essay on hermits (!), acid folk legends and ALL time aQ faves Comus, Czech black metal weirdos Master's Hammer, French black metallers Aorlhac, legendary dark ambient soundscaper Raison D'Etre, Chinese label Pest Productions (whose releases we have featured on the aQ list recently!), an thoughtful essay on record stores and the future of recorded media (for which this 'zine would get our recommendation alone, read this!), and then of course, TONS of reviews, records, magazines, shows.
The magazine is massive, beautifully laid out, fun to read, packed with old faves and new discoveries, just might be out 'new' favorite metal mag!

COPS, THE Fables (Battlecruiser / Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another release from Campbell Kneale's (of Birchville Cat Motel) Battlecruiser label, a sub division of his free drone Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label, specializing in METAL, or at least sort-of-metal, or maybe more accurately very heavy music that is the sort of 'metal' music ambient dronesters make when they're trying to get heads banging. So far in the series we've had loads of slow motion sludge metal, some Steve Reich style repeated NWOBHM riffs and even some almost ambient metal. Now we have the Cops. Who don't really sound all that metal at all on first listen. But then again, one man's metal is another man's circus organ flecked industrial sludge spazz grind. Or something like that. The Cops sound a little like the Locust, if the lead guitarist played one of the Fisher Price guitars with the buttons on the neck that unleash noodly squiggly guitar solos, and if the whole thing was recorded on a boom box. Massively overblown recording, super ultra-distorted angular riffs (some very metal indeed), loads of squealing feedback, suffocating washes of distortion over howled banshee vocals, programmed blast beats, and occasional Godflesh like industrial rhythms. Weird but pretty effing cool! Maybe a bit aggro for your typical metalhead. But anyone who wants a quick (11 minutes) furious electronicly grinding drum-machined metallic knee to the nards can definitely count on these Cops!
SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
MPEG Stream: "Burn In The Fire"
MPEG Stream: "The Birds Of Angus"
MPEG Stream: "Theme For A Cop"

CORN ON MACABRE I & II (Lumberjack) cd 13.98
It took me a while to even realise that the band name was a pun. That's always a bad sign. However, I instantly knew that Corn On Macabre is a BAD, BAD band name (this coming from the guy who reviewed the very amazing, terribly named Cream Abdul Babar a few lists back). So if you can make it past the name, which I urge you to do, you'll discover an amazingly brutal, pretty original metalcore record. Packaged in a gorgeous two color, matte-stock digipak. All the songs are under two minutes (at least half are under ONE minute). Blazing. Noisy, crushing and pounding metallic hardcore with amazing song titles. Features members of PG.99, Waifle, Darkest Hour, and Enemy Soil. This cd collects their two 7"s as well as some extra stuff. Really fucking great!
RealAudio clip: "Trojan Clown"
RealAudio clip: "I Watched Friday The Thirteenth At My Grandmother's House An She Wasn't Into It (But She Let Me Watch It Anyway)"
RealAudio clip: "Shut Up And Play Something Evil"
RealAudio clip: "Who Wants To Be An Alien?"
RealAudio clip: "You're Okay, I'm Undead"

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY Animosity (Metal Blade / Back On Black) lp 25.00
One of the best punk and/or metal albums ever, reissued on vinyl. Pricey, like vinyl is today... but worth it if you're really punk and/or metal.

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY In The Arms Of God (Sanctuary) cd 16.98