ACRIMONY Bong On - Live Long! (Leaf Hound) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've long been fans of the druggy stoner grooves of the UK's Acrimony, ever since 1996'sÊTumuli Shroomaroom, a record that has been out of print for a while now, otherwise we would have most certainly given it some long overdue love on the AQ list. Just recently, Japanese label Leaf Hound reissued Tumuli Shroomaroom (which we now have in stock, and will list next time) but also this killer odds and sods collection called appropriately enough Bong On - Live Long! So we figured we oughta tackle the newest release first, plus for long time fans like us, there's tons of amazing out of print stuff on it we'd been dying to hear.
Acrimony exist in a similar sonic universe as their metallic countrymen Electric Wizard (as well as folks like Boris, Church Of Misery, Kyuss, Bongzilla, etc.) and while not quite as filthy and blown out and Sabbath obsessed, they are definitely just as heavy, but probably way more groovy and spaced out, adding some Hawkwind to the mix, and some organ (fuck yeah!) turning crushing druggy jams into crushing freaked out groovy druggy SPACE jams which is never a bad thing.Ê
Collecting tracks from old eps, compilations, and a split with Church Of Misery (even a badass Status Quo cover!), every song here is a sludgy groovy stoner space jam of the highest order, the riffs are massive and downtuned, the drums a barrage of pounding pummel, the vocals a raspy howl, wah guitar everywhere, hooks galore, lots of swing and groove, throbbing distorted bass, churning riffage that often slowly morphs into a spaced out sprawl a la Monster Magnet or Hawkwind, even the folks who don't get high here (Andee, and...?), can imagine that this is exactly what that must (or at least -should-) sound like, heavy and freaky and groovy and mind blowing.Ê
Fans of bands like Electric Wizard and Nebula and Ufomammut and Orange Goblin and Spiritual Beggars and the like who have somehow missed out on these guys might just have found a new favorite band...
MPEG Stream: "Spaced Cat #7 (Hammond Moon - Bong Mix)"
MPEG Stream: "Earthchild Inferno"
MPEG Stream: "O Baby"

ACRIMONY Tumuli Shroomaroom (Leaf Hound) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A few lists back, we reviewed a newly released collection of odds and ends from stoner doomlords Acrimony, a UK band, who combined all the best parts of many of our favorite bands, Electric Wizard, Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, Church Of Misery, Boris, Bongzilla, that list alone should have many of you already leaping for the 'buy' button, and that's as it should be. These guys destroy. Unbelievably heavy, crazy catchy, killer riffs, hooks galore, and plenty of spaced out druggy drone.
But YEARS before that comp, Bong On- Live Long!, we were already huge fans of this here disc right here, Tumuli Shroomaroom, now reissued with new improved sound, maybe one of the best stoner rock records EVER. High praise indeed, but not unwarranted we think. The guitars are massive, downtuned and crunchy, spitting out groovy Sabbathy riffage, but way more psychedelic, plenty of wah guitar, streaks of wild leads, all over a super dense rhythmic foundation. The drums heavy as fuck, pounding away, the bass throbbing and buzzing and holding it all together. The vocals a rough raspy, but melodic caterwaul. And the songs, as catchy as they are heavy, super charged and blown out, like someone took perfect pop songs, dipped them in LSD, rolled them in broken shards of Monster Magnet, wrapped them in thick sheets of Hawkwind, lit them on fire and smoked them, and then picked up guitars and this was the result. Not sure why these guys weren't huge.
Besides being a kick ass band, heavy and catchy, they also have a serious thing for repetition, and drone, most of the songs have long stretches of churning riffage that just repeats and repeats, mantra like, mesmerizingly headbanging, lots of them also lock into some sort of endless groove near the end, the song often transforming into an ultra heavy hypnorock workout, looped over and over, repeating sometimes for minutes, and then sometimes unexpectedly slipping right back into the song. Definitely part of what gives them such a druggy vibe. The best example of that is the track "Motherslug (The Mother Of All Slugs", a massive stoner rock jam, that is constantly locking into perfect looped grooves, so tight and hypnotic they almost sounds like the cd is skipping, a single riff churning again and again, so completely trancelike, while all around the main riff, other guitars swell and swoop, shimmering in little squalls pf psychedelic FX, sort of like those kick ass spaced out Hawkwind outros but way less spacey and more relentlessly and repetitively rocking, until the track suddenly and effortlessly slips back into the main groove again, eventually drifting apart into some awesome spacious doom jam, the guitar and drums locked in big crashes, spaced way far apart, the guitar chords crumbling and fading almost completely before the next crash comes, finally fading into some throbbing drone, buzzy and muted, maybe a didgeridoo or faux throat singing or something, finally fading out into the space-rock Sabbath riff that opens the next track.
Hard to know what else to say, one of our favorite heavy records ever, every track on here is a killer. Heavy and groovy, droney and hypnotic, druggy and spaced out, the ultimate stoner rock doom disc for sure. As we mentioned above, folks into Monster Magnet, Sleep, Electric Wizard, Ufomammut, Orange Goblin, Kyuss, Black Sabbath, Spiritual Beggars, Nebula, Bongzilla, Green Machine, Boris, Lowrider, Spirit Caravan, Solarized, Fu Manchu, Dozer and Mammoth Volume and have somehow made it this far without hearing Acrimony, might just have discovered their new favorite band.
MPEG Stream: "Hymns To The Stone"
MPEG Stream: "Million Year Summer"
MPEG Stream: "Vy"

ACROSS TUNDRAS Dark Songs Of The Prairie (Crucial Blast) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Ramblin' In The Shadows"
MPEG Stream: "If God Cuts You Down"

ACROSS TUNDRAS Sage (Neurot) cd 14.98
Southern psychedelic post-metal heavies Across Tundras are another one of those bands, that for whatever reason we've neglected on the aQ list, even though some aQ-ers have been big fans for a while. This trio's latest, Sage, is another riffy, mathy, psychedelic sprawl, a bit like a less sludgey Neurosis, the same sort of instrumental heft, and moody epic heaviness, but spread out into something a bit more spacious, the postrock outweighing the metal, but only just barely, the songs slipping smoothly from downtuned bombast to spidery lope, from hazy psychedelic drift to almost Southern rock sounding stomp. The label references Neil Young and Johnny Cash, and we definitely hear some Crazy Horse going on, even weirdly enough some Raging Slab, even some Skynrd or Outlaws, as the record unfolds, the songs definitely reveal themselves to be some sort of metallized modern variant of classic Southern Rock, and it's a pretty bad ass mix, unlike most metal, where it's about the tone and the riffs and the distortion, Sage is definitely as much about the songs, melding hooks and killer choruses, actual singing, with stretches of soaring epic crunch, as well as moody minimal drift.
Many of the tracks don't get heavy at all, or at least conventionally heavy, instead, brooding and dark, dense and layered, sounding more like True Widow or the most recent Young Widows, that same sort of creeping post rock slowcore, while in places, the sound even drifts into Woven Hand style apocalyptic folk, all muted percussion, urgently strummed acoustic guitars, twang and jangle, even some boy / girl harmonies. Not to downplay the heaviness entirely, cuz plenty of this record IS heavy, big riffs, pounding drums, slow building metallic crescendos, shades of Neurosis (Crossed with Godspeed), sludge via Morricone, doom via Barn Owl, but all woven into their own distinctive sound, one that should most definitely appeal to any of the above mentioned outfits, as well as anyone into, sprawling psychedelic heaviness of any stripe.
MPEG Stream: "In The Name Of River Grand"
MPEG Stream: "Hijo De Desierto"
MPEG Stream: "Buried Arrows"

AD HOMINEM Climax Of Hatred (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98

AD HOMINEM Planet Zog - The End (Musique & Tradition) cd 14.98

AD HOMINEM Theory 0 (Avantgarde) cd 12.98

ADERLATING Devotional Hymns (Shadowgraph) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's unclear what it is exactly that differentiates Aderlating from Gnaw Their Tongues, both are masterminded by mysterious noisemaker Mories, both feature garish frightening artwork, both feature extended wordy song titles like "And Thou Shall Breathe Sulfur As Last Breath" and "Travel The Fog As Death Reaping The Lands" and "The Ravenous Bloodlust Of Fallen Angels", and both bands are grim and blown out and epic and cacophonous and blackened and harrowing and loud as fuck. The key differences seem to be these: Aderlating is in fact a duo, whereas GTT is a one man band, and Gnaw Their Tongues is much more cinematic, and atmospheric, while Aderlating seems to be more dense and dark and layered.
Which is evidenced by the opening track here, a seemingly static wall of undulating layered dronemusic, the sound of 100 Sunroof!s playing simultaneously, a noise drenched ur-raga, a furious white hot sprawl of trancelike crumbling crunch, which over the course of nearly nine minutes goes from Merzbowian blast, to haunting black ambient creep, exploring all sorts of sonic mysteries in between. Devotional Hymns is a collection of sounds black and bleak, hymns perhaps, but to some fallen lord, grinding black shards collide with creaking ambient drifts, epic industrial wastelands, roiling, churning, every track a black hole of sound, when melody and light do escape, they are damaged, limping along, like some charred beast, some damaged machine, crawling through a soundscape of apocalyptic decay.
A few of the tracks here get rhythmic, sounding a bit like a blackened Wolf Eyes, a rotting sea of sounds supported by a rickety industrial skeleton, while others get almost black metal, but are so blurred and obscured that any riffage or blast beating, becomes blown out smears of grim sound, culminating in the hellish fury of the 12 minute title track, a sort of black industrial noise jam, that is simultaneously hypnotic and trancelike, filthy and raw, black and brutal. Incredible stuff as always.
Essential for Gnaw Their Tongues fans obviously, and anyone into buzzing black filth or crushing industrial black ambience. And these Shadowgraph cd-r's are in super swank digipaks, but are usually still quite limited, often to 100 or less, which means these will be gone before you know it...
MPEG Stream: "And Thou Shall Breathe Sulfur As Last Breath"
MPEG Stream: "Devotional Hymns"
MPEG Stream: "The Shallow Waters Of The Styx"

ADERLATING The Nectar Of Perversity Springs From The Well Of Repression (Shadowgraph) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A quick glance at this, the first release from the strangely named Aderlating, will reveal some very telling clues, the record is called The Nectar Of Perversity Springs From The Well Of Repression, the cover features a terrified figure, clad only in a bit of cloth, cowering from the darkness, and on the other side some sort of ritual that involves a naked woman with burning candles inserted in her ass, laying on an altar in front of mysterious cloaked figures. The songs are titled things like "Cut Off My Penis In Praise Of Black Satan", "Rope, Pig's Blood, Dead Flesh And Two Candles", "Death Knell" and "Doodstorm", so even before we get to the caustic gritty blackened filth on the disc, we're feeling a pretty heavy Gnaw Their Tongues vibe, which makes perfect sense as Aderlating is in fact another project by Gnaw mastermind Mories.
It's a little unclear what differentiates this from a proper Gnaw Their Tongues release, there's plenty of harsh black noise, rumbling mysterious drones, buried riffage and mysterious chanting, creepy almost choral sounding voices, pounding percussion, harsh hissing feedback, crumbling distortion, buzzing black metal guitars smeared into blurred buzzscapes, howling harsh vocals buried in the mix, static, whir, glitch, all doused in effects and buried under layer after layer of distorted noise and noisy distorted. Hell, even sounds like we're describing a GTT record. Fuck it, anyone into Gnaw Their Tongues, you're gonna want this, it could essentially be the new GTT record, the only difference we can hear really, is that it's a little more harsh, a little less orchestral, where GTT employed all sort of almost cabaret like sounds, Aderlating is a much more furiously aggressive and abrasive beast, but even amidst all the white noise and grinding feedback drenched distortion, there lurks all sorts of sonic mystery, be it buried melodies, haunting disembodied voices or fucked up fragmented loops. Needless to say, we dig it. Heavy and harsh and droney and dark and just what we needed to tide us over until the next Gnaw Their Tongues record...
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!! We got about a quarter of those but judging by past Gnaw Their Tongues releases, those won't be around for long...
MPEG Stream: "Death Knell"
MPEG Stream: "Rope, Pig's Blood, Dead Flesh And Two Candles"
MPEG Stream: "Doodstorm"

AELTER Dusk-Dawn (Wolvserpent) lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One half of epic cinematic ambient black chamber doom soundscapers Pussygutt strikes out on his own to create an epic bit of abstract doom creep, that strips down the Pussygutt sound to its essence, and creates something equally as haunting and harrowing. Clean spidery guitars unwind over squalls of distorted rumble, drums offer the occasional thud, feedback streaks and shimmers, the sound subtly intensifying, but never really moving beyond a slow motion moonlit drift. It almost sounds like Slint at 16rpm, a glacial post rock, laced with hints of doom, allowed to creep and crawl through an ever shifting field of whir and buzz and shimmer.
The song(s) continues on the B side, the drums and guitar dropping out leaving just a high end shimmer like a soft focus Sunroof! ur-drone, until some of the doom drifts back in, lush swells of ominous keyboard, muted chugs, sloooow minor key guitars, distant vocals, the overall affect way more pop and pretty than Pussygutt, but still retaining the same overall grim vibe, eventually finishing off with another soaring sheet of harmonized high end which gives way to that original spidery guitar line, drifting all by it's lonesome in an epic expanse of black, only to be joined by delicate pointillist piano for the slowly slipping away outro. So nice.
Beautiful packaging, a silver on black silkscreened tri-fold sleeve, released on Pussygutt's Wolveserpent label. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, hand numbered...

AELTER Dusk-Dawn / Follow You Beloved (Crucial Blast) 2cd 14.98
It's getting a little bit hard to keep track of their various permutations, but in a nutshell, first there was Pussygutt, a male/female duo from Idaho who trafficked in sprawling blackened folk flecked dronescapes. That band transformed into Wolvserpent, with the sound remaining essentially the same, weaving blackened drones, fluttery folk, and corrosive doomic dirges into something heavy and psychedelic, cinematic and atmospheric. So now we have Aelter, which just so happens to be the solo project of Blake Green, one half of Wolvserpent / Pussygutt, who takes the sound of WS/PG as a starting point, crafting something much more melodic and soundtracky, eschewing much of the metallic crush of the former in favor of shimmery deserty twang, swirling strings, lush layered drones, choral vocals.
This double disc collects two super limited lps, and weirdly enough, the first half of disc one, sounds a little bit like Barn Owl, but infused with the spirit of Goblin, and with vocals (!), breathy and ethereal. The label mentions that this sounds more like something you'd find on 4AD, and we can definitely hear that, it's a delicate almost shoegazey dreamfolk blackdrone drift, which is less heavy than it is mesmerizing and hypnotic, the guitar twang, delicate piano and swoonsome synths woven deftly into the minimal downtuned riffage that again is less about metal, and more about mood. In fact, for folks who were looking for more Wolvserpent, this might be a bit of a let down, cuz this is something else entirely, a sort of soundtracky post rock, or atmospheric black ambient soundscape, the second disc offers up more of the same, hushed shimmer, melancholy melodies, distant drones, the drums do come into play on disc two, and there is a bit of a slowcore doom vibe, but even then, it's more darkly ominous than doomy, more haunting than heavy, but as a gorgeous lab of abstract ambience and cinematic soundscaping, it's pretty tough to beat. Fans of the current crop of Goblin / Carpenter worshippers who are after something a bit darker and a lot less synth heavy, might find this is just what they were looking for.
MPEG Stream: "Dusk"
MPEG Stream: "Beloved"

AELTER Follow You Beloved (Wolveserpent) lp 17.98
We recently listed a double cd reissue from this blackened experimental soundscaper, which compiled two supposedly out of print lps, but good news for you vinyl fiends, after we posted that review, the band got in touch with us to let us know they had a stash of the Follow You Beloved half of that reissue, on vinyl, which we had never had before, so we got a handful of copies for the store...
It's getting a little bit hard to keep track of their various permutations, but in a nutshell, first there was Pussygutt, a male/female duo from Idaho who trafficked in sprawling blackened folk flecked dronescapes. That band transformed into Wolvserpent, with the sound remaining essentially the same, weaving blackened drones, fluttery folk, and corrosive doomic dirges into something heavy and psychedelic, cinematic and atmospheric. And now we have Aelter, which just so happens to be the solo project of Blake Green, one half of Wolvserpent / Pussygutt, who takes the sound of WS/PG as a starting point, crafting something much more melodic and soundtracky, eschewing much of the metallic crush of the former in favor of shimmery deserty twang, swirling strings, lush layered drones, choral vocals.
The label mentions that some of this sounds more like something you'd find on 4AD, and we can definitely hear that, it's a delicate almost shoegazey dreamfolk blackdrone drift, which is less heavy than it is mesmerizing and hypnotic, for folks who were looking for more Wolvserpent, this might be a bit of a let down, cuz this is something else entirely, a sort of soundtracky post rock, or atmospheric black ambient soundscape, on Follow You Beloved, it's all hushed shimmer, melancholy melodies and distant drones, and drums too, which don't normally play a big part in Aelter's sound, that rhythmic component adding a bit of a slowcore doom vibe, but even then, it's more darkly ominous than doomy, more haunting than heavy, but as a gorgeous lab of abstract ambience and cinematic soundscaping, it's pretty tough to beat. Fans of the current crop of Goblin / Carpenter worshippers who are after something a bit darker and a lot less synth heavy, might find this is just what they were looking for.
Gorgeous red on black packaging, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each one hand numbered...
MPEG Stream: "Beloved"

AELTER III (Handmade Birds) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We just reviewed the double disc reissue of Aelter I and II, a double cd reissue of two lps from this Wolvserpent / Pussygutt offshoot, the sound a sort of shoegazey dreamfolk blackdrone drift (as we described it in that review), so really we were expecting more of the same on the latest Aelter, his first for boutique outsider metal label Handmade Birds, but we were pretty surprised by what it actually ended up sounding like, both sides, part one and two of one album long song, dramatically different, and neither like anything we'd heard from Aelter before.
The A side was maybe the biggest surprise, as it's all synths, no drums, no guitars, just swirling dreamy synths, a sort of Tangerine Dream / Emeralds style drift, hushed and layered and new agey, dreamily droning, the layers softly pulsing, all hazy and washed out, minimal and mesmerizing, until the last minute or so, where things turn dark, and the sound gets low and distorted, sounding almost like throat singing, which is right where the B side takes up, those throat singing like drones a backdrop for some dirgey woozy metal, definitely the most metal we've heard Aelter get, all low slung bass and dreamy almost shoegazey vox, peppered with almost atonal sounding crescendos, tense and haunting and quite dramatic, but that metal blossoms into something entirely different for the second half of the track, a gorgeous sprawl of hazy gloom pop, fuzzy bass, and swirling synths, and dreamy female vox, the shoegaze element in full effect, a gorgeous, surprisingly pop final movement!
packaged in super swank purple and black covers, with a printed full color 12"x12" insert.
And be warned, we got VERY FEW of these, way less than we wanted, and we won't be getting any more, they're out of print already, so grab one quick if you can (apologies if they're gone by the time you order).

AERIAL RUIN 133306668 (self-released) cd-r 5.98
This 22 minute cd-r is the debut for Aerial Ruin, the solo project of Erik Moggridge (guitarist for SF's bearded metal stalwarts Old Grandad). He was assisted in this dark endeavor by Eric Peterson of fellow Bay Area hard rock vets Lost Goat. Don't be expecting a rush of thunderous volume, guitar solos and downtuned heaviness though! Taking a considerably different path, Moggridge has crafted a half dozen songs of somber acoustic folk. Very hushed and slow creeping. The man himself likened it to slowcore leaders Low, but we hear more shades of Mark Lanegan or the solo efforts of Neurosis' Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly.
MPEG Stream: "To Slave"

AERIAN RAGE Fist Of Steel (Stormspell) cd 11.98
Hopefully you've delved into the metallic weirdness of the Max Planck compact disc reissue Kill The Pain we highlighted a few weeks back. Eccentric true cult heavy metal from the depths of the eighties. It was one of the first three releases in the Stormspell label's new archival "Red White Heavy Arcane Collector Series For The Initiated" (and if you read our list, consider yourself initiated), dedicated to rescuing obscure '80s metal demos that they consider hidden gems. Now we've got the other two they've done so far, Cry Of The Warrior by Battlecry from Belgium, and this one, Fist Of Steel from SoCal's unfortunately named Aerian Rage. We've already had to explain to a few customers that no, this isn't a Nazi black metal band!! Instead, they were young Orange County hair metallers with an aggro edge, who were clueless enough to just thing the name sounded cool. Their lead guitarist also thought the name Johnny Roxx sound cool, too, so there you go.
As a friend of ours who really likes this a lot observed, "I can't think of a better band that wanted to be Motley Crue but also picked up on what early Metallica was up to." And that's true. Formed in 1981, Aerian Rage were influenced by thrash bands like Slayer (who they opened for) as well as the likes of WASP and Lizzy Borden (with whom they also played). So you get explosive spandex clad rockin' here, with a bit of a nasty vibe. Catchy songs, high pitched screams, guitar shred, tons of energy, the works. Even a full on noisy freakout at the end of theme song "On The Rage". Fans of certain other LA area bands of the era like Omen, Savage Grace, Leatherwolf, Armored Saint, and even Cirith Ungol, should love this.
And you get a lot of bang for your buck, with 3 demos crammed onto this compact disc, tapes from 1983, '84, and '85, twenty tracks total. (Note: the tracklisting doesn't always seem to quite match up with the order of the songs, but you'll figure it out.) They're raw and rough garage demos but that's just part of the charm, they sure sound good to us, and beg to be cranked loud. Comes with a 12 page booklet, full of photos and lyrics and liner notes, including nostalgic reminiscences from each band member. Limited to 500 hand-numbered copies.
MPEG Stream: "Night Of The Wild"
MPEG Stream: "Kill Or Be Killed"
MPEG Stream: "On The Rage"

AETHENOR Betimes Black (VHF) cd 13.98

AETHENOR Betimes Black (VHF) lp 14.98

AETHENOR Faking Gold & Murder (VHF Records) cd 13.98
Not sure how it happened, but the last Aethenor full length completely passed us by. We had it in the shop, but just never got around to reviewing, not cuz we didn't want to, or because it wasn't awesome, it was, it's just that we get so much stuff, as hard as we try, we can never seem to get to it all.
Well we won't let it happen with this one, Faking Gold & Murder, the latest from the 'supergroup' known as Aethenor, featuring one Mr. Stephen O'Malley, who plays in a few other bands you've probably heard of, as well as guys from Guapo and Shora. Oh, and that David Tibet guy. Current 93, you know. Anyway, the sound is maybe not what you'd expect, eschewing the roiling crush of O'Malley's other groups, and the wild psych prog of Guapo. Instead, Aethenor traffic in some sort of otherworldly avant abstract prog, or something, black ambient free folk drift maybe, it's actually pretty difficult to describe.
Four long songs, numbered instead of titled. The group offering up a lush backdrop of rumbling guitars and keening high end, bursts of dense drumming, billowing clouds of cymbal shimmer, moaning minor key melodies, very abstract but not minimal, a very active, roiling sea of sound, over which Tibet does his thing, singing, speaking, testifying, hard not to compare it to C93, maybe if Current 93 were way heavier and splattered with wild drumming, but the same sort of primal alchemical vibe. The tracks do occasionally coalesce into something more propulsive, offering up grinding slow motion riffage, weird looped soundscapes, clattery almost free jazz, thick crumbling distorted walls of guitars, woozy minor key piano, wheezing organ, plenty of bombast and bluster, but also plenty of hushed whisper and delicate drift, all presided over by Tibet, whose high priest vocals perfectly suit the strange blackened backgrounds. Cool stuff. Fans hankering for that old Current 93 sound, well some of this might be the closest you'll get these days, and anyone into the dark and droney, the mystical and mysterious, the heavy and abstract, enter the temple and bow your head in reverence, the ritual has begun.
Gorgeous packaging, super thick three panel, metallic gold on black, letterpressed cardstock sleeves.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

AETHENOR Faking Gold & Murder (VHF Records) lp 22.00
Not sure how it happened, but the last Aethenor full length completely passed us by. We had it in the shop, but just never got around to reviewing, not cuz we didn't want to, or because it wasn't awesome, it was, it's just that we get so much stuff, as hard as we try, we can never seem to get to it all.
Well we won't let it happen with this one, Faking Gold & Murder, the latest from the 'supergroup' known as Aethenor, featuring one Mr. Stephen O'Malley, who plays in a few other bands you've probably heard of, as well as guys from Guapo and Shora. Oh, and that David Tibet guy. Current 93, you know. Anyway, the sound is maybe not what you'd expect, eschewing the roiling crush of O'Malley's other groups, and the wild psych prog of Guapo. Instead, Aethenor traffic in some sort of otherworldly avant abstract prog, or something, black ambient free folk drift maybe, it's actually pretty difficult to describe.
Four long songs, numbered instead of titled. The group offering up a lush backdrop of rumbling guitars and keening high end, bursts of dense drumming, billowing clouds of cymbal shimmer, moaning minor key melodies, very abstract but not minimal, a very active, roiling sea of sound, over which Tibet does his thing, singing, speaking, testifying, hard not to compare it to C93, maybe if Current 93 were way heavier and splattered with wild drumming, but the same sort of primal alchemical vibe. The tracks do occasionally coalesce into something more propulsive, offering up grinding slow motion riffage, weird looped soundscapes, clattery almost free jazz, thick crumbling distorted walls of guitars, woozy minor key piano, wheezing organ, plenty of bombast and bluster, but also plenty of hushed whisper and delicate drift, all presided over by Tibet, whose high priest vocals perfectly suit the strange blackened backgrounds. Cool stuff. Fans hankering for that old Current 93 sound, well some of this might be the closest you'll get these days, and anyone into the dark and droney, the mystical and mysterious, the heavy and abstract, enter the temple and bow your head in reverence, the ritual has begun.
Gorgeous packaging, super thick three panel, metallic gold on black, letterpressed cardstock sleeves.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

AFTER DEATH Retronomicon (Iron Pegasus Records) cd 17.98
What a great title for an old-school Florida Death Metal album! Ex-Nocturnus.

AGALLOCH Ashes Against The Grain (The End) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

AGALLOCH Marrow Of The Spirit (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
A few lists back, when we reviewed the (now already out of print!) 1996-1998 demos collection by this Pacific Northwest based cult, we mentioned we now realize we were quite foolish in not having paid sufficient attention to their career. Considering how much we ended up liking those early demos, seriously delving into the subsequent bulk of their discography seemed to be in order, though potentially a daunting task. Making things easier though, they've just come out with a new album, so let's focus on that. This latest from these difficult to describe grim blackened metal artists is via the Profound Lore label, who have established an admirable and eclectic track record lately of signing the best in the underground - their two other most recent releases were by extreme doomsters Salome and epic true metal rockers Slough Feg! Agalloch fit right in, in the sense of not fitting in, as they, like those bands, are nothing if not unique. Well, ok, Agalloch are nominally black metal, and "arty", and thus always draw Opeth comparisons, but that's just 'cause it's tough come up with something -really- accurate in that dep't. Another would be Wolves In The Throne Room. Or Ludicra, though they're supposedly so citified, and Agalloch are definitely of the forest.
Fans will know that Agalloch recently enlisted our pal Aesop from Ludicra on drums. One of Aesop's bandmates from that outfit told us that Agalloch sounds like Weezer doing black metal. Maybe that was meant as a criticism (of Agalloch, Weezer, and/or black metal) but for some of us it sounds like a recommendation!! And while we're not sure we really hear that anyway, we guess there is a "pop" side to Agalloch, at least, some occasional clean vocals crop up alongside the usual raspy style ones, and certainly plenty of melancholic melody factors into their exquisitely crafted, carefully orchestrated black metal onslaught, a warm and -gentle- onslaught some of the time we must say, one that even veers into post rock territory a bit, a la Explosions In The Sky or Godspeed or something like that gone black metal, maybe. And the whispery "To Drown" hints at Current 93, tremulous and atmospherically epic. So chamber rock, art rock, post rock, folk rock... Agalloch are perhaps all these things and sundry, in some small measure. But definitely black metal is the crux of this, with those vokills, and blasting beats, and the crunch and whine of the guitars much of the time... whilst Moog and piano, cello and glockenspiel, field recordings and vibraphone, even "petrified bone, glass & metal sheet percussion", all are also woven into the compositions here, making for a lulling sound easily associated with woods, smoke, antlers, mists - even without support from the artwork that suggests such things. Speaking of which, the tri-fold digipack this comes in is handsomely designed, with the band's logo subtly done in raised clear spot varnish on the front cover, likewise with the track listing on the back. Nice!
NB. for those into "six degrees of separation" games, a glance at the credits here will allow you connect Agalloch to krautrockers Faust in approximately one move! Amber Asylum also.
MPEG Stream: "Into The Painted Grey"
MPEG Stream: "The Watcher's Monolith"
MPEG Stream: "Ghosts Of The Midwinter Fires"

AGALLOCH Marrow Of The Spirit (Profound Lore) 2lp 25.00
NOW ON VINYL!!! This critically acclaimed as best-of-2010 metal album gets an lp release, something we know folks have been waiting for... Here's our review of the cd version from last year:
When we reviewed the (now already out of print!) 1996-1998 demos collection by this Pacific Northwest based cult, we mentioned we now realize we were quite foolish in not having paid sufficient attention to their career. Considering how much we ended up liking those early demos, seriously delving into the subsequent bulk of their discography seemed to be in order, though potentially a daunting task. Making things easier though, they've just come out with a new album, so let's focus on that. This latest from these difficult to describe grim blackened metal artists is via the Profound Lore label, who have established an admirable and eclectic track record lately of signing the best in the underground - their two other most recent releases were by extreme doomsters Salome and epic true metal rockers Slough Feg! Agalloch fit right in, in the sense of not fitting in, as they, like those bands, are nothing if not unique. Well, ok, Agalloch are nominally black metal, and "arty", and thus always draw Opeth comparisons, but that's just 'cause it's tough come up with something -really- accurate in that dep't. Another would be Wolves In The Throne Room. Or Ludicra, though they're supposedly so citified, and Agalloch are definitely of the forest.
Fans will know that Agalloch recently enlisted our pal Aesop from Ludicra on drums. One of Aesop's bandmates from that outfit told us that Agalloch sounds like Weezer doing black metal. Maybe that was meant as a criticism (of Agalloch, Weezer, and/or black metal) but for some of us it sounds like a recommendation!! And while we're not sure we really hear that anyway, we guess there is a "pop" side to Agalloch, at least, some occasional clean vocals crop up alongside the usual raspy style ones, and certainly plenty of melancholic melody factors into their exquisitely crafted, carefully orchestrated black metal onslaught, a warm and -gentle- onslaught some of the time we must say, one that even veers into post rock territory a bit, a la Explosions In The Sky or Godspeed or something like that gone black metal, maybe. And the whispery "To Drown" hints at Current 93, tremulous and atmospherically epic. So chamber rock, art rock, post rock, folk rock... Agalloch are perhaps all these things and sundry, in some small measure. But definitely black metal is the crux of this, with those vokills, and blasting beats, and the crunch and whine of the guitars much of the time... whilst Moog and piano, cello and glockenspiel, field recordings and vibraphone, even "petrified bone, glass & metal sheet percussion", all are also woven into the compositions here, making for a lulling sound easily associated with woods, smoke, antlers, mists - even without support from the artwork that suggests such things.
NB. for those into "six degrees of separation" games, a glance at the credits here will allow you connect Agalloch to krautrockers Faust in approximately one move! Amber Asylum also.
MPEG Stream: "Into The Painted Grey"
MPEG Stream: "The Watcher's Monolith"
MPEG Stream: "Ghosts Of The Midwinter Fires"

AGALLOCH The Demonstration Archive: 1996-1998 (Licht Von Dammerung) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Herein we find some early, early material by Portland's grim forest lurkers, the artistic, atmospheric black metal entity known as Agalloch. Eight songs taken from limited edition demo tapes circa 1996-1998, recorded before they got a record deal. Only a couple of the songs, meant for a 7", were later released on a limited cdep now also long gone. And listening to this, you can hear why they eventually got signed (and went on to develop the cult following they have today). These songs are both heavy and depressive, and metallically, melancholically melodic, coming off way more Iron Maiden-y than some black metal for sure, with extra folkiness that makes us think of early Abigor. And definitely fans of old Opeth should investigate this (you'll like the 11 and 13 minute long songs). Coming as no surprise to anyone whose heard their later material, Agalloch's demo archives incorporate rasping anguished vokills, jaunty folk-like melodies, trance-inducing battery, buzzing guitars, and calm, near-ambient interludes. One song is all acoustic strum and woodfires burning.
If you're already into this band, you'll want this. And it's also as good a starting point as any (considering these songs were THEIR starting point). Actually some of us here who hadn't really gotten into Agalloch before are finding this to be a bit of a treat, and realize we should pay more attention to what they've been up to lately, as well.
MPEG Stream: "The Wilderness"
MPEG Stream: "Of Stone, Wind, And Pillor"

AGATHODAIMON Blacken the Angel (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98
Majestic, gothic, vampiric black metal from Germany in the vein (open and bleeding) of Cradle of Filth.

AGATHODAIMON Serpent's Embrace (Nuclear Blast) cd 15.98

AGATHOTHODION Kan Guds Gjort (E.E.E. Recordings) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More UNBLACK metal from the seemingly infallible E.E.E. label, home to some of the most amazing black metal we've heard in ages, which all just so happens to be not so black, as in white, as in Christian! And we're not talking Stryper here, this stuff is as fierce and furious and fucked up and black as any of your Striborgs or Lugubrums.Ê
As far as we can tell, although we're not entirely sure, Agathothodion seems to be the work of the same man behind massive AQ faves Light Shall Prevail, who is also a member of Glaciial, an unblack metal supergroup, as well as the man who runs the E.E.E. label and seems to be single handedly spreading the unblack gospel. When does this man do anything but spew thick torrents of glorious black buzz?! Who cares as long as we're continually treated to music this gorgeously bleak and intense, this buzz-drenched and brutal, and even if it's not the same guy, whoever this mysterious black mystic is, the music he conjures up is both majestic and epic as well as dark and buzzing.Ê
Kan Guds Gjort is split into two looooooong tracks, one twenty minutes and one more than a half an hour, both sprawling and expansive, the perfect form for drone-y buzzy black metal, allowed to stretch out to trance-like proportions. Mostly midtempo, a loping relentless rhythm, the guitars buzzing and swirling, the riffs circular and hypnotically repetitive, the drums going from simple pound to furious blast, but as is often the case with E.E.E. bands it's the utterly distinctive vocals that make it, here it's a guttural growl, that howls in a truly creepy raspy way, buried in the mix, so it's just sort of a fuzzed out wash of distorted ggggrrrrrrrowl on top of the layers of buzz and hiss. The other cool thing is the songs work up to a fever pitch, and suddenly it's a super dramatic Godspeed style crescendo, but rendered in soaring sheets of buzzing blackness and dense tangles of thrashing drums and anguished wails. Here and there, the tracks smooth out into extended almost math rock jams, with jangly guitars buried under a wash of layered guitar, the drums simple and solid, those are the parts that are truly mesmerizing, a doomy depressive drone drenched blackened post rock that oozes into the more traditional blackness around it.Ê
AsÊalways super limited, we got a bunch but E.E.E. stuff flies out of here and we usually can't get any more...
MPEG Stream: "By The Sea"
MPEG Stream: "Man Born Blind"

AGATHOTHODION Traum Von Gott (E.E.E Recordings) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK!
We're beginning to think EEE is our new favorite black metal label. After last list's brilliant Light Shall Prevail, and now this disc from Agathothodion (with tons more still to review).
We're ready to convert! Convert? Oh yeah, we forgot to mention, this is WHITE metal, as in the opposite of black metal. Un-black metal. This is not satanic or hateful, instead it's hopeful and holy. But you'd never know it from listening. Agathothodion is bizarre and creepy and dark and, well, very very black sounding. And the thing is, while some of us have problems with religion being so dogmatic, this particular sonic representation of Christianity is anything but dogmatic. In fact it points out just how cookie cutter the majority of black metal really is. What we're getting at here, is this is some totally demented, freaked out, blissed out and drone-y, haunting and hypnotic ambient experimental black metal. They list their influences as GOD, JESUS CHRIST, Xasthur, Burzum, Leviathan, Isis, but they might as well have also listed Benighted Leams, Urfaust, Dead Reptile Shrine... you get what we're talking about. This stuff is fucking amazing! Traum Von Gott collects two long out of print eps, Stavkirke and Telos, and adds a bonus track)
So what the hell does it sound like?
A buzzing blackness that's spread out into a thick loping wash of blurry buzz, super dreamy, fuzzy warm midtempo black metal, soft swirls of midtempo trudge, totally hypnotic and drone-y, but it's the vocals that had us. Some sort of ancient sounding ghostlike falsetto croon. Drenched in reverb, not singing lyrics so much as just sort of moaning, and groaning. It almost sounds like the guy from Urfaust when he's 100 years old, his wheelchair pushed up to the mic, as a reedy disembodied voice drifts from his parched lips. Totally intense and creepy, definitely some of the most unique vocals we've heard. And while at first they sound completely bizarre, after a while, you really can't imagine the vocals sounding any other way. But that's not all that's strange about this band. They also break their song down into strange little post rock interludes with weird bloopy underwater bass, almost like a black metal Three Mile Pilot. But it really is the vocals, a nearly hysterical sounding completely chilling tortured cry spreading over the proceedings like a blood red fog. Almost like the sound you could imagine coming from behind a locked door in an insane asylum, that strange inmate who has been sitting in the corner for 20 years, mouth and eyes covered, but who continues to wail at all hours of the day.
Man, this is so great, pretty much all we've been listening to. We were all ready to proclaim the Light Shall Prevail record as our new favorite black metal record (the same guy behind that band too we think) but now we're not so sure. Might just be easier to begin singing the praises of white metal and proclaim EEE our new favorite label...
MPEG Stream: TRAUM VON GOTT "Endless Snowfall"
MPEG Stream: TRAUM VON GOTT "Deep Midwinter"
MPEG Stream: AGATHOTHODION "Parabole"
MPEG Stream: AGATHOTHODION "Telos"

AGE OF SILENCE Acceleration (The End) cd 10.98

MPEG Stream: "The Green Office And The Dark Desk Drawer"
MPEG Stream: "The Flow At 09:30 AM"

AGENTS OF ABHORRENCE Character Dissection (Numerical Thief) lp 15.98
This brutal blast of glorious grind from down under is finally available on vinyl. One sided, the other side etched and it looks AMAZING! All new art, gatefold sleeve. So killer.
Here's what we had to say about the cd when we first got it in:
Not sure what it is about the number 9 but it somehow figures heavily into the mythos of these mysterious grindlords from Australia. Their first release was a super limited 9". This latest disc, another blown out blast of pummeling technical grind, is 9 songs packed into 9 ultradense minutes. Hmmm. 9. 9. 9. Upside down is... 6. 6. 6. Ahem, anyway... As with all great grind, these guys pack more riffs and parts into 9 minutes than most bands can manage in an hour! 9 mini epics, each a dizzying squall of whirlwind riffs, shrieking vocals, chaotic drum splatter and a wall of low end that hits you like a block of concrete to the sternum. The guys in Whitehorse hipped us to these guys so you can get an idea of the sort of heaviness we're talking here. But where Whitehorse destroy with glacial malevolence, AoA annihilate with frenzied fury! Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Dead End"
MPEG Stream: "Heart(less)"
MPEG Stream: "Sleepwalker"

AGENTS OF ABHORRENCE Character Dissection (Numerical Thief) 3" cd-r 11.98
Not sure what it is about the number 9 but it somehow figures heavily into the mythos of these mysterious grindlords from Australia. Their first release was a super limited 9". This latest disc, another blown out blast of pummeling technical grind, is 9 songs packed into 9 ultradense minutes. Hmmm. 9. 9. 9. Upside down is... 6. 6. 6. Ahem, anyway... As with all great grind, these guys pack more riffs and parts into 9 minutes than most bands can manage in an hour! 9 mini epics, each a dizzying squall of whirlwind riffs, shrieking vocals, chaotic drum splatter and a wall of low end that hits you like a block of concrete to the sternum. The guys in Whitehorse hipped us to these guys so you can get an idea of the sort of heaviness we're talking here. But where Whitehorse destroy with glacial malevolence, AoA annihilate with frenzied fury! Awesome.
Cool little 3" cd-r packaged in a deluxe oversized slim DVD case, with full color insert.
MPEG Stream: "Dead End"
MPEG Stream: "Heart(less)"
MPEG Stream: "Sleepwalker"

AGENTS OF ABHORRENCE Covert Lobotomy (Missing Link) 9" 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
How can you not love a band called Agents of Abhorrence? Or a record called Covert Lobotomy? Well, with names like those you can probably guess what sort of business these agents get up to. A thrashing grinding buzz of epic proportions. Swarms of bombinating riffs and spastically thrashing drums, howled vocals and ultraprecise ultracomplex song structures. Massive and masterful grind! Pete from the mighty Whitehorse hipped us to these guys and he was right on the money. Clear vinyl packaged in a gorgeous cut-away sleeve, hard to describe but really, really cool looking. Beautiful and of course VERY LIMITED!!

AGONHYMN Doom Jazz (Heathen Skulls) cd 13.98
Fair warning, we only have a dozen copies of this, and given our druthers, we probably would have had 3 times as many, in fact at one point we wanted to make this a Record Of The Week, but were never able to get enough, and now it's out of print, so these are the VERY last copies of the debut record from this heavy Aussie duo, whose sound, as the record title might suggest, is definitely doomy, not so much jazzy, but most definitely HEAVY.
Beginning with a melodic little ditty all wheezing accordion and minor key guitar, very Parisian sounding weirdly enough, but it doesn't take long before the band lurches into action, and by action, we mean chugging, slow motion dirgery, super abstract and dynamic, a churning ultra math doom, stop / start, with occasional bursts of all out heaviness, but returning to that strange doomic chug, and somehow even as minimal and abstract as it is, it's sort of catchy, not poppy, not at all, but the repetition, and the chordal structure, it gets lodged in your head.
The whole record sort of follows a similar pattern, as if each track was a part of the bigger whole, the clipped chug, the explosive downtuned metallic blow out, occasional harsh vox too, some stretches of shimmery near silence, even some spidery melodic grooviness, which reminds us quite a bit of Harvey Milk, in fact, overall, if we had to pick a band to compare these guys too, it might just be HM overall, the same sort of willful antagonism, the same sort of subversive hookiness. It also reminds us of a slooooowed down sludgier Stinking Lizaveta (who also label their music "Doom Jazz"), sinewy and mathy, either way, this is some crushing heaviness that should definitely appeal to fans of Harvey Milk, and the more metallic of post rockers, as well as dooooomlords like Monarch, Moss, Bunkur and the like (and if you believe the sticker on the cd, Yob, Neurosis and Pelican too)...
LAST COPIES EVER, less than a dozen left, apologies for not being able to get more, but figured it would be cool if at least a few folks could get their hands on one of these....
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "3"
MPEG Stream: "7"

AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED Agorapocalypse (Relapse) cd 17.98
Much like when the Butthole Surfers signed to a major label, who would have thought that a band with a name like Agoraphobic Nosebleed (and a sound like theirs for that matter!), would reach the point they're at now. For the longest time, Scott Hull kept Agoraphobic Nosebleed a dirty little secret, like the deformed child you keep locked in the basement, while focusing on his 'real' band Pig Destroyer (another bad ass band name), Agoraphobic Nosebleed a much spazzier and more drum machined grind proposition, which Pig Destroyer kept drifting more and more toward a somewhat more mainstream metal sound.
As much as we love PD (see the Natasha review elsewhere on this list) our bleeding blackened hearts always belonged to Agoraphobic Nosebleed, every record packed with 30 second long tracks, amazing artwork, insane song titled, a fully fucked and warped sense of humor, killer artwork, and let's not forget that amazing 100 song 3", what wasn't to love? They were just so twisted and heavy and brutal, their sound a lightning speed burst of grinding ultraviolence, 1000 mile an hour hyperspeed fury, complex, convoluted, stuttering, blown out sonic insanity.
So we've been waiting patiently for a new AnB record, it's been almost 3 years since the PCP Torpedo / ANBRX comp / remix record 2cd, and finally, lo and behold, the band resurface, with a new member (a lady no less, and not just ANY lady, the vocalist from ultra doom outfit Salome) and a new sound. We of course expected 30 or 40 songs, but there are only 13, and the sound is not so fast, not so unhinged, definitely still grind, but more a sort of fast core / power violence variant. At first we were a little disappointed with that, but the more we listen to this, the more the songs sink in, with slower tempos and longer track lengths, comes more melodies, more hooks, it's now a bit more about the songs, and THE RIFF, than just a twisted blown out blast of tangled grind. Not that we don't love us a twisted blown out blast of tangled grind, but between all the AnB records we already own, we have about 300 tracks of that, so this new record is pretty exciting. Still a drum machine, but the programming is wicked, it sounds almost like a real drummer (there's even a sort of drum!!), the guitars are still amazing, jagged and corrosive, the riffs much more like riffs instead of shards of guitar grind, lots of chug, and super almost technical squiggles, a bit of groove too, and some definite Greg Ginn-ish worship, the whole sound is still plenty gnarled and harsh and brutal, it's just that now you have time to get into the songs. There's some bits of plodding doominess, some long stretches of churning crunch, but for the most part this is a gloriously grinding chunk of damaged metallic chaos.
And be sure to check the negative track, that's right, rewind past the beginning, and there's a whole other secret track (well not secret, it's listed on the disc and there are lyrics in the booklet), and speaking of the booklet, it's jam packed with fucked up cartoony drawings of death and cocks and naked women and sex acts and drugs and snakes and gore (it is a grind record after all) as well as the band's twisted non-PC lyrics.
And while they last, the jewel-cased cds come packaged inside old school long boxes, the amazing cover art spread out over one of those big cardboard boxes cds used to come in back when they had to fit in bins stores previously were using for vinyl, but the extra dough is not just for the box, it also comes with pins, a poster and a bad ass embroidered patch. The vinyl has none of that stuff, but does have a huge full color booklet, and is housed in a sweet deluxe jacket.
MPEG Stream: "Agorapocalypse Now"
MPEG Stream: "Timelord One (Loneliness Of The Long Distance Drug Runner)"
MPEG Stream: "Dick To Mouth Resuscitation"
MPEG Stream: "Flamingo Snuff"

AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED Agorapocalypse (Relapse) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Much like when the Butthole Surfers signed to a major label, who would have thought that a band with a name like Agoraphobic Nosebleed (and a sound like theirs for that matter!), would reach the point they're at now. For the longest time, Scott Hull kept Agoraphobic Nosebleed a dirty little secret, like the deformed child you keep locked in the basement, while focusing on his 'real' band Pig Destroyer (another bad ass band name), Agoraphobic Nosebleed a much spazzier and more drum machined grind proposition, which Pig Destroyer kept drifting more and more toward a somewhat more mainstream metal sound.
As much as we love PD (see the Natasha review elsewhere on this list) our bleeding blackened hearts always belonged to Agoraphobic Nosebleed, every record packed with 30 second long tracks, amazing artwork, insane song titled, a fully fucked and warped sense of humor, killer artwork, and let's not forget that amazing 100 song 3", what wasn't to love? They were just so twisted and heavy and brutal, their sound a lightning speed burst of grinding ultraviolence, 1000 mile an hour hyperspeed fury, complex, convoluted, stuttering, blown out sonic insanity.
So we've been waiting patiently for a new AnB record, it's been almost 3 years since the PCP Torpedo / ANBRX comp / remix record 2cd, and finally, lo and behold, the band resurface, with a new member (a lady no less, and not just ANY lady, the vocalist from ultra doom outfit Salome) and a new sound. We of course expected 30 or 40 songs, but there are only 13, and the sound is not so fast, not so unhinged, definitely still grind, but more a sort of fast core / power violence variant. At first we were a little disappointed with that, but the more we listen to this, the more the songs sink in, with slower tempos and longer track lengths, comes more melodies, more hooks, it's now a bit more about the songs, and THE RIFF, than just a twisted blown out blast of tangled grind. Not that we don't love us a twisted blown out blast of tangled grind, but between all the AnB records we already own, we have about 300 tracks of that, so this new record is pretty exciting. Still a drum machine, but the programming is wicked, it sounds almost like a real drummer (there's even a sort of drum!!), the guitars are still amazing, jagged and corrosive, the riffs much more like riffs instead of shards of guitar grind, lots of chug, and super almost technical squiggles, a bit of groove too, and some definite Greg Ginn-ish worship, the whole sound is still plenty gnarled and harsh and brutal, it's just that now you have time to get into the songs. There's some bits of plodding doominess, some long stretches of churning crunch, but for the most part this is a gloriously grinding chunk of damaged metallic chaos.
And be sure to check the negative track, that's right, rewind past the beginning, and there's a whole other secret track (well not secret, it's listed on the disc and there are lyrics in the booklet), and speaking of the booklet, it's jam packed with fucked up cartoony drawings of death and cocks and naked women and sex acts and drugs and snakes and gore (it is a grind record after all) as well as the band's twisted non-PC lyrics.
And while they last, the jewel-cased cds come packaged inside old school long boxes, the amazing cover art spread out over one of those big cardboard boxes cds used to come in back when they had to fit in bins stores previously were using for vinyl, but the extra dough is not just for the box, it also comes with pins, a poster and a bad ass embroidered patch. The vinyl has none of that stuff, but does have a huge full color booklet, and is housed in a sweet deluxe jacket.
MPEG Stream: "Agorapocalypse Now"
MPEG Stream: "Timelord One (Loneliness Of The Long Distance Drug Runner)"
MPEG Stream: "Dick To Mouth Resuscitation"
MPEG Stream: "Flamingo Snuff"

AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED Altered States of America (Relapse) 3" cd 14.98
The grand return (albeit slight) of the masters of hyperspeed, crushing, gore-y metallic grind. We raved about their most recent full length Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope, hailing it as the best grind record of last year, which it was! So how does this new one stack up? Well, musically, it's got everything its predecessor had, drums like handfuls of ball bearings hurled at your windshield, guitars like electric carving knives hooked up to a car battery and used to saw your ears off and low end like a hot tar blanket wrapped around your head. But the concept rules on this one. 100 songs (the first being tracked -before- track one to accomodate the 99 song cd limit), the majority clocking in at or a little under 10 seconds, all on a 3" cd. Pretty cool. But the listenability of 4 second blasts of short sharp grinding carnage is maybe a bit debatable. And taking into consideration how unbelievably complex and convuluted AnB songs are, it seems like all 100 tracks could've been woven into 3 or 4 proper tracks. But where would the fun be in that?! And those of you who have been hankering for more of that sick, sick, fast as fuck, brutal blurred grinding metal that only a few bands can pull off (AnB, Pig Destroyer, etc.) and miss song titles like 'Children Blown To Bits By The Busload', 'When Taking A Shit Feels Sexy', 'Mosquito Holding Human Cattle Prod', 'Holiday Bowl Full Of Asshole' then look no further. The 100 song 3" grindcore ep of the year without a doubt!
MPEG Stream: "Spreading The Dis-Ease"
MPEG Stream: "4 Leeches (40,000 Leeches)"

AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED Bestial Machinery (discography vol. 1) (Relapse) 2cd 14.98
How can you not love a band called Agoraphobic Nosebleed? Especially when some of the members also do time in a group called Pig Destroyer? And when they spew forth a ear splitting, skull cleaving, gore drenched stew of hyperspeed buzz and grind, complete with impossibly fast drum machine blast beats, soul crushing downtuned riffage and insanely frenzied vocals. You can't. Not love them that is. And thus we do love these deranged grind freaks. So much so that we proudly proclaimed their Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope album one of the best grind records ever! And we were equally enamored of their 100 song 3" cd released not soon after. But this is the one we've been waiting for. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SIX TRACKS, two whole discs compiling everything they ever recorded before they signed to Relapse, which is a whole heck of a lot. Every long out of print seven inch, every impossible to find compilation track, even thirteen previously unreleaed tracks! All absolutely the most furious, most fucked up grind you'll ever hear, million mile an hour tempos, fifty parts per minute-long tracks, blurry and buzzy and thrashing and pummeling and mind meltingly complex, replete with bizarre ambient interludes, sludgy doom metal breakdowns, freaked out ultranoise, all scattered amidst prickly thorny squalls of glorious gut ripping grind! Gorgeously packaged with tons of liner notes, track listing, discography, as well as some impossibly Pushead-like artwork credited to someone who is NOT Pushead!
MPEG Stream: "5% Control"
MPEG Stream: "Prey For Death / Hollowpoint / Conform to...Death / Life Is Paing Profit Is The Motive"
MPEG Stream: "Victims As Dogs"
MPEG Stream: "Dead Above The Neck"
MPEG Stream: "10,000 Bullets "
MPEG Stream: "Centipede"
MPEG Stream: "Cut To Happy Hour"
MPEG Stream: "Military Scientist"

AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope (Relapse) cd 15.98
Second full length by this outfit led by Scott Hull (of Pig Destroyer and formerly of Anal Cunt). The distinction between Hull's other project Pig Destroyer and ANB (both are furious grind metal units) is maybe a little nebulous, but the most obvious differences are: ANB uses a drum machine instead of a live drummer, and their songs are way more varied and for the most part, WAY weirder. Totally inhuman, lightning speed hyper-blast beats, harsh and brutal guitar tone, insane riffing, and super distorted totally sick vocals. Most of the tracks are blazing fast and brutal as fuck, but occasionally they slow it down to a midtempo old school thrash attack (speaking of old school thrash, there's even a Nuclear Assault cover with Dan Lilker on bass/vox!). The production is really bizarre with lots of samples, weird electronic bits, and lots of digital fx and processing on the vocals and guitars. There's even a weird almost techno number that manages to be just as fearsome as the rest of the more metal tracks. All the production craziness and occasional electronic bits remind us a little of James Plotkin's WAY far out glitch-grind Atomsmasher album we dug so much. And the cover art courtesy of Hydra Head honcho and member of Isis, Aaron Turner, is also very cool. So far, "Frozen Corpse" is easily the best grindcore record this year, as far as Andee and Allan are concerned!
RealAudio clip: "Machine Gun"
RealAudio clip: "Dead Battery"
RealAudio clip: "Hungry Homeless Handjob"
RealAudio clip: "Bitch's Handbag Full Of Money"
RealAudio clip: "Unwashed Cock"
RealAudio clip: "Kill Theme For American Apeshit"
RealAudio clip: "Doctored Results"

AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED PCP Torpedo / ANBRX (Hydra Head) 2cd 14.98
"All records should be six minutes long!! I just listened to this whole record, and it was awesome!"
- Me (Andee) ranting when I threw this on the first time.
By now, it takes a whole lot for us to give a shit about a 'remix' record. Pretty strange that one of the first remix records in ages to totally kick our asses would come from grindlords Agoraphobic Nosebleed and avant post metal label Hydra Head. But remixes aside for the moment, metalheads and grindfreaks should be thanking their lucky stars that AnB's legendary PCP Torpedo 6" has finally been released on cd. All SIX minutes of it. One of the most perfect slabs of mechanized grind metal EVER. Dense, convoluted, heavy, ridiculous, scary, blazing fast, buzzing and snarling, short and sweet. PERFECT GRIND! So it would almost be worth it for PCP on cd alone (okay, maybe $15 for 6 minutes is a bit steep, but it's soooo good!). Thankfully, PCP's 6 minutes gets rounded out by an hour long bonus disc of remixes from folks like Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh, etc.), James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher), DJ Speedranch, Merzbow, Jansky Noise, Vinda Obmana, and a bunch more. From Plotkin's timestretched, ultradistorted industrial freakout mix, to the Godfleshy sludge and pummel of Broadrick's mix, to the skittery acid fried IDM Dev/Null mix, to Vinda Obmana's bleak wasted industrial soundscape mix, it's all totally weird and wonderful, most of it very very noisy. But what would you expect when the source material is the violent and vitriolic hate fueled fury of Agoraphobic Nosebleed?!
And then there's the packaging! HOLY SHIT. Totally deluxe double disc digipak, all in vivid yellows and reds and oranges, the front some sort of factory, with multicolored flames licking the sky as pills rain from the heavens. The inside is a dizzying blur of pills and capsules, each disc covered in tiny little flames, the six minute PCP disc a little black 3" cd embedded in a 5" plastic disc, all flickering little blue flames, the remix a 5" black disc with red flames, so completely and overwhelmingly gorgeous. Includes a black and white insert with all the liner notes and lyrics confusingly tucked amidst and within a litany of pharmecutical jargon, suggestions for dosages, various health warnings and lists of side effects. Awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Thanksgiving Day"
MPEG Stream: "Thinning The Herd"
MPEG Stream: "James Plotkin - Phantomsmasher Mix"
MPEG Stream: "Justin Broadrick - Flesh Of Jesu Mix"

AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED/CONVERGE The Poacher Diaries (Relapse) cd 10.98
A.N.: Super fast, brutally heavy grind, courtesy of Scott Hull (ex- Anal Cunt) and a drum machine. Converge: East coast metal core, pounding and shrieking, ala Colesce. Excellent.

AHAB The Call Of The Wretched Sea (Napalm) cd 16.98
While it may have been a bit of a misstep to release a metal record based on Moby Dick and with a big ol' whale on the cover in the long black shadow cast by Mastodon's Leviathan record, it would be even more of a mistake to pass up this Ahab record based solely on that. Obviously a lot of thought went into the sound and the artwork and the execution, and if anything, we actually like this record more than the Mastodon.
So if you can get past the whole Mastodon thing, you're in for some massive and fantastically epic slow motion doom. This German outfit is CLASSIC doom, well not quite like Sabbath and Candlemass, but not the filthy slow motion grungy grimey dirgey sludge sort of doom either, this is epic and majestic, slow and sorrowful, occasionally loping with bursts of wild kick drums, more often trudging along glacially, a funereally death march through the pouring rain, knee deep in black sonic murk, but with a surprising amount of dynamics, stops and starts, some super hooky riffs, mournful guitar melodies, massive downtuned chugs that sometime morph into mathy metal workouts. Vocals that rumble and groan, a huge guttural gurgle, the whole thing impossible heavy and aggressive, but strangely pretty. Definitely reminds us of old Cathedral, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, that sort of thing. Like classic heavy doom metal slowed waaaaay down and made somehow even heavier. As much as we love extreme doom, the slower and the sludgier the better, it's actually nice to hear some extremely dark depressive doom with some actual melodies, and some memorable riffs, heck even some songs. We'd forgotten how good stuff like this sounds. One of our favorite new TRUE DOOM records for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Below The Sun"
MPEG Stream: "The Pacific"

AHAB The Divinity Of Oceans (Napalm) cd 16.98

AIR CONDITIONING / VEGAS MARTYRS / COUGHS / THE NEW FLESH Tiger Tongue Pussy Cactus: Terminal Fantasies For Malefic Youth (Hospital Productions) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
An awesome 4 band pile up, the state of modern black noise, or blackened noise rock, or whatever the fuck you want to call it. This stuff is fierce and heavy and demented and so great. From the same label that brought us the primitive black metal of Malkuth (reviewed elsewhere on this list), the raw black fury of Bone Awl, those killer Akitsa reissues and a recent MB reissue, comes this killer 4 band anvil to the head. Up first is the Vegas Martyrs, featuring Hospital head honcho and Prurient mastermind Dom Fernow, and just like the recently reviewed lp, it's another gloriously blown out and beautiful slab of blackened pop flecked noise rock. In the red and on the verge of destroying your speakers, VM offer up a killer Maiden-like riff over super distorted drums, garbled FX drenched vocals, super hypnotic and repetitive, all wrapped up in a crumbling stereo killing production, finishing off with several minutes of glitchy grinding murky noise...
Up next is Air Conditioning, who sculpt their noise into something sorta pretty, huge swaths of blown out buzz over blurred buried melodies, layer upon layer upon layer, all shifting and shimmering, it almost sounds like a super charged noiserock Tim Hecker. Abrasive but surprisingly lovely. Up third is The New Flesh, show kick out the jams, ultra lo-fi style, a noisy practice space sounding garage rock sludge jam, all downtuned guitars, distorted trash can drums, and a weirdly deep voiced vocalist, who occasionally let's loose with a glass gargling screech. Dirgey, grimey, almost like some long lost Swans rehearsal tape. Finally, finishing things up are the Coughs, who weave some strange drone-y dirge with skronky sax and buzzy bass, fuzz guitar, all in short sharp bursts, creating a weirdly spacious plod, looped and cyclical, until the wild female vocals come in, and suddenly the Coughs sound like they're channeling old school Riot Grrl through new school noise. Out of nowhere comes a blast of spastic drum freakout before returning to that gorgeously relentless sludge-y pulse...
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES. Packaged in a thick black on green paper sleeve, printed inside and out, pressed on clear green vinyl.

AJATTARA Apare (SpikeFarm) cd 15.98

AJATTARA Itse (Spikefarm) cd 15.98
Pounding Finnish black metal hell. Super heavy. But also simple and melodic, with swirling keyboard textures and vocals alternating between harsh screeching and clean sort-of-chanting. (Courtesy of the singer from Amorphis, apparently relishing this chance to get back to his primitive raw metal roots). Midtempo and relatively straight forward (sort of verse-chorus-verse), with BIG riffs and pounding rhythms (no blast beats here) reminiscent of Bathory or Venom, but with better production, and a dark, threatening vibe, thanks to all the minor key, horror movie keyboard embellishments. Pretty great stuff from Spikefarm, who have yet to fail us.
RealAudio clip: "Yhdeksas"
RealAudio clip: "Verivalta"

AJATTARA Kalmanto (Spikefarm Records) cd 17.98

AJATTARA Kuolema (Spikefarm) cd 15.98
Second album from these Finns, equally blackend and pounding as the first.

AJATTARA Tyhjyys (Spikefarm) cd 17.98
Tyhjyys (whatever that means?) is this Finnish black metal band's third album. Getting no argument from Ajattara's fans at AQ, they haven't strayed from their successful formula of dark, midtempo, heaviness -- adorned with eerie keys and underpined by pounding drums. And they still 'sing' in Finnish. Although a crushing proposition overall, some melody emerges amid the guitar riffs and vocal rasps. It's bouncy death march music for industrial goblins.
MPEG Stream: "Harhojen Renki"
MPEG Stream: "Langennut"

AJILVSGA Gathering Of Owls (Digitalis) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Some super experimental low end doom drone minimalism from Brad Rose, who besides playing in The North Sea, Corsican Paintbrush, Jade Emperor also runs the insanely cool Digitalis label.
Up until now, most of what we've heard from Rose has been on the folky side of things, who knew he had this in him. A seriously grindingly dense churning buzzscape. Caustic and thick, huge slabs of heaving low end, layer upon layer of black hole heaviness. Dentist drill high end surfaces here and there, but overall, every track here is some sort of leap into sonic tar, struggling to breath or even hear, your ears clogged with crumbling back grit, your body pinned to the ground beneath wave after wave of slow motion blacknoise pummel.
You know if you need this. If you're into the slow, and low and HEAVY, you probably do. But this was LIMITED TO ONLY 72 COPIES. It's out of print. We have 15. Do the math.
Red cassette cases, red cassettes, cool full color sleeves on nice textured paper, each copy hand numbered.

AKBK s/t (P-Vine / Blues Interactions) cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
You can tell a lot about a band by how they creatively they describe each member's role, what they play, and what they do, this is mostly applicable to metal bands, but avant Japanese grinders AKBK (featuring members of recent aQ faves, progressive space psychedelic death rockers King Goblin!) put most metalheads to shame with their liner notes, no 'drums' or 'vocals' here. Instead it's: 'Judas Preacher', 'Hard Puncher', 'Dirkschnoise', 'Anal Backfire' and 'Noise Gigolo'. And those aren't their 'rock names', those are the instruments they play, or at least the roles they fulfill in the band. And heck before we even get to the music, we might as well mention the amazing song titles: "Bug In Your God's Ear", "Have A Jail Lunch", "Let Me Eat Whales", "Sexual Response Of The Intact Male", "Give Back My Horse", and the super cool colorful abstract collaged artwork, and before we make our spiel about how amazing these guys are, and how twisted and gloriously fucked up and heavy this record is, have a look at the obi which features testimonies from a few metal, noise and grind luminaries: Rich Hoak of Brutal Truth, Tabata Mitsuru of Zeni Geva, Lasse Marhaug of Jazkamer, and Analtoshit of Butcher ABC, who describe AKBK as "a non-stop terrorist attack in the brain" and "like being crushed by a mountain" and as "a prog rock grind metal excursion", and Marhaug even wants AKBK to be played at his funeral!
But don't just trust those guys, take our word for it, this stuff is incredible, the core sound is definitely grind, with shrieked vocals, blasting chaotic drums, wild flailing gnarled guitars, and there's probably some bass in there too, buried under an avalanche of blown out crunch and howling ultra distorted chaos. But like Agoraphobic Nosebleed, AKBK twist everything up into super intense, ultra complex, and skull crushingly heavy prog-grind-metal weirdness, time signatures shifting constantly, riffs turned inside out, lurching start stop arrangements, super intricate tangles of melody wound around lumbering almost doomy dirges, which lead right into freaked out psychedelic math rock grind, and then back into some primitive D-beat pound, a furious stumbling confusional outsider grind juggernaut spitting swirls of atonal melody, insane blasts of woofer shredding double bass and pealing streaks of feedback drenched powerviolence. Yet the thing is, for all of this record's weirdness, it's not goofy at all, maybe the guys making this are funny guys with great senses of humor (the song titles and various non-musicial stuff seem to indicate that might be the case) but AKBK's music is anything but, this is some serious, and seriously devastating heaviness, furious and frantic, experimental and avant for sure, but essentially just a beautifully brutal chunk of twisted metallic grindcore. We imported these direct from the band in Japan, and only have a few on hand...
MPEG Stream: "No New York"
MPEG Stream: "Bug In Your God's Ear"
MPEG Stream: "Have A Jail Lunch"
MPEG Stream: "Let Me Eat Whales"