DARKTHRONE Transilvanian Hunger (Peaceville) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "Transilvanian Hunger"
MPEG Stream: "Over Fjell Og Gjennom Torner"

DARKTHRONE Under A Funeral Moon (Back On Black) picture disc 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

DARKTHRONE Under A Funeral Moon (Back On Black) picture disc lp 23.00

DARNIELLE, JOHN 33 1/3 Series: Master Of Reality (Continuum) book 10.98
Y'know this series of books, right? The 33 1/3 series, each one devoted to someone's (lots of people's) favorite album ever? We have a few in stock, and have listed a bunch in the past, from OK Computer to Meat Is Murder, most recently one about Slayer's Reign In Blood. All of 'em are pretty cool, if you're into the album in question, and sometimes even if you're not ('cause you then will be).
This one in particular has a lot going for it. Not only is it about one of the best albums by one of the best bands ever (sez Allan, excitedly jumping up and down), Black Sabbath's Master Of Reality. But it's written by our pal John Darnielle of Mountain Goats fame. He's an awesome writer. And, if you didn't know, a serious metalhead. He does a witty column, South Pole Dispatch, in the back of metal magazine Decibel each month, as a matter of fact.
In addition, John doesn't simply write a nonfiction, journalistic overview of the "behind the music" story of the making of this classic album. No, he takes this opportunity to do something a lot cooler and more creative - the book is actually a novel, written from the perspective of a teenage burnout in 1985. He's committed to a psychiatric facility, and writing in his journal all about his obsession with Master Of Reality, among other things. And it works as both a novel, and as rock crit too. This definitely illustrates an extra dimension to what we mean when we say Sabbath is "heavy."

DARSOMBRA Ecdysis (At A Loss) cd 12.98
Low-end drones, mysterious field recordings, sitar, haunting melody... and crushing electric guitar heaviness? If your tastes are at all similiar to ours regarding this sort of thing, then Darsombra's Ecdysis is already sounding pretty intriguing! This 34 minute, six-track debut cd from Baltimore's Brian Daniloski (a member of metal mongers Meatjack) is right up our alley, and yours too if you dig the more abstract, arty, ambient sides of, say, Thrones, Melvins, Harvey Milk, Earth, and Fantomas. Ecdysis is just a bit scary, and full of super-heavy moments, so it could be taken as some kind of nightmare soundtrack. But there's much beauty and gentleness here too. You'll hear some major-key melodies, surprising in such a context, and a plethora of sampled sounds, from sinister voices to religious testifyin'. Anytime we find a disc where, y'know, one track sounds like 20th century classical meets Melvins and another like the labored, ritualistic breathing of some sort of demonic creature, and it's metal but not really, and kinda pretty too, well, there's only one way to end the review: recommended.
MPEG Stream: "My House"
MPEG Stream: "Drag The Carcass"

DARSOMBRA Eternal Jewel (Public Guilt) cd 8.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Break out the headphones, relax the body, and close the eyes, it's another one from the devastatingly droney and dark Darsombra, whose debut Ecdysis disc we really liked a couple years back. We like this just as much, maybe more. There's a great deal of melancholic, mesmeric beauty in Darsombra's isolationist grinding and evil ambient shimmer. We can imagine Darsombra's human operator, Brian Daniloski from the Maryland metalcore band Meatjack, up late at night alone in his home studio, lights dim, wreathed in smoke, hunched over his guitar and synth and effects and whatever else he uses to conjure this music, willing himself off into another place, out into the void of space, riding the dense waves of his own creation, returning only at dawn with another track for this album finished.
Let's discuss these tracks, but not in order... The echoey minimalism of "Drops Of Sorrow" is simply glorious, it's Riley or Reich from a psychdronedoom perspective. Or perhaps krautrock's Achim Reichel & The Machines playing Black Boned Angel!? Elsewhere, there's more gloom and glory, from the hushed sinister soundtrack melodies of opener "Auguries" to the haunting, spacey drone-whispers of "Night's Black Agents" - this disc's longest track at 17:34, reminding us of the 'Vox Insecta' work of old AQ fave Q.R. Ghazala. Then, with an intro of ommming voices (or synth) there's "Lamentings / Auguries", featuring sparse melodic guitar weepery buried beneath fuzzed out layers of deep, electronic drone and distortion. Again, this definitely sounds like it would make good soundtrack material for some eerie, arty Italian horror flick. And further cementing our love affair with the abstract attractions of Eternal Jewel, the calmly vibrating "Incarnadine" brings some rays of light to this disc at its very end, with its peacefully repetitive clusters of gentle chimings over a quiet drone.
Packaged by Public Guilt in a nice black, gothically graceful gatefold sleeve, this is definitely recommended. Imagine Expo '70 cloaked in black, performing a seance with Tony Conrad and Lustmord, and you'll have an idea of how much we must like this!
MPEG Stream: "Night's Black Agents"
MPEG Stream: "Drops Of Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "Lamentings / Auguries"

DARSOMBRA + VARIOUS ARTISTS Nymphaea (Public Guilt) cd-r 9.98
Hopefully you already know Darsombra, seeing as we made their last Public Guilt release, Eternal Jewel, a Record Of The Week not too many moons ago. Atmospheric dark doom-drone experimentation not unlike a more sinister Expo '70 or a proggier Nadja. If you don't know 'em, get this and you'll get to know at least one of their songs really really well, in a way.
Track one here, "Nymphaea", is a head-nodding exercise in bass heavy, slow-building psychedelic instrumental throb. It starts out with plenty of distortion, and only gets heavier and more blown-out as it plods forth, adding a snakily melodic guitar line to further entrance the listener. It originally appeared as Darsombra's contribution to the "untitled" 3cd comp PG help put out last year, and now it has spawned this collection of remixes, a dozen of them, tracks 2-13!
It's pretty fascinating to hear this single song morph from track to track, 'cause they're all very different, the each remixer definitely making it their own, from blissed out vocal pop (Max Bondi & Bleeding Heart Narrative's "Hyena Amp mix") to big-beat crash-boom electro (Pulsoc's "True Love Never Dies remix") to creepy drone-noise ambience (Guilty Connector's "Dotonburi Neonnights") and that's just the first three mixes on here! Elsewhere, Ala Muerte adds eerie female voice doing Latin chant, Destructo Swarmbots strip the track down to a minimal low-end hum, The Heirs Of Rockefeller crank up the fuzz, focussing on the song's incessant hypnotic plod... all these and the rest of the remixers generally fucking with this track in many compelling and often unexpected ways. Darsombra have every reason to proudly approve what's been done with, or done to, their "Nymphaea" here. Remixers not already mentioned above also include Perfekt Teeth, Magicicada, Strotter Inst., Decimation Blvd. & Darla Hood, Blood Fountains, and le knell.
LIMITED EDITION! 250 COPIES ONLY! We only got 20! On a black cd-r in a slim, screen printed sleeve with vellum obi.
MPEG Stream: DARSOMBRA "Nymphaea"
MPEG Stream: BLOOD FOUNTAINS "Nymphaea Seance remix"
MPEG Stream: PULSOC "Nymphaea True Love Never Dies remix"
MPEG Stream: THE HEIRS OF ROCKEFELLER "Nymphaea The Drugs Won The Drug War Mix"

DARVULIA L'Alliance Des Venins (Battlesk'rs) cd 14.98

DAUGHTERS Canada Songs (Robotic Empire) cd 10.98
Gonna try to make this review a short one, not because this record isn't great, because it is, but just because it's only eleven minutes long. That's right, eleven minutes. Ten songs in eleven minutes. That should give you a clue as to what you're in for. Somehow though it doesn't seem like a rip off since the Daughters jam more parts and notes and insanity into a minute long song than most bands fit in a whole record. Ultra spastic, maniacal grinding prog metal punk is what we're talking here. A la the Locust, An Albatross, Horse The Band and all those bands that take twice as long setting up as they do playing their entire set! Just set your cd player on repeat and listen to Canada Songs over and over and over and over. You'll want to anyway this record is so good. From the same label that brought us the great Circle Takes The Square record from a few lists back!
MPEG Stream: "Fur Beach"
MPEG Stream: "Jones From Indiana"
MPEG Stream: "Pants, Meet Shit"

DAUGHTERS Hell Songs (Hydra Head) cd 12.98

MPEG Stream: "Fiery"
MPEG Stream: "Recorded Inside A Pyramid"
MPEG Stream: "Fiesty Snake-Woman"

DAUGHTERS s/t (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
Not sure why we never reviewed the last Daughters record, Hell Songs, it was a doozy, a gnarled chunk of chaotic noise rock, which ended up being the bands swan song. At least temporarily. After a hiatus of several years, the Daughters are back, and sonically very little has changed, a lurching pounding din that would fit pretty comfortably right between your Jesus Lizard and Botch records (sonically, not alphabetically), wild streaks of angular guitar, pummeling drum damage, howled mush mouthed vocals, a whirling dervish in sound, slipping from full on psychedelic noise rock freakout, to loping post rock lurch, effects all over the place, super dynamic, lots of stop / starts, plenty of metallic chug, throbbing fuzz bass, twisted guitar harmonies, stuttery glitched out production, and some subtle but KILLER hooks, shit this twisted and noisy and off kilter shouldn't be this catchy, but these guys always had a knack for slipping some pop into their noise, and if anything, some time away seems to have reinvigorated them, these jams sounds as heavy and freaked out and KICK ASS as ever. We only listened to this a couple times since it came in, but we've been spinning it over and over and can't seem to stop, which says more than we ever could. RECOMMENDED.
MPEG Stream: "The Virgin"
MPEG Stream: "The First Supper"
MPEG Stream: "The Hit"

DAWN OF WINTER The Peaceful Dead (Massacre / Shadow Kingdom) cd 15.98
The truly "true" amongst you, metal-wise, should already be familiar with the German hellions known as Sacred Steel. We've given horns-up reviews to several of their more-metal-than-thou albums in the past. Dawn Of Winter is Sacred Steel's doom metal side project, featuring two members of that band, guitarist Jorg Knittel and, crucially to our enjoyment of it, vocalist Gerrit Mutz, whose unusual wavering wail, as we've said before, comes off like a cross between Scott Reagers (Saint Vitus) and Jello Biafra!
Dawn Of Winter have been around for years and years (since 1990) but haven't made that many records, possibly 'cause sloth is their modus operandi, playing as they do the lethargic, lumbering strains of traditional doom metal. This is only their 2nd full-length. You could say we were slow too, in reviewing this, as The Peaceful Dead came out last year ('twas in heavy rotation in Allan's iPod around Christmas time). Perfect for the bleak winter months of course, but now it's gotten better US distribution and we've managed to get a few for the store.
Whilst Sacred Steel are almost always speedy, with the occasional doomy detour, in this band Knittel and Mutz fully indulge their love of all things slow and low. Indeed, opening track "The Music Of Despair" is a doom/cult metal shoutout of sorts, the lyrics making references both subtle and overt to a bunch of DoW's favorite bands, including Penance, Manilla Road, Witchfinder General, Mercyful Fate, Angel Witch, Cirith Ungol, Pentagram, Saint Vitus, Pagan Altar, Reverend Bizarre, Candlemass, and of course Black Sabbath.
The other nine tracks here pretty much do their utmost to live up to all that, with plodding tempi, gothic imagery, loud-soft dynamics, and dramatic crescendos. Soooo dramatic! Mutz's hammy (but sincere) thespian delivery is perfectly suited to the melancholic majesty of this music, songs that are seemingly weighted down by the crushing distortodoomidelic guitar accompaniment, o'er which Mutz' emotive vocals are declaimed.
So, if the epic doom metal of the Heaven & Hell and Candlemass albums reviewed here recently has whet your appetite for even more in the way of hoary, Sabbathy riffs and wizened wizard vocals, and you're down for something a little more underground as well, then Dawn Of Winter might be just the ticket.
We'd have highlighted this, too, but are aware that DoW are only for the "true"!
MPEG Stream: "The Music Of Despair"
MPEG Stream: "Throne Of Isolation"

DAWNBREED Aroma (Trans Solar) cd 14.98
Superheavy jagged post-math-metal with trumpet, from Germany. Like Jesus Lizard crossed with Brasil 66!

DAWNBRINGER Into The Lair Of The Sun God (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
All hail! At last, a follow up to the critically-acclaimed (and by us as well) 2010 album Nucleus, from this idiosyncratic lone genius metal cult. Yes it's the return of Dawnbringer, masterminded by guitarist/drummer/vocalist Chris "Professor" Black, he of also, amongst others, AQ faves High Spirits. Interestingly, Dawnbringer started off years ago as the one-man band of *somebody else*, but early on, Chris Black joined on drums, and then the other guy subsequently quit, making Dawnbringer into Black's own one-man band! (Though he does get help from friends.)
For those who've heard Nucleus, you know that Dawnbringer plays truly classic metal, but with an experimental edge, informed by black and death and other styles, though those elements have been toned down in recent years. Dawnbringer's latest comes quite close to the sound of the NWOBHM-ish High Spirits, with some of the power/proggishness of another band the Professor plays drums in, Pharaoh.
Dawnbringer must be lauded for their real, honest-to-god heavy metal songwriting, unafraid to be a bit 'pop' - track five even gets a little power-ballady, we love it! Other trademarks include the powerful drumming, TONS of gorgeously shredding guitarwork, various quirky details, and, crucially, the whiskey-weary, Lemmy-phlegmy, soulful vocal stylings of Black - the earnestness of which go a long way toward making the weirder aspects of this seem worth taking seriously, 'cause yes, the album title kinda sounds like the name of a D&D module, and indeed it's fantastical. The sticker on the shrinkwrap says that this album is "the story of a naive assassin, his bizarre journey, and its tragic end". But beyond that, for a 'concept album', very little is revealed. The disc is broken up into nine completely untitled tracks, there's no 'story' provided in the cd booklet, and only a few lines of lyrics are printed. You just gotta listen. And, whether you follow the plot or not, you'll enjoy the masterful metal music, full of killer riffage, galloping rhythms, and impassioned vocals...
Dawnbringer here can certainly be compared to their former Profound Lore labelmates, Slough Feg and Hammers Of Misfortune (the latter especially due to the pounding '70s prog Hammond organ you'll hear on track VI, in particular). Also of course, such bands as diverse as Iron Maiden, Blue Oyster Cult, Bathory, Manowar... In sum, this album is an artistic, ambitious attempt at 'Epic Metal', and it's a huge triumph. Definitely in competition for best heavy metal offering of 2012!
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"
MPEG Stream: "VI"

DAWNBRINGER Into The Lair Of The Sun God (High Roller) lp 23.00
Yay, got a couple of these on vinyl, at last. Here's what we said last year about the easier to find cd version:
All hail! At last, a follow up to the critically-acclaimed (and by us as well) 2010 album Nucleus, from this idiosyncratic lone genius metal cult. Yes it's the return of Dawnbringer, masterminded by guitarist/drummer/vocalist Chris "Professor" Black, he of also, amongst others, AQ faves High Spirits.
For those who've heard Nucleus, you know that Dawnbringer plays truly classic metal, but with an experimental edge, informed by black and death and other styles, though those elements have been toned down in recent years. Dawnbringer's latest comes quite close to the sound of the NWOBHM-ish High Spirits, with some of the power/proggishness of another band the Professor plays drums in, Pharaoh.
Dawnbringer must be lauded for their real, honest-to-god heavy metal songwriting, unafraid to be a bit 'pop' - track five even gets a little power-ballady, we love it! Other trademarks include the powerful drumming, TONS of gorgeously shredding guitarwork, various quirky details, and, crucially, the whiskey-weary, Lemmy-phlegmy, soulful vocal stylings of Black - the earnestness of which go a long way toward making the weirder aspects of this seem worth taking seriously, 'cause yes, the album title kinda sounds like the name of a D&D module, and indeed it's fantastical. The sticker on the shrinkwrap says that this album is "the story of a naive assassin, his bizarre journey, and its tragic end". But beyond that, for a 'concept album', very little is revealed. The disc is broken up into nine completely untitled tracks, there's no 'story' provided in the cd booklet, and only a few lines of lyrics are printed. You just gotta listen. And, whether you follow the plot or not, you'll enjoy the masterful metal music, full of killer riffage, galloping rhythms, and impassioned vocals...
Dawnbringer here can certainly be compared to their former Profound Lore labelmates, Slough Feg and Hammers Of Misfortune (the latter especially due to the pounding '70s prog Hammond organ you'll hear on track VI, in particular). Also of course, such bands as diverse as Iron Maiden, Blue Oyster Cult, Bathory, Manowar... In sum, this album is an artistic, ambitious attempt at 'Epic Metal', and it's a huge triumph. Definitely in competition for best heavy metal offering of 2012!
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"
MPEG Stream: "VI"

DAWNBRINGER Nucleus (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
Now that the Profound Lore label has released this Chicago-based metal band's fourth full-length, we think more people are gonna start paying attention to 'em. We know WE are. Though we thought we knew what they sounded like before, we were blown away by this. Note we said "metal" band, and didn't qualify that in any way. Didn't say black, thrash, doom, true, etc. That's 'cause Dawnbringer are sorta ALL those things. Well, they used to have a lot more black metal aspects, death metal too, as we remember. But through a process of experimentation it seems they've arrived at THIS sound, a perfection, a distillation, a PURE metal sound that is traditional... yet advanced and yes, still experimental.
On Nucleus, Dawnbringer bring it, all right. They can be triumphantly shredding in speed metal glory, or NWOBHM-ishly rockin' ("Swing Hard"), or thrashy ("The Devil" approaches black metal velocities), and then slow, sad and majestic... sometimes all within the same song. And SONG is the operative word, as is singing, the versatile vocals often approximating the melodic gruffness of Lemmy, or James Hetfield, sounding tough, yet vulnerable... so Dawnbringer have their Motorhead and Metallica sounding moments, also musically reminding us of Maiden and other old school metal greats. Another reference point would have to be Hammers Of Misfortune, if you stripped away most of Hammers' prog elements and exposed the metal core.
'Tis utter headbanging heaviness, inspiring "invisible orange" style air-grabbing for sure, but not without neo-classical artistry as well. Impressive as hell, especially considering it's mostly the work of one man, Dawnbringer being masterminded by multi-instrumentalist (and singer) Chris "Professor" Black, a former member of psychedelic black metal act Nachtmystium, also drummer for power metallers Pharaoh and the genius behind NWOBHM worshippers High Spirits (whose demos cd we HAVE to review here soon!).
MPEG Stream: "So Much For Sleep"
MPEG Stream: "The Devil"
MPEG Stream: "Cataract"

DAWNBRINGER Nucleus (Profound Lore) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This highly lauded metal masterpiece, NOW ON VINYL!!
Now that the Profound Lore label has released this Chicago-based metal band's fourth full-length, we think more people are gonna start paying attention to 'em. We know WE are. Though we thought we knew what they sounded like before, we were blown away by this. Note we said "metal" band, and didn't qualify that in any way. Didn't say black, thrash, doom, true, etc. That's 'cause Dawnbringer are sorta ALL those things. Well, they used to have a lot more black metal aspects, death metal too, as we remember. But through a process of experimentation it seems they've arrived at THIS sound, a perfection, a distillation, a PURE metal sound that is traditional... yet advanced and yes, still experimental.
On Nucleus, Dawnbringer bring it, all right. They can be triumphantly shredding in speed metal glory, or NWOBHM-ishly rockin' ("Swing Hard"), or thrashy ("The Devil" approaches black metal velocities), and then slow, sad and majestic... sometimes all within the same song. And SONG is the operative word, as is singing, the versatile vocals often approximating the melodic gruffness of Lemmy, or James Hetfield, sounding tough, yet vulnerable... so Dawnbringer have their Motorhead and Metallica sounding moments, also musically reminding us of Maiden and other old school metal greats. Another reference point would have to be Hammers Of Misfortune, if you stripped away most of Hammers' prog elements and exposed the metal core.
'Tis utter headbanging heaviness, inspiring "invisible orange" style air-grabbing for sure, but not without neo-classical artistry as well. Impressive as hell, especially considering it's mostly the work of one man, Dawnbringer being masterminded by multi-instrumentalist (and singer) Chris "Professor" Black, a former member of psychedelic black metal act Nachtmystium, also drummer for power metallers Pharaoh and the genius behind NWOBHM worshippers High Spirits (whose record you can find reviewed elsewhere on the aQ site).
MPEG Stream: "So Much For Sleep"
MPEG Stream: "The Devil"
MPEG Stream: "Cataract"

DAWNFALL Drei Raume (Supernal) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Pretty much everything Supernal puts out is pretty weird, so the fact that this might be one of the weirdest Supernal releases we've heard should tell you something. We managed to get a few more of these in for the folks who may have missed out last time. Equal parts black metal buzz, electronic weirdness and total what-the-fuck. Here's our review from when we first listed it:
This is not really new, but we've never been able to get enough of these to list until now. From the label that brought us Benighted Leams, Contra Ignem Fatuum, Dark Ages and Meads Of Asphodel comes another confounding blast of black metal, this time from a mysterious group called Dawnfall. The first three tracks are 11+ minutes each, every one a convoluted, twisted swirl of stumbling midtempo black metal weirdness and swooshing keyboardy ambience, with some of the most tortured vocals we've ever heard. Somewhere between the anguished shriek of Weakling and the inhuman howl of Rehtaf Ruo. Each prickly spikey tangle of blackness is peppered with squirrelly Greg Ginn like guitar freakouts, random tinkling chimes and warm wooshes of synthesizer. Dizzying and totally brilliantly confusional. Warm fuzzed out guitars wrapped loosely over a framework of thudding pounding drums, while maddeningly slippery guitar squiggles slip and slide in and around the blackness colliding with the harsh vocal wails. Amazing. But that's just three tracks in. Track four is some sort of faux harpsichord driven electronic ambient soundscape, like Benighted Leams playing Dead Can Dance covering Autchre or something? Skittery beats and a dense wash of thick metallic string strum. As if it couldn't get weirder, the next track is mostly sped up and slowed down vocals, mixed with strange spacey effects, swooshes, and beeps and a hiccupping dsrum machine. Weird! But it's not over yet, the second to last track is a ten minute soundscape of skittery synthesizers, warbly keyboard squiggles, all smothered in reverb and other space-y ambience. A creepy, splattery minimal crawl through some outer space fun house. Finally, the record finishes with a weird one minute blast of synthesized circus music, maybe like a lite Killing Joke, with wooshy synth stabs and casio style drum beats. Woah, not sure what to make of this. We love it. For sure. Just not sure why. Definitely too weird for most metalheads, you all can quit after the first three tracks, that is if -those- aren't already too weird for you. But folks who have been digging all the crazy shit Supernal puts out, and anyone up to trying to wrap their brains around something amazingly weird and wonderfully obtuse, definitely check this out!
MPEG Stream: "Drei RaumeI"
MPEG Stream: "Drei Raume II"

DAZZLING KILLMEN Face of Collapse (Skin Graft) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Staring Contest"
MPEG Stream: "Bone Fragments"
MPEG Stream: "In The Face Of Collapse"

DE MAGIA VETERUM Migdal Bavel (Transcendental Creations) cd 16.98

DEAD Idiots (We Empty Rooms) lp 16.98
Longtime readers of the aQ list no doubt remember Aussie heavies, Fire Witch, who released a barrage of often way too limited released before calling it a day. Well since then FW drummer Jem has resurfaced with Dead, a two piece, just drums and bass, and a sound that while maybe still a bit beholden to his old group, definitely has honed a pretty unique sound, one that definitely transcends the limitations of the bass and drums duo. The opening few minutes delivers a strange bit of percussion driven ambience, all cymbal shimmer and tinkling chimes, subtly rhythmic, abstract and space-y, laced with little curlicues of FX, before the bass comes in, and comes in hard, super distorted, grinding, chugging, then the drums, totally off kilter, and seemingly at odds with the bass riff, dizzyingly mathy, then the vocals, a distorted monstrous bellow, the band channeling a little bit of that classic AmRep noise rock sound, but though something much more minimal. Eventually, the song explodes into something more melodic and metallic, the vocals cleaner, a sort of dramatic howl, the drums wild and chaotic, the bass spitting out thick distorted chords and dense textures, the song constantly shifting gears, erupting into full on frenzied metallic math rock, and then switching to some serious metallic pummel and back again. The first song along is intense and energetic, relentless and dense, and brutal and intricate, and it's the sort of song that makes you exhausted just listening to. Hard to imagine just two guys kicking up this sort of racket, but holy shit, Dead are a fierce sonic beast.
The rest of the record follows suit, straddling the line between minimal metal crush and punked out mathy freakout, "Couldn't Keep His Mouth Shut" finds dead sounding like a dead ringer for the Melvins, while "Up!" is all bass driven noise rock sludge, "Murder Hollow" is some darkly atmospheric doomic churn, which leads into the progged out "Bed Bugs" which had us thinking Nomeansno! Stick around for the 11 minute closer "Lego Men", which lets the band unwind a slowburn punk-sludge epic, that again, harkens back to classic Melvins, which is no bad thing at all.
Super swank packaging, an elaborate gatefold inner sleeve, full color printed, in a plain white jacket, so the gatefold is partially visible through the hole, full color sticker on the jacket, label stickers inside and a download code as well.
MPEG Stream: "The Carcass Is Dry"
MPEG Stream: "Couldn't Keep His Mouth Shut"
MPEG Stream: "Bed Bugs"

DEAD AS DREAMS Their Steps Become Unbearable (Goatowarex) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Naming your black metal band after the only record by arguably one of the most important USBM bands ever, and around here definitely one of the most revered, is most certainly setting the bar pretty high, but then as we mentioned in the review of Dead As Dreams debut, you could do a lot worse than look to Weakling for inspiration.
We dug the first DaD release big time, a split tape with another Weaking obsessed outfit called Aurvandil, and on that split, DaD definitely did their best Weakling impression, a sprawling epic single track, rife with wild blasting beats, frenzied riffing and hysterical shrieks, but in the process, did manage to infuse enough of their own vibe to keep it on the homage side of hero worship.
So here we are, a year later, and Dead As Dreams have returned, and if anything, the Weakling worship has only intensified, not only did the band travel to San Francisco to record with Tim Green, who recorded Weakling's Dead As Dreams, the credits on the inside of the booklet are also in that weird, impossible to read vertical font, and are a dead ringer for the Weakling record, but musically, some things have definitely changed.
The template is similar, one single massive multi-movement 25 minute track, long swaths of frantic insectoid buzzing, wild chaotic blasting, but unlike the trancelike mesmer of Weakling, Dead As Dreams have crafted something much more multifaceted, those stretches of frenzied blasts are tempered by lumbering bits of black doom, the guitars tangled into gnarled harmonies, long drawn out expanses of murky buzz and spidery melody, the arrangement much more mathy and dynamic, relying less on repetition, and instead creating what is essentially a songsuite blurred into a single 'track'. Loping mid tempo Burzumic buzz gives way to gnarled Deathspell style riffery, which blossoms into blackened pound, laced with almost NWOBHM style melodies, as well as lots of cool woozy almost psychedelic sounding slow parts, not doomy so much as just droned out and seasick sounding. The blasting buzzy bits are definitely still beholden to Weakling in some ways, but hell, how is that any different than the millions of other bands following in the footsteps of Mayhem, or Immortal, or Satyricon. Weakling seems like a way more obscure and inspiring influence. And it definitely sounds like these guys were inspired, Their Steps Become Unbearable is a huge leap forward from that split cassette, which besides the songwriting, is also probably thanks to Tim Green's production, and the fact that the band that recorded this was made up of SF black metal veterans including members of Horn Of Dagoth, Elk and Palace Of Worms.
Removed from the shadow of Weakling, Dead As Dreams are most definitely an awesome band, but even acknowledging the group's unfettered love for their sonic forbears, these guys totally shred, and anyone who digs epic tranced out black buzz, should definitely check this out. And even though technically this is only an ep, it feels like a full length, a black expanse of parts and textures and layers and movements all spun into a glorious black epic.
MPEG Stream: "Their Steps Become Unbearable (exceprt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Their Steps Become Unbearable (exceprt 2)"

DEAD AS DREAMS / AURVANDIL Adrift (Tour De Garde) cassette 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What hath the mighty Weakling wrought? Surely that legendary SF black metal band spawned a legion of followers and worshippers, but few underground bands have had such a noticeable impact, spawning bands blatantly and openly paying homage to the masters.
First there was Jabladav, who began basically as a tribute, even releasing a couple records called Dead As Duck and Drunk As Duck, both references to Weakling's only album, Dead As Dreams which came out on tUMULt way back in 2000. Now there's the BAND Dead As Dreams, a USBM band who apparently loved Weakling enough to name their band after the group's seminal record. And as if that weren't enough, Dead As Dreams are paired up on this split with a band called Aurvandil, who have a song called "As Dead As Dreams". But you know, bands could do a lot worse for inspiration than Weakling, and if you ask us, and since you're reading this review you sort of are, a band could hardly do better.
So Dead As Dreams, offer up a single looooong song, carving out their own sound, which is definitely heavily influenced by Weakling, but manages to be pretty unique and most assuredly their own. The fast bits are the most Weakling inspired, with similarly hysterical shrieks, drone infused blackened riffing, relentless drumming, but then the band whip out these really awesome depressive slow parts, all mournful and a bit abstract, plodding and melancholic, with some long slow decays and awesome wailing keening high tones, that almost sound like guitar and voice harmonizing, however they do it, it's really dramatic and makes the song!
Aurvandil are from France but sound like they're from Norway, very Buzumic, gloriously buzzy, midtempo, drum machine, but not distractedly so, some awesome riffs for sure, the sound not as murky or muted as Dead As Dreams, more chaotic, but still melodic, definitely need to hear more from both these bands, but especially Dead As Dreams, we find ourselves returning to that track again and again, THAT one part burned into our brains.
Released on the always kick ass Tour De Garde label!!

DEAD BEGINNERS Sinners' Rebellion (Spikefarm) cd 14.98
Been trying to list this for a while but we were never able to get enough. This is easily one of my favorite metal records of the past couple of years. Sort of doom metal, sort of black metal, but completely epic and gorgeous and totally captivating. Not to mention heavy as fuck. Lots of keyboards under thick guitars playing huge minor key riffs while sorrowful melodies weave in and out. Mostly midtempo, but with the occasional burst of lightning speed, Finland's Dead Beginners craft timeless metal epics (with a definite medieval vibe), melancholy and sorrowful, dark and doomy. The sound reminds me of some strange mix of old Paradise Lost, Old Cathedral, Skepticism, Cradle Of Filth, Candlemass, and Burzum. Or something like that. Some of the best dark depressing doom / black-bleak metal. SO recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Calling Ruby"
RealAudio clip: "Treason Via Magdelene"
RealAudio clip: "The Wounderable One"

DEAD CHILD Attack (Quarterstick) cd 14.98
Last year when we reviewed this Louisville band's debut ep, we said we'd delay discussion of the whole "false/hipster/irony metal" thing until a later date, if/when they unleashed a full-length. Well here it is. So here we go. Some "true metal" folks on poseur patrol are gonna balk at a band playing '80s influenced thrashy metal with high pitched vox, that happens to include dude from Slint and Tortoise in it (Dave Pajo, no stranger to this issue 'cause of his stint in Early Man), plus others of similar indie rock pedigree... but we think that's kind of cool. IF they're not just taking the piss, but are in fact saying "hey we really do like metal, maybe we were too 'alternative' for it for a while back there but now we realize the folly of our ways and we're gonna fuckin' rip!!"
What we can agree on is that it would be annoying if a band like Dead Child got popular 'cause of their non-relevant, non-metal scene connections, while other bands playing the same style of music can't get the time of day. (Like, if this starts selling, folks also better start coming in looking for Slauter Xstroyes reissues...) But then again, why bands get popular often has very little to do with merit anyway! We went over some of this ground in our recent review of The Sword's Gods Of The Earth. And Dead Child aren't even popular like that, yet. So, let's judge stuff by what it sounds like, not what bands people were in or who goes out to their shows.
As to that (what it sounds like) well it IS metal. Heck the singer sounds a lot like Gerrit Mutz of Sacred Steel (yelping with that same Jello Biafra warble in there somewhere) and you can't get much more metal than that. Their songs are ultra-riffy, almost monotonously so, but crunchy and catchy enough, and the singer's got style to help 'em stick in your ear. They reprise one track from the ep ("Never Bet The Devil Your Head", our fave from that disc) and come up with a bunch of other similarly wicked tunes. In the hipster metal debate, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt, and headbang away without further worries.
We also realize that if Dead Child were a "NWOFHM" band from Finland, the work of our pals in Circle, like Steel Mammoth or Tractor Pulling, we'd have no qualms at all, and be quite impressed, though of course they'd also be a lot weirder. The song titles here certainly align with that sort of thing: "Black Halo Rider", "Rattlesnake Chalice", "Wasp Riot"... could easily be something Krypt Axeripper would think up.
MPEG Stream: "Twitch Of The Death Nerve"
MPEG Stream: "Eye To The Brain"

DEAD CHILD s/t (Cold Sweat) cd ep 10.98
Five songs in just under 17 minutes from this new Louisville retro-metal act. Sorta mid paced thrashy, straight-ahead headbanging fare. Crunchy guitars, not much lead playing though, just lots of stiff riffing. They sound a lot like The Sword or Early Man, actually. Got that can't-quite-place-it-heard-it-before-but-still-sounds-good '80s derived thing going on. Our favorite track is "Never Bet The Devil Your Head" wherein the vocalist pulls off some nice raspy screams. "I Will Live Again" is also pretty good, more of a doomy number. So, this lil' disc might not be a bad thing to throw on as the soundtrack to the next couple cans of cheap American beer you quaff.
Oh... did we mention that one of the guys in the band is named Dave Pajo? That's right, the Slint, Aerial M, Papa M, Tortoise, Zwan, etc. Dave Pajo... suddenly we realize another reason why Dead Child remind us of Early Man! (Pajo briefly played bass for 'em). Well this is just an ep, so let's not get all embroiled in thee whole ole false/hipster/irony metal argument right now fer goshsakes...maybe when/if they do a full-length we'll let rip on that subject. Along with Pajo, Dead Child also contains members of The For Carnation, Crain, Anomoanon, Shipping News, and Phantom Family Halo, fyi. Heck if these indie rockers want to play metal, why not? Just as long as we don't start selling more of these than we do of, say, Skeletonwitch or Sacred Steel.
MPEG Stream: "Never Bet The Devil Your Head"

DEAD ELEPHANT Thanatology (Riot Season) cd 16.98
Record number three from this Italian noise rock / stoner doom power trio, and weirdly enough the first one of their records to get reviewed on the aQ list. Weird because these guys are amazing and are right up our (and presumably your) alley, a killer twisted hybrid of classic Sabbathy metal and more modern noise rock, downtuned Neurosis-y sludge and spaced out psychedelic dronemetal, a la countrymen Ufomammut. Opener "Bardo Thodol" starts out with a riff that's a dead ringer for Sleep, of course these guys add some chanted monk-like vocals, the vibe droned out and psychedelic, and when the rest of the band finally kick in, the sound is EPIC, massive, and heavy as fuck, a crushing mathy doom sludge dirge, the vocals alternating between a monstrous bellow and a wild feral shriek, the churning riffage and damaged drum pound laced with a surprising amount of melody, and all sorts of strange sounds in the background, that sound like bells and singing and other mysterious field recordings, which are apparently actual recordings of Italian funeral marches, super dramatic, especially when the band cuts out completely, leaving just the mournful wail of distant horns, draped over a strange hushed soundscape of backwards drones and muted muddied effects, the band slowly building back up again, and launching anew into another onslaught of pound and pummel, of soaring metallic heaviness.
The rest of the record unwinds in a similar fashion, the lumbering doomic heaviness tempered with long stretches of vocal drones, of spidery psychedelia, bursts of spazzed out math metal, of grinding noise rock frenzies, finishing off with the epic 16 minute two part closer, the first part of which is a gorgeous stretch of ambient minimalism, all tinkling melodies, barely there rhythms, distant swells, soft squalls of psychedelic guitar, swirling drones, and a deep rumbling buzz, that slowly builds into the second part, a feedback drenched, stop start noise rock blow out, soaring synths over crushing crashing chords, delirious drum pound and wild howled vox, a weirdly tripped out abstract psychedelic finale.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "On The Stem"
MPEG Stream: "A Teardop On Your Grave / Downfall Of Xibalba"

DEAD ELEPHANT / RABBITS Carne De Perro / War, Oh My (Hell Comes Home) 7" 9.98
A while back we listed/reviewed a split 7" featuring local heavies Kowloon Walled City and Southern sludgelords Thou, part of a super limited, subscription only series, which we were only able to get cuz we got some direct from the bands. We had sort of give up tracking down any of the other installments in the series (twelve singles all told, featuring Coffinworm, Fistula, Fight Amp, Pyramido, Fungal Abyss, Great Falls, Ultraphallus, The Fucking Wrath, and a bunch more we had never heard of), but then in walk aQ pals Rabbits, who just so happened to have a stash of their single in the series, and we grabbed as many as they could spare.
They share the split with Dead Elephant, an Italian noise rock outfit whose sound is massive, a churning, downtuned mathy freakout, wild drumming, dizzying riffage, progged out heaviness, laced with feral vokills and some super rad guitar harmonies, the sound lush and layered, heavily textured, dense and brutal, but with a super stripped down minimal stretch in the middle, that sounds like Shellac at 16rpm, all distant guitar melodies, dirgey bass chug, and skeletal drumming, a slow build into a roiling, hypno-rock psychedelic noise rock coda. Phew.
Rabbits counter with something much more concise, sounding like a more metal Black Flag, throat shredding vox over slithery super distorted riffage, and wild chaotic drumming, a little bit sludgey, angular and atonal guitars draped over super distorted guitar buzz, devolving into a blown out almost industrial sounding outro.
Killer tracks from both bands. And like the KWC / Thou single, the cover art is super gorgeous, the packaging ultra deluxe, letter pressed and fantastically designed, and like that other one, SUPER LIMITED, very likely these are the only copies we'll see!

DEAD HATE THE LIVING Shock And Awe (Hyperrealist) cd 14.98

DEAD INSIDE s/t (Target:Earth Productions) cd 14.98
Found a few of these tucked away in the closet, just four copies of 2007's self titled full length from this now defunct Belgian black metal horde, which features members of Gotmoor, Paragon Impure, Verloren, and a bunch of others.
While this is definitely black metal, it's more on the 'black 'n' roll' side of the grim black spectrum, meaning that blasting beats and buzzing riffs are wound into more rock arrangments, the band sounding like a filhty crusty D-beat juggernaut, serving up crushing slabs of double bass driven downtuned chug alongside Entombed style melodic black metal, lumbering deathmarch style midtempo plod, twisted chaotic noise rock and full on muddy and murky blackend buzz-drenched heaviness. Killer.
MPEG Stream: "The Devil's Haven"
MPEG Stream: "Synthetic Terrorist"
MPEG Stream: "Dead Inside"

DEAD MAN Euphoria (Crusher) cd 21.00
We kinda think that when we're reviewing a band's eagerly awaited new album, for instance their follow up to a debut we really liked, that it's not entirely unreasonable for us just to say, hey, please go read our review of that first record (or provide a brief summary, like in this case: awesome Swedish time trippin', '70s sounding stoner psych prog a la Dungen, Elope, Witchcraft) and then for us to go on to say, this one is ALSO awesome, so if you liked that one get this, and if you haven't heard either, get both! If you like this retro-'70s sort of thing, that is. Reasonable, right?
Dead Man's Euphoria is maybe a bit mellower than their self-titled debut, certainly much closer to the sun-dappled poppiness of Elope than to the Sabbathy proto-metal heaviness of Witchcraft. But it could definitely appeal to those into the moody folkiness -and- progginess of the latter.
They're still big time '70s throwbacks, they look and sound like bunch of long haired ol' hippies. Back to the land types, doing their thing out on some farm / commune someplace. Definitely a lazy, hazy, rustic vibe here, quite a bit Grateful Dead-y in point of fact. Some tracks are long (8, 9 proggy minutes for "The Wheel" and "Rest In Piece") while others breeze by in under two or three minutes. There's acoustic guitars and backporch bluesy bits (the singer asking someone for some lemon-squeezin' in "A Pinch Of Salt" ferinstance), and an overall placid, summery feel. Real pleasant, but ofttimes melancholic too. The vocals, particularly when handled by the guy with the wavery, breathy, close-to-tears voice, are quite emotive. (Those could be tears of joy though, the album's called Euphoria after all.)
And that's not to say that Dead Man don't heavy it up with the guitars now and then, they do, some swinging hard rock riffage certainly is heard, but this is mostly much lighter and gentler than you might be used to from the more doomy likes of Witchcraft, Burning Saviours, Graveyard... out of that Swedish '70s lovin' scene, Dead Man do the least to live up to the more evil implications of their name! But for melodiousness and progginess and flutey folkiness they're holding their own. We like!!
FYI, this will supposedly be getting a domestic cd release in June, we've just learned. Also they should be coming over to the US for a tour this fall, cool!
MPEG Stream: "Today"
MPEG Stream: "The Wheel"
MPEG Stream: "Light Vast Corridors"

DEAD MAN Euphoria (Crusher) lp 22.00
We kinda think that when we're reviewing a band's eagerly awaited new album, for instance their follow up to a debut we really liked, that it's not entirely unreasonable for us just to say, hey, please go read our review of that first record (or provide a brief summary, like in this case: awesome Swedish time trippin', '70s sounding stoner psych prog a la Dungen, Elope, Witchcraft) and then for us to go on to say, this one is ALSO awesome, so if you liked that one get this, and if you haven't heard either, get both! If you like this retro-'70s sort of thing, that is. Reasonable, right?
Dead Man's Euphoria is maybe a bit mellower than their self-titled debut, certainly much closer to the sun-dappled poppiness of Elope than to the Sabbathy proto-metal heaviness of Witchcraft. But it could definitely appeal to those into the moody folkiness -and- progginess of the latter.
They're still big time '70s throwbacks, they look and sound like bunch of long haired ol' hippies. Back to the land types, doing their thing out on some farm / commune someplace. Definitely a lazy, hazy, rustic vibe here, quite a bit Grateful Dead-y in point of fact. Some tracks are long (8, 9 proggy minutes for "The Wheel" and "Rest In Piece") while others breeze by in under two or three minutes. There's acoustic guitars and backporch bluesy bits (the singer asking someone for some lemon-squeezin' in "A Pinch Of Salt" ferinstance), and an overall placid, summery feel. Real pleasant, but ofttimes melancholic too. The vocals, particularly when handled by the guy with the wavery, breathy, close-to-tears voice, are quite emotive. (Those could be tears of joy though, the album's called Euphoria after all.)
And that's not to say that Dead Man don't heavy it up with the guitars now and then, they do, some swinging hard rock riffage certainly is heard, but this is mostly much lighter and gentler than you might be used to from the more doomy likes of Witchcraft, Burning Saviours, Graveyard... out of that Swedish '70s lovin' scene, Dead Man do the least to live up to the more evil implications of their name! But for melodiousness and progginess and flutey folkiness they're holding their own. We like!!
FYI, this will supposedly be getting a domestic cd release in June, we've just learned. Also they should be coming over to the US for a tour this fall, cool!
MPEG Stream: "Today"
MPEG Stream: "The Wheel"
MPEG Stream: "Light Vast Corridors"

DEAD MAN s/t (Crusher Records) cd 21.00
Ok, we don't know what sort of time warp technology they've developed over there in Sweden, but it does the job. I mean, if the US Navy ever wants to find out just what happened with that aircraft carrier or whatever from the 1940s (y'know, they made a movie about it, The Final Countdown or The Philadelphia Experiment wasn't it?), we'd say don't bother asking Michael J. Fox, get somebody over in Sweden to explain. They obviously have the time travel thing figured out. And best of all, they use it to make more rock and roll bands like in the good ol' days of acid rock and psychedelia!! Bands like Witchcraft and Elope and Dungen, who sound more 1970 than 2006. We've mentioned them all before, and if you know 'em and love 'em, well here's *another* group of Swedes that we think fans of those bands should check out. Dead Man! Long hair, bright harmonies, folky melodies, acoustic strum, heavy riffs, trippy vibes... even a 14-minute long experimental prog finale. Yep, definite time warp. Like Witchcraft and those others, they never betray their modernity. No anachronistic hints of '90s stoner rock or alternative rock or metal or anything. Really, though it -says- this debut full-length was recorded in 2005, it's like no rock music past, say, 1974 seems to have ever entered their ears.
Despite being called Dead Man this isn't particularly a dark album... just heavy psych in the old style. Some tracks are hard rockers, others spaced out and Floydian, even a little bit on the rustic Grateful Dead side of things... A couple of the guys in the band sing (in English), one of 'em with a wavering trill in his voice that reminds us a bit of Roger Chapman from Family, whereas the other singer has a stronger Swedish accent giving more of that Dungen flavor. The Norwegian '70s heavy psych act November could be one definite influence on these guys.
Again, although we do suspect the use of time-travel technology, we're also aware that Dead Man's guitarist used to play drums in Norrsken, Magnus Pellander's band before he formed Witchcraft. I guess he stole a page from Magnus' spellbook, temporal magic chapter. Meanwhile, two of the other members were in Swedish bands called The Strollers and The Roadrunners -- never heard them but boy those names are EXACTLY what the sort of '60s garage/beat bands that would have evolved into a band like Dead Man would have been called -- had this all really transpired 35 years ago like it sounds. Sure, not a lot of points for originality, but plenty for verisimilitude. We say, right on, Dead Man!
MPEG Stream: "Goin' Over The Hill"
MPEG Stream: "Haunted Man"

DEAD MAN s/t (Crusher) lp 21.00
Hey, now on vinyl, Dead Man's first record, to go along with their new album (see nearby)... What we said about the cd version:
Ok, we don't know what sort of time warp technology they've developed over there in Sweden, but it does the job. I mean, if the US Navy ever wants to find out just what happened with that aircraft carrier or whatever from the 1940s (y'know, they made a movie about it, The Final Countdown or The Philadelphia Experiment wasn't it?), we'd say don't bother asking Michael J. Fox, get somebody over in Sweden to explain. They obviously have the time travel thing figured out. And best of all, they use it to make more rock and roll bands like in the good ol' days of acid rock and psychedelia!! Bands like Witchcraft and Elope and Dungen, who sound more 1970 than 2006. We've mentioned them all before, and if you know 'em and love 'em, well here's *another* group of Swedes that we think fans of those bands should check out. Dead Man! Long hair, bright harmonies, folky melodies, acoustic strum, heavy riffs, trippy vibes... even a 14-minute long experimental prog finale. Yep, definite time warp. Like Witchcraft and those others, they never betray their modernity. No anachronistic hints of '90s stoner rock or alternative rock or metal or anything. Really, though it -says- this debut full-length was recorded in 2005, it's like no rock music past, say, 1974 seems to have ever entered their ears.
Despite being called Dead Man this isn't particularly a dark album... just heavy psych in the old style. Some tracks are hard rockers, others spaced out and Floydian, even a little bit on the rustic Grateful Dead side of things... A couple of the guys in the band sing (in English), one of 'em with a wavering trill in his voice that reminds us a bit of Roger Chapman from Family, whereas the other singer has a stronger Swedish accent giving more of that Dungen flavor. The Norwegian '70s heavy psych act November could be one definite influence on these guys.
Again, although we do suspect the use of time-travel technology, we're also aware that Dead Man's guitarist used to play drums in Norrsken, Magnus Pellander's band before he formed Witchcraft. I guess he stole a page from Magnus' spellbook, temporal magic chapter. Meanwhile, two of the other members were in Swedish bands called The Strollers and The Roadrunners -- never heard them but boy those names are EXACTLY what the sort of '60s garage/beat bands that would have evolved into a band like Dead Man would have been called -- had this all really transpired 35 years ago like it sounds. Sure, not a lot of points for originality, but plenty for verisimilitude. We say, right on, Dead Man!
MPEG Stream: "Goin' Over The Hill"
MPEG Stream: "Haunted Man"

DEAD MEADOW Got Live If You Want It (The Commitee To Keep Music Evil / Bomp) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Got Live If You Want It" (or maybe "If Yo Want It", which appears on the spine) is a surprise live release from a band with only two studio albums to their credit. Now, in the past we've given good reviews to Dead Meadow, really liking their retro stoner rock sound, heavy psychedelia derived from Blue Cheer and other past masters, along with tinges of their modern-day indie rock lineage. But we've always made one caveat: the singer's whiny voice simply sucks. One would hope that live, his nasal drone would be helpfully drowned out by the band's massive amp-abuse. But, on this recording at least, such is not the case. However, like their studio albums, much of this is instrumental anyway, and if you're already a fan, you can deal with this -- you either actually like the vocals (good god!) or have learned to tune 'em out (as I did) and will certainly enjoy wallowing in the spacey, jammed-out, lopingly heavy live Dead Meadow live experience as presented here: over 45 minutes (eight tracks total) of well-recorded versions songs from both of Dead Meadow's LPs, plus two we don't recognize (new tunes perhaps), all as performed live in Hoboken in the winter of 2002. Not much more needs to be said. Those new to the band would be better advised to start with either of their two albums on Tolotta: "Dead Meadow" and/or "Howls From The Hills" -- see elsewhere on our website for reviews. Or, wait 'til next year when they're scheduled to release a new album on Matador! (Where they'll fit in well with the likes of Bardo Pond).
RealAudio clip: "Rocky Mountain High"
RealAudio clip: "Lady"

DEAD MEADOW Got Live If You Want It (The Commitee To Keep Music Evil / Bomp) lp 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Fitting for a band that harks back to the days when vinyl was king, here's the LP version of "Got Live If You Want It" (or maybe "If Yo Want It", which appears on the spine), a surprise live release from a band with only two studio albums to their credit. Now, in the past we've given good reviews to Dead Meadow, really liking their retro stoner rock sound, heavy psychedelia derived from Blue Cheer and other past masters, along with tinges of their modern-day indie rock lineage. But we've always made one caveat: the singer's whiny voice simply sucks. One would hope that live, his nasal drone would be helpfully drowned out by the band's massive amp-abuse. But, on this recording at least, such is not the case. However, like their studio albums, much of this is instrumental anyway, and if you're already a fan, you can deal with this -- you either actually like the vocals (good god!) or have learned to tune 'em out (as I did) and will certainly enjoy wallowing in the spacey, jammed-out, lopingly heavy live Dead Meadow live experience as presented here: over 45 minutes (eight tracks total) of well-recorded versions songs from both of Dead Meadow's LPs, plus two we don't recognize (new tunes perhaps), all as performed live in Hoboken in the winter of 2002. Not much more needs to be said. Those new to the band would be better advised to start with either of their two albums on Tolotta: "Dead Meadow" and/or "Howls From The Hills" -- see elsewhere on our website for reviews. Or, wait 'til next year when they're scheduled to release a new album on Matador! (Where they'll fit in well with the likes of Bardo Pond).

DEAD MEADOW Howls From The Hills (Tolotta) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Anything recorded at a "mobile mystic gnome studio" has got to be good, right? Well, at least if you're in the mood from some suitably stoned, retro-rocking, Blue Cheer worship from this very heavy and psychedelic Virginia-based band. "Howls From The Hills" is Dead Meadow's second album for Joe Lally of Fugazi's stoner-positive Tolotta label (Spirit Caravan is one of their labelmates) and it picks right up where the first one left off, with weighty grooves, mellow jams, Sleep-worthy guitars, hippie imagery... Unfortunately guitarist Jason Simon's somewhat whiny (thankfully not ever-present) vocals are still a taste we have yet to acquire, but that's not enough to sink this heavy, hairy beast. The wah, the fuzz, the drone, the riff...it's power trio spacerock mayhem galore, spiced with sitar and cello. In the current stoner rock scene, these guys seem just so much more authentic than most. And is that not a great album cover, or what?

DEAD MEADOW Howls From The Hills (Xemu) cd 14.98
The second album from Dead Meadow now gets proper reissue treatment from Xemu who also reissued their great debut a few months back. With the recent explosion of stoner psych-rock it's nice to revisit Dead Meadow's beginnings as they are a big part of the recent resurgence of Sabbath inspired rock with smart psych undertones. Recorded in 2001 this has all the ingredients that has made the band an AQ favorite over this past decade. Here's what we said the first time around:
Anything recorded at a "mobile mystic gnome studio" has got to be good, right? Well, at least if you're in the mood from some suitably stoned, retro-rocking, Blue Cheer worship from this very heavy and psychedelic Virginia-based band. "Howls From The Hills" was Dead Meadow's second album for Joe Lally of Fugazi's now-defunct stoner-positive Tolotta label (Spirit Caravan was one of their labelmates) and it picked right up where the first one left off, with weighty grooves, mellow jams, Sleep-worthy guitars, hippie imagery... The wah, the fuzz, the drone, the riff... power trio spacerock mayhem galore, spiced with sitar and cello. In the current stoner rock scene, these guys seem just so much more authentic than most. And is that not a great album cover, or what?
MPEG Stream: "Dusty Nothing"
MPEG Stream: "Jusiamere Farm"

DEAD MEADOW Howls From The Hills (Tolotta) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Anything recorded at a "mobile mystic gnome studio" has got to be good, right? Well, at least if you're in the mood from some suitably stoned, retro-rocking, Blue Cheer worship from this very heavy and psychedelic Virginia-based band. "Howls From The Hills" is Dead Meadow's second album for Joe Lally of Fugazi's stoner-positive Tolotta label (Spirit Caravan is one of their labelmates) and it picks right up where the first one left off, with weighty grooves, mellow jams, Sleep-worthy guitars, hippie imagery... Unfortunately guitarist Jason Simon's somewhat whiny (thankfully not ever-present) vocals are still a taste we have yet to acquire, but that's not enough to sink this heavy, hairy beast. The wah, the fuzz, the drone, the riff...it's power trio spacerock mayhem galore, spiced with sitar and cello. In the current stoner rock scene, these guys seem just so much more authentic than most. And is that not a great album cover, or what?`

DEAD MEADOW s/t (Tolatta) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Dead Meadow are a retro stoner psych rock power trio playing fuzzed out space-jams in a heavy and rollicking yet still kinda mellow mode. For fans of Blue Cheer and their fellow Tolatta act Spirit Caravan. They're also reminiscent of a more jammed-out, psychedelic Sleep, but with some gentle touches--there's even interludes of acoustic guitar indie-pop. This one grew on us! It's definitely more "out-of-time" than most other stoner rock efforts, harking back not to the arenas of the '70s but to the garages and hippie pads of the late '60s. As such it stands apart from the current legions of Kyuss / Fu Manchu clones. The one weak point, the slightly whiny vocals, hardly matter amid the instrumental majesty of the electric fuzz guitar and bass action that dominates this album!
RealAudio clip: "Greensky Greenlake"

DEAD MEADOW s/t (Xemu) cd 14.98
This band's most recent album, Feathers, was one of our favorites of last year so it's nice to get this opportunity to revisit their first record which has been out of print for quite a while, the label (Joe Lally's Tolatta) that released it originally went out of business and the record was sort of lost in limbo. Their stoner-psych-rock prowess can be found here in its full glory connecting the dots between Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer, Bardo Pond and Kyuss. One of Dead Meadow's best attributes is their ability to make records that totally grow on you and seep into your skin listen after listen. This has been hitting the spot for us so much as of late that literally not a day has gone by that this hasn't been blasting out of our speakers here in the store! Such a welcome reissue, and for sure a must-have if you missed it the first time around in 2001, when we said the following about it:
Dead Meadow are a retro stoner psych rock power trio playing fuzzed out space-jams in a heavy and rollicking yet still kinda mellow mode. For fans of Blue Cheer and their fellow Tolatta act Spirit Caravan. They're also reminiscent of a more jammed-out, psychedelic Sleep, but with some gentle touches -- there's even interludes of acoustic guitar indie-pop. This one grew on us! [See!] It's definitely more "out-of-time" than most other stoner rock efforts, harking back not to the arenas of the '70s but to the garages and hippie pads of the late '60s. As such it stands apart from the current legions of Kyuss / Fu Manchu clones. The one weak point, the slightly whiny vocals, hardly matter amid the instrumental majesty of the electric fuzz guitar and bass action that dominates this album!
Xemu should soon be reissuing Dead Meadow's 2nd Tolotta album Howls From The Hills as well, also a must for those working backwards from the band's excellent Matador output.
MPEG Stream: "Sleepy Silver Door"
MPEG Stream: "Indian Bones"

DEAD MEADOW Shivering King And Others (Matador) cd 10.98
Apparently time-travel is possible, 'cause there's just no way these guys could be of our day and age. With this, their third album and Matador label debut, Maryland thud-psych rockers Dead Meadow take things to an even higher, ahem, level of '60s/'70s inspired stoner delight. It's downer rock that swings like a pair of bellbottoms on a body hanging from a noose but is also certainly warm and enveloping, like a big fuzzy blanket. Heavy riffing with some nice mellow acoustic hippy jams as well. Basically drone-on bliss both ways. Kinda like if Sleep were a krautrock band.
We've said before that our only real problem with this band is the vocals. But on "Shivering King", although they're still super-nasal, they've managed via a combination of effects and mixing to somehow at last make 'em nicely palatable -- they're the high end counterweight to all the bass frequencies over which they drift. Fantastic!
NB. It's a bit weird Dead Meadow's on Matador now, but I guess they fit in with Bardo Pond (who've moved on to a new label, however) and it's not any stranger than the Champs being on Drag City!
Vinyl version is a double LP on 150 gram vinyl.
MPEG Stream: "Babbling Flower"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven"

DEAD MEADOW Shivering King And Others (Matador) 2lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Apparently time-travel is possible, 'cause there's just no way these guys could be of our day and age. With this, their third album and Matador label debut, Maryland thud-psych rockers Dead Meadow take things to an even higher, ahem, level of '60s/'70s inspired stoner delight. It's downer rock that swings like a pair of bellbottoms on a body hanging from a noose but is also certainly warm and enveloping, like a big fuzzy blanket. Heavy riffing with some nice mellow acoustic hippy jams as well. Basically drone-on bliss both ways. Kinda like if Sleep were a krautrock band.
We've said before that our only real problem with this band is the vocals. But on "Shivering King", although they're still super-nasal, they've managed via a combination of effects and mixing to somehow at last make 'em nicely palatable -- they're the high end counterweight to all the bass frequencies over which they drift. Fantastic!
NB. It's a bit weird Dead Meadow's on Matador now, but I guess they fit in with Bardo Pond (who've moved on to a new label, however) and it's not any stranger than the Champs being on Drag City!
Vinyl version is a double LP on 150 gram vinyl.

DEAD MEAT The King (Flingco Sound) 7" 9.98
One of two new releases on Flingco Sound, the other being the new one from outsider black metal horde Wrnlrd, reviewed elsewhere on this list, and this one, a brand new 7" from a group called Dead Meat, who apparently call the Bay Area home, even though this 7" is the first time we'd heard of 'em. But we want to hear more, cuz these guys are SO right up our alley, and yours we'd imagine.
A twisted blend of old school noise rock, hypnotic spaced out psychedelia, gloomy post punk, and old school Midwest Touch & Go style pigfuck heaviness, the guitars crush and churn, the drums pound, the vocals lazy and laid back, drenched in reverb, the songs stretched way out, brooding and hypnotic, sinister and swaggery, exploding into squalls of full on crunch. Imagine maybe Killdozer crossed with Interpol, or Joy Division recording for AmRep, or Drunkdriver jamming with King Snake Roost, or Clockcleaner doing Wipers covers, however you slice it, this stuff RULES. We need more, NOW.
MPEG Stream: "The King"

DEAD OF WINTER At The Helm Of The Abyss (Profound Lore) cd 12.98
From the same label that brought us the bafflingly brilliant WOLD record from a few lists past comes Canadian black metal juggernaut Dead Of Winter, who feature an old AQ fave totally out of his element, digital hard core technician Schizoid. In the past, Schizoid has hinted at his barely under the surface metal obsession by inserting all sorts of buzzing blackened riffs into his hyper distorted techno as well as once covering Burzum. But don't expect any sort of techno black metal hybrid from Dawn Of Winter -- this is full on, grim and frosty, lightning fast, spikes and corpsepaint black metal. A buzzy blurry mix of Darkthrone and Mayhem, furiously fast blast beats under a near drone of insectoid BM riffs and thunderous basslines. You can totally imagine these guys set up on the edge of a massive glacier, knee deep in snow, overlooking a blackened forest, blasting out a sheet of hellish black metal, in front of the swirling shifting northen lights, while lighting bolts rain down from the pitch black sky!
MPEG Stream: "Total Hate Final War"
MPEG Stream: "Across The Vast Storm Front"

DEAD PENI 2-4+1 (Blossoming Noise) cd 12.98
Droning dirge-y sludge records are a dime a dozen at this point. It's still a sound we love, but we're rapidly reaching a saturation point. The punk rock ethos of 'anyone can start a band' combined with the fact that everybody has a cd burner, and the seeming 'ease' of making doomy drone music, just means that now, it requires a whole hell of a lot of digging and sifting thought mounds of mediocre doom and so so sludge, to discover something as fucked up and far out as Dead Peni.
We first hear Dead Peni on a compilation a year or two back and were immediately smitten. The name evoked some sort of blackened take on Rudimentary Peni, but the sound was nothing of the sort, instead Dead Peni trafficked in an expansive sprawling riff based blackened doomdrone, that was anything but static, like a slowed down tarpit space rock, an even doomier murkier Godflesh, or Wolf Eyes with some rhythmic heft. It was hard to get a feel for what DP were capable of just on the basis of the music on the comp, but it was definitely enough to know we needed more.
And -more- has arrived, in the form of this three track, 47 minute, mysteriously monickered slab of blackened crush. 2-4+1 begins all hushed shimmer and deeeeeep low end whir, a sound that could be any cd-r, until some ungodly beastlike growl emerges from the depths and the guitar explodes, super distorted, crumbling and processed, but weirdly muted and warm. A single crash, allowed to ring out, transforming into a charged electronic buzz, streaked with feedback, and underpinned by that monstrous gurgling voice. Finally the drums kick in, a slow motion drum machined doomic plod, and we're gone. Total buzzing black doom industrial noise nirvana, lumbering and druggy, minor key and surprisingly melodic. A bit of Godflesh, a little Gore, some classic old school funereal doom run through a bank of Wolf Eyesian cracked electronics and malfunctioning effects, the weirdest part is the crowd noise, what sounds like the chanting of a rally or demonstration, snippets and samples, wrapped in rippling sheets of feedback, and woven into massive churning waves of crumbling distortion, a cinematic and weirdly dreamlike doom / industrial / noise hybrid. Like the sound of some super fucked up post apocalyptic political rally, tattered flags, burning buildings, a crowd of shapes and figures clad in rags, some mysterious shadow, on a raised parapet, delivering his message in a gurgling rumbling barely audible vocals, almost like goregrind vocals, but buried so low in the mix they end up sounding like another layer of droning rumble. One guitar weaves a soaring almost majestic melody, but still woozy and washed out sounding, while the track lurches glacially onward, the crowd cheering and chanting, the whole thing like some mysterious soundtrack to the end of the world, or at least the end of the world as we know it. But we can't help but willingly submit.
The following track begins with nearly 4 minutes of rain, thunder and lightning, voices, field recordings, laid over an almost imperceptible high end, which gradually grows and grows into a symphony of feedback, tones and overtones tangling and intermingling, creating all sorts of alien melodies, until finally the riff comes in, a super simple caveman dirge sort of riff, locked into a neverending loop, repeating over and over and over like some sort of proto metal mantra, while all the while, the rainfall continues, the random sounds drift in and out, the feedback swirls in little squalls and tangles, the only deviation, being some brief bits of classic doom like melody, before the riff inevitably returns to it's original looping dirge.
The final track begins with an explosion of blown out guitar and buzzing rumble, before drifting off, leaving the staticky detritus over a simple robotic pulse, and a sea of glitch and squiggles, the various elements finally locking into some sort of super abstract doom metal, but one that is hardly doom, or metal, more like some fragmented space drone, peppered with squalls of superdistorted guitar, the occasional clanging crash and crunch, all very muted and muddy, wreathed in a layer of gauzy distortion, voices, dogs barking, all manner of random sounds, and finally, a fierce howled processed demonic voice, wrapped in distorted riffage, and creating a super spare, spaced out sort of doom, where the riffs spend most of the time buzzing and drifting, only to rear up and spit out a bit of fractured melody and harsh hissy pummel, before recoiling again, and resuming its slow burning black drone. It almost sounds like Butthole Surfers ultra-doom, the same sort of effects drenched trippiness, and off kilter dementia, but way blacker, and way more fucked up and frightening.
Any of the three tracks could have been stretched out to album length, and we most certainly would have bought all three, but the three pieces here definitely work together well, as some sort of hellish, demonic, slow motion black doom drone dirge, that plays out almost like some impossible Wolf Eyes / Moss / Arvo Part mash up, if that makes any sense. Which it doesn't, but which is exactly what makes Dead Peni so amazing.
In addition to the 3 audio tracks, there's a fourth track included as a quicktime video, another blown out glacial buzz drenched dirge, this time accompanied by strange abstract visuals, black and white, giving way to green and blue, what seems to be buildings or ruins, but ultimately are so overexposed they just become shapes, the perfect visual representation of Dead Peni's abject black doom.
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "3"

DEAD RAVEN CHOIR Cask Strength Black Metal (Supernal) 2cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We listed the amazing triple lp box set version of Dead Raven CHoir's Cask Strength Black Metal last year, and now it's finally available as a double cd from the fine folks at Supernal. The biggest difference (besides being a cd and not an lp) is that the amazingly illegible liner notes from the box (which included the song titles) are now actually readable. And what we were reminded of, that we failed to mention in the review of the lp, is that most of these songs are standards, country and otherwise, given the old DRC black metal makeover. There are some lyics by Rainer Maria Riilke as well as covers of classic songs by Leonard Cohen and Townes Van Zandt. But don't let that deter the black hearted among you, as this is indeed harsh harrowing buzzy black metal. Just a bit twisted and demented.
Dead Raven Choir is a one man band, now living in Poland, formerly of Texas, purveyor of damaged free folk, abstract strum and of course utterly grim black metal. We've tried desperately to keep up with his non stop cd-r release schedule and his constant flitting from folk to metal and back again, sometimes pausing beautifully right in between, a gnarled hybrid of campfire twang and lo-fi buzz, then there's Wolfmangler too, his country doom outfit! But, as is often the case, most of those cd-r's disappeared in no time flat. So after a limited lp boxset release, it's Supernal to the rescue, compiling 4 LONG out of print cd-r's (Sheath & Knife, Grand Ravishing Extravaganza, Sevenfold Songs Of Death, and Sturmfuckingleider) onto two glorious slabs of aluminum blackness. This one is definitely for the true, the grim, the cult, this is utterly dismal, freaked out and fuzzed out lo-fi black metal. But while sonically it may fit somewhere between the foresty buzz of early Ulver, the midtempo droning hypno plod of Burzum, and the thrashy blur of Darkthrone, this is Dead Raven Choir after all, so beneath and amidst all the buzzing and riffing, there are plenty of banjos, mandolins, and lots of percussion, a creepy clattery folk undercurrent, albeit all bathed in hiss and drone and distortion, black metal folk may be more accurate, closer in feel to Abruptum, a black pagan ritual, shrill and noisy and harsh and HEAVY, but in that home-recorded, perfectly underproduced way. Awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Sheath And Knife"
MPEG Stream: "Gawney Bean"
MPEG Stream: "Die"
MPEG Stream: "Waiting Around To Die"

DEAD RAVEN CHOIR Cask Strength Black Metal (Weird Forest) 3lp 42.00
Dead Raven Choir, a one man band, now living in Poland, formerly of Texas, purveyor of damaged free folk, abstract strum and of course utterly grim black metal. We tried desparately to keep up with his non stop cd-r release schedule and his constant flitting from folk to metal and back again, sometimes pausing beautifully right in between, a gnarled hybrid of campfire twang and lo-fi buzz, then there's Wolfmangler too, his country doom outfit! But, as is often the case, most of those cd-r's disappeared in no time flat. So it's Weird Forest to the rescue, compiling 4 LONG out of print cd-r's (Sheath & Knife, Grand Ravishing Extravaganza, Sevenfold Songs Of Death, and Sturmfuckingleider) onto three lps and packaging them in this "dark forest-clad" box. This one is definitely for the true, the grim, the cult, this is utterly dismal, freaked out and fuzzed out lo-fi black metal. But while sonically it may fit somewhere between the foresty buzz of early Ulver, the midtempo droning hypno plod of Burzum, and the thrashy blur of Darkthrone, this is Dead Raven Choir after all, so beneath and amidst all the buzzing and riffing, there are plenty of banjos, mandolins, and lots of percussion, a creepy clattery folk undercurrent, albeit all bathed in hiss and drone and distortion, black metal folk may be more accurate, closer in feel to Abruptum, a black pagan ritual, shrill and noisy and harsh and HEAVY, but in that home-recorded, perfectly underproduced way. Awesome!
This comes packaged in a printed black box, the three lps are housed in thick black sleeves, there are seven inserts, beautifully printed on thick vellum, with liner notes in perhaps the most illegible black metal font EVER!
LIMITED TO 999 COPIES WORLDWIDE!

DEAD RAVEN CHOIR Death To Dead Wolves (Jewelled Antler) cd 11.98
Oooh. That cover photo of the fog, sheep and trees is nice. A misty meadow for your imagination to wander in as you listen to this, which happens to be the debut "real cd" release from the previously cd-r only label Jewelled Antler. For the occasion, they've chosen an artist from outside their SF-based "collective", their friend Smolken's Dead Raven Choir. (A bit like picking Merzbow, that, since he's so prolific, but still a good choice quality-wise.) Smolken is the guy who has discovered the secret commonality between anguished black metal and emotional folk-minimalism (such as that of Japanese troubadours like Kan Mikami). Some of his releases tend towards the noise and distortion of black metal, others towards the broken Jandekian folk of one man and a guitar. Death To Dead Wolves is yet another haunting/haunted DRC album on the sparser side of that spectrum. If you're already a fan, go ahead and get this one, it's good. If not, perhaps some explanation is in order. Smolken's modus operandi on this disc is to intone poetry (all lyrics here are from the works of 20th century American poet and sometime monk, William Everson) in a heavy Polish accent, sounding rather like a B-movie vampire. Smolken's sinister stage-whisper melds with piano and guitar, all notes struck stark and creepy, with drones and silence both adding to the eerie mix. Electric guitar is utilized, but the playing is in his usual damaged folk style. The final song, "A Canticle To The Waterbirds" is 23 minutes long, the music loosely based on a traditional folk melody. An epic ending to an evocative disc.
MPEG Stream: "Red Sky At Morning"
MPEG Stream: "These Are The Ravens"

DEAD RAVEN CHOIR Selenoclast Wolves (God Is Myth) cd ep 11.98
The latest from the ever so prolific Smolken, AKA Dead Raven Choir, who we haven't heard from in a while, at least as DRC, most likely because he's been spending time recording as Wolfmangler. So makes sense that with his return to the Dead Raven Choir monicker, along with him came some sonic vestiges from his time exploring a depper darker blackness in Wolfmangler. Which is fine with us. The darker the better.
Selenoclast Wolves, much like past DRC efforts, is a bleak world of dark twangy dirges, abstract acoustic guitars, strummed, plucked, picked, notes hanging in the grey air, beneath strange spoken soliloquies, slippery upright bass, sweet female vocals, creaking strings, mournful piano, the whole record swathed in a suffocatingly sorrowful ambience. Like Jandek on Peyote, left to wander aimlessly through some alien soundscape, or to trudge wearily through the fiery underworld. A stumbling detuned free folk smotherd in blackness and left to wither and die. So totally creepy and really frikkin' weird.
MPEG Stream: "January"
MPEG Stream: "Corpse-Washing"
MPEG Stream: "A Sibyl + The Lunatics"