DEAD RAVEN CHOIR Sevenfold Songs Of Death (Pink Skulls) 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.
Polish Texan avant folk experimentalist Smolken has released three cd-rs so far of his Dead Raven Choir output on the Jewelled Antler label. Now DRC makes an appearance on Jewelled Antler side-imprint Pink Skulls, with a disc that is just too nasty and noisy to fit in with the JA aesthetic... With "Sevenfold Songs Of Death" he really indulges his black metal inspired side, resulting in 32 minutes of what might be called noise-folk. It's as if you took all the most raw, distorted, shrill, buzzy, chaotically noisy parts of your favorite black metal albums, cranked 'em up to 11, and tried to pass it off as folk music (supposedly, all words and music here, with the exception of one song, are "traditional"). Sure, Smolken and his friends are playing mandolin and banjo and percussion, but all that's buried beneath so much grinding hiss and drone that if you listen to this at more than the barest, most minute volume you'll endanger your ears/lease/stereo/sanity (not necessarily in that order). A low volume, you can make out the folky melodies and scary vocals. Turn it up at all, and it's like Merzbow meets Abigor meets Kemialliset Ystavat... More evil atmosphere than even Abruptum, seriously. Apparently, this was originally intended for an aborted split release with AQ black metal fave Leviathan, and we'd have to say that Leviathan's probably lucky that he didn't have to go up against this!
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 4"

DEAD RAVEN CHOIR Wine, Women And Wolves (Last Visible Dog) cd 12.98
Back in stock, and one of DRC's best:
Another transmission from the Dead Raven Choir, the work of a Polish ex-patriate Texan who calls himself Smolken. Followers will understand when we say that this falls into the sparse, dramatic folk half of his ouvre, rather than on the black metal noise folk side of things. Whispered, accented vox deliver the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, Hilaire Beloc, Charles Baudelaire, A.A. Milne and others over doleful strings and abstractly strummed guitar. Smolken seems to be a creepy, well-read Eastern-European version of Jandek, and he's a master of atmosphere, going totally over the top with minimal means. Every note played, and every hiss between notes, turns the blood colder. If an album could sound cursed, this is it.
Fans will of course pick this up, but if you haven't yet delved into Smolken's haunted sound-world, perhaps this is the one to try. For one thing, it's the man's first 'proper' cd after many cd-rs and tapes. And one of his best album titles too! The clincher, perhaps, is that aside from Smolken himself, the only other musician to appear on this recording is our friend, Jewelled Antler stalwart Glenn Donaldson (Thuja, Blithe Sons, Birdtree, Skygreen Leopards, etc.). Ever since, he's had a hollow look in his eyes and his beard seems paler and wispier... Or so we imagine.
MPEG Stream: "The Kings Of The World Are Growing Old"
MPEG Stream: "The Owls"

DEAD REPTILE SHRINE A Journey Through The Darkest Of Forests (Werewolf) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
When it comes to black metal, our tastes most definitely run toward the damaged, the demented, the fried and freaked out, the totally baffing, the weirder the better. And there's no shortage of black metal misanthropes, holed up in their caves, or their cabins, or their flats, or their grandfathers' basements, meticulously crafting, ultra personal, maddeningly idiosyncratic outsider black metal. And we are constantly digging for more. The bar has been set pretty high, Benighted Leams obviously, the reigning champions of damaged outsider black metal, then there's Furze and his 'cogent black metal necrosis', let's not forget Emit, Rehtaf Ruo, Necrofrost, Hidden, Vorak, Contra Ignem Fatuum and the elusive Striborg, whose releases have been so difficult to track down we have yet to list a single one. Phew. That's a pretty heady constellation of bizarre black metal royalty, for sure. So you know, that it is not without some serious soul searching that we would dare declare a record quite possibly the weirdest black metal record ever. But we have searched, and it is thus. Dead Reptile Shrine, from Finland, the record is A Journey Through Darkened Forests and it does indeed sound just like that.
We had practically given up on getting these for the store, Andee had even contacted the band about re-issuing the disc in the states, but luckily we discovered a distributor in Australia who had 30 copies and we took all of them. Hmmm. Finland to Australia to the United States, a long journey but it was well worth it we think. Everything about this band is bizarre, the name obviously, the song titles: "A Cave Full Of Corpse Lanterns", "The Snakes Of The Earth Pt. II", "Exekutioner Of The Final Solution", "Above The Ziggurat They Dance", "Clouds Of Doom Gather..." and of course "A Beastcults Procession", the artwork, an appropriately illegible band logo and album title, both peppered with eagles and stars and scorpions as well as loads of squiggles, the band photo of DRC, in a an army jacket, head hung low, hair obscuring his face, in front of what appears to be a huge mound of mud and sticks, with a waving hand emerging from a tiny hole in the mound, and the music, oh the music, so warped and lo-fi, buzzy and doomy and just plain freaky and far fucking out. Wrest from Leviathan bought a copy, and even he could barely handle the Dead Reptile Shrine, which speaks volumes!
A stumbling, staggering black metal buzz, struggling through walls of haze and fuzz, sounds a bit like a Burzum record with someone constantly fiddling with the pitch control, a warbly seasick black droning whir, with splattery drums, clanging super loud cymbals, and some of the weirdest vocals ever, going from the evil black metal rasp, to an atonal Jandekian croon, to a strange falsetto, to a warm whiskey soaked growl, often within the same song, sometimes within the same line! The entire record is murky and thick with oozing black atmosphere, some songs are loping doom dirges, others race along at breakneck (for DRS at least) speeds, threatening to fall apart completely, riffs sometimes stumble to a halt, before lurching back into action, rhythms stutter, pause, leap forward, the vocals a chaotic swirl around the rickety song structures, minor key melodies and woozy guitars tangle and untangle as the songs slither and slide, leap and careen wildly, there are warbly mumbly soundscapes of droning rumble and otherworldly creaks and groans, tracks of spoken word over chanting monks, an electronic beatscape with garbled growls and haunting clean vocals, even a couple bizarre acoustic tracks, one with throaty crooned vocals and deliberately stummed steel string guitar, some sort of Jandekian forest folk, with a riff that almost sounds like Nirvana. In fact the forest folk tag is not that far off really. Must be something in the Finnish atmosphere, but without the vocals, huge swaths of Dead Reptile Shrine could be some lost Uton or Avarus recording, or a furtively captured Tivol live session, and yet even with the vocals it still retains some haunting wild woods feral feeling. A Journey Through The Darkest Of Forests is indeed a fearful traipse through a black forest, the overhanging trees blotting out the moonlight, the sounds of the forest a murky buzz, insects and demons, wild beasts and lost souls. A baffling and frightening sonic world that should appeal to metalhead and free folkie alike.
This was super limited (500 copies, each disc is hand numbered) and seems to be out of print. We have a whole bunch, but we're not sure we'll ever be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "Bones In The Dungeon"
MPEG Stream: "A Cave Full Of Corpse Lanterns"
MPEG Stream: "Fire And Flame"

DEAD REPTILE SHRINE A Journey Through The Darkest Of Forests (Antihumanism) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our all time absolute favorite outsider weirdo black metal records, long out of print on cd, with no plans to re-press, is finally available again, on cassette, for a super limited time. If you missed out on the cd, don't blow it again (and new 2cd coming soon on Andee's tUMULt label)...
When it comes to black metal, our tastes most definitely run toward the damaged, the demented, the fried and freaked out, the totally baffling, the weirder the better. And there's no shortage of black metal misanthropes, holed up in their caves, or their cabins, or their flats, or their grandfathers' basements, meticulously crafting, ultra personal, maddeningly idiosyncratic outsider black metal. And we are constantly digging for more. The bar has been set pretty high, Benighted Leams obviously, the reigning champions of damaged outsider black metal, then there's Furze and his 'cogent black metal necrosis', let's not forget Emit, Rehtaf Ruo, Necrofrost, Hidden, Vorak, Contra Ignem Fatuum and the elusive Striborg. Phew. That's a pretty heady constellation of bizarre black metal royalty, for sure. So you know, that it is not without some serious soul searching that we would dare declare a record quite possibly the weirdest black metal record ever. But we have searched, and it is thus. Dead Reptile Shrine, from Finland, the record is A Journey Through Darkened Forests and it does indeed sound just like that.
We had practically given up on getting these for the store, Andee had even contacted the band about re-issuing the disc in the states, but luckily we discovered a distributor in Australia who had 30 copies and we took all of them. Now the cd is gone, and while they last we have the tape version... Hmmm. Finland to Australia to the United States, a long journey but it was well worth it we think. Everything about this band is bizarre, the name obviously, the song titles: "A Cave Full Of Corpse Lanterns", "The Snakes Of The Earth Pt. II", "Exekutioner Of The Final Solution", "Above The Ziggurat They Dance", "Clouds Of Doom Gather..." and of course "A Beastcults Procession", the artwork, an appropriately illegible band logo and album title, both peppered with eagles and stars and scorpions as well as loads of squiggles, the band photo of DRC, in a an army jacket, head hung low, hair obscuring his face, in front of what appears to be a huge mound of mud and sticks, with a waving hand emerging from a tiny hole in the mound, and the music, oh the music, so warped and lo-fi, buzzy and doomy and just plain freaky and far fucking out. Wrest from Leviathan bought a copy, and even he could barely handle the Dead Reptile Shrine, which speaks volumes!
A stumbling, staggering black metal buzz, struggling through walls of haze and fuzz, sounds a bit like a Burzum record with someone constantly fiddling with the pitch control, a warbly seasick black droning whir, with splattery drums, clanging super loud cymbals, and some of the weirdest vocals ever, going from the evil black metal rasp, to an atonal Jandekian croon, to a strange falsetto, to a warm whiskey soaked growl, often within the same song, sometimes within the same line! The entire record is murky and thick with oozing black atmosphere, some songs are loping doom dirges, others race along at breakneck (for DRS at least) speeds, threatening to fall apart completely, riffs sometimes stumble to a halt, before lurching back into action, rhythms stutter, pause, leap forward, the vocals a chaotic swirl around the rickety song structures, minor key melodies and woozy guitars tangle and untangle as the songs slither and slide, leap and careen wildly, there are warbly mumbly soundscapes of droning rumble and otherworldly creaks and groans, tracks of spoken word over chanting monks, an electronic beatscape with garbled growls and haunting clean vocals, even a couple bizarre acoustic tracks, one with throaty crooned vocals and deliberately strummed steel string guitar, some sort of Jandekian forest folk, with a riff that almost sounds like Nirvana. In fact the forest folk tag is not that far off really. Must be something in the Finnish atmosphere, but without the vocals, huge swaths of Dead Reptile Shrine could be some lost Uton or Avarus recording, or a furtively captured Tivol live session, and yet even with the vocals it still retains some haunting wild woods feral feeling. A Journey Through The Darkest Of Forests is indeed a fearful traipse through a black forest, the overhanging trees blotting out the moonlight, the sounds of the forest a murky buzz, insects and demons, wild beasts and lost souls. A baffling and frightening sonic world that should appeal to metalhead and free folkie alike.
This tape is super limited (300 copies we think) and will be gone in a flash.... We have a bunch, but we're not sure we'll ever be able to get more...
MPEG Stream: "Bones In The Dungeon"
MPEG Stream: "A Cave Full Of Corpse Lanterns"
MPEG Stream: "Fire And Flame"

DEAD REPTILE SHRINE Blood Grail (The Infinite Equinox) (Antihumanism) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More damaged demented Finnish madness from outsider black metal weirdos Dead Reptile Shrine. We only got EIGHT copies of this, so we won't bother going into too much detail as we tried to order three times that. Needless to say, this is fucking unhinged and completely brilliant. From the first track, a lurching soundfield of disembodied vocals, a strangled evil mewling, and chunks of downtuned guitar, spread out into a weird slow motion staccato rhythms, it just gets more and more amazingly confusional. After that, the band lurch wildly from slithering doom metal beneath wailing vocals that squeal, howl, wail and moan, the rhythms convoluted, the guitars a rumbling buzz, to thrashing raw grim buzz, still peppered with stumbling drums and bizarre over the top vocals. Might be ultra weird, but it also might be DRS at their heaviest as well...
Again, we only got 8 copies, so be prepared to leave Dead Reptile Shrine-less (or better yet, grab the other DRS cassette we're listing elsewhere on this week's list).

DEAD REPTILE SHRINE Burning Black Infinity (Cocainacopia) 2lp 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The newest release from these Finnish black metal weirdos, which we listed on cassette a couple lists back (we have a very few left!) is now available on vinyl. Super deluxe, 180 gram colored vinyl, black and white and grey swirled, limited to 333 copies, hand numbered, super thick deluxe full colored gatefold with cool reflective spot varnish printing on top, so over the top and thus pricey and again CRAZY LIMITED!
We're always going on and on about the weirdest, most fucked up black metal bands ever, even elsewhere on this list, we review the new one from Tasmanian one man band Striborg, and declare it maybe the weirdest yet. But there's weird, and then there's Dead Reptile Shrine, who beyond being weird, are barely even black metal, the metallic elements far outweighed by the fractured folk and total whatthefuck elements, and the blackness, well that infuses pretty much every sound they produce, just not in the way most folks are used to or most metalheads want. Instead, DRS do their own thing, and their own thing is some fucked up mix of dark dronemusic, detuned free folk, stumbling chaotic black metal, some orchestral bits, tortured vocals, all wound into a confusional world of black rituals and mysterious sonic otherworlds.
While we anxiously await the forth coming double cd on tUMULt, we have this brand new damaged black sonic ritual to tide us over. Burning Black Intensity offers up a taste of what will be found on the soon to come sprawling tUMULt 2cd full length, and if BBI is any indication, then two whole cds of this stuff is going to DESTROY. This record begins with some creepy, orchestral Peter And The Wolf type sounds, strings and percussion, sampled we assume, while DRS croon over the top, offering up wavery clean vocals, strange incantations, and various other vocalizations, the result is truly twisted. This goes on for several tracks before the band launch into some black metal, but DRS black metal is a whole other thing, the drums buried in the mix, barely audible, the guitars strangled, and gnarled, buzzing, blurred and murky, dueling vocals, one a high howled screech, the other a rumbling demonic gurgle, both drenched in reverb, both howling maniacally, and relentlessly, while the guitars churn and the drums stumble, the whole thing lurching drunkenly, super raw and primitive and lo-fi and fractured and FUCKED for sure. The next track demonstrates that no matter how weird it gets, everything they do is deliberate, the guitars are thick and fuzzy, the drums simple but propulsive, the riff a near static black groove, the bass, pulsing and undulating, more typical black metal vocals screeching over the top, while way in the distance a voice shrieks hysterically, the two vocals all tangled up, the guitar spewing forth a super mesmerizing singular riff, totally hypnotic and trancelike, the vocals growing more and more unhinged. The next track is a murky muddy Wold style soundscape, melodies and guitars smeared and blurred into bleary eyed streaks of sound, the vocals an ominous rumble, the drums a chaotic blast beat, while the guitars swoon woozily, the whole track dizzy and druggy and weirdly dreamlike, the vocal eventually growing more and more warped, almost cartoonish, sing songy and almost operatic, wrapped in fluttery flutes and more distorted soft buzz.
Needless to say, this is brilliantly twisted stuff, totally wacked, outsider blackness, as true as any of the more classically TROO black metal, but unlike those, DRS are true only to themselves, any resemblance between their music and other black metal is not only coincidental it's a fluke, as most of this sounds like nothing you've ever heard.

DEAD REPTILE SHRINE Burning Black Infinity (Antihumanism) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We're always going on and on about the weirdest, most fucked up black metal bands ever, even elsewhere on this list, we review the new one from Tasmanian one man band Striborg, and declare it maybe the weirdest yet. But there's weird, and then there's Dead Reptile Shrine, who beyond being weird, are barely even black metal, the metallic elements far outweighed by the fractured folk and total whatthefuck elements, and the blackness, well that infuses pretty much every sound they produce, just not in the way most folks are used to or most metalheads want. Instead, DRS do their own thing, and their own thing is some fucked up mix of dark dronemusic, detuned free folk, stumbling chaotic black metal, some orchestral bits, tortured vocals, all wound into a confusional world of black rituals and mysterious sonic otherworlds. While we anxiously await the forth coming double cd on tUMULt, we have THREE new tapes to tide us over, two reissue of long out of print rarities, and another brand new album, to be released soon on cd and vinyl as well, but for now on the oh so cult cassette format. Each of these is limited to 400 copies, we got a bunch, 30 or so, but odds are those will go fast and we probably won't be able to get more.
Burning Black Intensity is the new album, and offers up a taste of what will be found on the soon to come sprawling tUMULt 2cd full length, and if BBI is any indication, then two whole cds of this stuff is going to DESTROY. This record begins with some creepy, orchestral Peter And The Wolf type sounds, strings and percussion, sampled we assume, while DRS croon over the top, offering up wavery clean vocals, strange incantations, and various other vocalizations, the result is truly twisted. This goes on for several tracks before the band launch into some black metal, but DRS black metal is a whole other thing, the drums buried in the mix, barely audible, the guitars strangled, and gnarled, buzzing, blurred and murky, dueling vocals, one a high howled screech, the other a rumbling demonic gurgle, both drenched in reverb, both howling maniacally, and relentlessly, while the guitars churn and the drums stumble, the whole thing lurching drunkenly, super raw and primitive and lo-fi and fractured and FUCKED for sure. The next track demonstrates that no matter how weird it gets, everything they do is deliberate, the guitars are thick and fuzzy, the drums simple but propulsive, the riff a near static black groove, the bass, pulsing and undulating, more typical black metal vocals screeching over the top, while way in the distance a voice shrieks hysterically, the two vocals all tangled up, the guitar spewing forth a super mesmerizing singular riff, totally hypnotic and trancelike, the vocals growing more and more unhinged. The next track is a murky muddy Wold style soundscape, melodies and guitars smeared and blurred into bleary eyed streaks of sound, the vocals an ominous rumble, the drums a chaotic blast beat, while the guitars swoon woozily, the whole track dizzy and druggy and weirdly dreamlike, the vocal eventually growing more and more warped, almost cartoonish, sing songy and almost operatic, wrapped in fluttery flutes and more distorted soft buzz.
Needless to say, this is brilliantly twisted stuff, totally wacked, outsider blackness, as true as any of the more classically TROO black metal, but unlike those, DRS are true only to themselves, any resemblance between their music and other black metal is not only coincidental it's a fluke, as most of this sounds like nothing you've ever heard.

DEAD REPTILE SHRINE Isth Narai Ja (Antihumanism) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We're always going on and on about the weirdest, most fucked up black metal bands ever, even elsewhere on this list, we review the new one from Tasmanian one man band Striborg, and declare it maybe the weirdest yet. But there's weird, and then there's Dead Reptile Shrine, who beyond being weird, are barely even black metal, the metallic elements far outweighed by the fractured folk and total whatthefuck elements, and the blackness, well that infuses pretty much every sound they produce, just not in the way most folks are used to or most metalheads want. Instead, DRS do their own thing, and their own thing is some fucked up mix of dark dronemusic, detuned free folk, stumbling chaotic black metal, some orchestral bits, tortured vocals, all wound into a confusional world of black rituals and mysterious sonic otherworlds. While we anxiously await the forth coming double cd on tUMULt, we have THREE new tapes to tide us over, two reissue of long out of print rarities, and another brand new album, to be released soon on cd and vinyl as well, but for now on the oh so cult cassette format. Each of these is limited to 400 copies, we got a bunch, 30 or so, but odds are those will go fast and we probably won't be able to get more.
Isth Naral Ja was one of two full lengths released in 2002, but whereas N.t.K. was a proper DRS release, Isth Naral Ja was a three track, 65 minute, all ambient record, originally given away with another disc, and later reissued, but both times in incredible limited amounts. While much of DRS's output is truly twisted, sometimes to the point of sounding a bit goofy to the untrained ear, the sounds found on Isth, while still twisted, are woven into what seems to be a much more serious soundworld. Epic sprawling expanses of whirring low end, deep throbbing bass, strange disembodied voices, fractured truncated guitar melodies, very haunting and peculiar, incantations surface throughout, long long long streaks of sound, trance inducing minimal rumbles, hissing almost industrial high end, long stretches of hushed murmured blackness, that bass pulse creepy and recurring, the whole thing very cinematic and evocative of some grim black wood, or some abandoned house, or some vast black sea, seemingly serene on the surface, but with who knows lurking beneath.
Isth manages the difficult task of being twisted and strange, haunting and mysterious, still embodying the musical ethos of Dead Reptile Shrine, while pushing the sound into new directions, without losing any of its power, any of its mystery, its blackness.
Whereas other DRS records are most definitely an acquired taste, this disc, while definitely still essential listening for DRS fans, would most definitely please the abstract drone and cd-r crowds. Tunnels, Bones Of Seabirds, Drommer, Expo '70, Nordvargr, Acre, Bonus, Encomiast, Starving Weirdos, Metal Rouge, Trollmann, folks who dig any or all of those might just dig this particular chunk of Dead Reptile Shrine black ambience.

DEAD REPTILE SHRINE N.t.K. (Antihumanism) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We're always going on and on about the weirdest, most fucked up black metal bands ever, even elsewhere on this list, we review the new one from Tsmanian one man band Striborg, and declare it maybe the weirdest yet. But there's weird, and then there's Dead Reptile Shrine, who beyond being weird, are barely even black metal, the metallic elements far outweighed by the fractured folk and total whtthefuck elements, and the blackness, well that infuses pretty much every sound they produce, just not in the way most folks are used to or most metalheads want. Instead, DRS do their own thing, and their own thing is some fucked up mix of dark dronemusic, detuned free folk, stumbling chaotic black metal, some orchestral bits, tortured vocals, all wound into a confusional world of black rituals and mysterious sonic otherworlds. While we anxiously await the forth coming double cd on tUMULt, we have THREE new tapes to tide us over, two reissue of long out of print rarities, and another brand new album, to be released soon on cd and vinyl as well, but for now on the oh so cult cassette format. Each of these is limited to 400 copies, we got a bunch, 30 or so, but odds are those will go fast and we probably won't be able to get more.
N.t.K was one of two full lengths released in 2002, originally a super limited cd-r, and yet another piece of the missing pieces puzzle that is the bizarre soundworld of Dead Reptile Shrine. The opener is a super creepy slab of ritualistic drone, the low end drenched in hiss and disrtortion, the vocals a harsh whisper, seriously haunting and intense, a murky mystery that soon gives way to a more 'traditional' DRS, a fractured buzz drenched fragmented black metal, ultra lo-fi, the guitars so distorted they almost sound like a solid hum, the drums a buried muffled thump, the vocals harsh and venomous, until they shift gears and become swoonsome wailing, the sound more Urfaust or Jandek, a wailing clean voice that goes from deep bellow to off kilter howl, as fucked up and out there as the music behind it. Later, the sound veers into all sorts of unimaginable territories, one track offers up a weird almost bouncy stumble, with sing songy clean vocals, underpinned by a super creepy death metal gurgle, the track like some blackened chunk of French outsider new wave, the vocals slipping from hysterical shriek a sort of creepy scatting, another track unleashes some super grim, old school raw plodding black metal, like Darkthrone and Von, but filtered through a broken boombox and a fractured psyche, while still another is a gorgeous black folk drift, all muted strum and mumbled melody, before it suddenly transforms into a stuttering dizzying off kilter doom, with some deep demonic vocals that sound almost like Darth Vader, and another sounds almost like crusty punk, pounding riffage and simple drumming and weird nasally punk rock vocals. It's all over the place, but some twisted black thread holds it all together. We've mentioned it time and time again, but the music of Dead Reptile Shrine is not for the faint of heart, or even the black of soul, it's for the twisted, the warped, the musical misanthropes, in search of sounds mysterious and baffling, and no band was ever more of both than DRS.

DEAD REPTILE SHRINE Sabbat (Skulls Of Heaven) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We talk quite a bit about our favorite weirdest black metal bands here: Furze, Necrofrost, Spektr, Striborg, Circle Of Ouroborus, Benighted Leams. Urfaust, Rehtaf Ruo, Wold, the weirder the better. But one of the weirdest, and most amazing, hails from Finland, the home to most of our favorite weird music, black metal or otherwise, and goes by the curious monicker Dead Reptile Shrine.
With only one full length (now sadly out of print, with no plans to repress) and one split (with fellow Finnish BM weirdoes Torturium), and a bunch of impossible to find cd-r's, this might just be the year of the Dead Reptile Shrine. A new cd coming on Skulls Of Heaven (the label run by the guys in Davenport) as well as a new DOUBLE cd coming out on our own Andee's tUMULt label, but until then, we've got this super limited tape to tide us over.
Sabbat is not so much a proper DRS album as it is some sort of black pagan ritual, a sonic incantation to the dark spirits, incorporating feedback, samples, bits of metal bowed and struck, percussion, as well as random bits of electronic interference and damaged tape manipulation.
On first listen, this could be lumped in with other noiserockers, Merzbow, Wolf Eyes and the like. But this is Dead Reptile Shrine, their approach to noise is unlike the others', this is black, but not black metal, this is some pagan ritual performed in a forest clearing, beneath a sky rife with falling stars, the moonlight painting the trees silver, the sound coming out of busted amps and rusted speakers, glowing like some portal to hell. Thick squalls of detuned guitar and amp buzz, blown out fuzz and murky low end rumble, twisted into strange and haunting shapes, beneath it all, a gentle stream of plinking plonking FX, whispery whirs and outer space warble, rhythms surface and drift apart, drones explode into jagged shards of white noise before settling back into a cavernous throb. Strange incantations, snippets of schoolyard song, intercepted radio broadcasts, all tangled up into super distorted riffing, and bursts of abstract guitar growl. Freaked out and FUCKING AWESOME!!!
LIMITED TO 166 COPIES. Not sure if we'll be able to get more once these are gone....

DEAD REPTILE SHRINE The Sun Of Circles And Wood (Weird Forest) 2lp 27.00
We've established that Finland is a strange place. And it's a strange place that produces some seriously strange sounds. None stranger we think than weirdo (sort of) black metal horde Dead Reptile Shrine. And placing them at the top of the fucked up and freaky Finnish music heap is definitely saying something. Especially when you consider that means they are outweirding: Circle Of Ouroborus, Aanal Beehemoth, Circle, Aavikko, Cleaning Women, Jumalhamara, Keuhkot, Nightsatan, Oranssi Pazuzu, Ride For Revenge, Will Over Matter, and that's just scratching the surface. And those last two should really make it clear just how baffling these guys are, cuz as far as we're concerned, Ride For Revenge / Will Over Matter are like the pinnacle for fucked up Finnish weirdness, that is except for Dead Reptile Shrine.
The Sun Of Circles And Wood was originally slated to be a double cd on Andee's tUMULt label (and hopefully still will be), is now available as a massive double lp, released by the super cool Weird Forest label. And if you think Weird Forest is kind of a strange label for a Finnish black metal band, you probably haven't heard Dead Reptile Shrine, who are only sort of a black metal band much of the time, in fact, they are like Circle Of Ouroborus in that respect, beloved by almost every black metaller we know, but sonically, often about as far removed from actual black metal as you can get.
Just check out the 11 minute opener, "Summoner Of Clarity", which does contain some riffs, some subtly blackened buzz, but it sounds more like some sort of twisted No Neck Blues Band / Avarus jam than any black metal we've heard. the riffing chugs along for a minute before fading out, and then returning a few seconds later, seeming to offer more texture than anything, while multiple voices moan and chant, intoning ominously over pulsing electronics, a fuzzy low end synth, rumbling and undulating, peppered with haunting melodies, atonal and abstract, there are bird sounds, bits of buzz and hum, the sound seeming to melt into a woozy swirl, we just realized those bird sounds were actually just the vocalist 'caw'ing, the synths shimming, weaving dreamy crystalline melodies over that buzzing pulse, and those haunting vox, it never explodes into a burst of black buzz, or a churning doomy pound, it just sort of hums and shimmers and eventually blinks out. And the Dead Reptile ritual has begun!
Probably a bit of overkill to go track by track, there are TWENTY after all, spread out over 4 sides, and while the next track opens up with some serious guitar buzz, it's abstract, and the riffage sprawls and oozes and weaves a bombinating backdrop for more strange chanting. It occurs to us that really anybody who loves Circle Of Ouroborus, should really love these guys too, especially if they're after something a bit less overtly folky, and more weirdly ritualistic. And when the band does dip into some 'proper' black metal, like on "Blasphemous Cover" it sounds downright demented, blorpy basslines, detuned guitars, stumbling off time drumming, maniacal strangled mewling vocals, the song lurching and lumbering, like a black metal Shaggs, so totally 'off' and twisted and whatthefuck it almost makes your eyes water.
Elsewhere the band explore some meandering clean guitar doom, which definitely suits them, again all woozy and stumbly, definitely reminiscent of German 'wooden metal' outfit Varghkoghargasmal, the song still driven by chanting, and some demonic croaked vokills as well, the guitars warm and buzzy and almost krautrocky, but still totally fractured and fucked up.
And so it goes, the record veering wildly all over the sonic map but definitely dipping heavily into black metal, at least various twisted Finnish outsider strains of black metal. "Forcefield Across Odensland" is a sort of buzzing post rock, with some seriously fucked up vocals, and some of the most awesomely constantly shifting tempos ever, "Walking Under The Winter Sun", is a blast of blown out blackness, oozing with strange effects, sounding almost like black metal Butthole Surfers, but insanely blown out and lo-fi, "Beholding The Necrocult Relic" is a gorgeous stretch of medieval sounding synthscapery, "Solstice D'Hiver" might be our favorite 'black metal' jam here, the drums tinny and lo-fi, the guitars so muted they're barely audible, the vocals, crazy, on of them a wild falsetto shriek, all over this strange skeletal muted barely there blast. So weird and so INCREDIBLE. And that's just the first lp!
The second one starts out all loping slowcore post rock, with some ominous dramatic crooning vox, some spidery guitar melodies, still more chanting, lots of feedback, before launching into a cool droned out raga, all deep vocal drones and sitar like buzz, which leads directly into some stumbling demented, strangely melodic doom, which in turn leads directly into some blurred blackness, that is about as traditionally old school black metal as these guys get, mostly cuz it's all a buzzing black blur. From there on out, it's a series of twisted blackened missives, slipping (un)easily from abstract experimental ambience, to churning punky chant flecked blackened noise, from weird almost new wave sounding lo-fi dirgery, to tripped out almost dubby spaciness, and from chaotic abstract ritualism to stumbling, atonal, almost catchy weirdo new wave blackened pop, which finishes things off.
Needless to say this stuff is fucking NUTS, and absolutely RULES. Circle Of Ouroborus fans line up, and anyone who like us, loves Finnish weirdness, and demented blackness, this is about as good as it gets!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!! Housed in a super swank, full color gatefold jacket.
MPEG Stream: "Summoner Of Clarity"
MPEG Stream: "Weapon, Crucifixion And Drowning"
MPEG Stream: "Blasphemous Coven"
MPEG Stream: "Throne Of Stone"
MPEG Stream: "Summer Forest's Magic"
MPEG Stream: "Our Enemies Face Misery And Oblivion"
MPEG Stream: "Through The Gleaming Darkness Into Eternity"

DEAD REPTILE SHRINE / TORTURIUM split (Bestial Burst) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Apolgies to all who fell under the spell of the beautiful and bizarre Dead Reptile Shrine. As we mentioned in our review of their cd a few lists back, we were only able to get 30 copies, and judging from the universal freakout we probably should have had 100 or so. We're still trying to track more of those down, thanks to the folks who have been waiting patiently. But to tide you over, we got a whole bunch of this brand new release, a super limited (of course, only 500 copies) split lp with their Finnish black metal brethren in Torturium.
Hard to describe Dead Reptile Shrine. Weird. Wonderfully weird, check the review of the DRS cd elsewhere on the AQ site for the full skinny, needless to say, fans of the demented damaged side of black metal a la Benighted Leams, Striborg, Furze, Urfaust and the like will fall hard for Dead Reptile Shrine.
On this 12", DRS fill their side to overflowing with what might be described as Jandekian black metal, super lo-fi, tortured riffing, howling anguished wails over mumbled sing songy vocals, the whole thing produced in this really strange way that makes it sound almost like Darkthrone recording in a submarine fronted by dueling vocalists Mark E. Smith and Blixa Bargeld. Woah. There's a brief interlude of creepy ambience, like the muffled sound from some forties news reel filmstrip, all crackly and antiquated, sounding a bit like Jeck or Basinski, but surrounded on every side by deep ravines of ultra personal black metal stumble and rrrroooaaar.
Fellow Finns Torturium are a bit more traditional, with a blown out super distorted Viking tinged old school thrash sound, with creepy stretches of reverb drenched ambience and completely INSANE shrieking vocals, somewhere between, Urfaust, Weakling and Bathtub Shitter (!). Occasionally proceedings stumble and slow to a drowsy druggy sludge, there's even a bit that sounds quite Eastern with weird modal guitar figures over warped and warbling riffs. Killer stuff.
Packaged in a cool black and white sleeve, with a full size insert / lyric sheet.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. WE GOT 30, AND WON'T BE ABLE TO GET MORE.

DEAD SHELL OF UNIVERSE Tamo Gde Pupoljak Vene... Tamo Je Moje Seme (Eichenwald) cd 12.98
We've long been obsessed with a black metal band simply called The Stone, from Serbia, but we've never been able to get enough of their records to list, and we recently got turned on to a Stone side project called May Result, who we'll have to track down for the list one of these days. And this, the debut from Dead Shell Of Universe is yet another offshoot of The Stone, but these guys are doing something much more dissonant, and frankly a little French sounding. Which as far as we're concerned is most definitely a good thing. Avant post black metal or whatever you want to call it, spaced out spidery post rock guitar lines, furious buzzing dissonance, frenzied blast beats, and super twisted and complex arrangements. Hearing a little Deathspell, yep, and also a little Spektr and some Blut Aus Nord too, but with less of an industrial angle and more of a blackened twisted psychedelic vibe.
Three songs, the shortest one just about 9 minutes, the longest a little over 13, each one a multi part epic, that deftly shifts from grinding black fury to midtempo downtuned crunch, with vocals that go from wild banshee shriek to haunting Viking croon and back again in the midst of mere seconds. The riffing is super tight and definitely catchy. The first track does splinter off into woozy atonal near ambient interludes, the drums spitting out skittery almost tribal flurries, sometime slipping into some strange woozy doom, shot through with strange chords and slippery melodies, before erupting into another blast of blackened chaos.
The second track is even more complex, with some of the most amazing drumming in ages, furious and impossibly fast, skittery and off kilter one second pounding and precise the next, locked in tight with the riffs as they continuously stop and start, change tempos in a heart beat, explode into blasting buzz and dissipate into a spaced out sort of doomy lurch, finishing off with what can only be described as classic Satyricon pulled apart into a strange looped clanging chords, while beneath the drums never stop their relentless pound. The record finishes off with a strange sort of industrial dirgescape, all glitched out electronics submerged in strange metallic rhythms and shortwave buzz, distant downcast piano, soaring faux strings, climaxing with a squall of processed cymbal sizzle, chopped and looped voices, and wavery layered drones.
It's really only two proper songs, but they're so dense and so packed with parts and riffs and rhythms and changes and textures, that we're not sure we could handle any more than 2. But whenever they're ready we're happy to try. Now to track down The Stone...
MPEG Stream: "Sanjar"
MPEG Stream: "Tamo Gde Pupoljak Vene"

DEAD TO EARTH / VOLKEINBLUCHT / IDVARP 3-way split (Graveless Slumber) cd 14.98

DEADBIRD The Head And The Heart (The End Of Existence) cd 10.98

DEADBIRD Twilight Ritual (At A Loss) cd 13.98

DEADBOY & THE ELEPHANTMEN We Are Night Sky (Fat Possum) cd 13.98
There's quite a bit of tortured artist in the career of Deadboy's Dax Riggs. Even back in the nineties, fronting grind-glam-sludge lords Acid Bath, Riggs singlehandedly supplied the glam, a crooning superstar trudging through swamps of Eyehategod sludge and NOLA stoner doom groove. The combination was electric, ask anyone here how much we absolutely loved Acid Bath and their dark psychedelic tales of butterflies and codeine, death and broken hearts, told in haunting vignettes equal parts druggy acoustic dirge and crushing downtuned groove. It was only a matter of timee though before Riggs outgrew the confines of a metal band and thus was born the Agents Of Oblivion, a slow burning smoldering hard rock band, delivering intensely emotional ballads wrapped in thick guitars, incredible hooks, a sweetly psychedelic haze and Riggs' even more prominent velveety croon. Totally channelling the spirt of Bowie and Bolan, Riggs was a serpentine superstar, howling and cooing, above a thick rich web of warm groovy sound. But still, Dax Riggs Superstar remained an acquired taste, a completely underground phenomenon. The Agents splintered and Deadboy and The Elephantmen were born, the sound was nearly the same, some of the members too, as they self released another amazing record that sort of just disappeared. But now it's 2006 and Deadboy is reborn, as a two piece, the Elephantmen replaced by Riggs's girlfriend Tessie Brunet, and on Fat Possum of all labels, which makes absolutely no sense until you hear We Are Night Sky. The record starts off with a wild rock stomp, equal parts the White Stripes and labelmates the Black Keys, with Riggs' voice swooping all over the place over an impossibly hooky riff, and lots of strange start stop dynamics. At first we were a little bit bummed, this was NOT at all what we wanted from Riggs at all, but the more we listened, the more we got sucked in and now that track is an everyday play. The record definitely veers back into classic Riggs / Agents territory after that with delicate acoustic guitars, hushed vocals, Brunet's sweet harmonies in the background, each track a psychedelic swirl, all drifty and druggy and folky and oh so lovely. But before you know if, a fuzzed out riff kicks in and we're back to serious blown out bloooz rock territory, huge swaths of swaggering Stripes / Keys / Crows rock and rhythm and bluees, always with that distinct NOLA stoner groove, no matter how subtle, we can tell it's there, muted murky riffs explode above Tessie Brunet's simple solid drumming as her sweet understated background vocals balance Riggs all out histrionics. The whole record continues to sway back and forth dizzily, between Riggs' two distinct musical personalities, his big, foot stomping guitar flailing rock Hyde, and his druggy gentle folky strum Jeckyl, both equally appealing. Still dark and druggy and warped for sure, but just accessible enough to give all those hippy rockers into the Black Crowes and the Black Keys and all day festivals something a little bit weirder and a little bit harder to stick in their ears!
MPEG Stream: "Stop, I'm Already Dead"
MPEG Stream: "No Rainbow"
MPEG Stream: "How Long The Night Was"

DEADGUY Screaming With The Deadguy Quintet (Victory) cd 14.98
Truly heavy hardcore/metal. Andee, for one, believes that this band rules and/or kicks ass.

DEADGUY Screaming With The Deadguy Quintet (Victory) 10" 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Truly heavy hardcore/metal. Andee, for one, believes that this band rules and/or kicks ass.

DEADSEA Desiderata (Chrome Leaf) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not sure how many folks remember the band Three Studies For A Crucifixion, they were a kick ass math-grind-metal band from a few years ago. Super dense and complex. Not sure what happened, they sort of just disappeared. Well, now we've got Deadsea (not to be confused with the Dead C) which features at least one member of 3SFAC, and takes that dense math metal even farther into blackened prog territory. Four lengthy tracks, a million parts per song, incredible time signature shifts, bizarre and convoluted song structures, crazy complex guitar riffs, leads and guitar harmonies. Imagine a much more fucked up Mastodon, with plenty of Iron Maidenisms, a whole bunch of Sabbathiness, lots of Carcass-y bits, a healthy dose of Voivody parts, some serious Champsy workouts and even some full-on buzzy black metal. Sounds like a mad metal hodge podge, but when it's all this deftly assembled it becomes some massive and massively mighty metal beast. Then there's some out of the blue clean vocals that take a little getting used to (a bit like Opeth's more melodic moments), but eventually seem to fit right into Deadsea's fractured musical vision. By all rights this is the band metalheads should be bowing before as much as the mega-hyped Mastodon, but for now, they'll just have to remain our little metallic secret, but not for much longer we'd wager!
MPEG Stream: "Circles"
MPEG Stream: "Beyond The Styx"

DEADSEA Desiderata (Chrome Leaf) lp 14.98
Not sure how many folks remember the band Three Studies For A Crucifixion, they were a kick ass math-grind-metal band from a few years ago. Super dense and complex. Not sure what happened, they sort of just disappeared. Well, now we've got Deadsea (not to be confused with the Dead C) which features at least one member of 3SFAC, and takes that dense math metal even farther into blackened prog territory. Four lengthy tracks, a million parts per song, incredible time signature shifts, bizarre and convoluted song structures, crazy complex guitar riffs, leads and guitar harmonies. Imagine a much more fucked up Mastodon, with plenty of Iron Maidenisms, a whole bunch of Sabbathiness, lots of Carcass-y bits, a healthy dose of Voivody parts, some serious Champsy workouts and even some full-on buzzy black metal. Sounds like a mad metal hodge podge, but when it's all this deftly assembled it becomes some massive and massively mighty metal beast. Then there's some out of the blue clean vocals that take a little getting used to (a bit like Opeth's more melodic moments), but eventually seem to fit right into Deadsea's fractured musical vision. By all rights this is the band metalheads should be bowing before as much as the mega-hyped Mastodon, but for now, they'll just have to remain our little metallic secret, but not for much longer we'd wager!
MPEG Stream: "Circles"
MPEG Stream: "Beyond The Styx"

DEADSEA s/t (Chrome Leaf) cd 11.98
The return of Deadsea, not to be confused with New Zealand noise rockers the Dead C. But of course the second you laid ears on this, there would be no confusing the two. Not a chance.
Deadsea were born out of the late great tech grind outfit Three Studies For A Crucifixion, and while the grind is pretty much gone, Deadsea are for sure technical, so much so that much of their music is utterly dizzying in its complexity. Maybe that's the reason these guys aren't huge already. Cuz man, if there was any justice in the world, these guys would be touring with Mastodon or Neurosis or playing Ozzfest or something. Not only are Deadsea heavy as fuck, but the songs are crazy catchy, over the top proggy, an impossible blend of Iron Maiden, Carcass, Voivod, with a million parts, tons of awesome harmonies, incredible drumming, insane riffing, tracks shift from thrashing fury to groovy chugging to woozy breakdown to mathy freak out to sludgey doom all in the blink of an eye. Some tracks get all Champs-like, others are almost Southern sounding. The vocals are generally a guttural sort of shout, but here and there they will soar majestically, usually coinciding with a similarly soaring guitar line.
This is just epic and majestic and brutal and blasting and heavy and we hope that the rest of the world catches on soon, not just for the band's sake, although hell, they deserve it, but for all the heavy music obsessives out there whose lives are less full, and whose iPods are that much shittier, and whose headbanging can only be less frenzied for being without Deadsea. Easily remedied though. So do it!!!
MPEG Stream: "Northwitch"
MPEG Stream: "Coming Home"

DEADSY Phantasmagore (Immortal) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Razor Love"
MPEG Stream: "Carrying Over"

DEADWOOD 8 19 (Cold Spring) cd 15.98
Back in stock!
Deadwood the group, existed long before the HBO series of the same name, but it some ways, they have a lot in common, mostly in the bleak, hopeless, windblown vibe that permeates them both. Featuring a member of Swedish black metal horde and long time AQ faves Blodulv, Deadwood offer up extended tracks of ultra creepy low end explorations, that run the gamut from abrasive power electronics, to slithering drone drenched black ambience. Fans of stuff like MZ412 and other purveyors of bleak abstract sounds will definitely dig this.
From thick squalls of white noise hiss, like rain on a metal barn roof, to super blown out Merzbowian hiss, almost black metal in its buzz and intensity, to crumbling landscapes of tape hiss and low end rumble, slowed down vocals, and mumbled scrape and shimmer, to strange murky tribalism, to skipping soundscapes of demonic vocals and ultra distorted slowed down beats, to decayed orchestral snippets chopped and looped into impossibly mesmerizing rhythms, a dark and damaged world of sound, though while at its heaviest could be the harshest, hissiest BM you've ever heard, spends most of its time crawling and lurching through slow motion fields of rumbling sound. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Antabus"
MPEG Stream: "Crushing On"

DEAFHEAVEN Roads To Judah (Deathwish) cd 10.98
Deafheaven are a new band from right here in the Bay Area, who have been causing quite a stir lately in the metal underground, their soaring epic, super melodic black metal dividing the grim hordes right down the middle. Obviously, purists don't consider this to be black metal at all, which in some ways is fair, just listen to the opening 4 minutes of record opener "Violet", there's not a trace of blackness to be found, instead, you'll here Explosions In The Sky, Godspeed, Mogwai, majestic, bombastic, melodic, gorgeously lush and expansive. But then wait a few more seconds... and BAM, the band EXPLODE in a frenzy of buzzing and pounding blackend crush, rife with howled vokills, gnarled riffage, and there's no doubt that this is black metal, but not Immortal / Mayhem / Darkthrone black metal, no, it's more in line with the more melodic end of the BM spectrum, think Alcest, Fell Voices, Fauna, Wolves In The Throne Room, Deafheaven definitely have that Cascadian BM vibe going on too, but all of their blackness and buzz is most definitely tempered with heaping helpings of melody. Even at its most frenzied, Deafheaven essentially sound like Mogwai or EITS supercharged and metallized, it's still soaring and epic and majestic, just wrapped in thick swirling sheets of black metal buzz, and hell, it sounds pretty goddamn amazing.
The production is lush, the sound MASSIVE, the guitars thick and distorted, except when they're ringing out all clear and chiming, the arrangements are pretty expansive and epic too, blasting buzz giving way to droned out drift, which in turn gives way to another blast of furious melodic blackness.
Just four tracks, but they're all long, lots of parts, all moody and melodic, a dizzying hybrid of black metal, screamo and post rock, reminds us a little of a WAY more metal version of recent Record Of The Week-ers Pianos Become The Teeth, but where that band melded old school screamo to epic post rock, Deafheaven do the same with buzzing melodic black metal, the result, while perhaps not grim enough for some, is pretty tough to resist. And while we love how the songs shift from slow build brood to black blast, and back again, the real magic of Deafheaven is how they combine the two, taking churning buzzing blackness and laying some soaring coruscating shoegazey guitar chords over the top, or winding majestic, chiming, impossibly melancholic clean guitar melodies and lush textures into howling vokills and grinding black riffage, and while in battles between good and evil, we usually bet black, in this case, melody always seems to prevail, transforming what could have been just another chunk of blasting buzz into something gorgeous and transcendental.
MPEG Stream: "Violet"
MPEG Stream: "Language Games"

DEAFHEAVEN Roads To Judah (Deathwish) lp 14.98
Now on Vinyl!!!
Deafheaven are a new band from right here in the Bay Area, who have been causing quite a stir lately in the metal underground, their soaring epic, super melodic black metal dividing the grim hordes right down the middle. Obviously, purists don't consider this to be black metal at all, which in some ways is fair, just listen to the opening 4 minutes of record opener "Violet", there's not a trace of blackness to be found, instead, you'll here Explosions In The Sky, Godspeed, Mogwai, majestic, bombastic, melodic, gorgeously lush and expansive. But then wait a few more seconds... and BAM, the band EXPLODE in a frenzy of buzzing and pounding blackend crush, rife with howled vokills, gnarled riffage, and there's no doubt that this is black metal, but not Immortal / Mayhem / Darkthrone black metal, no, it's more in line with the more melodic end of the BM spectrum, think Alcest, Fell Voices, Fauna, Wolves In The Throne Room, Deafheaven definitely have that Cascadian BM vibe going on too, but all of their blackness and buzz is most definitely tempered with heaping helpings of melody. Even at its most frenzied, Deafheaven essentially sound like Mogwai or EITS supercharged and metallized, it's still soaring and epic and majestic, just wrapped in thick swirling sheets of black metal buzz, and hell, it sounds pretty goddamn amazing.
The production is lush, the sound MASSIVE, the guitars thick and distorted, except when they're ringing out all clear and chiming, the arrangements are pretty expansive and epic too, blasting buzz giving way to droned out drift, which in turn gives way to another blast of furious melodic blackness.
Just four tracks, but they're all long, lots of parts, all moody and melodic, a dizzying hybrid of black metal, screamo and post rock, reminds us a little of a WAY more metal version of recent Record Of The Week-ers Pianos Become The Teeth, but where that band melded old school screamo to epic post rock, Deafheaven do the same with buzzing melodic black metal, the result, while perhaps not grim enough for some, is pretty tough to resist. And while we love how the songs shift from slow build brood to black blast, and back again, the real magic of Deafheaven is how they combine the two, taking churning buzzing blackness and laying some soaring coruscating shoegazey guitar chords over the top, or winding majestic, chiming, impossibly melancholic clean guitar melodies and lush textures into howling vokills and grinding black riffage, and while in battles between good and evil, we usually bet black, in this case, melody always seems to prevail, transforming what could have been just another chunk of blasting buzz into something gorgeous and transcendental.
MPEG Stream: "Violet"
MPEG Stream: "Language Games"

DEAFHEAVEN / BOSSE-DE-NAGE split (The Flenser) 12" 14.98
Long in the works split between these two Bay Area outfits, both practitioners of their own particular strains of post black metal, that post in full effect here, especially on Deafheaven's side of the split, on which this duo tackle Mogwai's "Punk Rock / Cody", the opening tracks from Mogwai's Come On Die Young record, and for the first few minutes, they do it pretty straight, a lilting cyclical guitar melody, a strange sample, barely there percussion, and then it gets even MORE post, with melancholic piano, haunting and lovely, but fear not, it doesn't take long for the song explode into blissed out heaviness, the guitars epic and soaring, the drums a dense powerful pound, the vocals, a blackened shriek, the first hint of blackness, but coupled with the soaring melodies, it has an entirely different effect, majestic and melodic, the song building and building, until the final few minutes where the vocals drop out, and another guitar swoops in and plays the melody, before fading out to a softly psychedelic drift, those harsh vokills continuing on in the background, over the spare skeletal guitars, before a final blast, and we do mean blast, as in full on blast beat, and frenzied riffing, the song transformed into a gorgeously blown out super melodic blast of blackened bliss pop heaviness. It won't do anything to assuage the true grim hordes who are constantly crying 'false metal' but fuck it, for the rest of us, this RULES.
Bosse-De-Nage counter with their own sprawling epic, starting off with martial snare, a low slung bassline, clean guitar shimmer, their Slintiness in full effect, the sound made even more lush and lovely by the addition of strings, which also gives the sound an almost folky vibe, spoken word vocals surface, the guitars begin to buzz a bit more, the sound suddenly splintery into a dizzying squall of mathy chaos, a wild drum driven churn, that gives way to a epic sprawl of blasting blackness, the drums WAY up in the mix, continuing to pepper the sound with mathy complexity, the guitars surprisingly melodic, the sound super blown out and in-the-red, a gnarled melodic black metal math rock hybrid, that might be the best thing we've heard from BDN yet, the second half of the song is laced with soaring swells of prismatic psychedelic guitars, a soaring post rock coda, that gives way to a final stretch of furious mathy blackness.
SUPER LIMITED!!!
MPEG Stream: DEAFHEAVEN "Punk Rock / Cody"
MPEG Stream: BOSSE-DE-NAGE "A Mimesis Of Purpose"

DEATH ANGEL The Art of Dying (Nuclear Blast) cd 15.98

DEATH CHEETAH Be Someone's Horse (self-released) 7" square plexiglass lathe cut 19.98
We've long been fans of the mysterious Death Cheetah, aka local visual artist / musician Kevin Taylor, we've carried a super limited cd-r and a compilation tape, both long out of print, he also did the artwork for the AmocomA cd on Andee's tUMULt label, but beyond that we've heard little from Taylor lately. Until this showed up one day, a super striking screen printed black and white envelope, inside of which was a thick, SQUARE lathe cut record, apparently carved directly into sheets of plexiglass. The sleeve is adorned with artwork by local artist Andrew Schoultz, and the pressing is limited to just FIFTY copies.
None of the DC's past releases really prepared us for this new jam, which finds DC laying down some sort of twisted electro-black-metal, churning blackened riffage, furious drumming, but the whole thing underpinned by a blooping synth, that while reminiscent of Burzum, here transforms the song into something else entirely, especially when the guitars fade out, leaving just the blooping melody and the blasting drums, and occasionally the guitars get all blown out and stonery adding some weird almost Kyuss-y melody to the mix, but for the most part the sound shifts back and forth between the churning synth flecked buzz, and more dense drum heavy blackness. And then there's the vocals, super effected, a raspy demonic howl, draped over an almost Queens Of The Stoneage guitar melody, all the while the synth percolates in the background.
And since it's a lathe cut, the sound is transformed as well, the built in static and hiss, the extreme surface noise, makes this sound somehow like it's some rare early nineties Norwegian demo tape from the freakiest fucked up long defunct black metal horde you've never heard of, and beyond that, it fundamentally changes the sound, woozy and warped and warbly, which only adds to its genius. It's hard to explain how great and weird and cool this is, other than to tell you we've listened to it maybe 20 times JUST TODAY. And we don't see that changing anytime soon.
And as mentioned above, it's LIMITED TO JUST 50 COPIES, each one hand numbered, in hand screened sleeves, we have 15 copies, but those might not last long...
MPEG Stream: "Be Someone's Horse (lathe)"
MPEG Stream: "Be Someone's Horse (original)"

DEATHBEDS No Funeral (Young Lungs LTD) 7" 4.50
Some seriously heavy, seriously groovy metallic sludge from these Philly bangers, three tracks of crushing downtuned heaviness, and while the sludge factor is pretty high, so is the groove factor, which keeps Deathbeds from slipping into torpid trudgery, and instead let the bands swing. Somewhere we saw these guys described as Iron Monkey meets Entombed meets Helmet, which now that we think about it is a pretty decent description, but you might also want to mention Eyehategod, maybe Crowbar or Down, there's a definite NOLA vibe, a slithery Sabbathy pound. The drums are way up in the mix, like getting pelted with cannonballs, the guitars thick and crunchy and massive, then there's the vocals, a monstrous deep bellow, reminiscent of Coalesce, that impossibly intense rrrooooaar, which is a weird match for Deathbeds' stonery groove, but fuck it, it definitely works, or doesn't work, but in not working, makes it work even more. Or at least makes it its own thing. And the vocals do shift gears here and there, slipping into something more shrieky, but always back to that monstrous howl. And yeah, the songs are pretty dang catchy too. Churning and chugging and pounding, we've actually gotten a little obsessed with these three jams, listening to this 7" over and over, and it definitely has us dying for a full length.
Cool creepy full color sleeve, pressed on green vinyl, comes with a download coupon too, LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "No Funeral"

DEATHHAMMER Onward To The Pits (Hells Headbangers) cd 12.98
Full length number two from this Norwegian duo who traffic in, as their name suggests, some seriously fierce old school eighties style thrash. Think Kreator, Sodom, Bathory and the like, their sound a blitzkrieg of frenzied riffing, shredding leads and blasting beats, the sound super distorted and blown out, the vocals a raspy growl with a penchant for Slayer style almost falsetto screams at the end of lines, sometimes just a weird voice cracking squeak, other times a full on maniacal shriek. Some of our favorite moments though are where they slow it down and get downright doomy, like the opening of "Emperor Of Sin", complete with tolling bell, or on the distorted organ and chugging dirge intro to "Lead Us Into Hell", but in both cases, it's not long before they explode into another blast of galloping thrash.
Obviously stuff like this doesn't need a huge review, or in depth analysis. Do you favor denim vests, preferably with patches and spikes? How about bullet belts? Do you like your metal raw and violent, furious and frantic? Blasting beats and hyperspeed riffing? Do you dig classic speed/thrash/black metal? Yes to any of those and odds are Deathhammer will be your jam...
MPEG Stream: "Deathrashing Sacrifice"
MPEG Stream: "Emperor Of Sin"
MPEG Stream: "Lead Us Into Hell"

DEATHHAMMER Onward To The Pits (Hells Headbangers) lp 22.00
Full length number two from this Norwegian duo who traffic in, as their name suggests, some seriously fierce old school eighties style thrash. Think Kreator, Sodom, Bathory and the like, their sound a blitzkrieg of frenzied riffing, shredding leads and blasting beats, the sound super distorted and blown out, the vocals a raspy growl with a penchant for Slayer style almost falsetto screams at the end of lines, sometimes just a weird voice cracking squeak, other times a full on maniacal shriek. Some of our favorite moments though are where they slow it down and get downright doomy, like the opening of "Emperor Of Sin", complete with tolling bell, or on the distorted organ and chugging dirge intro to "Lead Us Into Hell", but in both cases, it's not long before they explode into another blast of galloping thrash.
Obviously stuff like this doesn't need a huge review, or in depth analysis. Do you favor denim vests, preferably with patches and spikes? How about bullet belts? Do you like your metal raw and violent, furious and frantic? Blasting beats and hyperspeed riffing? Do you dig classic speed/thrash/black metal? Yes to any of those and odds are Deathhammer will be your jam...
MPEG Stream: "Deathrashing Sacrifice"
MPEG Stream: "Emperor Of Sin"
MPEG Stream: "Lead Us Into Hell"

DEATHROW Primordial Lifecode (ISO666) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

DEATHROW / MOLOCH Echoes In Eternity (Tour De Garde) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've become a little obsessed recently with Ukrainian one man band Moloch. A quick look at Encyclopaedia Metallum reveals about 30 or 40 releases, 5 or 6 of them BOX SETS! Unfortunately most of them limited to 50, or 40, some even less than 10. So we've been on the hunt for at least one record we could get enough of to review on the list. We have our sites set on a cd full length, which we should be able to have in stock soon, but while we've been searching this little black gem showed up, and thus, will most likely serve as your introduction to the mighty Moloch.
Of his 30 or 40 releases, only a handful are black metal, the rest are split between dark ambient, and noise. So the black metal records end up being infused with both ambient drones and black noise.
But before we get to Moloch, we have Deathrow to contend with, a one man band from Italy, that one man also being a member of Frostmoon Eclipse, Ad Hominem, Kult, Nocternity and a whole bunch of others. For this split, Deathrow offer up some gorgeously lush black ambience, thick roiling clouds of buzzing synth, shimmering organs, pulsing low end rumbles, all woven into slow moving creepscapes, almost like Goblin at 16rpm.
Moloch too chooses a path of blacker ambience, and offers up some grim necro rituals recalling the strange abstract blackened mood music of Abruptum, but far from being harsh, this is a dark and haunting journey through some fog shrouded underworld, all deep sonorous tones, mysterious creaks and thumps, dense swells of distorted low end, streaks of minor key melody, everything blurred and indistinct, distant anguished howls, tinkling marimba like chimes, warm washes of crumbling chordal whir, animal grunts and growls, reverb drenched detuned piano, all super cinematic and soundtracky, conjuring images of boarded up old houses, of black swamps, strange shapes drawn by moonlight filtering through the trees, of abandoned streets, dank cellars, of caves lit by flickering firelight, of nighttime, of darkness, of loss, misery, pain, loneliness, and hell.
WAY recommended. And if all goes well we'll be able to track down that Moloch full length, and you can discover his even blacker side for yourself.

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Drought (Season Of Mist) cd 10.98
Most aQ customers don't need to know anything other than the fact that there's a new Deathspell Omega to send them scrambling for the buy button (or running down to the shop, if they're local folks). One of those rare bands, whose reputation rightfully precedes them. Every record a stunning sonic masterpiece, and seemingly with every record the band continue to not only hone their unique sound, but to push themselves further and further away from black metal, at least the strictures and tropes that seem to keep so many bands from making truly innovative music. And DSO is most definitely innovative, maybe THEE most innovative black metal band out there, and Drought finds them pushing their sound even further out, while not at all abandoning the gnarled blackness that has defined their sound up until now.
The opening track might be the boldest thing they've done, a spare bit of haunting atmospheric doom creep, with lots of space, chords ringing out, notes decaying gradually, sounding like Low crossed with Skepticism or a heavier blackened Barn Owl, the track a sprawl of minor key twang and distant black buzz, that builds to a loping post rocky chug and churn, that had us thinking DSO might have abandoned the black buzz entirely, but that the second songs erupts in a frenzy of pounding blackness, rife with melody, but impossibly noisy and gnarled, the drums insanely complex, the arrangement dizzying, DSO one of those few bands that have even the most musically savvy scratching their hands wondering not only how the hell do they play this, but how do they come up with it in the first place. Heavy, and heady, melodic, proggy, intricate, intense, somehow catchy to boot, the band deftly flitting from melodic lope to impossibly dense black blast and back again.
The Slint influence is still heavy here, but the band don't dial back the heaviness for those post rockier parts, which gives this new ep a twisted ferocity, that barely lets up, instead of switching to clean guitar and spare arrangement, they douse those post/math moments in black buzz, and transform them into something else entirely.
There are some super melodic moments for sure, the final track especially manages to turn a post rock style groove into a dense black sprawl of distortion drenched heaviness, with strange tripped out stretches of just drums and chanted monklike vocals, but bookended by heavy parts that are SO heavy, and yet so hauntingly melodic. In just a little over twenty minutes, DSO manage to accomplish more than most bands do in a lifetime, creating something at once so perfectly embodying the spirit of true back metal, but at the same time forging their own ultra distinctive sonic path, one that continues to lead them further and further afield, into sonic realms where most other bands fear to tread.
MPEG Stream: "Salowe Vision"
MPEG Stream: "Fiery Serpents"
MPEG Stream: "Scorpions & Drought"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum (Ajna / Southern Lord) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
FINALLY! The long awaited brand new release from mysterious French post-black metal horde Deathspell Omega. There are very few bands that instill the sort of worship and awe that these guys do, but it's well deserved. Deathspell Omega have tread a solitary path, twisting the sounds of black metal into decidedly unlikely shapes, culminating in their last record, the classic Kenose, almost more of a post rock record with bits of black metal mixed in.
We had no idea what to expect from this new record, to be honest, we had a slight feeling, that they might abandon metal all together, or at least push even farther into avant rock territory, more sparse and moody meandering postrockscapes, and less full on blackness, but as we should have expected, DSO ended up doing the last thing we expected, and made a sort of slight return to their sound of old.
Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum is WAY more aggressive, relentless and pummeling. Those post rock elements are still very much evident, but the meat of these songs is a dizzying chaotic squall of black blasts, tangled obtuse guitars, minor key melodies, hateful howls and a super 'live' sounding BIG production, making everything sound even more intense and brutal.
The record opens and closes with strange soundscapes of tinkling piano, regal horns, martial percussion, what sounds like some sort of medieval court music, big booming drums, muter trumpets, huge masses of choral chants, almost like an ultra blackened Arvo Part score, or maybe even a strangely melodic piece by Hermann Nitsch.
But then the band launch into some of the most furious, most chaotic material we've heard from them in ages. A churning pit of dizzyingly technical blackness, the guitars are everywhere, buzzing, grinding, the vocals growled and ultra low, but it's the drums that truly destroy. Unlike most black metal records, the drums don't just flip flop between blasts and midtempo jams, they are spastic and wild, fills all over the place, the drums stumbling and scrambling over every spare inch of space, like a continuous drum solo, but every beat, every flurry of kick drums, is somehow perfectly tangled up with some bit of guitar or some convoluted arrangement. The riffs are slippery and swoop wildly within the different parts, the drums pelting them from all sides with a never ending hailstorm of blown out battery. It's the sort of metal that has you gasping for breath between songs. In the store it sometimes sounds like a blur, but with headphones, it's much easier to hear everything that is going on below the surface. Ultra complex, hyper mathy, but strangely hooky too. Little trills of high end guitar pepper the blurry buzz, each song broken into about a hundred different parts.
Most of the tracks have some sort of stripped down bridge, where the metal pulls back to reveal a lonely loping interlude, all clean minor key guitar and simple propulsive drumming, usually wrapped in all manner of sinister black ambience. A post rock meander through some dark forest or across some barren alien landscape before being swallowed up by DSO's massive wall of black sound.
A few tracks definitely remind us of Kenose, the distinctly nineties sounding math rock intro to "A Chore For The Lost" could just as easily be the Dazzling Killmen, with it's guitar harmonics, angular riffage and crushing beats, or the sort of dissonant slowcore opening to "The Repellent Scars Of Abandon And Election", but both of those are just that, merely intros, that soon transform into spiky black beasts, crushing and burning and trampling everything in their path.
The sound of Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum is so chaotic and so schizophrenic, it almost seems like it would just be way too much for the typical black metalhead, it's certainly grim and black and buzzy, but it's also dense and fucked up and obtuse and really really weird.... But if you're anything like us, which we think you are, then that all pretty much perfectly describes what could very well end up black metal record of the year.
MPEG Stream: "The Shrine Of Mad Laughter"
MPEG Stream: "Bread Of Bitterness"
MPEG Stream: "A Chore For The Lost"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum (Ajna / Southern Lord) 2lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
FINALLY! Available on vinyl, the long awaited brand new release from mysterious French post-black metal horde Deathspell Omega. There are very few bands that instill the sort of worship and awe that these guys do, but it's well deserved. Deathspell Omega have tread a solitary path, twisting the sounds of black metal into decidedly unlikely shapes, culminating in their last record, the classic Kenose, almost more of a post rock record with bits of black metal mixed in.
We had no idea what to expect from this new record, to be honest, we had a slight feeling, that they might abandon metal all together, or at least push even farther into avant rock territory, more sparse and moody meandering postrockscapes, and less full on blackness, but as we should have expected, DSO ended up doing the last thing we expected, and made a sort of slight return to their sound of old.
Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum is WAY more aggressive, relentless and pummeling. Those post rock elements are still very much evident, but the meat of these songs is a dizzying chaotic squall of black blasts, tangled obtuse guitars, minor key melodies, hateful howls and a super 'live' sounding BIG production, making everything sound even more intense and brutal.
The record opens and closes with strange soundscapes of tinkling piano, regal horns, martial percussion, what sounds like some sort of medieval court music, big booming drums, muter trumpets, huge masses of choral chants, almost like an ultra blackened Arvo Part score, or maybe even a strangely melodic piece by Hermann Nitsch.
But then the band launch into some of the most furious, most chaotic material we've heard from them in ages. A churning pit of dizzyingly technical blackness, the guitars are everywhere, buzzing, grinding, the vocals growled and ultra low, but it's the drums that truly destroy. Unlike most black metal records, the drums don't just flip flop between blasts and midtempo jams, they are spastic and wild, fills all over the place, the drums stumbling and scrambling over every spare inch of space, like a continuous drum solo, but every beat, every flurry of kick drums, is somehow perfectly tangled up with some bit of guitar or some convoluted arrangement. The riffs are slippery and swoop wildly within the different parts, the drums pelting them from all sides with a never ending hailstorm of blown out battery. It's the sort of metal that has you gasping for breath between songs. In the store it sometimes sounds like a blur, but with headphones, it's much easier to hear everything that is going on below the surface. Ultra complex, hyper mathy, but strangely hooky too. Little trills of high end guitar pepper the blurry buzz, each song broken into about a hundred different parts.
Most of the tracks have some sort of stripped down bridge, where the metal pulls back to reveal a lonely loping interlude, all clean minor key guitar and simple propulsive drumming, usually wrapped in all manner of sinister black ambience. A post rock meander through some dark forest or across some barren alien landscape before being swallowed up by DSO's massive wall of black sound.
A few tracks definitely remind us of Kenose, the distinctly nineties sounding math rock intro to "A Chore For The Lost" could just as easily be the Dazzling Killmen, with it's guitar harmonics, angular riffage and crushing beats, or the sort of dissonant slowcore opening to "The Repellent Scars Of Abandon And Election", but both of those are just that, merely intros, that soon transform into spiky black beasts, crushing and burning and trampling everything in their path.
The sound of Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum is so chaotic and so schizophrenic, it almost seems like it would just be way too much for the typical black metalhead, it's certainly grim and black and buzzy, but it's also dense and fucked up and obtuse and really really weird.... But if you're anything like us, which we think you are, then that all pretty much perfectly describes what could very well end up black metal record of the year.
MPEG Stream: "The Shrine Of Mad Laughter"
MPEG Stream: "Bread Of Bitterness"
MPEG Stream: "A Chore For The Lost"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Infernal Battles (Northern Heritage) cd 15.98
Finally back in stock!
The two most recent Deathspell Omega records, Kenose and Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice, immediately became all time AQ favorites, due in no small part to their strange hybrid of classic thrashy black metal, and strange serpentine post rock. Grim enough to satisfy all the true black metal warriors out there, but weird and avant enough to please fans of strange music, metalhead or not. But as with most groups with a strange progressive sonic bent, that sound didn't just happen overnight, they had to grow into it, feeling their way as they went and DSO is no exception. While now they are this ultra mysterious avant garde black metal outift, they started out as an ultra grim, thrashy black metal band, as is evidenced on Infernal Battles, a disc that collects two of DSO's demos (2000 / 2003). This was released a while ago but quickly went out of print and has only been repressed recently so we've finally gotten enough to list!
So while this isn't as far out or weirdly progressive as the more recent releases, in no way does that mean this isn't essential stuff. And even that far back, there were hints as to what the future held for DSO sonically. Overall, this is simple and true and grim thrashy buzzing black metal, furious blast beats and droning riffs, howled vocals, but even in this more traditional classic BM framework, DSO manage to imbue each song with subtly strange melodies and unlikely riffing, surprisingly complex and catchy arrangements, all fitted snugly in that classic BM structure, subverting subtly from within. This one is definitely not for the dabblers who dug later DSO records but for whom the BM angle was more of a novelty -- this is harsh, heavy, grim, brutal stuff, fans of Darkthrone, old Immortal, Mayhem and the like will be in utter hell (which they like), and will gladly wallow in the bleak blackness of Infernal Battles for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Drink The Devil's Blood"
MPEG Stream: "The Ancient Presence Revealed"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Inquisitors Of Satan (Northern Heritage) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally back in stock!
Inquisitors Of Satan was the second album from Deathspell Omega, originally released in 2002 and intended to be vinyl only until a slew of spotty bootleg cds convinced the band to release a cd version. Much like Infernal Battles, IoS finds Deathspell still firmly ensconced in a more traditional grim and true black metal sound, channelling the spirit of Darkthrone and Immortal and Mayhem, but twisting that classic BM sound into their own subtly strange shapes.
A cursory listen reveals all the sonic hallmarks you might expect from any classic black metal record: buzzing blurry riffs, furious blast beats, haunting minor key melodies, gutteral growled demonic vocals, but as on Infernal Battles, DSO seem to be growing tired of just blasting away, and inject all sorts of subtleties that slowly reveal themselves upon repeated listens, riffs are twisted and convoluted, melodies are totally unlikely but in being so, manage to also be completely and extraordinarily catchy. Granted this is still at it's core, pure and evil and furiously brutal black metal, but this definitely hinted even more at the mysterious blackened beast DSO would one day become.
MPEG Stream: "From Unknown Lands Of Desolation"
MPEG Stream: "Torture And Death"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Kenose (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This totally essential slab of avant / post black metal brilliance was just re-issued domestically by our doomy pals at Southern Lord, duplicating the awesome packaging of the import exactly. So if you missed out last time, thank your lucky stars, you just got another chance:
Metal heads around these parts have been completely obsessed with Deathspell Omega. And rightfully so. The first black metal band in a long while to totally reinvent black metal and make it their own. In a way that managed to turn lots of non-metal folks to the dark side while somehow remaining true and grim enough to keep the hardcore black metal elite satisfied. We mentioned in our review of the last DSO, that the best way to find out about the best bands, is to check out what the other best bands are listening to, and at the time, everyone from Leviathan to Nachtmystium to Crebain to Draugar were singing their praises. So when the word of a new DSO surfaced, we had the SF black metal horde showing up at the store all the time like kids at Christmastime, chomping at the bit for the new DSO. "Is it here yet?! Is It Here Yet?! IS IT HERE YET?" Well, it is finally here, and damn if it isn't even weirder and more intense and fucking amazing than we could have hoped for. Three tracks clocking in at about 36 minutes, of some of the most unique, idiosyncratic outsider black metal you'll ever hear. The first track starts off with four minutes of meandering and spacious post rock, a lilting melancholic soundscape, of finger picked guitars, big simple drumming, creepy whispered vocals, and snippets of ghostly disembodied voices, before the whole thing builds into a super angular minor key black metal burst of buzzing distorted riffing, arpeggiated melodies and blast beats that all sort of morphs into a very Ved Buens Ende sounding loping midtempo metallic groove, seasick and hypnotic sounding. The entire record is peppered with alien sounding melodies, stretches of ambient flutter, some otherworldly slow motion doom, strange industrial clatter and woozy head nodding arrangements, all aligned around and amidst more traditional blasts of black metal. So cool and so weird. This is indeed black metal through and through, but at the same time it's almost more of a weird avant rock record, incorporating lots of BM elements, making it that much more original and that much more timeless. Packaged in a gorgeous digipak with a huge booklet of BEAUTIFUL creepy artwork very reminiscent of Hans Bellmer, along with all sorts of texts, Biblical, apocryphal and otherwise.
MPEG Stream: "Kenose 1"
MPEG Stream: "Kenose 2"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Kenose (Ajna Offensive) 2lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We have very few copies of the lp version, so act fast or be prepared to wait while we try to get more! Metal heads around these parts have been completely obsessed with Deathspell Omega. And rightfully so. The first black metal band in a long while to totally reinvent black metal and make it their own. In a way that managed to turn lots of non-metal folks to the dark side while somehow remaining true and grim enough to keep the hardcore black metal elite satisfied. We mentioned in our review of the last DSO, that the best way to find out about the best bands, is to check out what the other best bands are listening to, and at the time, everyone from Leviathan to Nachtmystium to Crebain to Draugar were singing their praises. So when the word of a new DSO surfaced, we had the SF black metal horde showing up at the store all the time like kids at Christmastime, chomping at the bit for the new DSO. "Is it here yet?! Is It Here Yet?! IS IT HERE YET?" Well, it is finally here, and damn if it isn't even weirder and more intense and fucking amazing than we could have hoped for. Three tracks clocking in at about 36 minutes, of some of the most unique, idiosyncratic outsider black metal you'll ever hear. The first track starts off with four minutes of meandering and spacious post rock, a lilting melancholic soundscape, of finger picked guitars, big simple drumming, creepy whispered vocals, and snippets of ghostly disembodied voices, before the whole thing builds into a super angular minor key black metal burst of buzzing distorted riffing, arpeggiated melodies and blast beats that all sort of morphs into a very Ved Buens Ende sounding loping midtempo metallic groove, seasick and hypnotic sounding. The entire record is peppered with alien sounding melodies, stretches of ambient flutter, some otherworldly slow motion doom, strange industrial clatter and woozy head nodding arrangements, all aligned around and amidst more traditional blasts of black metal. So cool and so weird. This is indeed black metal through and through, but at the same time it's almost more of a weird avant rock record, incorporating lots of BM elements, making it that much more original and that much more timeless. Packaged in a gorgeous digipak with a huge booklet of BEAUTIFUL creepy artwork very reminiscent of Hans Bellmer, along with all sorts of texts, Biblical, apocryphal and otherwise.
MPEG Stream: "Kenose 1"
MPEG Stream: "Kenose 2"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Manifestations 2000-2001 (Northern Heritage) cd 15.98
It's only been a year since we last heard from Deathspell Omega, but it feels like forever. Their last record, Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum, still ranks as one of our favorite black metal records ever. A truly original blast of gnarled avant black metal, as true and grim and buzzy and black as any black metal we've heard, but rife with strange chords, and distinctly non-metal phrasings, convoluted arrangements, an incredible raw black metal record, all tangled up with something much more fractured and experimental. The record before that, Kenose, was even more far out, transforming their black buzz into something approaching a blackened Slint, a strange twisted metallic post rock.
This disc however takes us was back to the beginning of this century, and compiles a handful of super rare splits and compilation tracks, from the disc they shared with Mutiilation, their split with Moonblood, and the Black Crushing Sorcery compilations. The sound here, based on the dates, and the fact that these tracks predate new vocalist Mikka Aspa from Clandestine Blaze and Fleshpress joining the band, are sonically much more in line with their earlier records Infernal Battles and especially Inquisitors of Satan. The first two tracks from the Mutiilation split find the band right at the cusp, clinging to their grim raw roots, but allowing their music to sprawl, the chords get more and more dissonant, the arrangements more complex, the overall sound thicker and more lush, but still rough and black. The three tracks from the Moonblood split go back to 2000 and thus sound much more raw and straight ahead, total early nineties Norwegian BM worship, a definite Darkthrone vibe for sure, but is suits them, the soaring buzz, the blasting beats, all wound up into long epics, peppered with woozy midtempo breakdowns, the riffs slippery and atonal, the overall sound a super smoldering lo-fi blackness. The final track from the Black Crushing Sorcery is more of the same, another solid chunk of classic nineties sounding black metal, insectoid guitar buzz, furious blast beats, even a weird punky Darkthrone breakdown partway through.
Essential and classic, another glimpse into the past, revealing more of the black roots that would eventually take hold and produce the fearsome black beast that is Deathspell today.
MPEG Stream: "Insanity Supreme"
MPEG Stream: "Black Crushing Sorcery"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Manifestations 2002 (Northern Heritage) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As we wait patiently for a new Deathspell Omega, we have not one, but two archival releases to hold us over, one, reviewed elsewhere on this list, is a collection of splits and compilation tracks, and this one, well, this is the one DSO the troo fanatics have been waiting for.
The music on the other disc, Manifestations 2000-2001, is all previously released, and while most folks probably never got their hands on the way too limited originals, those recordings have definitely been floating around. But the music on this disc, Manifestations 2002, is all previously unreleased, and unless you're seriously well connected, this is essentially a brand new Deathspell album. These tracks were originally recorded for two different releases, several for a split lp with Cantus Bestiae, which never materialized, and the rest, were intended to be DSO's contribution to the Crushing The Holy Trinity comp. For whatever reason, these tracks never made it, and the band recorded a single 22 minute epic to take their place. But thankfully, these tracks were preserved, and are finally seeing the light of day, or rather, the black of night.
And regardless of where these tracks were headed for, they play pretty solidly as a proper DSO album. Filthy and furious, frenzied and relentless, a flurry on insectoid buzz lightning speed blast beats, harsh bile drenched vokills, but it is Deathspell, and this is about the time their sound began to change, so amidst all this buzz and blast, are strange loping midtempo sprawls, slippery woozy angular riffs, notes colliding and shimmering in fields of weird almost-grooves, melodies and harmonies twist and transform, their sound simultaneously demonic and weirdly pretty, but buried under avalanches of black fury, pounding almost punky breakdowns slip smoothly into impossible fast blurs, brief moments of near poppiness surface amidst roiling seas of choppy black grind, but it's still 2002, so instead of defining their sound, those elements become just another part of the heaving monstrous whole, and infuse even the most straight ahead black blasts with the sort of twisted avant vibe that would eventually become the core of DSO's new direction.
MPEG Stream: "Tyrants And Slaves"
MPEG Stream: "Gloria - Diabolus Absconditus"
MPEG Stream: "Monument Of Hate"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Paracletus (Season Of Mist) cd 14.98
What can we write about France's mysterious Deathspell Omega that we haven't already? Pretty much the gold standard of forward thinking avant black metal, every record better than the last, more twisted, more complex, and weirdly enough less obviously black metal.
Paracletus is the final part of the group's epic trilogy, which began with Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice, and continued with Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum; like those records, Paracletus is an epic sonic undertaking, present in smaller doses are the requisite black metal buzzing and blasting, but even more than the first two records, which were already reaching beyond the tired tropes of traditional black metal, Paracletus barely seems black metal at all. It's definitely heavy, and seriously intense, complex, but even the blasting blackness is infused with mysterious melody, and impossible textures. Listening to this, we not only find ourselves wondering how people can make music like this, but how they can even conceive of it?
The opening sub two minute 'intro' is all gnarled melodies, twisted atonal mathiness, convoluted and avant and abstract and somehow totally catchy, the blackest part is the vocals, still delivered in a gruff demonic bellow, but other than that, the sound is in a realm all its own. And when you expect the record proper to kick in, the band do explode in a frenzy of blasting fury, but the riffs sound weirdly clean, and are peppered with all sorts of little bits of filigree and little sonic curlicues, not to mention more of those super tangled and gnarled Greg Ginn-ish guitar parts that band is known for, the song a twisted sonic puzzle, a million parts seamlessly woven into an impossibly cohesive whole which is indeed heavy, and black, but has so much cool weird shit going on, strange melodic breakdowns, laid over frantic blast beats, haunting ascending and descending melodies, atonal and angular, and it never lets up, how a band can play this fast, and this intricate, and definitely boggles the mind. And the whole record is like that, the sound both heavy and harsh, but simultaneously clean and melodic, it seems impossible, and sounds weird to describe, but there is something definitely unique going on here, the tone, the arrangements, the SOUND, it's not brittle or buzzy or grim or kvlt or any of that, it's LUSH, and expansive and epic and majestic, but still fierce and dark and intense, there's bass all over the place too, definitely an anomaly for black metal, adding some serious heft, not to mention melodic counterpoint, clean vocals, intense spoken word, doomy stretches that sound more like Codeine than Mutiilation. Not to totally downplay how heavy and TRUE this is, there is no doubt that this is black metal, it's just so above and beyond everything else, so unique and unlike all the other groups out there. We LOVE black metal, but 99 percent of the time we'd fail a blind name that tune or even name that band sort of comparison, cuz so much BM sounds so similar, but we could pick out DSP in a matter of seconds.
For their sound, but also for all the strange stuff they mix into their BM, like the lurching low slung breakdown on "Phosphene", with it's buzzy gothy fuzzbass, and tortured wails, not to mention the woozy main riff and the strange scrapes and slides, or the glimmering prettiness that is "Epiklesis II", which sounds almost like Mogwai or something, growing more and more epic, it even sounds like there are horns or an orchestra, so totally epic and unexpected, or howabout the insane mathiness of "Devouring Famine", along with the twisted dizzying breakdowns and the warped sounding guitars, or finally the whole of "Apokatastasis Panton", which is an incredible slab of black pop, the drums super complex, the arrangement sprawling and serpentine, but the guitars, soaring and melodic, again building and building to a sort of psychedelic blackened Godspeed style climax.
So incredible, the sort of thing that doesn't just feel like the culmination of the record, but of all three records, of the trilogy as a whole, an explosive and emotional and ultimately cathartic release, the sort of thing you don't get from much music, let alone black metal. Easily our new favorite black metal record, and without a doubt, black metal record of the year. TOTALLY ESSENTIAL.
MPEG Stream: "Epiklesis"
MPEG Stream: "Wings Of Predation"
MPEG Stream: "Abscission"
MPEG Stream: "Apokatastasis Panton"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Paracletus (Season Of Mist) lp 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally available on vinyl!! Thick gatefold sleeve, presumably limited.
What can we write about France's mysterious Deathspell Omega that we haven't already? Pretty much the gold standard of forward thinking avant black metal, every record better than the last, more twisted, more complex, and weirdly enough less obviously black metal.
Paracletus is the final part of the group's epic trilogy, which began with Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice, and continued with Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum; like those records, Paracletus is an epic sonic undertaking, present in smaller doses are the requisite black metal buzzing and blasting, but even more than the first two records, which were already reaching beyond the tired tropes of traditional black metal, Paracletus barely seems black metal at all. It's definitely heavy, and seriously intense, complex, but even the blasting blackness is infused with mysterious melody, and impossible textures. Listening to this, we not only find ourselves wondering how people can make music like this, but how they can even conceive of it?
The opening sub two minute 'intro' is all gnarled melodies, twisted atonal mathiness, convoluted and avant and abstract and somehow totally catchy, the blackest part is the vocals, still delivered in a gruff demonic bellow, but other than that, the sound is in a realm all its own. And when you expect the record proper to kick in, the band do explode in a frenzy of blasting fury, but the riffs sound weirdly clean, and are peppered with all sorts of little bits of filigree and little sonic curlicues, not to mention more of those super tangled and gnarled Greg Ginn-ish guitar parts that band is known for, the song a twisted sonic puzzle, a million parts seamlessly woven into an impossibly cohesive whole which is indeed heavy, and black, but has so much cool weird shit going on, strange melodic breakdowns, laid over frantic blast beats, haunting ascending and descending melodies, atonal and angular, and it never lets up, how a band can play this fast, and this intricate, and definitely boggles the mind. And the whole record is like that, the sound both heavy and harsh, but simultaneously clean and melodic, it seems impossible, and sounds weird to describe, but there is something definitely unique going on here, the tone, the arrangements, the SOUND, it's not brittle or buzzy or grim or kvlt or any of that, it's LUSH, and expansive and epic and majestic, but still fierce and dark and intense, there's bass all over the place too, definitely an anomaly for black metal, adding some serious heft, not to mention melodic counterpoint, clean vocals, intense spoken word, doomy stretches that sound more like Codeine than Mutiilation. Not to totally downplay how heavy and TRUE this is, there is no doubt that this is black metal, it's just so above and beyond everything else, so unique and unlike all the other groups out there. We LOVE black metal, but 99 percent of the time we'd fail a blind name that tune or even name that band sort of comparison, cuz so much BM sounds so similar, but we could pick out DSP in a matter of seconds.
For their sound, but also for all the strange stuff they mix into their BM, like the lurching low slung breakdown on "Phosphene", with it's buzzy gothy fuzzbass, and tortured wails, not to mention the woozy main riff and the strange scrapes and slides, or the glimmering prettiness that is "Epiklesis II", which sounds almost like Mogwai or something, growing more and more epic, it even sounds like there are horns or an orchestra, so totally epic and unexpected, or howabout the insane mathiness of "Devouring Famine", along with the twisted dizzying breakdowns and the warped sounding guitars, or finally the whole of "Apokatastasis Panton", which is an incredible slab of black pop, the drums super complex, the arrangement sprawling and serpentine, but the guitars, soaring and melodic, again building and building to a sort of psychedelic blackened Godspeed style climax.
So incredible, the sort of thing that doesn't just feel like the culmination of the record, but of all three records, of the trilogy as a whole, an explosive and emotional and ultimately cathartic release, the sort of thing you don't get from much music, let alone black metal. Easily our new favorite black metal record, and without a doubt, black metal record of the year. TOTALLY ESSENTIAL.
MPEG Stream: "Epiklesis"
MPEG Stream: "Wings Of Predation"
MPEG Stream: "Abscission"
MPEG Stream: "Apokatastasis Panton"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice (Norma Evangelium Diaboli) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Deathspell Omega's Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice is most definitely one of the coolest, weirdest black metal records of the last decade, but unfortunately it's been out of print for a while now. But finally, this amazing disc is available again (and at a much cheaper price), so if you missed out the first time around, keep reading, check out the sound samples and be prepared for some of the most intense and innovative black metal you've ever heard...
Our original review from way back in 2004:
The only way to find out about the best bands, has always been to check out who the other best bands are listening to. So when the black metal elite (including our own West Coast wing, Leviathan, Crebain, Draugar, etc) are all singing the praises of a band, then you know you need to check them out. Such is the case with mysterious black metal horde Deathspell Omega. With a handful of impossible to find releases in the past (now in stock and reviewed elsewhere on the AQ site), Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice was the first DO record with any sort of wide distribution. And it was about time too. Deathspell Omega occupy an unholy sonic space somewhere between Burzum, Mutiilation, Leviathan and Xasthur. Droning mostly midtempo black metal (with occasional blast beats), infused with strange arpeggiated minor key guitars, melancholy riffing, super hypnotic ultra memorable songwriting, complex song structures, grim affected vocals, and all sorts of hauntingly beautiful ambient interludes / intros, with martial percussion, liturgical chants and subtle drones, very dark and intensely affecting. Sonically, DO sound a bit like older Enslaved, or early Emperor, but with a strong penchant for unlikely melodies (that subtly surface even in the harshest of musical moments) and hypnotic trance like repetition. One of our favorite new black metal records.
MPEG Stream: "First Prayer"
MPEG Stream: "Sola Fide I & II"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice (Norma Evangelium Diaboli) 2lp 32.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally available on vinyl. Pretty pricey, but as always GORGEOUS packaging, not to mention one of the most mind blowing black metal records ever, and of course VERY limited.
Deathspell Omega's Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice is most definitely one of the coolest, weirdest black metal records of the last decade, but unfortunately it's been out of print for a while now. But finally, this amazing disc is available again (and at a much cheaper price), so if you missed out the first time around, keep reading, check out the sound samples and be prepared for some of the most intense and innovative black metal you've ever heard...
Our original review from way back in 2004:
The only way to find out about the best bands, has always been to check out who the other best bands are listening to. So when the black metal elite (including our own West Coast wing, Leviathan, Crebain, Draugar, etc) are all singing the praises of a band, then you know you need to check them out. Such is the case with mysterious black metal horde Deathspell Omega. With a handful of impossible to find releases in the past (now in stock and reviewed elsewhere on the AQ site), Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice was the first DO record with any sort of wide distribution. And it was about time too. Deathspell Omega occupy an unholy sonic space somewhere between Burzum, Mutiilation, Leviathan and Xasthur. Droning mostly midtempo black metal (with occasional blast beats), infused with strange arpeggiated minor key guitars, melancholy riffing, super hypnotic ultra memorable songwriting, complex song structures, grim affected vocals, and all sorts of hauntingly beautiful ambient interludes / intros, with martial percussion, liturgical chants and subtle drones, very dark and intensely affecting. Sonically, DO sound a bit like older Enslaved, or early Emperor, but with a strong penchant for unlikely melodies (that subtly surface even in the harshest of musical moments) and hypnotic trance like repetition. One of our favorite new black metal records.
MPEG Stream: "First Prayer"
MPEG Stream: "Sola Fide I & II"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Veritas Diaboli Manet In Aeternum: Chaining The Kacheton (Norma Evangelium Diaboli / Ajna) cd ep 11.98
Finally, after waiting and waiting, a brand new Deathspell Omega record. Or track. OK, record. Same difference really. One single sprawling massive 22 minute epic with more parts and compositional complexities than most bands can cram into a record three times as long. And it's the perfect blend of DSO's two disparate sides, their grim and gnarled, frosty, thrashing buzzy black side, and their more obtuse, mathy melodic post rock side. In the past, it seemed like the band would lean heavily in one direction or the other depending on the record, Kenose with it's total slavish and apparently unintentional Slint worship, and then FAS, which seemed to ditch those post rock proclivities in favor of something much more old school.
So it was pretty much a toss up where the band would take their sound, and weirdly enough, this is almost exactly what we were hoping for. A perfect hybrid of the two, with no clear delineation, each side, those battling influences, blurring and bleeding into one another, confusionally bafflingly brilliant, bursts of furious grinding black buzz lead directly into warped stretches of spidery clean guitars and lurching impossible rhythms, soft hushed whispered interludes obliterated by thick roiling black riffery, only to slowly melt before our eyes, twisting and almost detuning, the guitar parts very Polvo-esque, strange tunings, almost skeletal sounding, until the band offer up some impossibly dense complicated BM fury, stop start arrangements, INCREDIBLE drumming, the guitars totally unhinged, but still weirdly catchy. Songs this long are always difficult to pull off, for the best of bands, either parts get recycled, the band repeats itself, or it gets tiresome and then it's a matter of waiting for the song to end. But nothing like that here. So many parts, all thematically and musically linked, but all totally unique, the guitars especially, seem to come to life, like some black weed, while the drums inhumanly stay locked in perfectly. The track shifts from intense frenzy, to woozy groove, to lumbering doom, to jagged mathy stutter, and back again, there even seems to be some horns happening, reminding us of later period Gore.
Even as a musician, it baffles the mind, how anyone is capable of conceiving music this dense and complex and subtly melodic, let along performing it. This just might seal the deal, as if it wasn't sealed already, Deathspell Omega just might be the most progressive, most avant, and fuck it most mind blowing black metal band on the planet right now. Period.
DSO's twenty two minute track is actually from a split, released in conjunction with a new record from countrymen S.V.E.S.T., reviewed elsewhere on this list, and equally as essential, and vinyl folks, you are in luck, both the DSO material and the S.V.E.S.T. songs, while released as separate cds, are available together on a single lp!
MPEG Stream: "Chaining The Katechon (Excerpt)"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA / S.V.E.S.T. Veritas Diaboli Manet In Aeternum (Norma Evangelium Diaboli / End All Life Productions) lp 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The long awaited split from two of our all time favorite black metal outfits, Deathspell Omega and S.V.E.S.T.! Weirdly enough, each band's half of the vinyl split was also released on a separate cd, so if you're a digital kind of person, you're gonna have to buy both cds, and believe us it's well worth it, just read on. But if vinyl is your thing, then you're in luck, cuz both halves, all the material from both cds, is contained on this here lp.
Up first, Deathspell Omega:
Finally, after waiting and waiting, a brand new Deathspell Omega record. Or track. OK, record. Same difference really. One single sprawling massive 22 minute epic with more parts and compositional complexities than most bands can cram into a record three times as long. And it's the perfect blend of DSO's two disparate sides, their grim and gnarled, frosty, thrashing buzzy black side, and their more obtuse, mathy melodic post rock side. In the past, it seemed like the band would lean heavily in one direction or the other depending on the record, Kenose with it's total slavish and apparently unintentional Slint worship, and then FAS, which seemed to ditch those post rock proclivities in favor of something much more old school.
So it was pretty much a toss up where the band would take their sound, and weirdly enough, this is almost exactly what we were hoping for. A perfect hybrid of the two, with no clear delineation, each side, those battling influences, blurring and bleeding into one another, confusionally bafflingly brilliant, bursts of furious grinding black buzz lead directly into warped stretches of spidery clean guitars and lurching impossible rhythms, soft hushed whispered interludes obliterated by thick roiling black riffery, only to slowly melt before our eyes, twisting and almost detuning, the guitar parts very Polvo-esque, strange tunings, almost skeletal sounding, until the band offer up some impossibly dense complicated BM fury, stop start arrangements, INCREDIBLE drumming, the guitars totally unhinged, but still weirdly catchy. Songs this long are always difficult to pull off, for the best of bands, either parts get recycled, the band repeats itself, or it gets tiresome and then it's a matter of waiting for the song to end. But nothing like that here. So many parts, all thematically and musically linked, but all totally unique, the guitars especially, seem to come to life, like some black weed, while the drums inhumanly stay locked in perfectly. The track shifts from intense frenzy, to woozy groove, to lumbering doom, to jagged mathy stutter, and back again, there even seems to be some horns happening, reminding us of later period Gore.
Even as a musician, it baffles the mind, how anyone is capable of conceiving music this dense and complex and subtly melodic, let along performing it. This just might seal the deal, as if it wasn't sealed already, Deathspell Omega just might be the most progressive, most avant, and fuck it most mind blowing black metal band on the planet right now. Period.
And then S.V.E.S.T.:
The return of an old favorite, French duo S.V.E.S.T., who strangely enough haven't released a proper record since 2003 (2005's Coagula compiled older demos), but within 30 seconds, we were totally reminded exactly why we loved these guys so much. And they're a perfect foil for Deathspell, their sound equally fractured and convoluted and fucked up, but where DSO go for something darker and moodier and more melodic, S.V.E.S.T. go in the other direction completely, spitting out frenzied swaths of blurred buzz and wild squalls of intense tangled blackness. These three tracks, are so awesome, we almost, and we're well aware of the sacrilege involved here, but we just might like them as much as, if not even more than the Deathspell half of the split.
Their sound is hard to describe. The first track opens with a dizzying swirl of squiggly guitars, woozy riffs, wild splattery drumming, that seems already like it's bordering on total meltdown, yet that's just the intro, and the band launch into a frenzied assault even more fucked up and dense, but pepper it with cool little melodies and parts that almost sound Viking, albeit buried beneath a roiling black blowout. The guitar does these cool little descending trills, the song lurches and stutters, the drums are relentless, mind blowingly fast and heavy and intricate, until partway through, the sound shifts, and there's a bit of doomy crawl, before leaping right back into the fray. Throughout, there are bursts of total drumming chaos, extra guitars howling and adding yet more layers of buzz. It's so thick and heavy and dense, it takes close listening to pick out all the amazing stuff going on beneath the buzzy black surface.
The second track continues on in much the same vein, with the guitars even more twisted and gnarled, the drums still relentlessly mathy and intricate, slipping from total chaotic black noise, to stumbling groove, to cool pounding dirge, the drums leaping out from the mix, the guitars thick and raw, but soaring majestically at the same time. The sound manages to be epic and classic and technical while also murky and lo-fi, the sounds all blurring together, a heaving mass of constantly shifting blown out blackness, still rife with all manner of tangled little melodies, and sweeping epic ambience.
The closer is short and sweet, the weirdest and creepiest of the bunch, beginning with a staccato machine gun burst of drums and riffage, before slipping into a swirling high end guitardrone, all woozy and overlapping, disembodied riffs and smeared melodies, dizzying and mesmerizing, growing more and more intense, the drums barely there, just those high end guitars glowing hotter and hotter, until finally, the drums kick in, and the track resolves in a totally twisted soaring post rock black metal what the fuck epic outro, that fades out WAY too soon. Holy shit. These guys need to deliver a full length ASAP. and we definitely don't want to wait another 6 years.
LIMITED OF COURSE. And it would be hard not to think, even only nine days into the new year, that this wasn't gonna be the best black metal record of '09. We'll see...
MPEG Stream: DEATHSPELL OMEGA "Chaining The Katechon (Excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: S.V.E.S.T. "Et La Lumiere Fut, Comme Un Coup De Scalpel"

DEBRIS INC. s/t (Candlelight) cd 15.98
Saint Vitus guitarist + Trouble vocalist, doing drunken old school punk rock with only a hint of the doom metal they're known for...not what you'd expect (or is it?) but it's fun, and Dave Chandler's guitar sound is Vitusy for sure.