HOLLENTHON Domus Mundi (Napalm) cd 14.98
This disc (Hollenthon's debut) actually came out last year, but we thought we ought to list it since it was an unfairly overlooked "sleeper" deserving of your attention, and also now we're excited by the prospect of an upcoming second Hollenthon album and should list this one first. Anyway, the deal here is that Hollenthon is the new epic black metal project of Austrian multi-instrumental metaller Martin Schirenc (who plays guitars bass and keyboards, and shares vocal duties with his wife Elena). With the addition of a drummer, that's Hollenthon. It's VERY different from Martin's previous band, the infamous grind outfit Pungent Stench! Imagine (if you will) galloping heavy metal, with folk-based melodies, black metal vocal retchings, and lots of ancient and non-western vocal and instrumental samples/influences. For instance, at points it sounds like they're got Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a bagpiper, and the Rammstein rhythm section all together in the studio with them! Unique and weird, to say the least. We'd say they have something to offer to fans of everything from In Extremo to Thin Lizzy, from Vagtazo Halottkemek to Abigor, from Mithotyn to Carnival In Coal. Quite brilliant!
RealAudio clip: "Homage - Magni Nominis Umbra"
RealAudio clip: "Lure - Pallida Mors"

HOLLENTHON Opus Magnum (Napalm Records) cd 15.98

HOLLENTHON Tyrants & Wraiths (Napalm) cd 12.98

HOLLENTHON With Vilest of Worms to Dwell (Napalm ) cd 14.98
Here it is! The metal record of the week (the Necrophagist isn't really new, y'know), the second album from Austria's Hollenthon. Fucking incredible pan-cultural symphonic heavy metal genius. Even more epic and impressive than their debut, which we raved about here not long ago. With Vilest Of Worms To Dwell is glorious, galloping and grandioise, mixing blackened blasting, folky melodies, choral chanting, and heavy, heavy riffing in an over-the-top orchestral orgy unmatched by any band anywhere, or even by the motion picture soundtracks that they evidently wish they were making. Seriously recommended. We hear that Hollenthon' mainman Martin Schirenc's old band, the very different (gross grind) Pungent Stench, is reforming, but we can't figure out why he'd want to do anything other than this -- except that Hollenthon probably can't play live that easily.
RealAudio clip: "Y Draig Goch"
RealAudio clip: "Woe To The Defeated"
RealAudio clip: "To Kingdom Come"
RealAudio clip: "Conquest Demise"

HOLMGANG Gengangerens Kvad (Total Holocaust ) cd 14.98
Latest disc of brutal black buzz from Danish black metal horde Holmgang, who might be most notable to AQ customers due to the fact that their drummer is none other than Ynleborgaz, the man responsible for the suicidal black buzz doom of Make A ChangeÉ Kill Yourself, as well as the old school black buzz of Angantyr.
This is record number two from these guys, the first since 2003 (the old one is out of print sorry to say, so don't ask) and begins strangely enough with moody, smoky piano, distant synthy swirls, the piano becoming more and more intense and tangled, an intense, almost classical sounding intro, that eventually gives way to a flurry of chaotic drumming, and some seriously harsh distorted riffing, this is not typical straight ahead buzzing black metal, the drums are super loud, and end up being as much a focal point as the riffing, the sound is super distorted and crunchy, and there are some really strange moments, where the vocalist slips into a Killdozer like croon, singing along to some swoonsome strings, before the band launches back into its furious assault.
The core of Holmgang's sound is definitely old school black metal. Plenty of buzz and lots of blast beats, the vocals appropriately strangled and demonic, but the sound is twisted, and the arrangements are quite strange, the drums are amazing, loud and furious, complex and chaotic, exploding into dense tribal workouts or some simple midtempo pound, as often as they are blasting, the guitars buzz, but they also, grind and howl, the riffs splintering into arpeggiated melodies, or exploding into chaotic near noise, some tracks dip into doom, or epic melancholia, always returning to a Burzumic dirge or a blown out blasting buzz, haunting melodies lurking within the sonic maelstrom, and hooks that other bands would kill, or even die, for. But that hover far enough beneath the surface that it might require some close listening, and probably some headphones to pick up on. But after a few listens, this disc transforms from just another chunk of black black metal, into a gorgeously punishing collection of chaotic buzz and divine droning blackness.
MPEG Stream: "Himmelhvaelvets Bane"
MPEG Stream: "Skaebnesvig"

HOLMGANG Runens Advarsel (Total Holocaust Records) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another slab of Danish (!) black metal from the Total Holocaust label (see Angantyr elsewhere on this list!), who in the past have brought us loads of essential black metal from Xasthur, Blodulv, Nortt and more. This is yet another Total Holocaust disc we've been meaning to get around to reviewing, but due to THR's insanely relentless release schedule and our always increasing backlog of reviews to be written, we're only now getting around to it. Which is unfortunate because A. it's pretty fucking great, and B. like many way-too-limited black metal releases, the Holmgang is already out of print. But we still wanted to give some of our virtual customers a crack at picking one of these up and maybe remind some of you locals that this spike-y blackened slab of brutality was here for the grabbing! But not for long! Holmgang are modern masters of grim thrashing buzzing black metal, channelling the sound of Darkthrone, Bathory and early Immortal into a sick stew of galloping thrashing old school black metal. Lots of buzzing mosquito melodies, lightning speed riffing, wildly galloping drumming, runes, moonlit ravens, head banging, windmilling hair, chain mail and spiked armbands!
MPEG Stream: "I Vinterens Favn"
MPEG Stream: "Blot"

HOLY GRAIL Crisis in Utopia (Prosthetic) cd 14.98
Debut full length effort from these LA based retro metallers, formerly members of White Wizzard. Cool, but not quite as retro as we would have liked, actually.

HOLY MCGRAIL Collecting Earthquakes (Head Heritage) cd 14.98
After a long long time, finally BACK IN STOCK! What we said when we originally listed this back in 2005:
Here's great disc that we got clued into thanks to heavy druid dude Julian Cope's Head Heritage website (and label, that put this out). The UK's Holy McGrail (perhaps a silly name, but the guy behind this project is named Chris McGrail) is definitely one for any AQ customer who digs heaviness, droniness, and krautrockiness. That's a lot of you, eh? Well then, how 'bout three looong tracks ("Lady Holle" running to 23:45, "'Quake Appeal" at 28:51, and "Ur-cow" just 19:59) of pagan drone rock, one with buried-by-bass Amon Duul meets th' Stooges drumming and the rest totally beat-less cosmic guitar and synth-scapes, guest-starring the likes of Doggen (Brain Donor), Julian Cope himself and SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley?? From the freaking lovely purple cracked earth mountain cover art to the dense drones within, this is utterly right-on. Turn it up and let it rumble. Damn beautiful. If you like SUNNO))), Growing, Earth, etc. you should check this out. Now we're looking forward to Holy McGrail's upcoming plunderphonic tribute to Iggy & the Stooges, something called the Raw Power Suite! [Which unfortunately turned out to never be available in quantities we could list.]
And now, especially with the popularity of related / likeminded acts Urthona and Slomo (the aptly named Earth-like duo also featuring McGrail), we figure there's folks who might be interested who hadn't seen this before!
MPEG Stream: "Lady Holle (Holle Of Horcum)"

HOODED MENACE Effigies Of Evil (Relapse) cd 14.98
And here's the cd version (lp listed last time)...
The return of our favorite horror obsessed Finnish deathmetal doomlords, whose latest is another epic collection of sludgey blackened doom, filthy crusty riffage, echo drenched demonic cookie monster vokills, all woven into plodding psychedelic heaviness, with a classic, epic doom vibe, that definitely reminds us of the mighty Cathedral. And when we say death metal we're not talking the 'Tion's (as in Suffocation, Incantation, etc.), we're talking death OBSESSED metal, a death metal that's slowed way down to a doomy crawl, a creepy, downtuned chugging churn that sounds like classic death metal spinning at 16rpm, and few do it better (to our ears at least) than Hooded Menace, and while these guys are totally capable of thrashing and rocking out, they do spend the majority of their time stumbling zombie like, through fields of murky riffage and neanderthal drum pound. This is not knuckle dragging caveman doom though, these guys craft some serious SONGS, and lace these songs with killer melodies, mournful leads, just check out the end of the title track, total epic and emotional, but these guys are Finnish, and are called Hooded Menace, so a few seconds later, there's a cheesy clip from some old horror movie, before stumbling into the next stretch of grim death doom heaviness.
The production is massive, the sound crushing, there are melodies galore, there's even some Sabbathy swing to some of these tracks, and a definite psychedelic vibe, and the band do an awesome job of not just using movie samples as intros, like on "Evoken Vulgarity", a doomy chugfest that has a breakdown partway through, where the band slows down to a crawl, a swaggery slithery dirge, wrapped around a seriously creepy sample, which leads right into a killer psychedelic blowout, with some seriously shredding lead guitar. And then there's the outro, which could be a proper horror movie soundtrack, lacing harmonized guitars over another mysterious sample. The whole record finds the band deftly weaving horror movie ambience, and moody mood music into their hellish hookydeathdoomcrush, and the results are pretty fantastic.
MPEG Stream: "Vortex Machine"
MPEG Stream: "Effigies Of Evil"
MPEG Stream: "In The Dead We Dwell"

HOODED MENACE Effigies Of Evil (Relapse) 2lp 30.00
The return of our favorite horror obsessed Finnish deathmetal doomlords, whose latest is another epic collection of sludgey blackened doom, filthy crusty riffage, echo drenched demonic cookie monster vokills, all woven into plodding psychedelic heaviness, with a classic, epic doom vibe, that definitely reminds us of the mighty Cathedral. And when we say death metal we're not talking the 'Tion's (as in Suffocation, Incantation, etc.), we're talking death OBSESSED metal, a death metal that's slowed way down to a doomy crawl, a creepy, downtuned chugging churn that sounds like classic death metal spinning at 16rpm, and few do it better (to our ears at least) than Hooded Menace, and while these guys are totally capable of thrashing and rocking out, they do spend the majority of their time stumbling zombie like, through fields of murky riffage and neanderthal drum pound. This is not knuckle dragging caveman doom though, these guys craft some serious SONGS, and lace these songs with killer melodies, mournful leads, just check out the end of the title track, total epic and emotional, but these guys are Finnish, and are called Hooded Menace, so a few seconds later, there's a cheesy clip from some old horror movie, before stumbling into the next stretch of grim death doom heaviness.
The production is massive, the sound crushing, there are melodies galore, there's even some Sabbathy swing to some of these tracks, and a definite psychedelic vibe, and the band do an awesome job of not just using movie samples as intros, like on "Evoken Vulgarity", a doomy chugfest that has a breakdown partway through, where the band slows down to a crawl, a swaggery slithery dirge, wrapped around a seriously creepy sample, which leads right into a killer psychedelic blowout, with some seriously shredding lead guitar. And then there's the outro, which could be a proper horror movie soundtrack, lacing harmonized guitars over another mysterious sample. The whole record finds the band deftly weaving horror movie ambience, and moody mood music into their hellish hookydeathdoomcrush, and the results are pretty fantastic.
(Note, it's also on cd of course, we're just low on 'em right now, but we should have more next week...)
MPEG Stream: "Vortex Machine"
MPEG Stream: "Effigies Of Evil"
MPEG Stream: "In The Dead We Dwell"

HOODED MENACE Fulfill The Curse (Razorback) cd 10.98
Debut from these festering Finnish death-doom destroyers. On Razorback, so you know it's horror-riffic. Includes "Theme From Manhattan Baby".

HOODED MENACE Never Cross the Dead (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
We don't list a lot of death metal, really. But when it's on Profound Lore, comes from Finland, sounds more like doom metal, super slow and sludgy, is obsessed with cult horror cinema of the '70s, and features the dude (Lasse "Leper Messiah" Pyykko) from Acid Witch, we do!* And recommend it, too. This here's the second album from Hooded Menace, eagerly awaited by many ever since their 2008 debut on the Razorback label (who also released the amazing Acid Witch album Witchtantic Hellucinations, as well as a couple of the prolific Pyykko's other projects, Claws and Vacant Coffin), and it's a doomful, deathly doozy.
Never Cross The Dead plods forth with such wonderfully wretched heaviness, there's an immediate "this is for me" or "this isn't" reaction you'll have, needless to say, we're in the former camp. Pyykko's crushing guitar tone is massive yet morose, sounding quite Cathedral-like its despairing doomishness, also possessed by some of the buzzing bite of that old school Swedish death metal Sunlight studios sound. We're talking about early Cathedral (the UK doom metal band), circa Forest Of Equilibrium, yeah!!! Which is akin to Sabbath at their most molasses-like, guitar parts warped under their own weight, weeping and creeping, leaden and lachrymose, over which Pyykko's guttural crypt-breath exhalations (aka singing) put the ill in vokill.
Hooded Menace revel in riffs that trudge like the midnight procession of a coven, or hopelessly heave (metaphoric, musical) shovelfuls of earth like a victim compelled to dig their own grave... though they'll also often break into a gallop, or bust out some soloing, with melodic old school metal fervor, clawing forth like undead attackers from that very same grave! And as you can guess from our purple prose in this review, atmospherics are important, and indeed there's a palpable eeriness over it all, if not utter seriousness, horror fans having a sense of humor y'know (by the way, we noticed Pyykko happens to be wearing a hoodie in the band photo under the digi tray, wonder if that's intentional, ha).
Never Cross The Dead concludes with a cover of Anton Garcia Abril's "Theme From Return Of The Evil Dead", a lot more metal than the version that originally appeared in that 1973 film, for sure! Return Of The Evil Dead, aka Return Of The Blind Dead, aka El Ataque de los Muertos Sin Ojos, being the second in the "Blind Dead" series of Spanish horror films directed by Amando de Ossorio, featuring evil, hooded, zombie-like Knights Templar risen from the dead to terrorize humanity, from which Hooded Menace take their name, and inspiration for more than a few songs, though they also celebrate the likes of Hammer Horror flicks ("The House Of Hammer"), Frankenstein ("Terror Castle"), and other good things. If you like horror, you like heaviness, you like metal, Hooded Menace is for you. And thus for fans of the following, too: Cathedral, Hellhammer, Incantation, Winter, Acid Witch, Skeletal Spectre, etc.
*Heck even just two of those attributes will do, the doomy death of another Profound Lore act, Vasaeleth, also getting the nod from us a couple lists back as well, even though they're not Finnish and take a more serious, less cinematic approach to the occult than Hooded Menace and those other Razorback acts...
MPEG Stream: "Never Cross The Dead"
MPEG Stream: "Terror Castle"
MPEG Stream: "From Their Coffined Slumber"

HOOKER Rock And Roll (Vintage / Rockadrome) cd 13.98
Here's our '70s proto-metal pick for this week's list. It's an archival release compiling the never-released album this Houston hard rock quartet put to tape in 1978, along with a bunch of bonus tracks from the same era, and holy heck it smokes!! It's aptly titled for sure.
If you're reading this on our website, you can see the thumbnail image of the front cover, with the band's name and album in the form of a young lady's 'tramp stamp' tattoo, but we wish we could show you this disc's back cover photo too. It pretty much says it all, four long haired musician dudes, in a cloud of fog-machine mist, striking an assortment of classic, exuberant rock n' roll poses. And one of the guitarists is brandishing a particularly cool, cruel & unusual instrument - the body of his guitar looks more like some strange four-bladed axe. Very metal. And Hooker definitely incorporate some metallic moves into their badass blend of high energy rippage and heavy Southern blues rock. It's practically like NWOBHM done Texas-style! Although, they have their melodic, sensitive side too, even throwing in a little balladry and Jesus-lovin' honky-tonk (though we don't know how that comports with the sexy and/or sexist nature of some of their other material). Also, we gotta mention one of the mellower tunes, "Beatle", is indeed about imagining being a Beatle, as in, one of the Beatles - a "what if?" scenario any rock n' roller must have considered at one point or another, right? We like the weirdness of that one quite a bit, but the main draw here are Hooker's guitars, the riffs and dueling leads and so forth, to which "Turn it up!!" can be the only proper reaction. Definitely for anyone who digs other obscure American '70s hard rock/early metal action, like previous Rockadrome/Vintage reissues we've recommended by Poobah, Cain, Hillary Blaze, etc.
There's 8 songs here originally recorded for Hooker's unreleased ('til now that is) album, plus 5 more bonus cuts circa '75-'79 or so, including their cover of "I Want Your Body", originally recorded by early '70s proto-metal outfit Tin House.
MPEG Stream: "I'm Lookin'"
MPEG Stream: "The Way You Love Me"
MPEG Stream: "Beatle"

HOPESFALL A Types (Trustkill) 2 cd 13.98

HORDE OF HEL Blodskam (Moribund) cd 15.98
Just when we thought an album couldn't quite scare the shit out of us like Funeral Mist's Maranatha, along comes Horde Of Hel with their debut Blodskam. And while this Swedish group may not be *quite* as terrifying as Funeral Mist, they're not far behind, which is pretty much our highest seal of approval. If anything, the over the top pornographic imagery littering the liner notes is definitely on par with the ultrablasphemous art that is inseparable to Funeral Mist, and sonically there are some similarities as well. Horde Of Hel is pretty strange at times, with totally bizarre song structures and some awesome, unique riffs. There seems to be a pretty heavy industrial influence on display, with crazy electronics going all over the place, as well as some moments of experimental ambience, but they never get too weird or arty for their own good, and no one will mistake this for anything but the most vile, hate filled, and blasphemous black metal. Plus, you know you can't go wrong with a band whose MySpace page lists their members as "KILLERS, ANTI SOCIAL BEINGS, PREDATORS, DICTATORS, PSYCHO, MANIACS, ULTRA RADICAL TERRORISTS, SADISTIC ANTI HUMANS, PEOPLE OF SURT, PEOPLE OF THE BLOOD!!!!!!!!!" Yes, please!
The band perfectly understands their craft while avoiding the cliches that many black metal bands stumble on. Perhaps most significantly, instead of focusing on speed, they choose skull-crushing heaviness. The pounding drums keep things moving at a slow dirgey pace, combined with super thick, evil sounding riffs and heavily distorted vocals that alternate between guttural croaks and demonic shrieks. At times, some of the riffs recall the heavy as fuck atonality of My War era Black Flag, which is always a good thing, and which should give you an indication of the band's nihilistic m.o. There's something about black metal groups who understand the importance of lumbering, doomed out atmospheres that just can't be beaten. Each drum hit is like being hit with a sledgehammer while the rest of the band stands over your broken body, mocking you with their Satanic riffs and crazed vocals.
These guys seemed to appear from out of nowhere, which makes Blodskam even more of a welcome surprise. We're certainly looking forward to whatever this band may unleash upon the unsuspecting world next, because when you produce something this evil, there's really only one place you can go afterwards: straight to hell.
MPEG Stream: "Leave Life Behind"
MPEG Stream: "Born Again Into Submission"
MPEG Stream: "Hail To Chaos"

HORDE OF HEL Blodskam II (Moribund Cult) cd 15.98
When we reviewed Blodskam part 1, the debut from this Swedish black metal horde, we sort of couldn't believe how horrifying and harrowing these guys sounded, like Funeral Mist or Deathspell Omega. Horde Of Hell were terrifying, their sound a dense gnarled tangle of black fury, complex and convoluted, a distinctly industrial vibe, but most importantly, crushingly heavy, not that brittle buzz that most BM trafficks in, this shit was pummeling, brutal, black hole heavy.
So we definitely had high hopes for part two, and right out of the gate, things are definitely primed for more terror, with an extended sprawl of creeping black ambient, muted industrial percussion, fucked up samples, monk like chanting, all wreathed in a gauzy washed out blackness, a ritualistic intro that must be setting us up for something sonically serious. And when the riffs kick in, it is pretty fierce, a chugging churning, but with a weirdly classic metal vibe, definitely more melodic than we remember, and then the vocals come in and WOAH, it's like a totally different band, not in a bad way, just in a weird what-the-fuck way, with soaring almost operatic vocals, reminding us a bit of Borknagar maybe? But wrapped around noodly lead guitars, almost power metal arrangements, cheesy synths, drum machines, and some, well, some GROOVE, which is again surprising, and to avoid being bummed out that this isn't scarier than Blodskam I, all we can do is treat this like some wholly other band, and in that case, we're sort of smitten by how fucking ridiculous and weird this is, the next track shifts gears completely, the sound quality shifts too, and the band are suddenly churning out some sort of hypno rock heaviness, with cool garbled vocals, swirling synths, all blurred into a heaving blown out churn, not all that black metal, but definitely heavy and FUCKED UP.
And so it goes, really, every once in a while we're convinced that maybe the wrong music got pressed on to the wrong disc, but in spite of ourselves we're digging it, from woozy buzzy midtempo dirgery, to absolutely bizarre new age electronic ambience, complete with super soulful lead guitars, and hazy atmospheric synths, and finally another weird sort of new age blackened atmospheric chug and flutter fest, that has us scratching out heads, and thinking this almost touches on Xynfonica / Shevalreq territory, which is high praise indeed, although perhaps not the sort of praise we expected to be heaping on Horde Of Hel.
The record finishes off with a handful of demo tracks, and those are indeed more like the HoH of old, grim and grinding furious black filth, blasting, thrashing, industrial tinged heaviness, gargles sick alien vox, dense gnarled guitars, the perfect balance for the off kilter weirdness of the first half.
Not sure what the story is, maybe part II was remix, or just the band trying something weird, all we know is that the first half pushes all our fucked up freaky black metal buttons BIG TIME, and the second half offers up more of what we loved about Blodskam part I, which makes this pretty much win win....
MPEG Stream: "Army Of Wolves"
MPEG Stream: "Blood Of My Father"
MPEG Stream: "Hordepower"

HORDES OF SATAN s/t (Streaks) lp 12.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Even to this day, people are constantly singing the praises of Godflesh. Talking about how influential they were. And rightfully so. Cuz they were, certainly. But there was another band back then, who were just as amazing. And who sounded quite a bit like the 'Flesh. But had their own take on the whole metallic industrial plod thing. Pitchshifter were often painted in the press as Godflesh ripoffs, but as far as we're concerned, there was plenty of room for more than one pounding industrial metal outfit! And in many ways, Pitchshifter were a bit more interesting. Heavier a lot of the time, definitely more 'metallic', and with some seriously killer riffs, but they also let the drum machine take center stage sometimes, embracing their machine like rhythms, filling breaks with weird stuttering skitters and rapid fire machine gun rhythms. Don't get us wrong, we LOVE Godflesh, but we love Pitchshifter too. A lot!!!
So we were super psyched to discover that there was a new band, self described "industrial driven doom", featuring some Pitchshifter guys doing, well, industrial doom, as if they weren't already sort of doing that back in the day anyway. So here it is. Hordes Of Satan (bit of a naff name), four songs of crushing machinelike doom, and weirdly enough, it doesn't sound all that different than Pitchshifter. Slower, heavier maybe, but still immediately recognizable as the 'Shifter. Machinelike rhythms, massive downtuned guitars, growled death metal vocals (again not all that different than Pitchshifter). Crushingly heavy and intense, it sounds like Godflesh or Pitchshifter at 10 rpm, sludgy and doomy but churning and relentless. And pretty fucking scary. One of the tracks features a cool bridge with some scary sample looped and repeated over a churning drum machine and a throbbing bass line and the vibe is seriously Skinny Puppy! And as if to drive the whole Pitchshifter thing home, they even do a Pitchshifter cover, "Landfill", and guess what? It sounds like Pitchshifter, only slower and heavier. Which as far as we're concerned is fucking awesome!
All this Jesu stuff lately had us hankering for Godflesh, and thus missing Pitchshifter, so this Hordes Of Satan is quick becoming out new favorite slab of heaviness!!

HORISONT Second Assault (Metal Blade / Rise Above) cd 14.98
While, sure, there were indeed heaps of exciting Record Store Day releases to freak out about this past weekend, but as you can tell from perusing this week's list, there are of course lots of other recently released things to get excited about as well. Like this - especially if you dig goddamn good ol' rock n' roll music. It's the new album from Swedish retro-proto-metallers Horisont, released Stateside by Rise Above licensees Metal Blade. It just came out this week, on Tuesday, and if we weren't so busy, we woulda been happy to spend Tuesday night with this cd and a six pack of an appropriate bubbly beverage as our only entertainment. As you might have already surmised from the title, this is Horisont's second album. We raved about their debut Tva Sidor Av Horisonten a few years back (the first word of our review was "Wow"), and Allan here was lucky enough to see 'em play at Roadburn in 2010 (they slayed!), so yeah we've been eagerly anticipating this new album, and it's a doozy, definitely for fans of Witchcraft, Graveyard, Burning Saviours, Gentleman's Pistols, Danava, and others who keep the spirit of '70s style heavy rockin' alive today. Meaning, also for fans of Sabbath, Judas Priest circa "Sad Wings", Uli-era Scorpions, UFO, Nazareth, Swedish gods November, Leaf Hound, and all the other (proto-)metal granddaddies that the Horisont boys are doubtless making very proud.
There's ten new, timeless sounding, tracks here, rollickin' with boogie rock action borne of both youthful exuberance and love of those classic influences. Horisont kick out the jams big time, veering from bluesy, bellbottomed lope to sheer speedy early-metal gallop, these songs replete with soaring vox and soaring melodies, lots of tasty guitar harmonies and catchy riffs. You've got your hard rockers, a few moodier, psychier moments, more hard rockers, and then wow when it seems that it can't get any better, the disc ends with a hell of a bang, Horisont creating their proggiest metallic construct yet with the stuttering, stunning "Thunderflight", a NWOBHM-ish triumph that fans of such diverse acts as La Otracina, Pharaoh Overlord and even Slough Feg will want to hear in heavy rotation. Along with the rest of the disc. Damn. We know that Swedes seemingly have access to a Rock n' Roll Way Back Machine, and Horisont have put it to good use here, again.
MPEG Stream: "Second Assault"
MPEG Stream: "On The Run"
MPEG Stream: "Thunderflight"

HORISONT Tva Sidor Av Horisonten (Crusher) cd 14.98
Wow. Or maybe not wow, 'cause we should be used to it by now. But yeah, wow. ANOTHER Swedish band that seems, magically, to be from the '70s, though they're actually quite contemporary in 2010. Like AQ faves Witchcraft, Burning Saviours, Dead Man, Elope, Dungen, Graveyard, et. al., newcomers Horisont possess the secret to sounding so '70s, that they probably think Nixon, or maybe Ford, is still the US President. At the latest (and at their most metal), it wouldn't appear that their influences extend beyond the early years of the NWOBHM. (Though that's not to say you won't flash on QOTSA or something while listening to this, but its more akin to vintage and obscure likes of, say, Highway Robbery and Vardis.) And not only do they sound '70s, but like those other Swedish bands we mentioned, they're damn good, too.
In fact, it's from the same label that brought us Dead Man that we've imported the debut cd by Horisont. We ordered it on LP too, but unfortunately they arrived damaged, hopefully we'll get more soon and be able to list the vinyl next time. And while vinyl (or 8 track?) might be the appropriately retro medium for this music, even on cd Horisont kicks out the heavy progressive blues rock in utterly killer fashion, a la early Sabbath (but with maybe more in the way of uptempo energy), Led Zeppelin, UFO, and we think we even hear a little Aerosmith. And what's even more awesome, track 4, "The Unseen", reminds us of Uli-era Scorpions too! Also of course, Horisont sound a lot like their Scandinavian '70s prog-psych uncles, November, Life and others. This IS pretty dang bluesy, and rockin', with high, wailing vox, tasty guitar licks, lumbering riffage, and a propensity for cow-bell-knockin' boogie. They make no bones about it, they even named a song "Horisont Boogie", just in case you didn't believe us. All right! Yet, we must say they boogie quite elegantly, and they also have their mystic moods too, getting mellow and melancholic on occasion, and about half-way through this ten song set, they switch from singing in English to their native language, which adds to the "progg" vibe most charmingly.
Classy, catchy, way impressive stuff, especially for a debut. We're looking forward to seeing 'em play live someday (no, we don't know if they're gonna tour in the USA any time soon, but they ARE playing at the Roadburn festival in Holland next year that Allan here has plans to attend...). We don't know how they do it, but they do. All lovers of '70s proto-metal prog heaviness, who dig hearing a new band doing it right, give it up for Sweden and HORISONT!
This is what that Dead Weather blues rock album we never got around to reviewing really shoulda sounded like, although Dead Weather, for all their supergroup status, and bonus points for covering Pentagram, aren't of course Swedish and that's not their fault we suppose.
MPEG Stream: "Nightrider"
MPEG Stream: "Just Ain't Right"
MPEG Stream: "Efter Min Pipa"

HORISONT Tva Sidor Av Horisonten (Crusher) lp 17.98
NOW HERE ON VINYL!
Wow. Or maybe not wow, 'cause we should be used to it by now. But yeah, wow. ANOTHER Swedish band that seems, magically, to be from the '70s, though they're actually quite contemporary in 2010. Like AQ faves Witchcraft, Burning Saviours, Dead Man, Elope, Dungen, Graveyard, et. al., newcomers Horisont possess the secret to sounding so '70s, that they probably think Nixon, or maybe Ford, is still the US President. At the latest (and at their most metal), it wouldn't appear that their influences extend beyond the early years of the NWOBHM. (Though that's not to say you won't flash on QOTSA or something while listening to this, but its more akin to vintage and obscure likes of, say, Highway Robbery and Vardis.) And not only do they sound '70s, but like those other Swedish bands we mentioned, they're damn good, too.
In fact, it's from the same label that brought us Dead Man that we've imported the debut cd and lp by Horisont. And while vinyl (or 8 track?) might be the appropriately retro medium for this music, even on cd Horisont kicks out the heavy progressive blues rock in utterly killer fashion, a la early Sabbath (but with maybe more in the way of uptempo energy), Led Zeppelin, UFO, and we think we even hear a little Aerosmith. And what's even more awesome, track 4, "The Unseen", reminds us of Uli-era Scorpions too! Also of course, Horisont sound a lot like their Scandinavian '70s prog-psych uncles, November, Life and others. This IS pretty dang bluesy, and rockin', with high, wailing vox, tasty guitar licks, lumbering riffage, and a propensity for cow-bell-knockin' boogie. They make no bones about it, they even named a song "Horisont Boogie", just in case you didn't believe us. All right! Yet, we must say they boogie quite elegantly, and they also have their mystic moods too, getting mellow and melancholic on occasion, and about half-way through this ten song set, they switch from singing in English to their native language, which adds to the "progg" vibe most charmingly.
Classy, catchy, way impressive stuff, especially for a debut. We're looking forward to seeing 'em play live someday (no, we don't know if they're gonna tour in the USA any time soon, but they ARE playing at the Roadburn festival in Holland next year that Allan here has plans to attend...). We don't know how they do it, but they do. All lovers of '70s proto-metal prog heaviness, who dig hearing a new band doing it right, give it up for Sweden and HORISONT!
This is what that Dead Weather blues rock album we never got around to reviewing really shoulda sounded like, although Dead Weather, for all their supergroup status, and bonus points for covering Pentagram, aren't of course Swedish and that's not their fault we suppose.
MPEG Stream: "Nightrider"
MPEG Stream: "Just Ain't Right"
MPEG Stream: "Efter Min Pipa"

HORN OF DAGOTH Rehearsal Demo II 2007 (self-released) 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.
Yay, managed to get a few more of these... here's our review from when we first listed it a few months ago: Another pestilential black cloud of ultra raw, primitive thrash and buzz from Horn Of Dagoth. It's been 2 years since the last rehearsal disc, and while the sound is similar, the songs have gotten even better, more complex, more dense, their buzzing old school black metal sprawling and expanding to incorporate long swaths of trudging doom, blown out blasts of furious black drone, stacatto bursts of machine gun like rhythm, dizzying insectoid riffing, loping midtempo lurch... Not to say that HoD aren't still ultra raw, ultra grim, and ultra KVLT black black metal, cuz they are, and their black flame still obviously burns for bands like Mutiilation, Darkthrone, Vlad Tepes, Beherit and other practitioners of the raw black arts. But like any band worth their salt, as time goes on, the more interesting their music becomes, and even with a core sound of black buzz and chaotic thrash sure to please the die hards, and a production (it is a rehearsal after all) that renders every thing in blown out smears and blurs - a swirl of cymbals sizzling atop a roiling murky black abyss, the songs and sound are interesting enough to keep weirdo black metallers equally entranced, at least when they're in need of a good old fashioned black thrashing.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!! Each disc numbered in the band's blood, and each booklet also numbered, as well as decorated with an upside down cross and the triple sixes, ALL IN HUMAN BLOOD!
MPEG Stream: "Impotent God Of Jealousy"
MPEG Stream: "Festooned With Snakes & Bereavement"
MPEG Stream: "Thunder Of Hoof & Steel"

HORN OF DAGOTH Rehearsals 2005 (self-released) cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's been a while since we've heard from SF black metal horde Crebain. And of course by horde we mean one guy, Ancalagon The Black. The super limited Night Of The Stormcrow demo was gone in a flash (though the brand new SUPER LIMITED picture disc version is reviewed elsewhere this list) as was the Leviathan / Crebain split on Andee's tUMULt label. But Crebain hasn't just been laying about, lurking in caves and forests, haunting chapels and burning churches, nosiree, while he's been working on the next Crebain full length, he's also been recording with a few likeminded black hearted folks as Horn Of Dagoth. An ultra primitive, super raw blast of old school black black black metal. Murky and muddy, ultra lo-fi rehearsal recordings that sound just as good as some of the amazing 'rare' classic black metal records we've carried. And even though the lo-fi recording is not an intentional part of HoD's sound, more a result of recording limitations (it is a rehearsal after all) it ends up giving the sound a hellish subterranean sheen, and makes it sound like it actually IS some lost black thrash classic. The drums are raw and blown out and buried miles down in the mix, as are the vocals, throat shredding shrieks struggling to be heard through the thick sludgy wall of buzzing riffs and rumbling bassdrone. But that's what makes this sound so good. Heavy and fuzzy and droning and blasting and black as fuck. Essential for the black legions that bow down before Darkthrone, Mutiilation, Belketre, Vlad Tepes, old Mayhem, old Gorgoroth, old Carpathian Forest, Beherit and all things raw and black!
SUPER LIMITED CD-R. WE GOT 30 COPIES. ONCE THESE ARE GONE, NOT SURE WE CAN GET MORE!
MPEG Stream: "Impotent God Of Jealousy"
MPEG Stream: "Sign Of The Mark"

HORNA Aania Yossa (Moribund) cd 14.98
As we mentioned a few lists back, we're way behind on our dutiful worship of the mighty Finnish beasts of grim blackness Horna. We reviewed their Bathory tribute record, and the split with Peste Noire, and now this, which is funny, since of these three, only the 7" truly reflected the true sound of Horna, a furious blasting brutality that has rarely been bested as far as we're concerned.
The Bathory tribute sounded like, well, like Horna doing Bathory, which is not a bad thing, as Horna were hugely influenced by Bathory, but it wasn't nearly as fierce or fucked as typical Horna.
And then there's this, Aania Yossa, a concept record about the black plague, which again sounds NOTHING like Horna typically does, but somehow it still sounds totally unlike anyone else. The speed ahs been swapped out for murky midtempo monotonous plod, the riffs smeared and blurred into black drones, creating one of the most mesmerizing and hypnotic black records ever.
The first three songs are all totally druggy and buzzy and super repetitive, the riffs sound almost looped, everything throbbing and pulsing over and over, only the vocals shrieking over the top offering any sort of variation, although every once in a while the band will slip into some killer convoluted breakdown, only to immediately ease back into that droning black dirge. Those three songs vary slightly from doomy plod to midtempo lurch, but form a pretty perfect blackdronedirge suite, that will either have you banging your head in a total trance or drifting off into some sort of other dreamstate dimension. Totally powerful in it's relentless hypnotic buzz, but repeated listening reveals all sorts of subtle hooks, and mysterious melodies buried amidst the murk and mire.
Then there's the 21 minute closer, the fastest track on the record, but even more intensely hypnotic, a single riff, a stumbling blast beat, intertwined and played over and over and over and over. Again, only a croaked demonic vocal offers any variation, while the music beneath continues to roil and churn and blast and draw us down into some whirling sonic altered state. So fucking awesome. Essential for anyone who likes their blackness dripping with DRONE. And as much as we love love LOVE every Horna release, this one, the one that doesn't sound like any of them, just might be our favorite.
MPEG Stream: "Raiskattu Saastaisessa Valossa"
MPEG Stream: "Noutajan Kutsu"

HORNA Musta Kaipuu (Moribund) cd 14.98
Not technically a new release, but the first time on cd for some grim black rituals captured way back in 2004 by one of our favorite Finnish black metal hordes, Horna. And right out of the gate, it's everything we love about Horna, raw and grim and black, filthy and primitive, but also weirdly melodic and catchy, the opener "Piina" initially sounds like classic old school BM, but then Horna inject a woozy melancholy melody, which changes the tenor of the song big time, as it swings back and forth from pounding black filth, to moody lumbering depressive blackness, at some points it almost sounds like a muted muddied lo-fi Iron Maiden, which in the context of Horna's blackened sound is pretty excellent. And that song pretty much sets the template for the rest of the record, a blackened concoction equal parts grim black blast, and strange loping melodicism, the band never blast, but do get to some fairly punkish tempos, but also slip into weird waltzes and stumbling doomic pounds, the lilting melody of "Unohdetut Kasvot, Unohdettu Aani" is deftly wrapped around some furious black buzz, the result is dangerously lovely, and then there's "Oi Kallis Kotimaa", that's almost a sea shanty, with its jaunty tempo, epic soaring melodies and weird grunted sing songy vox, but the band quickly shift back into something much less melodic and way more grim in the form of the churning blackness of "Pohjanportti".
The final three tracks offer up more of that strange blend of buzz and howl, and moody melodic drift, dipping into Katatonia or Lifelover territory here and there, which is well balanced by bursts of serious blackness and gnarled UNmelodic riffs, like the one that bookends the impossibly lovely main melody of album closer "Menneiden Kaiku". Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Piina"
MPEG Stream: "Haudanvarjo"
MPEG Stream: "Aldebaranin"

HORNA Pimeyden Hehku (Moribund Records) cd 12.98

HORNA Sanojesi Aarelle (Moribund) 2cd 17.98
It's hard to say exactly why, but Horna might just be our favorite black metal band EVER. No matter what we're listening to, no matter how heavy or dark or grim or fucked up or mind blowing that whatever is, the minute we throw some Horna on it's like all that listening never happened. We're suddenly in thrall to Horna's timeless black buzz. Ensorcelled, enraptured, smitten even. Horna are heavier than anything else, buzzier and more black. There's just something magical and mysterious about Horna, they're Finnish, that could be part of it. But their sound is totally unique, even though that sound is assembled from all the bits that make up all black metal. It's a sound simultaneously frenzied and furious and heavy as fuck, but also simple and punky, even a little groovy here and there, the songs swing wildly from impossibly blazing black blasts to lurching chug and back again. The guitars are massive and thick, and while Shatraug's vocals were always amazing, there's now a new second vocalist Corvus, the two mix it up big time, hellish shrieks, punk rock barks, death metal growls, all adding a weirdly emotional element to their grim blackness. And like most of our favorite bands, there's a definite pop element buried beneath, hooks all tangled up with the lurching, thrashing, head banging buzz, drifting just below the surface, making these songs not only brutal and black, but crazy fucking catchy as well. It's almost as if someone took Iron Maiden, dragged them into the forest, where they were forced fight and then mate with Darkthrone, then the offspring were fed human flesh and blast beats, slathered in corpsepaint and doused in black buzz, until they emerged feral and fucked up, demented and delirious, but ghostlike vestiges of their more traditional lineage continue to linger on. Fuck it. We could make up cool little stories and spend the next several paragraphs exhausting our black metal thesaurus, but basically, none of that really matters. This review could have been two words long. HORNA RULE. If you're into black metal, and you don't love Horna, then you're not. Not really. And if you're new to the genre and want to hear traditional black metal done about as well as humanly, or inhumanly possible, then Horna is the band to start with, and this double disc is as good a place as any to dive in...
MPEG Stream: "Muinaisten Alttarilta"
MPEG Stream: "Verilehto"
MPEG Stream: "Mustan Kirkkauden Sarastus"

HORNA Sotahuuto (Grievantee) cd 13.98
We definitely don't give enough love to the mighty Horna. Finnish masters of raw and primitive, grim buzzing blackness. They're HUGE favorites with the metalheads around here and yet as of the writing of this here review, we've only ever listed ONE record by these guys, the recent split with Peste Noire, and while normally we would laugh in your face if you told us any band could beat the pants off of Peste Noire on a split, Horna damn near pulled it off.
So here's one of two new-ish Horna releases, this one was recorded in 2004, which, according to the liner notes was "before the Master's journey from here to eternity." Which master are they referring to? Well, as Sotahunto is a tribute to Swedish black metal masters Bathory, the master in question is Quorthon, the mastermind behind Bathory, who inspired a legion of blackened followers before passing away in June of 2004. And of course, as this is a tribute, the songs were composed in a style more similar to Bathory than Horna in some ways, although Horna always owned a sonic debt to their Swedish forbears, old school, raw blasting, almost punkish sounding black metal, pounding beats, relentless riffing, that unmistakable Horna shriek, fast and furious but with a definite groove. Not blasting so much as just relentlessly churning, midtempo dirges building to bursts of intense blackness. Lots of this still sounds like classic Horna, but they definitely honor their master with a suite of songs that sound like they could have come straight out of Sweden circa 1988. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Lahtolaukaus"
MPEG Stream: "Vapise, Vapahtaja"
MPEG Stream: "Verimalja"

HORNA / MUSTA SURMA Vihan Vuodet (Moribund) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: HORNA "Noidanloitsu"
MPEG Stream: MUSTA SURMA "Kuolonmyrsky"

HORNA / PESTE NOIRE split (Debemur Morti) 7" 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What more do you need to know? Finland's Horna. France's Peste Noire. Hard to imagine a more kick ass black metal match up. And sonically, a surprisingly suitable one.
The Horna track is epic and majestic, beginning with a cool backwards buzz guitar part, that segues into furious blackened riffing and a surprising amount of melody, sounding at moments like old At The Gates only blacker. The songs is laced with weird melancholy pounding, and haunting arpeggiated melodies, but all tangled up within dense blasts of hyper speed grimnity.
The Peste Noire track, some folks might already have, as it was a bonus track on the recent Peste Noire record Folkfuck Folie. Tangled and convoluted, the song structure constantly shifting, the guitars fuzzed out and insectoid, the vocals howling, it's definitely buzzing black metal, but in the hands of Peste Noire it becomes something else entirely, infusing the sound with bits of pop, melody, angular weirdness, turning it into an impossible catchy slab of black weirdness.
Obviously essential. And probably equally obvious is the fact that this is seriously limited, we got a bunch, but imagine they will be gone in no time. And yeah, they're a bit pricey, but you can blame the currently very sad US dollarÉ
Super thick vinyl, thick cardstock inner sleeves, and a super striking woodcut style outer jacket.

HORNS Horns, Halos & Mobile Phones (Conspiracy) lp 18.98
We discovered a little stash of these long out of print Conspiracy lps, we have between 5 and 10 of each left, and they're all sale priced, WAY cheaper than they were when we listen them a while back. So act fast, cuz these will be gone pretty dang quick, and obviously, once we run out that's it.
We pretty much blew through the rest of the super limited Conspiracy Records anniversary limited lps we reviewed last list, but we still have a handful of these left and they are KILLER! Read on...
Our pals at Conspiracy Records, a label/distro based in Belgium, who in the past have brought us records by Boris, Jesu, Shora and more, are this year celebrating their 10 year anniversary. A decade of amazing music. From a bedroom based punk label, to one of Europe's most important and influential labels and distros, all we can say is HURRAY! And HUZZAH! It's always so exciting, when a bunch of folks get together to spread the word about great music, great WEIRD music, and survive, even thrive. Such is the case with Conspiracy. And as if that weren't already enough, just knowing that some great people were selling some amazing music, those sweeties at Conspiracy have decided to share the love with us. And you.
To celebrate their 10th anniversary, they've decided to do a super limited subscription series, 12 records over 12 months, each limited to somewhere between 200-500 copies, ONLY available to series subscribers. EXCEPT, they've decided to let AQ have 20 copies of each, we're the only store with copies of these subscriber only lps, and for a brief moment, we can offer them to you, our loyal AQ customers. Needless to say we are thrilled, as the series lineup reads like a who's who of AQ faves, as well as including a handful of lesser knowns. All pressed on super thick vinyl, and packaged in killer hand screened original art sleeves. But be warned, we only got 20 of each, and we will run out fast and we will not be able to get more. When we do run out, there is a chance you can still get more (or even subscribe to the series) from Conspiracy direct, but what that means is act fast and prepare to leave empty handed.
Horns are a Belgian super group of sorts, drawn from all sorts of legendary outfits, not a single one we'd heard of. But this slab of freaked out sonic weirdness has us making lists of all these bands we need to track down. Cuz Horns are one mighty damaged super fucked up and gloriously noisy beast. The band describe their sound as "wild and free improvisations. 78 bpm wounded prog from hell's children's corner. An encyclopedia of fatal mistakes crammed into a power ballad's intro" or alternately a "dirty avantnoiseambientbitchesbrew", both of which come pretty dang close. A seriously demented outrock psychedelic free for all, super angular guitar, killer pounding Albini-ish drums, throbbing low end bass rumble, everything doused in swirling fuzzed out super distorted affects, a dense cloud of malfunctioning electronics and processed vocals. Like some insane tagteam match between Shellac, Whitehouse and Acid Mothers Temple while some misguided DJ keeps dropping in bits of black metal and Hawkwind, and another Dj does his best to scratch and beat match, using nothing but the two bloody stumps where his hands used to be. Awesome!
Original artwork by artist Jella Crama, who also hand silkscreened each copy. The LP's are pressed on super thick 180 gram vinyl and housed in thick plastic sleeves.

HORSE THE BAND The Mechanical Hand (Combat Records) cd 13.98
Here's some crazy keyboard punk rock metalcore blurt from Horse The Band on their second energetic full-length, released last fall (yeah, we're playing catch-up here, been meaning to list this for a while) on the newly revitalized Combat imprint. Looks like Combat's speed/death metal focus back in the '80s has given way to a new breed of blenderized indie-punk kinda-metal. Horse The Band, anyway, is the best thing on the new Combat. With loads of heavy guitars, pummelling drums, honkin' synth, screamo vox, emo melody, and mathy song constructs, all tightly wound and ready to explode, this will appeal to fans of of An Albatross, The Locust, that sort of thing. This also reminds us a bit of Reggie and the Full Effect's take on "Raining Blood" on that I Love Metal covers comp a few years ago...
MPEG Stream: "Birdo"
MPEG Stream: "A Million Exploding Suns"

HORSEBACK Half Blood (Relapse) cd 14.98
It's always difficult to know exactly what to expect from Horseback, the one man black metal / drone / psych project of Jenks Miller, every record is different, and every record over the course of the album shifts constantly, yet we're always pretty blown away. And this new one, just like the last few, confuses from the get-go. Opening with a mathy sort of post rock groove, all clean guitar jangle, churning distorted bassline, and warbly organ, and then the vocals, a weirdly distorted black metal rasp, which is only really weird paired with post rock. But it sounds killer, the record sounds massive, the drums crushing, the instruments lush and layered, the vocals the only thing pointing to anything other than post rock. Minus those, it sounds more like Skull Defekts or maybe Lungfish or even Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat. But that was just the first track, which as we've learned is hardly an indicator of what's to come. But here it sort of is, as the second track is another lumbering post rock groove, all big drums and spidery guitar melodies, and again driven by some serious distorted bass heft. Replace those vokills with say Dan Higgs, and this WOULD be a dead ringer for an as yet unreleased Skull Defekts record. A strange twist for sure, but it suits him, as so any seemingly disparate sounds do.
And so it goes, we were steeled for the eventual crush, the track that would suddenly splinter into some brooding black dirgery, or some furious blasting blackness, but nope, this is the sound of the new Horseback, a twisted slightly blackened post rock, and we dig it. The rest of the record is peppered with a handful of tracks that slip back into a more blissed out drone sound, at one point blossoming into a glorious Sunroof!-like ur-drone rife with strange shortwave interference and dreamy drifty melodies, while another track drags those raspy vokills in and rapes them over some ethereal shimmer, making for even stranger bedfellows. The post rock jams get even stranger, when Miller switches to clean vocals, and it couldn't be further removed from the Horseback(s) of old, and then there's the gorgeously blissed out final track, a 12 minute raga, that laces stuttery melodies and processed vox over a simple pulsing krautrock like beat, all wreathed in a haze of synth shimmer and guitar buzz, sounding a bit like Stereolab crossed with Amps For Christ, which if you couldn't tell by that description, might make it our favorite track of the bunch.
MPEG Stream: "Mithras"
MPEG Stream: "Hallucigenia III - The Emerald Tablet"

HORSEBACK Half Blood (Relapse) lp 19.98
It's always difficult to know exactly what to expect from Horseback, the one man black metal / drone / psych project of Jenks Miller, every record is different, and every record over the course of the album shifts constantly, yet we're always pretty blown away. And this new one, just like the last few, confuses from the get-go. Opening with a mathy sort of post rock groove, all clean guitar jangle, churning distorted bassline, and warbly organ, and then the vocals, a weirdly distorted black metal rasp, which is only really weird paired with post rock. But it sounds killer, the record sounds massive, the drums crushing, the instruments lush and layered, the vocals the only thing pointing to anything other than post rock. Minus those, it sounds more like Skull Defekts or maybe Lungfish or even Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat. But that was just the first track, which as we've learned is hardly an indicator of what's to come. But here it sort of is, as the second track is another lumbering post rock groove, all big drums and spidery guitar melodies, and again driven by some serious distorted bass heft. Replace those vokills with say Dan Higgs, and this WOULD be a dead ringer for an as yet unreleased Skull Defekts record. A strange twist for sure, but it suits him, as so any seemingly disparate sounds do.
And so it goes, we were steeled for the eventual crush, the track that would suddenly splinter into some brooding black dirgery, or some furious blasting blackness, but nope, this is the sound of the new Horseback, a twisted slightly blackened post rock, and we dig it. The rest of the record is peppered with a handful of tracks that slip back into a more blissed out drone sound, at one point blossoming into a glorious Sunroof!-like ur-drone rife with strange shortwave interference and dreamy drifty melodies, while another track drags those raspy vokills in and rapes them over some ethereal shimmer, making for even stranger bedfellows. The post rock jams get even stranger, when Miller switches to clean vocals, and it couldn't be further removed from the Horseback(s) of old, and then there's the gorgeously blissed out final track, a 12 minute raga, that laces stuttery melodies and processed vox over a simple pulsing krautrock like beat, all wreathed in a haze of synth shimmer and guitar buzz, sounding a bit like Stereolab crossed with Amps For Christ, which if you couldn't tell by that description, might make it our favorite track of the bunch.
MPEG Stream: "Mithras"
MPEG Stream: "Hallucigenia III - The Emerald Tablet"

HORSEBACK Impale Golden Horn (Divide By Zero / Three Lobed) lp 17.98
NOW ON LP!!! Here's what we said way back when we first encountered this on cd, in 2007:
Drone records are a dime a dozen these days. Not that we don't love drone records, we do. In fact, often we're way too easy on the purveyors of drone, since the very essence of that sound, is so simple, and yet so completely satisfying to listen to. A guitar against the amp, a handful of keys on a keyboard held down, a loop cycled over and over and over, almost any sound smeared into a near static drift, we could listen to that stuff forever, and often do. But it's the rare drone record that uses the drone as just the jumping off point, as a foundation upon which to build a fragile and ephemeral structure of minimal melody and movement, instead of the beginning AND end. Stars Of The Lid are a good example, as is William Basinski, Tim Hecker and a handful of others.
Horseback too. We were sent this disc out of the blue and immediately fell in love. Only later to discover that this was the work of a faithful AQ mailorder customer by the name of Jenks Miller! Small world. Horseback is most definitely a drone record, but manages to incorporate plenty of not specifically drone-like sounds. At once massive and dense, dark and distorted, but also ephemeral and airy, soaring and dreamlike. The root of the sound is a guitar, or guitars, allowed to reverberate and ring out, unfurling billowing clouds of distorted buzz and whir, that settles on the speaker like a thick blanket of snow, glistening and blinding, but at the same time warm and enveloping. The guitars pulse and swell, melodies drifting in and out, streaks of feedback, all wound up into a huge softly roiling glowing orb of sound.
It's almost unfair to call this a drone record, as it's so lush, and rich, and full of motion, sprawling out like some sort of sonic sunrise, the sounds gradually changing color, everything shifting and shimmering and transforming subtly as the record progresses. So much more than just a simple 'drone' record. In fact, it's easy to hear Galaxie 500, Spacemen 3, Loop, Flying Saucer Attack, that sort of spaced out doped up drift, all smeared into Horseback's haunting sun dappled world of slow burning sound.
Elsewhere piano drifts amidst the dense guitar swells, and rhythms are provided by pulsing guitars and various sounds beating against one another. Vocals hover way below the surface, barely audible, but adding another layer of lilting mystery, near the end, the guitars peel back gradually revealing a blurry expanse of swirling cymbals and splattery free jazz percussion, all spread out into a buzzy sizzling swirl, over which the final haunting piano notes drift and fade. So gorgeous. Absolutely one of our favorite new records, a practically perfect fade-out-drift-off-drone-dream-disc...
MPEG Stream: "Finale"
MPEG Stream: "The Golden Horn"

HORSEBACK Invisible Mountain (Relapse) cd 13.98
It's not just us that thought Horseback's latest album was so awesome. A blurb taken from the following review of ours does appear on this Relapse-reissued and repackaged top obi, alongside similarly enthusiastic quotes from both The Wire magazine and Invisible Oranges blog.
Originally released by the amazing Utech label, this album garnered the attention of the corporate metal overlords (just kidding) at Relapse, who obviously thought it could, and should, find a wider audience. Good for Horseback! Definitely pick this one up if you missed the Utech edition. Here's what we said about it before:
Something very strange must have transpired since the last Horseback disc. Something traumatic maybe? Some spiritual crisis of sonic faith? Where that record was a glistening, glimmering, dreamy, drifty drone record, this one is, well, much heavier, and more rocking, and WAY more intense and EVIL sounding. So much so that it almost sounds like a different band. That said, we dig it. A LOT.
Super intense, and super heavy psychedelic twang flecked metallic post rock. The guitars buzz, and drone, and occasionally twang, the drums are powerful, tight, the instruments locked into slow burning build ups, some strange hybrid of newer Earth, Godspeed, Circle, the Necks and maybe a little Scenic. There's a sort of krautrock vibe going on too. Sun baked, a little lysergic, space-y hypnotic, repetitive, the tracks looooooong, with mostly a single part, that gradually builds and builds. The cool thing is it never explodes into a metal coda, a la Isis or Neurosis or a million other bands, it's all about the journey not the destination, and the journey is riveting enough without tacking on an explosive blow out.
But then there's the vocals, a harsh demonic rasp totally at odds with the music beneath, which in some ways makes the combination sound that much more intense and evil. Especially when the rasps are locked in a sort of call and response with the guitars, really strange but definitely compelling.
The first three tracks are variations on a theme, each an incredible slab of brooding, mesmerizing hypno-rock, lush and layered, with tons of cool little extra guitar flourishes, the drums busy enough to be interesting, but still locked tight into the groove, those vocals, adding menace for sure, but also a strange element that as mentioned above changes the whole feel. A track will be moody and woozy and will suddenly sound a bit evil, or at least a little ominous, before slipping back into the loping, pounding crush of the main riffs.
The strangest thing about this record is that the track with the most overtly evil title, the closer "Hatecloud Dissolving Into Nothing", is the least heavy or evil of the bunch, and the only track that sounds like the first Horseback record. A 16+ minute drift of soft focus new age-y ambience, of dreamy drift, sun dappled guitars draped over long stretches of gauzy whir, the sound delicate and crystalline, definitely dreamy and blissed out, the only remnant of the tracks that came before, are some barely audible harsh vokills, way way way down in the mix, that almost sound like a slow shifting layer of hiss or buzz, beneath the kaleidoscopic shimmer of blurred guitar hum and melancholic melody, another strange combination, but similar to the vocals on the first three tracks, they lend a very subtle hint of menace to the otherwise tranquil proceedings.
The new jewelcase packaging is still quite nice, though not as gorgeous as the original Utech sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Invokation"
MPEG Stream: "Tyrant Symmetry"

HORSEBACK Stolen Fire (All Day) 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 only got a tiny handful of these, about ten, direct from the band, AND it was limited to just 150 copies, AND is basically already sold out, which of course means grab one of these before they're gone!
Stolen Fire is a collection of odds and ends, random demos, electronic experiments, weird warped pop songs, a lot of stuff that has slowly been finding its way on to more and more Horseback records proper, the opening track here is a super minimal, drum machine driven chunk of stripped down skeletal kraut-pop, woozy and laid back, spidery guitar melodies, a weary crooned vocal, darkly dreamy and subtly psychedelic. The follow up is a strange chunk of gristly industrial ambience, all hiss and crackle and high end skree, like an amp feeding back in the rain, with just a bit of those weird garbled vocals that were all over the last Horseback, doused in FX and reverb. The rest of the side unfurls like the opener, looped rhythms, subtle shifting textures, a little bit tribal, wreathed in a softly distorted haze, again kinda krauty and darkly hypnotic, before an even poppier jam emerges from the murk, all Casio drum machine and shimmery eighties chords, it sounds a bit like the love theme from some mysterious B-movie, when the main melody comes in, it's almost like James Ferraro or Ariel Pink, which is not a bad thing at all, just unexpected. Here too, there's weirdly crooned vox, that suit the music to a T. There's a brief bit of super distorted atmospheric heaviness finishing things off, blissed out blackend dreaminess that is WAY too brief.
The B side is split into two lengthy tracks, the first a 'Destroyed Demo Version' which had us envisioning blown out crumble and in-the-red crunch, and while it's not quite that, it is pretty awesomely dirgey and fuzzy, a dark sprawl of tranced out hypno-rock, like Circle on downers, the whole thing wreathed in clouds of cosmic FX and wild sci-fi squiggles, woozy organ melodies, all around that churning kraut-drone groove, and it never lets up, the sound locks in and plays out until the rock begins to fade, leaving just pulsing electronics and a staticky cloud of gristly haze. So great! And the closer is more of the same, a gauze-y, heady drift of psychedelic shimmer, wheezing chords and spidery twang, which is soon joined by a strangely looped rhythm, the sounds all coalescing into a strangely stuttering minimal zoner groove, another track that sounds like warped, zombified Circle, slowed way down, a seriously hypnotic sprawl of hypno kraut mesmer, and even those these aren't proper Horseback songs, they might be some of the coolest stuff we've heard from him/them. Too bad it's so limited.
ONLY 150 COPIES!!! And as we mentioned before it's already sold out, and these are the last copies we'll be able to get...

HORSEBACK The Gorgon Tongue: Impale Golden Horn / Forbidden Planet (Relapse) 2cd 15.98
We initially reviewed the first disc of this 2cd set way back in 2007 and proclaimed it "absolutely one of our favorite new records, a practically perfect fade-out-drift-off-drone-dream-disc", and lest we forget, Relapse has printed that right on the front of this reissue, which takes that record, and bundles it with a super limited cassette release from 2010 called Forbidden Planet, available on cd for the very first time, originally a tape that was so limited we never actually got ANY copies at all. So this reissue seemed destined to be a Record Of The Week, that classic Horseback debut available again, and what essentially amounts to a whole new full length that most folks never got their hands on either. Here's what we had to say about Impale Golden Horn when we first heard it way back in 2007:
Drone records are a dime a dozen. Not that we don't love drone records, we do. In fact, often we're way too easy on the purveyors of drone, since the very essence of that sound, is so simple, and yet so completely satisfying to listen to. A guitar against the amp, a handful of keys on a keyboard held down, a loop cycled over and over and over, almost any sound smeared into a near static drift, we could listen to that stuff forever, and often do. But it's the rare drone record that uses the drone as just the jumping off point, as a foundation upon which to build a fragile and ephemeral structure of minimal melody and movement, instead of the beginning AND end. Stars Of The Lid are a good example, as is William Basinski, Tim Hecker and a handful of others.
Horseback too. We were sent this disc out of the blue and immediately fell in love. Only later to discover that this was the work of a faithful AQ mailorder customer by the name of Jenks Miller! Small world. Horseback is most definitely a drone record, but manages to incorporate plenty of not specifically drone-like sounds. At once massive and dense, dark and distorted, but also ephemeral and airy, soaring and dreamlike. The root of the sound is a guitar, or guitars, allowed to reverberate and ring out, unfurling billowing clouds of distorted buzz and whir, that settles on the speaker like a thick blanket of snow, glistening and blinding, but at the same time warm and enveloping. The guitars pulse and swell, melodies drifting in and out, streaks of feedback, all wound up into a huge softly roiling glowing orb of sound.
It's almost unfair to call this a drone record, as it's so lush, and rich, and full of motion, sprawling out like some sort of sonic sunrise, the sounds gradually changing color, everything shifting and shimmering and transforming subtly as the record progresses. So much more than just a simple 'drone' record. In fact, it's easy to hear Galaxie 500, Spacemen 3, Loop, Flying Saucer Attack, that sort of spaced out doped up drift, all smeared into Horseback's haunting sun dappled world of slow burning sound.
Elsewhere piano drifts amidst the dense guitar swells, and rhythms are provided by pulsing guitars and various sounds beating against one another. Vocals hover way below the surface, barely audible, but adding another layer of lilting mystery, near the end, the guitars peel back gradually revealing a blurry expanse of swirling cymbals and splattery free jazz percussion, all spread out into a buzzy sizzling swirl, over which the final haunting piano notes drift and fade. So gorgeous. Absolutely one of our favorite new records, a practically perfect fade-out-drift-off-drone-dream-discÉ
Then there's Forbidden Planet. By now, the one thing we've learned about Horseback is that their sound seems to change dramatically with every record, gorgeous hazy drones on one release, buzzing blasting black metal on the next, so it's really impossible to predict what the next record will sound like. Which makes pairing two Horseback records together an interesting challenge. Forbidden Planet opens up with what might be the perfect balance of the two, buzzing layered guitars, wound into a heavy slice of dark metallic drone, but laced with hellishly growled black metal vokills, as if that weren't far out enough, there's also shards of glitchy electronics, a weird industrial component, which just adds a whole other vibe. Cuz minus those strange sounds, it begins to sound like black metal loosed from any rhythms and slowed way down, and thus transformed into a sort of buzzing black dronemusic, which does seems to be the theme of the whole record, blackened riffing pulled apart and stretched into sprawling expanses of majestic buzz, laced with weird vox, rumbling basslines, and streaks of feedback. In some ways it reminds us of Mick Barr's Ocrilim, which did something similar, taking just the riffs, that distinctly epic and majestic minor key black metal style riffery, and repeating, looping, layering, and transforming it into something much more abstract and minimal. Which is definitely what's going on here. But Horseback sounds more organic, the sounds more raw, bleeding into each other, the distinction between notes and riffs gradually blurring, until these tracks are transformed into something much more woozy and psychedelic, heavy and heady. Thankfully, the vocals are way down in the mix, so while their presence does indeed further the black metal vibe, they gradually blend into the background, becoming just another layer of sound, woven into Horseback's thick undulating blackened buzzscape. And it's not until the final track, a brief 3 minute outro, that the buzz and howl are peeled back, leaving a gorgeously hazy bit of soft focus shimmer to finish things off. Quite gorgeous, and in its own way, a pretty perfect companion to Impale Golden Horn. Needless to say, absolutely recommended...
MPEG Stream: "Finale"
MPEG Stream: "The Golden Horn"
MPEG Stream: "Veil Of Maya (The Lamb Takes The Lion)"
MPEG Stream: "A High Ashen Breeze (Part I)"

HORSEBACK / LOCRIAN New Dominions (Relapse) cd 14.98
This out of print [update: actually recently repressed!] lp finally available again, this time on cd! And with THREE bonus tracks, more on those at the end of the review...
It's tough to argue with this one. Two aQ Record Of The Week-ers, Chicago blackened doom-drone-metal trio Locrian, teamed up with one man psychedelic-black-drone outfit Horseback, for two tracks of brooding, smoldering, blackened psychedelia, the perfect fusion of the two sounds into something darkly mysterious and hauntingly beautiful.
The shorter opening track, "The Gift", definitely sounds like it could be either band, and most definitely sounds like a hybrid of the two, hazy blurred ambience, haunting melodies, deep rumbling shimmer, a sort of gauzy post industrial black ambient drift, streaks of high end hovering over soft slow whirls and strange bits of clatter, laced with what sounds like someone playing the inside of a piano, buzzing metallic strums way down in the mix, beneath heaving groaning slabs of low end, billowing clouds of washed out thrum, distant drums, some harsh vokills, a slow build, with everything fading out EXCEPT the drums, which just get louder and more powerful, leading directly into the nearly 14 minute "Our Epitaph" which sounds fantastically like neither. At least on the surface. After a brief flurry of tolling bells, the song unwinds like a gloomy pop song, all fuzzy low end synth buzz, shuffling minimal drumming, all wreathed in swirling streaks of dreamlike haze, and wrapped around a darkly hypnotic main melody, and then there are the vocals, a softly distorted croon, wreathed in reverb, the result is pretty fantastic, sounding almost like an Interpol B-side or some lost live Joy Division track, spinning at 16 rpm, but way more abstract and washed out and blackly psychedelic. Over the course of the track, the surrounding sounds grow more and more intense, an ever expanding squall of swirling high end and blurred and smeared melodic tangles, but that rhythm, and that relentless dirge stay locked solid, totally mesmerizing, a gorgeously trancelike chunk of noise-drenched blackened krautpsych that while obviously essential for Utech obsessives, and lovers of all things dark and droney, heavy and haunting, it's also just melodic enough to maybe lure some dabblers over to the dark sonic side for good.
The cd reissue tacks on THREE bonus tracks, the first of which is a washed out smear of Hazy Tim Hecker-ish soft noise shimmer, pulsing and pulsating, a glowing golden sound, laced with buried vokills, a sort of black metal shoegaze dreamdrift blur. The second is all downtuned churn, a moaning, dirgey slithery sludge, that slowly mutates into something darkly melodic and hauntingly ritualistic, rife with chanted vox, dense cymbal swirls and murky muted melody. And finally, the opening track, "The Gift" remixed by James Plotkin, who pulls it apart, and creates a chilling, barren, blackened soundscape of looped rhythms, of heaving distorted thrum, long stretches of hushed shimmer, smears of garbled static and woozy glitch, a sort of twisted, abstract Nurse With Wound style recontextualization, which eventually coalesces into a dreamy coda of hazy, gauze-y drift.
Packaged in a cool mini-lp style gatefold jacket, adorned with the super cool Denis Forkas Kostromitin artwork that was on the lp sleeve too.
MPEG Stream: "The Gift"
MPEG Stream: "Our Epitaph"

HORSEBACK / LOCRIAN New Dominions (Utech) lp 17.98
It's tough to argue with this one. Two recent aQ Record Of The Week-ers, Chicago blackened doom-drone-metal trio Locrian, teamed up with one man psychedelic-black-drone outfit Horseback, for two tracks of brooding, smoldering, blackened psychedelia, the perfect fusion of the two sounds into something darkly mysterious and hauntingly beautiful.
The shorter opening track, "The Gift", definitely sounds like it could be either band, and most definitely sounds like a hybrid of the two, hazy blurred ambience, haunting melodies, deep rumbling shimmer, a sort of gauzy post industrial black ambient drift, streaks of high end hovering over soft slow whirls and strange bits of clatter, laced with what sounds like someone playing the inside of a piano, buzzing metallic strums way down in the mix, beneath heaving groaning slabs of low end, billowing clouds of washed out thrum, distant drums, some harsh vokills, a slow build, with everything fading out EXCEPT the drums, which just get louder and more powerful, leading directly into the nearly 14 minute "Our Epitaph" which sounds fantastically like neither. At least on the surface. After a brief flurry of tolling bells, the song unwinds like a gloomy pop song, all fuzzy low end synth buzz, shuffling minimal drumming, all wreathed in swirling streaks of dreamlike haze, and wrapped around a darkly hypnotic main melody, and then there are the vocals, a softly distorted croon, wreathed in reverb, the result is pretty fantastic, sounding almost like an Interpol B-side or some lost live Joy Division track, spinning at 16rpm, but way more abstract and washed out and blackly psychedelic. Over the course of the track, the surrounding sounds grow more and more intense, an ever expanding squall of swirling high end and blurred and smeared melodic tangles, but that rhythm, and that relentless dirge stay locked solid, totally mesmerizing, a gorgeously trancelike chunk of noise-drenched blackened krautpsych that while obviously essential for Utech obsessives, and lovers of all things dark and droney, heavy and haunting, it's also just melodic enough to maybe lure some dabblers over to the dark sonic side for goodÉ
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. Features super striking artwork from longtime collaborator artist Denis Forkas Kostromitin, who also did the etching on the B-side, and on the printed insert.
MPEG Stream: "The Gift"
MPEG Stream: "Our Epitaph"

HORSEBACK / LOCRIAN split (Turgid Animal) 7" 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A few lists back we reviewed a 12" collaboration between blackened metallic dronelord Horseback, and blackdoomdrone duo (and sometimes trio) Locrian, which was a gorgeous slab of black drone heaviness, fusing the power of both groups. Here, in a sort of sonic coda, each group goes it alone.
Horseback unfurl a hazy droned out raga, the track centered around a glorious high end drone, all shimmer and reverberation, the sound sun dappled and gloriously effulgent, very much like Sunroof!, mesmerizing and dreamlike, to which HB adds, some twisted gnarled vocals, all hissy and demonic, wreathing the whole thing in little melodic tendrils, the sound blissed out and gauzy, the blackness seemingly held at bay by this shining sonic light, the sort of track that is WAY too short on a 7", we could listen to stuff like this forEVER.
Locrian counter with something much more dark and grim, a churning bit of blurred tarpit riffage, a dirgey bit of SUNNO))) like thrum, but that low end creep is soon swaddled in delicate crystalline melodies, and thick hazy streaks of high end shimmer, that weird doomy dirge immediately transformed into something more dreamlike and ethereal. Vocals drift in, deep liturgical chanting, draped over the dirgey riffage and swaddled in the chiming melodies, the sound seeming to grow ever hazier and more ephemeral before fading out completely.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: HORSEBACK "Oblivion Eaters"
MPEG Stream: LOCRIAN "In The Absence Of Light"

HORSEBACK / NJIQAHDDA / VENOWL /CARA NEIR Split (Handmade Birds) cassette 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We won't go into too much detail about this, as it's limited to just 200 copies, we got about 15, and can NOT get any more once they're gone, so if you want one, stop reading now and ADD TO CART! But if you're feeling daring, and are curious for a little more into, read on to find out more about this limited tape.
Two of the names will no doubt be familiar to most readers of the aQ list, blackened drone outfit Horseback, whose sound recently has shifted more toward a rhythmic post rock a la Skull Defekts, and of course, the unpronounceable Njiqahdda, whose twisted strain of (un) black metal we've been big fans of for a while now. Also included are Venowl and Cara Neir, both new to us, more on them in a second. Up first though are Horseback, whose sound continues to evolve, moving further away from the murky drone and black buzz of their early records, and sounds like it could have come right off of their Half Blood record. Rhythmic and hypnotic, bass and drum locked into a sort of hypnorock groove, laced with fluttering flutes, weird electronics, swirling shimmering melodies, when the guitar comes in, it's sort of washed out and droney, giving the track an almost Earth-like vive, the overall sound is like a super cyclical krautrock styled minimalism, with an epic second half, replete with those shrieked black metal vox. Great stuff, and definitely worth the price of admission all on its own. Njiqahdda fill up the rest of the A side with an epic multipart jam, that slips easily from softly psychedelic and melodic, all clean guitars and shimmering ambience, to churning intricate mathmetal, to doomic sludgey heaviness, to wildly convoluted progged out blackness and back again, with some cool (and surprising) clean vocals, the sound majestic and heavy as hell, and seriously epic.
Venowl start things off on the B side, offering up a stumbling super lo-fi doom/sludge sprawl, creeping and woozy, laced with anguished vocals (that slip into that weird sort of oinking pig vox, which here are terrifying), chaotic and in-the-red, total rehearsal space sound, but it suits their crusty creep, the drumming impossibly damaged and totally off kilter, the whole thing sounding on the verge of constant collapse, so super fractured and fucked up, like a sludge metal version of Dead Reptile Shrine, or Circle Of Ouroborus, which is definitely a good thing. Finally, Cara Neir finish things off with three short-ish tracks of blasting black metal, the sound appropriately brittle and buzzy, but weirdly melodic, the fast picked guitar unfurling some surprising catchiness throughout, at least on the first track, the other two tracks are much more grim, and dense and mathy, the sound gradually revealing itself as not your typical black metal, with all sorts of weird shit going on within their black buzz. Awesome stuff.
Again, this is LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!! and we only have a handful, so act fast if you want one.

HORSEBACK / VOLTIGEURS split (Turgid Animal) 10" 23.00
We've long been fans of Horseback (aka Jenks Miller), whose sound has gradually developed from blissed out dronescapery, to full on blasting post rock flecked black metal, to... well, to this (more on that in a second). We've also long been fans of pretty much anything Matthew Bower related, Total, Skullflower, Sunroof!, Hototogisu, and of course Voltigeurs. And while these two may not seem like the most obvious match up, their sounds are surprisingly complimentary.
Horseback offer up two tracks, of what we can only call black prog. Buzzing guitars, pounding drums, harsh hellish vokills, and lots of ELP style organs, which transforms the sound into something way weirder, and frankly way cooler. The organs swirl and pulse and buzz over murky drum pound and those blackened shrieks, the black element sounds slowed down, like some bizarre mash up of Burzum at 16rpm and ELP at 33, the keyboards make the sound more psychedelic and spacey, and fuse perfectly into a gloriously twisted hybrid, one that is peppered with squalls of freaked out psychedelic noise, and culminates in a gorgeous Burzumic outro, all blown out drone riffage and buried anguished howls, mesmerizing and mysterious.
The second track is soaring and epic and a little blackened, but sounds more static, more like a sort of Sunroof!-style ur-drone, draped over blasting beats nearly lost in the churn and swirl, harsh vox here too, the overall sound extra distorted, glimmery and glistening and downtuned and crumbling, as if the signal is way too hot for the speakers, which makes it sound noisier for sure, but also mesmerizingly psychedelic.
Voltigeurs, which is Matthew Bower and cellist Samantha Davies, finds the duo doing what they do best, stirring up huge clouds of washed out white noise skree, a blindingly brilliant tangle of dense guitar freakage and whirling steel string buzz, a solar flare sprawl of amp melting, ear shredding psychedelic heaviness, that like other Voltigeurs recordings, offers very little to the casual listener, but beneath the barrage of howl and crunch and skree, lurk an ever shifting field of riffage and melody, buried song structures only visible occasionally, these glimpses coloring the cloud of noise that surrounds them, turning the whole thing into a surprisingly listenable blast of psychnoisebliss.
VERY VERY LIMITED! Ran out of the first batch we had, managed to get a few more back in, these are the last of 'em for sure.

HOT CHICK STONER BARBECUE (Stroker Productions) dvd 11.98
The title really says it all. If you've got a hankering for hot, tattooed hard rock chicks in denim and leather, stoner rock, pot smoking, shotgun shooting, beer drinking and lots and lots of meat, then this my friends is the DVD for you. The main hot chick, Hot Rod Honey, walks us through the preparation of all the classic barbecue goodies, steak, pulled pork, corn on the cob, grilled mushrooms, etc. while a whole gaggle of bearded metal guys and sexy rocker chicks enjoy the spoils of said barbecue, eating and drinking and smoking and just having a good ol' time. Includes music from Fu Manchu, Spirit Caravan, Sleep, High On Fire, Dixie Witch, Orange Goblin, the Obsessed, Raging Slab, Lost Goat, Acid King and a bunch more. Definitely essential for those of you who didn't go to any parties when you were in high school. Now you can see what you were missing! Also you will learn about how to barbeque. And there's definitely some humor value, perhaps depending on how stoned you are...

HOT FOG Wyvern And Children First (self-released) 12" 9.98
The ranks of the Bay Area's true metallions continues to expand, kick ass band by kick ass band. Old timers like Brocas Helm and Stone Vengeance are finally seeing a whole new generation take up the '80s metal torch, like Saviours and Space Vacation. Locals HOT FOG now join the cause, making their debut with this limited edition, vinyl-only five-song 12" release - of which we've got the SUPER LIMITED (100 copies) red colored vinyl, while they last (there's 400 more on black vinyl). It's 180 gram, 45 rpm, with cover art by psychedelic San Francisco poster artist Alan Forbes. Nice. One side of the insert bears the lyrics, the other is decorated with a dungeon map appropriated from an old D&D module! (And there's a picture of an owlbear from D&D as well, gotta love that!)
We also can't help but love the punning title. As with any true metal band in this day and age, it may be that their tongues aren't entirely removed from their cheeks. Without being utterly ironic, you can still have a sense of humor about this brand of D&D metal (you maybe have to). Doesn't stop it from ruling though. And they're definitely SERIOUS about loving medieval metal and kicking ass. Having fun, drinking beer, all that, but not taking the piss to the extent of a band like Boyjazz (who, we gotta say, were pretty killer, silly though they were).
What it comes down to it though, all you need to know about Hot Fog is, do they rock? And more to the point, do they slay? We'd say yea, and verily. Like a fist in the air, the vocals scream and soar. The galloping guitars storm to attack. It's 1983 all over again, and in your face! The riffs are all instant headbangers, dished out with practically punk energy. It's hard for us to decide which song is the most catchy, maybe the Cat Scratch Feverish "Blood Wedding", which reminds us of another local act, Night After Night (RIP).
Their biggest influence is probably (or, should we say, obviously) Iron Maiden, a fact confirmed by their singer/guitarist, who also told us that early Metallica has been sneaking into their songwriting as well... but he's adamant that they shouldn't ever get too thrashy. As he says, you've got have choruses "for the ladies". He also gave us some insight into the band's creative, artistic process: they got drunk and made a long list of cool if nonsensical names for songs (like "Dwarf King Of The Sovereign", "To The Helm", "Blood Wedding", "Death Killers", and "Gloved Vengeance", which happen to be the tracks here). Then, later, whenever someone would come up with good riff, they'd get to pick which song title to use. And the singer then had to write lyrics to fit! Something of a challenge, but he managed to do it, and with flair. Hey if it works for them... maybe that's what 3 Inches Of Blood do too?
If you want to check 'em out in person (we haven't yet had the pleasure, but are looking forward to it), they're playing tomorrow night (that's Saturday, June 19th, 2010 as we write this) opening the "Parkerzalooza VI" at the Bottom Of The Hill, with Earthless, Carlton Melton, and Dirty Power. All those bands are cool, but Hot Fog will definitely be the most METAL of 'em!
MPEG Stream: "Dwarf King Of The Sovereign"
MPEG Stream: "To The Helm"

HOUR OF 13 333 (Earache) cd 15.98
Once again, the clock strikes 13!! And that means, it's DOOM time. This is the third album of from Hour Of 13, the Sabbatherian side-project of guitarist Chad Davis from psychedelic spacerockers US Christmas (aka USX). As before, he's joined in Hour Of 13's fuzzy, chugging rituals by promiscuous Ozzy-ish vocalist Phil Swanson (also of Seamount, Briton Rites, Nightbitch, and a bunch of others).
All modern-day doom metal bands can of course trace their lineage back to Black Sabbath, but some also have obvious influences from other acts in the doom family tree. The lumbering Gates Of Slumber, for example, owe a lot to Saint Vitus. As did Revered Bizarre - who themselves provided the template more recently for Pilgrim. Other bands take after Candlemass, or Pentagram.
In the case of Hour Of 13, we're hearing a lot of Trouble. But, these guys for sure ain't no Christians. Song titles like "Deny The Cross" and "Rite Of Samhain" are one clue. There's definitely something darker and more disturbing and dismal about Hour Of 13, even as their music riffs and rocks with a lot of obvious '80s metal inspiration. Listen to an hour of Hour Of 13 (or in this case, 47 minutes, totalling 7 tracks) and you're NOT gonna feel uplifted. You'll feel doomed. Which is what you wanted, right? Thus, 333 (hmm, only half of 666, does that mean something? are you supposed to buy two and listen to them together?) is another slab that any Hour Of 13 and/or Phil Swanson fan is gonna want to grab.
MPEG Stream: "Deny The Cross"
MPEG Stream: "The Burning"
MPEG Stream: "Who's To Blame?"

HOUR OF 13 The Ritualist (Earache) cd 11.98
With a name like Hour Of 13, you know this is a doom metal band. "Trad" doom, in fact, the most Black Sabbathy kind, sludgy and old school, with a dark and occult vibe, compete with a vocalist who sounds a little something like Ozzy. He's Phil Swanson, who also sings in Seamount (reviewed here previously) and Briton Rites (whom we hope to review too), amongst others. The main guy in this outfit, though, is Chad Davis, who wrote and recorded all the music. He's also a member of country-flecked space rockers US Christmas (and used to play drums for death metallers Father Befouled) among many other band connections.
After an interestingly atmospheric and melodic opening track, laden with synths, they get into harder and heavier headbanging fare, from stuff that evokes early '80s Ozzy to, slowing down, the chunky majesty of Trouble. Mostly, though, Hour Of 13's thick tones remind us of The Obsessed, and that whole "Maryland doom scene sound" (though they're from NC); they're also a bit like Lord Vicar, with the sadness and "Ozziness" factor in Swanson's voice being similar to Lord Vicar's singer Chritus.
Way more sinister than stoner, this is though, keep that in mind. Hour Of 13 definitely venture into the dark side, psychologically, singing of demons that aren't entirely mythological. What might be the fastest song here, is also the longest, an almost 9 minute epic entitled "The Crawlspace", Swanson taking on the role, with perhaps unseemly relish, as perpetrator of an abduction/rape/murder scenario, and demonstrating that doom doesn't have to feature the anguished "vokills" of extra-o'd ultradooooom to be disturbing.
We'd wanted to list this a while ago, but never could get enough, and then couldn't get any at all, but now that's all be solved 'cause this has just been reissued (and remastered) by good ol' Earache, having previously been an Eyes Like Snow/Northern Silence release last year. Glad to finally get it, to give it a recommendation for all you doom lovers out there.
MPEG Stream: "The Ritualist"
MPEG Stream: "Demons All Around Me"
MPEG Stream: "Soldiers Of Satan"

HOUR OF 13 The Ritualist (Eyes Like Snow) lp 36.00
With a name like Hour Of 13, you know this is a doom metal band. "Trad" doom, in fact, the most Black Sabbathy kind, sludgy and old school, with a dark and occult vibe, compete with a vocalist who sounds a little something like Ozzy. He's Phil Swanson, who also sings in Seamount (reviewed here previously) and Briton Rites (whom we hope to review too), amongst others. The main guy in this outfit, though, is Chad Davis, who wrote and recorded all the music. He's also a member of country-flecked space rockers US Christmas (and used to play drums for death metallers Father Befouled) among many other band connections.
After an interestingly atmospheric and melodic opening track, laden with synths, they get into harder and heavier headbanging fare, from stuff that evokes early '80s Ozzy to, slowing down, the chunky majesty of Trouble. Mostly, though, Hour Of 13's thick tones remind us of The Obsessed, and that whole "Maryland doom scene sound" (though they're from NC); they're also a bit like Lord Vicar, with the sadness and "Ozziness" factor in Swanson's voice being similar to Lord Vicar's singer Chritus.
Way more sinister than stoner, this is though, keep that in mind. Hour Of 13 definitely venture into the dark side, psychologically, singing of demons that aren't entirely mythological. What might be the fastest song here, is also the longest, an almost 9 minute epic entitled "The Crawlspace", Swanson taking on the role, with perhaps unseemly relish, as perpetrator of an abduction/rape/murder scenario, and demonstrating that doom doesn't have to feature the anguished "vokills" of extra-o'd ultradooooom to be disturbing.
MPEG Stream: "The Ritualist"
MPEG Stream: "Demons All Around Me"
MPEG Stream: "Soldiers Of Satan"

HOUSE OF LOW CULTURE Live From The House Of Low Temperature! (2XHNI / Hydra Head) 12" 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ultra limited live document of Aaron Turner's (Isis, Old Man Gloom, Hydra Head) minimal ambient outfit House Of Low Culture. This one sided lp is 20+ minutes of lowercase rumble and barely there thrum, interrupted only by a brief track of staticky buzz, sounding a bit like droning electronic bagpipes. Subtley gorgeous. And as always, superbly packaged, this time on blue vinyl with flowers and spiders silkscreened in blue over in a gold sleeve. Wow! Be warned, this is very limited so we're not sure how long we will have this or if we can get more. Also be warned that as with a lot of picture discs of late (Table Of The Elements?), these 12"s are housed in those brittle hard plastic sleeves that more often than not, split or crack.

HOWL Full Of Hell (Relapse) cd 14.98
What's not to love about these guys (and gal)? Crushing, riff heavy grooves, sludgey, and Southern sounding (even though they're from Rhode Island), downtuned, low slung, brutal, but weirdly catchy too, with a bit of a post rock vibe here and there, totally headbangable and epic. If you had to situate Howl sonically, they would probably fall somewhere between Baroness, High On Fire, Soilent Green, and Sleep, you get the drift, a sort of stonery Sabbathy sludge, that doesn't wallow in tarpit tempos, but instead bulldozes through dense clouds of grinding buzz, slipping from midtempo crush to woozy metallic swing, to blasting thrashing pummel, the drums like battering rams, the guitars murky and muddy, with occasional bursts of psychedelic leads, that help balance the band's predominant low low low end, the vocals a monstrous bellow, all that wound into churning, almost proggy arrangements, some of the moments recall the heaving might of Neurosis, while others, channel classic metal into something way more dark and dirgey, the whole record is a headspinning, neck snapping riff fest, but the final track, "The Day Of Rest" might be our favorite, the slowest and most sprawling of the bunch, slipping from serpentine Sabbathy slither to cool start stop ultra dynamic lurch and lumber, to almost Maideny melodicism, churning chug underpinned by pounding double kick drumming, while guitars harmonize over the top, before getting almost shoegazey near the end, finally winding down with some droned out layered guitar feedback. Fuck Yeah.
MPEG Stream: "Horns Of Steel"
MPEG Stream: "You Jackals Beware"
MPEG Stream: "Gods In Broken Men"

HOWLING A Beast Conceived (Razorback) cd 9.98
For some folks, it might just be enough to say that the debut release from Howling is indeed a howling, heavy slab of WEREWOLF-themed death metal. Add that the band features members of aQ faves Wooden Stake and we're ready to crank this loud (after stocking up on wolfsbane and silver bullets). The beautifully rendered, kitschy cover painting, which looks like it belongs on the front of some '70s Italian erotic-horror "fumetti" comic book, ought to give you some idea of what sort of sick slasher-thrasher outfit this is. A trio that teams up shredding guitar player Tony P. with screaming, guttural vocalist Vanessa Nocera (Wooden Stake, Skeletal Spectre, Scaremaker, etc.) and pounding drummer Electrokutioner (Wooden Stake, Encoffination, Father Befouled, Scaremaker, etc.), Howling doesn't just play straight up death metal, though there's plenty of that, old school style; there's also lots of classic '80s metal melodicism to the guitar licks and soloing, giving this a bit of a Carcass feel at times. And Howling happily delve into some doomy bongsmoked jams too, like the lumbering stoner riffage of "A Night In The Crypt", that Acid Witch fans ought to dig. Lycanthropic death at its best.
MPEG Stream: "As Man Becomes Lycanthrope"
MPEG Stream: "Traumatic Transmutations"
MPEG Stream: "A Night In The Crypt"