ANVIL CHORUS The Killing Sun (Rockadrome) cd 12.98
Not to be confused with Anvil! Though, right now, maybe they'd like to be. This Bay Area metal band, is another from the '80s that had even less success than those now famous Canucks. Much less. Back in the day, Anvil Chorus never managed to get signed, and released only demos and singles, never an album - until now. It wasn't 'cause they weren't good, in fact, they were commonly known as "the Bay Area's best unsigned metal band". It was more due to mere bad luck. And maybe 'cause their music crossed too many genre lines, from NWOBHM power, to party time LA pop metal, to progressive wank, to speed metal tech. Who knows. But it's cool that they got back together, got back in the studio, and FINALLY have released their debut album, via the Rockadrome label (who've been blessing us with some awesome proto-metal reissues lately, you should recall). Anyone who digs '80s metal ought to check this out. There's certainly plenty of shred. And don't worry, most of these songs are ones demoed back in the day and thus have that "only in the '80s" authenticity to 'em, although they're newly recorded.
Criticisms? Well, Anvil Chorus do have a tendency to a bit of cheesiness, mainly due to overuse of keyboards, that's their weak spot taste-wise. And they've probably only grown in "adulthood", towards such prog-metal pitfalls, also evinced by the awful album cover. Cheesy, yeah. Still, even their cheese can be kinda enjoyable, so this is just a warning to those who can't handle a whiff of it. Their song "European" for instance, might be too poppy for some, but it's ultimately pretty good, a classy track, though we prefer it when they're killing us with the equally classy "Deadly Weapons"! Anyway, among the 12 songs here there's lots to make folks into heavy, riffy, rippin' bands like Riot, Armored Saint, and Metal Church happy... along with pleasing the Queensryche fans that their cheesier prog side indulges. So check it out, it's some Bay Area heavy metal history come back to life (they even played a show the other night!). Oh, and making amends for the cover art, the cd booklet includes lyrics, vintage photos of the band in action in the '80s, and a band history/appreciation by local metal celeb Ron Quintana.
MPEG Stream: "Deadly Weapons"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Flames"
MPEG Stream: "Phase To Phase"

ANVIL: THE STORY OF ANVIL (VH1 Films) dvd 28.00
THE MOVIE! Worth owning. Lots of extras. Read our review of the new Anvil album This Is Thirteen for more info on the movie, if you haven't seen it (you should!).

ANWECH My Frozen Dream Slept Too Eternally (Fog Of The Apocalypse) cd 14.98
Weirdo black metal obsessives no doubt remember Italian band Leaden, whose awesomely titled album, Monotonous Foghorns of Molesting Department, we raved about a while back. Not only were the songs called things like "Black Apartment Of Depression" and "When Out Seems To Vanish", but the music was a stumbling confusional mix of blackened doomy slowcore and lurching murky black fuzz, that managed to be more droney and hypnotic than blasting and buzzing, but so weird and unique that we just couldn't get enough of it.
So when we discovered the guy from Leaden had another band, we knew we had to track it down. This isn't that new, but it's the firs time we've managed to get enough to list. And while it doesn't really sound much like Leaden, it is just as weird, but in a whole different, maybe even more brilliantly fucked up way.
My Frozen Dream Slept Too Eternally is only 4 songs, but they're all long, and there's so much packed into each. It would be worth it even if it was just one song, the opener, "Strongest Nocturnal Silence" is the black metal gloom pop what-the-fuck jam of the year. Of any year. Beginning with a simple doomy, almost Sabbathy riff, the drums join in, simple and stripped down, and then the vocals, holy shit. Somewhere between the Ethel Merman like warble of Urfaust and a doped up Axl Rose. A raspy harsh falsetto croon, draped over a warm thick doomy black groove that is equal parts black metal, slowcore and slooowed way down punk rock. The end result is something haunting and creepy and off kilter and amazingly moody and evocative. When the track shifts to the 'chorus', it's a hook that will stick in your head forever, the lurching riff, the anguished vocals. And we're only 5 minutes in. The track shifts gears and suddenly it's just a guitar, unfurling a mournful melody, the notes dripping in effects, drifting over space-y Tangerine Dream style synths, until a distorted guitar comes back in adding a layer of woozy swirling riffage, then the track builds and builds, the guitars getting more psychedelic and frenzied, the synths more dramatic and tense, and suddenly it's some sort of spaced out epic, Godspeed versus Hawkwind by way of Abruptum and Urfaust, the vocals come back in, and finally, the track explodes into a blast of about as black as it gets here, minor key doom-ed black metal, rife with super movie melodies, that minus the vocals and some of the buzz, could be some sort of dark post rock record.
Wow. Like we said, that song alone would be worth the price of admission, but there are three more long ones to go, and they hardly tread the same ground.
The next track starts off all churning downtuned chug underpinned by stumbling double kick, an almost Khold style groove, with some strange murky synthesizers than transform the track into something much more moody and unhinged, the vocals adding their own bit of anguished mystery, the track veering all over the place, the synths shifting the mood from punkish pound to swirling dizzying doom psych and back again. The next track is another punkish jam, with those disembodied keyboards that make this sound like Burzum covering Khold covering Nuit Noire. Shifting repeatedly from loping melancholy dirge to blurred buzz to lumbering moody dirge.
The final track is total blackened post rock. The guitars tangled and minor key, a swirling layer of ghostly keyboard over the whole thing, the vocals, a raspy mournful howl, the melodies constantly shifting and swirling, the song slipping into post punk groove, then dirgey doom metal pound, then black metal blast, but always twisted up by those vocals, and the off kilter keyboards, and the thing is, it may be damaged and demented, but beyond simply being 'bizarre', the sound is intense and emotional, epic and melancholic, dark and weirdly beautiful, while still managing to be heavy, buzzy, totally freaked out, fucked up and so fantastic.
MPEG Stream: "Strongest Nocturnal Silence"
MPEG Stream: "Misanthropic Sensation Far Away From The Light"

AOSOTH III (Agonia Records) cd 15.98
The return of French black metallers Aosoth, with what many are proclaiming to be black metal record of the year. And we have to say we're ready to agree. Obviously, as long time aQ list readers no doubt already know, we love French black metal, as probably do many of you. Deathspell, Blut Aus Nord, Diamatregon, Antaeus, Hell Militia, Otargos, Peste Noire, Spektr, S.V.E.S.T., Mutiilation, Wolok, and of course Aosoth belong to that elite group. This is record number three, originally a side project of Antaeus vocalist MkM, who seems to have maybe been downgraded here, as only the other two guys get their pix in the booklet, while MkM is credited with "audio propaganda", which we can only assume are vocals, and the vocals here are appropriately fierce and fucked up and awesome, and are no doubt still delivered by MkM.
But it's the music that's mindblowing, impossibly relentless, insanely heavy, gnarled and ultra complex, taking the sort of avant blackness of Deathspell, and rendering it in a form much more raw and low fidelity. The riffs are black tangles, the drums insane blasts of lightning fast pound, the atmosphere is super creepy and murky, the melodies soar, the arrangements epic and majestic, but the sound is just this side of lo-fi, the sound managing to be dense and heavy, without being slick and polished, instead, the sound is feral and RAW, and it's a strange combination, the raw lo-fi sound, and this seriously complex avant garde blackness, the tracks slipping from old school black buzz blast, to soaring epic majesty, to total mathed out confusional chaos, all super twisted and psychedelic, just take the extended breakdown on "II", which is a head spinning swirl of constant drum fill and swirling interlocking manic melody, a blurred cloud of frantic heaviness that is so tense and intense, that when it does finally switch, it seemingly takes a few seconds to readjust.
There are plenty of strange interludes, buzzing black ambience, haunting pianos, hazy stretches of guitardrone, hushed expanses of hushed shimmer, but this is the kind of record that is already inherently twisted, those non-metal extras only add to the atmosphere, in fact, in a way, it's those parts that offer a brief respite from the actual music's hellish black weirdness, the core sound a grinding, buzzing dense black tangle, occasionally slipping into something woozy and doomy, lumbering and creeping, a haunting bit of depressive darkness, but inevitably those parts explode into flurries of wildly chaotic drum damage and fucked up and fractured riffage. But for all this perceived weirdness, the sound is not 'weird', all of those strange elements are deftly woven into an incredible suite of grim black metallic mastery, creating a series of songs that manage to be heavy, haunting, brutal and black, fucked up and totally fucking incredible. Black metal record of the year? Could be...
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"
MPEG Stream: "III"

AOSOTH s/t (Total Holocaust) cd 12.98
It's been quite some time since we've heard from French black metal lords (and lady) Antaeus. Fortunately, the always amazing Norma Evangelium Diaboli label has given us a split 7" with Antaeus and Germany's Katharsis, reviewed elsewhere on this list. But what has the band been up to since their last full length, 2006's Blood Libels? Well, we're not entirely sure. But our blackened hearts have been aching for Antaeus' incomprehensibly heavy blend of thick riffage, terrifying vocals and truly astounding drumming. And that, dear friends, is where Aosoth steps in.
The new-ish (they've been around since 2002 but only released a couple of splits) project of Antaeus vocalist MkM, with the awesomely monickered Bestial Satanic T handling all the instruments and production work, Aosoth effortlessly steps into the top tier of current black metal bands with their first full length. The sound is not too far removed from that of Antaeus, but Aosoth is its own beast indeed. These songs won't be mistaken for anything but black metal, but they are at times quite thrashy and, dare we say, "catchy" throughout the majority of the record. Production wise, this will make you realize that no matter how many black metal bands are capable of producing awesome work with limited means/musical talent, some guys are just a cut above the rest. Who, other than someone truly devoted to darkness, can write riffs this devastating? It's clear that these guys are anything but amateur black metal weekend warriors.
Things kick off with the two part "Aura of Pills", the name of which gives you a pretty clear idea of the strain of mental instability these true black metallers have embraced to further their deviance within modern society. Part I begins with shimmering cathedral-like ambience before snapping into a burley, hyperspeed D-Beat with thick swells of guitar and uber-metal pinch harmonics. Part II is a bit more plodding, but no less heavy, making nice use of the devil's tritone as the vocals bark out pure vitriol, before culminating in a squiggly (maybe not the best word to describe something so evil...) guitar solo. The somewhat hilariously titled "Here to Serve" offers another uncompromising blend of sheer brutality as does the final track, "Prophet's Curse", where MkM's treated vocals gurgle below a queasy, arpeggiated guitar riff as things head into a midtempo dirge that is probably a pretty good indication of what it would be like to die in combat... in a GOOD way.
This album came as quite a surprise, because honestly, we weren't really expecting it to kick our asses this hard. The unknown status of Antaeus is a little easier to stomach when we know the members are up to something as truly worthwhile and unrelenting as this.
MPEG Stream: "Aura Of Pills (Part II)"
MPEG Stream: "Here To Serve"
MPEG Stream: "Soul Cremation"

APATI Eufori (Total Holocaust) cd 12.98
BACK IN STOCK!
First record from Swedish depressive black metal trio, Apati (Apathy we assume), who travel a well worn path, one most recently and fantastically tread by their countrymen Lifelover, but who manage to take that sound and do their own thing with it. To be fair, that 'thing' is most definitely not that far removed from Lifelover, although we do hear plenty of other sonically similar groups like Hypothermia and Happy Days, and other outfits who are melding melodic blackened pop with harsh shrieking vocals and black atmospherics. Also worth mentioning is Katatonia, who seem to have inadvertently created the template for the modern wave of depressive black metal, strip the hellish shrieks away, introduce some deep crooning vocals, and you'd have some seriously dark and catchy blackened doom pop. Which should give you an idea of what's going on with Apati, the music is mournful and melodic, epic and grandiose, the drums sound programmed, but they're simple and there more as a framework, allowing the guitars to loop into mesmerizing riffscapes, most of the tracks only have one or two parts, more about repetition and mood than songsmithery. The vocals are really the only thing that keep Apati at all tethered to black metal, they shriek maniacally, frenzied, hysterical, anguished, wailed dramatically, easily the most metal element besides the buzzy guitars, but the guitar buzz is less harsh and hellish and more melodic and poppy.
Apati also offer up plenty of haunting instrumental interludes (which is probably another reason they get slagged off for being Lifelover copies), dark chamber music, looping piano figures, the sound of storms, disembodied voices, sampled dialogue, all draped over hazy, gauzy stretches of dreamy shimmer, or murky ambience. Where Lifelover are seriously demented and fucked up and damaged, Apati don't concern themselves more with creating beautiful music, the juxtaposition is certainly odd, and is what make them what they are, but it's not willfully far out, it seems more like an aesthetic choice, the harsh vocals, adding to the dread and drama of the melancholy music underneath.
We're pretty partial to this new breed of depressive black metal, most of our favorite BM has elements of pop anyway, this more like a dark rock band infusing their sound with elements of black metal, whatever you call it, gloom pop, dark metal, depressive dirge pop, black pop, it hardly matters, this stuff is awesome, moody, melodic, hypnotic and heavy, and heck, it will definitely tide us over until the next Lifelover record, or even the next Apati record. RECOMMENDED!
MPEG Stream: "Host"
MPEG Stream: "Somnlosa Natter"
MPEG Stream: "Nykter Idag"

APHOTIC s/t cd 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

APHOTIC Stillness Grows (Flood The Earth) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

APHOTIC Under Veil of Darkness (self-released) cd 7.98
All the way from Green Bay, Wisconsin, comes this blackened doom metal horde, and we just discovered a small clutch (3 actually), of this, their self released 2001 ep, 4 tracks of moody, atmospheric midtempo doomy blackness, programmed beats, swirling keyboards, bellowed gruff vokills that switch to occasional crooned clean vox, all laid over tangled buzzing riffage, and blurred into hazy surprisingly beautiful buzz and blast and pound and crunch, the tracks slipping from frenzied blast, to lumbering dirge to woozy moody waltz and back again, the pretty parts reminding us a bit of older Katatonia, which is not at all a bad thing.
ONLY 3 COPIES!!

APOCALYPTICA Cult ( Spitfire) cd 16.98
We listed this back on #108, when it first came out as an import (we were stocking the Canadian version, thanks to our friends at Scratch Records in Vancouver who ordered 'em for us and smuggled 'em down here) but it's taken over a year for this to get a proper US release. We never were able to get enough of the import to make a big deal about it, but now that it's out domestically we're ready to give this the big push -- it's one of the best "metal" albums of the year, despite not having a single electric guitar anywhere on it! This is what we said about it before:
We've been huge fans of this Finnish all-cello quartet for a while now, and how could we not be? Their first record was of them sawing away at all Metallica covers! Their second record was almost all covers too, not just Metallica, but Sepultura and Faith No More. It's not all that surprising that these pseudo classical instrumental versions of metal songs worked so well (sometimes better than the originals), especially considering the epic Wagnerian quality of a lot of metal, especially Metallica.
On their third record though, Apocalyptica have almost completely abandoned their metal/Metallica covers (except for a couple bonus tracks) in favor of originals, and the result is probably their best record yet. They have obviously learned all they can from the masters (classical and metal), and have struck out on their own, to create something new, certainly not conventionally metal, but not classical either. Definitely 'heavy' though! The four cellists (here augmented by double bass and all sorts of percussion) craft explosive and complex, super intense epics, fusing classical movements with traditional song structures, bizarre techniques with impeccable chops, all delivered with decidedly un-classical aggression, making for a record way heavier and better than anything Metallica themselves have done in the last few years. Not bad for a bunch of cellists!
This new US edition is a little different than the import -- the bonus tracks are the same (two Metallica covers plus their version of Grieg's "Hall Of The Mountain King"), but they've also included a new version of their song "Path" that adds vocals from the woman from the band Guano Apes (who I guess are popular in Europe), and there's also a cd-rom video included for that same cut. While it's neat to see them flailing away at their cellos in the stylish video, if you already have the import it's not enough to make you trade it in for this version. But if you *don't* have the import (and we know quite a few of you missed out), now's your chance to pick up this awesome album!
(Oh, quick note to the people who write press sheets for Spitfire: "Hall Of The Mountain King" is NOT a Savatage cover, guys!)
RealAudio clip: "Path"
RealAudio clip: "Pray!"
RealAudio clip: "Struggle"

APOCALYPTICA Inquisition Symphony (Mercury) cd 15.98
Tracks from the first Apocalyptica album were prominently featured in the recent film Your Friends and Neighbors as this cello quartet performed blistering versions of Metallica songs. Their second album is a far more advanced affair as the quartet was granted a larger budget for recording. Not just Metallica is represented as we are treated to renditions of tunes by Sepultura, Faith No More, and Pantera, as well as two quite excellent self-penned Apocalyptica tracks of completely intense metal riffs played exclusively on cellos! Very highly recommended by all who work here.

APOCALYPTICA Plays Metallica By Four Cellos (Mercury) cd 15.98
The title really says it all, doesn't it? From Finland. Their version of "Enter Sandman" blows Pat Boone's out of the water. And then there's "Master of Puppets," "Creeping Death," "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)," etc.
Definitely Apocalpytica's best album.

APOCALYPTICA Reflections (Nuclear Blast) cd 16.98
Fourth album from everyone's favorite Finnish Metallica coverin' cello quartet! Of course, they don't do any Metallica covers on this new one, as they've long since established themselves as more than just a tribute act (though, at the sold-out show they played in San Francisco this year with openers Hammers of Misfortune, they did indeed include a healthy helping of Metallica numbers in their set -- if they hadn't there woulda been a riot! Why d'you think it was sold out, after all? Metallica!). Like their previous album, Cult, this one consists of originals -- shredding, cello-metal instrumental originals. And like on Cult, the cello quartet is augmented by a drummer -- on several songs his name is Dave Lombardo of Slayer/Fantomas fame! He's not the only special celebrity guest, either. One of the bonus tracks features vocals from Nina Hagen. But the real stars of the show remain the cellos, even if Apocalyptica is sounding more and more like a metal band with cellos rather than a cello band with metal. That there's one in flames on the cover is an obvious but apt visual summation of Apocalyptica's special something. Casual fans can make do with their debut Plays Metallica By Four Cellos but how can you be just a casual fan of this classical music/metal hybrid??
MPEG Stream: "No Education"
MPEG Stream: "Resurrection"

APOLION Death Grows Into Sperm (Bylec-Tum) cd 11.98
Last copies!! Here's a new one from this Italian one man black metal band, the awesomely (and confusionally) titled Death Grows Into Sperm, with its equally confusional cover, featuring some sort of demonic sperm/skull hybrid.
For a self described practitioner of "harsh impudent black metal", much of DGIS is surprisingly melodic and lush, especially the opening two part epic (and the closing two parter, but more on that in a second), the intro is all clean guitars, and swirling swells and proggy synths, when the track proper kicks in, the guitars soar majestically, the tempo more doomy and midtempo than black and thrashing, still heavy on the melody, until about 4 minutes in, when some frantic riffing surfaces, and the sound explodes into some seriously bleak and blasting blackness. But even, then the sound is infused with melody, a subtle poppiness, that manages to make the fury and force stick in your head.
The sound shifts quite a bit too, from Nordic style classic black metal, to more traditional eighties style heavy metal riffing, those elements woven together by serpentine guitar leads, and those aforementioned melodies. The middle chunk of the record is much more traditionally grim and black, buzzy and blasting, still rife with bits of melody and unlikely arrangements, until the final two part closing songsuite, which mirrors the opening, creating a super lush and intricate blackened prog epic, lots of spidery clean guitars, droned out buzz, some black blasts for sure, but way heavier on the melody and the atmosphere, especially the second part, which spends the majority of its 8 minutes blurring and swirling and drifting like some Tim Hecker-ish bit of gauzy atmospheric ambience, interrupted briefly by a bit of super melodic heavy riffing, but otherwise left to whir and chime and float and finally fade out.
Grim, black, majestic, epic and melodic, and way recommended for folks who dig that sort of thing. Which we're guessing is a whole lot of you.
MPEG Stream: "Glint Of Creation (Part 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Death Grows Into Sperm"
MPEG Stream: "Inverted King"

APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE Last Sunrise (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
Full length number two from these Midwestern true doomlords, who hail from the very metal state of Indiana, featuring former Gates Of Slumber drummer Chuck Brown (who sings and plays guitar here), and who do indeed traffic in TROO DOOM! By now you should know what that means, huge distorted Sabbathy riffs, slow doomy grooves, big crushing drums, clean soaring dramatic vocals, epic and soulful, with occasional stretches of more subdued shimmery clean guitar drift, mournful guitar harmonies, as well as brief blasts of almost all out thrashing, but those moments are indeed brief, the majority of the record is spent in full doom groove mode, lurching, lumbering, pounding, heavy and majestic, the sound definitely softened by the VERY melodic vocals, but it also makes their sound pretty unique. Emo doom, maybe?
And like the last record, AoS really like to do covers, and they sure can pick em. Last time they did Sabbath's "Electric Funeral", and while it was killer, it also did what great covers often inadvertently do, outshine the band's originals. So this time around the band run into the same problem, they slay on absolutely killer covers of The Obsessed, the Misfits and Born Against for fuck's sake! And all three RULE, but end up sounding WAY better than anything on the record. We were joking that you should buy this awesome 3 song covers ep, which comes with a bonus album of all originals, and if you're really feeling these covers, you can track down the European version, which features DIFFERENT bonus tracks, Thin Lizzy, Celtic Frost and a different Misfits jam.
Either way, good stuff, but you may find your self returning to the covers more than the record proper, especially the Born Against cover which destroys. And we won't even go into the atrocious cover photo featuring what looks like a jock on a date with a fifty year old European mom, the two of them having decided to engage in an extremely unlikely suicide pact... WTF? Well these guys like to be different, anyway. What other true doom band would have someone wearing a Neutral Milk Hotel t-shirt in their band photo, either?
MPEG Stream: "Last Sunrise"
MPEG Stream: "Acknowledging The Demon"
MPEG Stream: "Streetside (Obsessed)"
MPEG Stream: "Astro Zombies (Misfits cover)"

APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE Sincerest Misery (Eyes Like Snow / Northern Silence) cd 13.98
If you've already guessed from the band name and album title that this is old school DOOM METAL, you'd be correct. What could be more doom than the idea of "Sincere Misery"?? Doom, depression, misery, of course. Sincerity, that's also a hallmark of the truest doom, from Ozzy's earliest croakings with Black Sabbath... he always sounded so sincere, that was a big part of his charisma. Later on, the prayerful likes of Trouble held the same sort of feeling...
So, with this debut, these guys are part of the grand tradition, that's for sure. Cleanly-sung vocal lamentations, soaring o'er CRUNCHY, crawling riffs, sheer epick heaviness in copious quantities, basically. With a variety of interestin' twists here and there to give Apostle Of Solitude their own identity, such as the sampled spoken narrative of some Depression-era old timer over the wide-open-spaces jamming of "This Dustbowl Earth", like a psychedelic Americana. And when comes solo time, they really shine. As achingly gorgeous as doom'd metallic guitarwork can be, yet sharp and fierce too. Perfectly complimenting the glacial gloominess of the band's pained plodding, which reaches its peak on the massive "Warbird", stretched out to over 14 minutes. File alongside the slow and low likes of Solitude Aeturnus, Reverend Bizarre, and home-staters Gates Of Slumber (for whom their guitarist/vocalist played drums, once upon a time).
Oh and we've gotta mention the hidden bonus track, a cover of Sabbath's "Electric Funeral". We think doom bands should resist the urge to cover Sabbath songs, but we're sure for obvious reasons it's an overpowering urge, so we don't blame 'em. At least AoS had the sense to make it an unlisted track at the end of the album. Why do we think doom bands shouldn't cover Sabbath? Well, we ALREADY know you like Sabbath, right? And you're not gonna improve upon the original, nor sound different enough to be interesting from the novelty angle. And now you've gone and ensured that the best song on your album is a cover. Whoops. However, hardly a serious complaint, and true doom fans will enjoy not only AoS's reverent cover of "Electric Funeral" but the whole album for sure. So, TDFs, get this, and also don't miss the new one from Finland's The Wandering Midget, from the same label, reviewed this list too!
MPEG Stream: "The Messenger"
MPEG Stream: "A Slow Suicide"

APTORIAN DEMON Angst, Jammer og Fortbilelse / Til Helbete (Aftermath Music) 7" 10.98

AQUARIUS BUTTONS 2 x 1" buttons 1.00
Hey, we just got another batch of AQ buttons made up...
Spread the word! Show the world your true aQ colors! COOL COOL COOL aQ buttons, now in 6 different vibrant color combinations. 5 new color combos (blue on pink, red on dark grey, dark blue on blue, orange on black, and yellowish green on dark green) and a popular one we had previously (brown on yellow).
TWO FOR $1!!! Colors are random, but buy enough and you'll be guaranteed to get 'em all! And of course all feature our spiffy James Gang style logo!! So stylish!

AQUARIUS T SHIRT Special Limited Artists Edition #1: Justin Bartlett (Size: 2XL) T shirt 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!

AQUARIUS T SHIRT Special Limited Artists Edition #1: Justin Bartlett (Size: Extra Large) T shirt 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!

AQUARIUS T SHIRT Special Limited Artists Edition #1: Justin Bartlett (Size: Large) T shirt 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!

AQUARIUS T SHIRT Special Limited Artists Edition #1: Justin Bartlett (Size: Medium) T shirt 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!

AQUARIUS T SHIRT Special Limited Artists Edition #1: Justin Bartlett (Size: Small) T shirt 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!

AQUARIUS T SHIRT Special Limited Artists Edition #1: Justin Bartlett (Size: Youth Large) T shirt 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!

ARARAT Musica De La Resistencia (MeteorCity) cd 11.98
Weird and wonderful one here, folks. And it's for folky folks, though it's got a HEAVY pedigree. A lot of you are fans, like us, of South American stoner rock cosmonauts Los Natas, so you'll sort of (but not really) know what to expect here, Ararat being Los Natas guitarist Sergio Chotsourian's solo side project, and it is psychedelic like the most darkly psychedelic of Los Natas' output, coming closest perhaps to the proggy spaciness of Los Natas' two Toba-Trance discs for Circle's Ektro label, but is even more abstract and stripped down, not actually rock at all, often all-acoustic, "New Weird Argentina" maybe we'd call it! Ararat could be some kind of haunted, campfire krautrock, more like a field recording than the finished product of a studio session (even if the studio is called Death, which is where this was in fact recorded).
It starts off with "Gitanoss", an quietly epic almost 14 minutes of moody late-night strum, ambient hum, echoes, drifting melody, hazy organ drone, ritual percussion, backwards effects... quite a trip, as is this whole disc, Chotsourian climbing his personal Holy Mountain here (Mount Ararat!), it seems, this album a musical sketchbook of his ascent, of sorts.
Track two turns out to be a reprise of "Dos Horses", the album-ender of most recent Los Natas disc, Nuevo Orden De La Libertad, this alternate version not that far removed from the acoustic guitar/piano interplay of the original (Chotsourian just must be very proud of this particular composition, and it is quite nice). Next, there's the spooky "El Carrusel", all billowing fuzz and tinkling bell, like Stephen Wray Lobdell's Davis Redford Triad doing the soundtrack for a John Carpenter film!
While that one got heavy, the next is not, the pretty "Little Grissy" being under a minute of guitar and guitar only, Chotsourian giving a delicate demonstration of his chops for the Takoma crowd, leading into the hushed and melodic "Ganar-Perder", which to us sounds like Ghost's Masaki Batoh reinterpreting "Planet Caravan" or something (it too is a version of a song from Nuevo Orden De La Libertad, but in this case much altered, extended and acoustic). That's followed by the delicate Spanish guitar and atmospheric creaky crackle of the nearly 12 minute long "Magia Negra", one that Sir Richard Bishop fans should enjoy.
Only finale "Castro" is a "real" rock song, sounding like a band (Los Natas, or even Circle), with proper drums, and amps fully cranked, with vocals that Circle's Mika Ratto might think were his own, and even this one stays freaky and uncommitted, 'til it ends with the clatter of abandoned drumsticks, electricity flickering, Chotsourian and his mysterious band wandering away into the desert night.
We always say Boris fans should check out Los Natas. And Boris fans should check this out too, but we think Ararat is also for folks into Six Organs Of Admittance, James Blackshaw, Jozef Van Wissem, Feathers, Steven R. Smith and other Jewelled Antler stuff, all that whole post-Fahey psychfolk scene, with the astral Argentinean/Amerindian/Armenian/Appalachian vibes here flowing as ominous, minimalist mesmer, intimate and entrancing...
MPEG Stream: "Gitanoss"
MPEG Stream: "El Carrusel"
MPEG Stream: "Ganar-Perder"

ARCH ENEMY Anthems Of Rebellion (Century Media) cd 14.98

ARCH ENEMY Wages Of Sin (Century Media) 2cd 14.98
We were always huge fans of Arch Enemy, the death metal band of Mike Ammott (formerly of the mighty Carnage and the even mightier Carcass, and currently with stoner rockers Spiritual Beggars) until their last record 'Burning Bridges', where they dropped the ball and veered dangerously into cheesy Satriani-style senti-metal too-melodic goop. Up until that point (only two records, but what records they were), they were a furious melodic black/death metal machine spitting out perfectly performed and produced, ultra melodic, completely shredding Swedish death metal. So this is quite a return to form. Tight and catchy and furious and unbelievably heavy. The first thing you notice though is the picture of a young blonde woman on the sleeve, looking all Southern California beach babe. So we were worried that Arch Enemy had gona all gothy metally doom ala Nightwish or Lullacry. But it turns out she's Arch Enemy's brand new singer, and boy, looks can be deceiving! The voice that comes out of this woman's mouth is not only perfect for the music, it's scary and fierce and will have most corpse-painted black metal dudes quaking in their spikes. A demonic growl that occasionally stretches into Cradle Of Filth shriek territory. Seriously impressive. And the music takes the In Flames formula of sped up and roughed up Iron Maiden even further infusing the songs with amazingly catchy melodies, gorgeous moody and melancholy bits, unforgettable riffs, great harmony leads and some really surprising stop/start breakdowns that sound almost like Meshuggah. And, as we said, it's all topped off by vocalist Angela Gossow's raspy, inhuman, demonic howl.
We have the limited double disc version (and as it's limited, not sure how long we will) that features a bonus disc of unreleased/rare tracks including a Judas Priest cover, an Iron Maiden cover, and a EUROPE cover (?!?!?), a bunch of Japanese only bonus tracks and a video, all with Arch Enemy's original (male) vocalist. Disc one also features a video clip as well as a bonus track.
RealAudio clip: "Enemy Within"
RealAudio clip: "Burning Angel"

ARCHGOAT Angelcunt (Tales Of Desecration) (Battle Kommand) picture disc lp 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sometimes metal is about more than just the music. Especially black metal. The sound, the look, the attitude, the lyrics, the artwork, the spikes, the corpsepaint, the upside down cross / pentagram / triple six logo, the pen and ink renderings of demons fucking angels, the bullet belts, the blood splattered band members, the Satanic pseudonymns, all contribute to turning this heavy metal record into a dark Satanic ritual, a musical invocation -- it's dramatic and theatrical and over the top and fucking killer. This picture disc is a reissue of a 1993 ep by legendary Finnish black metallers, Archgoat. Blood Desecrator, Lord Angelslayer and Ritual Butcherer spew forth a vomitous smear of black thrash, galloping and blasting furiously through the dark fields of the underworld. Having never heard Archgoat before, we have to admit we listened to the whole record on 33, amazed by how sludgy the sound was and the impossibly guttural vocals, but a quick spin on 45 made it clear that it was maybe not actually meant to be played at 33... but the power is in your hands! A killer black thrash classic at 45, a bizarre slab of black sludge at 33! Either way this stuff is heavy and EVIL. Cool picture disc too, one side is the band logo, band photos, surrounded by a bullet belt, the other side is an amazingly amateur drawing of a goat headed demon fucking an angel on some sort of altar. Includes an insert detailing the history of the band and a full color poster.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!!!!

ARCKANUM Antikosmos (Moribund) cd 17.98
We've long been fans of Swedish one man black metal band Arckanum. Even those who haven't heard his music, probably remember the 'band' photos, which always featured a cloaked creature with a deformed troll-like face, huge hook nose, and carrying a massive staff. Some folks were put off by this bit of theatricality, probably giving them visions of the much cheesier Mortiis. But then they were missing out. This Swede kicked out the classic black metal jams, nothing avant, or experimental really, barring the occasional ambient interlude, but just pure raw grim blackness. With a lo-fi production and a great crusty black sound, Arckanum released 3 full lengths in the late nineties, and since then, it's been nothing but a handful of splits and eps. So we were pretty excited for the first Arckanum full length in ten years, and we were not disappointed.
The sound, at its core is similar to the classic Arckanum sound, but the production is massive, the guitars thick and monstrous, the drums pounding and brutal, the whole vibe is much more sleek and streamlined and 'produced', but thankfully manages to retain most of its grimness and blackness, although now the music is imbued with a power never present before, and if anything, dare we say it, a new found groove.
We've heard this record compared to discs by Craft and Inquisition, among others, but we can't help hearing a little Khold, which as far as we're concerned is actually a good thing. Take the album opener, after a creeped out drone-y intro, and a swirl of guitar buzz and cymbal sizzle, the song launches into a furious blast, which sounds punkier and crustier that we remember, and again, groovier. It has much to do with the chord progression, as on the surface this is still all blasting beats and buzzing guitars, but then the deal is sealed with the bridge, where the guitars and drums lock into a weird droney, almost poppy part that sounds like it could have come from a Torche song! And that vibe, those melodies, those subtle touches are present throughout, even at its most intense and furious, the band easily will slip in a subtle, yet impossibly catchy hook or phrase, almost like they don't even know they're doing it, some mysterious musical force manifesting itself, hidden among the black brambles and jagged harsh heaviness. Then there's a track like "Rokulfargnyr", which is primarily a strange clipped staccato guitar chug, the drums locked in, peppered with dynamics, but it almost sounds like some sort of fractured math rock. Even when the song kicks in for real, the stop start guitar, the super technical drumming, eventually gives way to more soaring melodic buzzing blackness. "Nakjeptir" is all eighties groove and chug, laced with cool stretches of black dissonance. "Eksortna" is just guitar, distorted and melodic, unfurling a stately court-of-the-king style melody,
while closer "Formala" is classic blackened doom, very spacious and sprawling, with some weird drumming, a killer main riff, and an outro of demonic murmurs and buzzing distorted rumbles.
This disc has been getting crazy play around here, and has had us revisiting the older records as well, which sound even better than we remember. Lots of folks we know have been talking about Antikosmos as BM record of the year, and while we still have other contenders to consider, we're definitely inclined to agree that this could very well crack the top ten. Maybe even the top five...
MPEG Stream: "Svarti"
MPEG Stream: "Daudmellin"
MPEG Stream: "Rokulfargnyr"

ARCKANUM Helvitismyryr (Season Of Mist) cd 15.98
Latest from this Swedish one man black metal band, and the fourth in a seemingly sonically connected tetralogy, beginning with the godlike Antikosmos from 2008, continuing with 2009's oddly named but nearly as good PPPPPPPPPPP (those really should be runes, not 'P's), and then last year's Sviga Lae, which we were never able to get a hold of, unfortunately. Helvitismyrkr, while perhaps not nearly as good as Antikosmos, definitely ranks up there with the other three, and the more we listen to this, the more it seeps into our soul, and the better it sounds.
On PPPPPPPPPPP, it seemed like the only big change from Antikosmos was that the sound was getting more polished, but the sound here is appropriately raw, still punky and thrashy, shot through with bits of classic metal, NWOBHM, and of course first wave classic Scandinavian style BM, with soaring frantic riffage, and epic arrangements, but like on the other Arckanum's, the sound shifts constantly, from doomy dirge to black blast to midtempo lope, with lots of strange breakdowns and stop/start arrangements, and guitar solos, yep, one of the few black metal bands that has leads, and they're pretty killer, occasionally just mirroring the melody, but often totally shredding.
The opening track here, "Helvitt", gives a pretty good taste of Arckanum circa 2011, with all of the above mentioned elements in full effect, and all woven into a buzzing, blasting, soaring, pounding chunk of blackness that manages to be surprisingly catchy to boot.
The classic /traditional metal elements play a big part here, and there seems to be a definite shift even further away from the grim black buzz of the early years, with much of this edging ever closer to 'rock' than 'metal', but it definitely suits the songs, more melodic, more memorable, with a handful of the songs slipping into slow almost ballady prettiness, still heavy, just moody and melodic, while others just creeping along ominously, like the nearly psychedelic closing track, but those moments seem to often be perfectly bookended by more furious frenzied sounds.
We're digging this a lot, and guessing it should definitely appeal to fans of the more rock sound of the recent Glorior Belli which we raved about a list or two back, while still remaining just black enough for the true grim hordes...
MPEG Stream: "Helvitt"
MPEG Stream: "Myrkrin Vinna Hefnt"
MPEG Stream: "Or Djupum"

ARCKANUM PPPPPPPPPPP (Moribund) cd 16.98
Last year's killer Antikosmos was probably one of the best black metal records of 2008, and here we are only a year later with a brand new Arckanum, and once again, this too is poised to be one of this year's best. From its odd all p'd title (actually not P's, but letters called thorns, a bit like runes, pronounced 'thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'), to its scrawled heavy metal binder cover art, to the amazing raw melodic blackness within, we'd have to agree, gonna be tough to top PPPPPPPPPPP.
Very little has changed since Antikosmos, but then why change what is already working so well, the sound is pretty polished for sure, and still a bit punky, but here maybe even more melodic and stripped down. There are still plenty of blown out black blasts, lots of twisted dissonant riffage, but there's some serious poppiness going on, as well as some surprisingly killer leads, super melodic and a bit NWOBHM, the overall vibe epic and majestic, and a bit crusty, yet even when things are black as pitch, the sound is still infused with a fair amount of melody. Not really all that raw and grim, instead super rocking and so so melodic, the vocals as always are howled and punkish which helps things from getting too clean, but the production is so slick, and these songs are so good, it seems inevitable that things would veer toward the less grim and kvlt side of the black metal spectrum.
Perhaps we're painting to un-grim a picture, PPPPPPPPPPP is still plenty black and buzzy and blasting, but there's no way to ignore how catchy and melodic and classic metal sounding much of this is, and we're not complaining, it sounds awesome, and we've been playing this over and over, just didn't want to scare off all you troo grim metalheads, cuz it would be a shame to let any sort of dopey grim metal pride get in the way of digging into a record this rad...
MPEG Stream: "Porhatl"
MPEG Stream: "Pann Svartis"
MPEG Stream: "Pyrpas Ulfar"

ARCTURUS And The Deception Circus: Disguised Masters (Jester/Voices of Wonder) cd 16.98
Arcturus was a "black metal" supergroup featuring members of Ulver, Mayhem, Covenant, Borknagar, and Ved Buens Ende. They've broken up, but rumors abounded about a remix album still to come. Of course, the last Arcturus record, La Masquerade Infernale, was so bizarre for a metal record (containing Weill-esque cabaret music, drum 'n bass, trip hop, industrial, etc.) that it already seemed like someone had taken a "regular" Arcturus record and remixed it. So imagine someone taking said record (already sounding remixed), and remixing *that*. Well, here you go. Arcturus break down their already decidedly unmetal sound even further, adding more beats and stretching out their industrial soundscapes. Techstep, gangsta rap (!), classical string ensemble sounds, etc.--it's insane. One of our customers who bought this emailed to say "listen to track 7--now I've heard *everything*!" A good companion to the strange new Ulver double cd (reviewed here last time), and even better methinks. What's really interesting is thinking of someone, a drum n' bass fan for instance, first encountering Arcturus with this record, and then moving backwards through their catalog to the rawer, actually metal blackness of their earlier works and related bands! Will that happen, and what will they think?

ARCTURUS Aspera Hiems Symfonia / Constellation / And My Angel (Candlelight) 2cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two disc remastered reissue of this out of print cd as well as two out of print/super limited eps from one of our favorite black metal bands, before they got all 'weird'. This is Arcturus at their black metal prime, before they discovered techno and Mr. Bungle and circuses and rapping. Fast and majestic Nordic black metal more along the lines of Dimmu Borgir and the like with lots of keyboards, soaring baritone vocals (sounding remarkably like Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan and hinting at their future direction perhaps) inhuman shrieks, blazing double kick drumming as well as orchestral/melodic breaks. Totally melodic but still pretty brutal and fierce, and kinda "prog" too, but not nearly as prog as they ended up getting... A lot of you probably already have the original, but this double disc is remastered and includes the tracks from their 1991 7" and a 1994 promo only cd.
RealAudio clip: "To Thou Who Dwellest In The Night"
RealAudio clip: "Wintry Grey"

ARCTURUS La Masquerade Infernale (Candlelight) cd 15.98
THE weird, Mr. Bungle-ized Norwegian black metal album of the millennium, featuring Garm of Ulver and Hellhammer of Mayhem. "Rewind" from the start of the first song to hear the hidden bonus trip hop track!

ARCTURUS Shipwrecked In Oslo: Live Rockefeller 2005 (Season Of Mist) dvd 14.98

ARCTURUS Sideshow Symphonies (Season Of Mist) cd 16.98

MPEG Stream: "Hibernation Sickness Complete"
MPEG Stream: "Shipwrecked Frontier Pioneer"
MPEG Stream: "Nocturnal Vision Revisted"

ARCTURUS The Sham Mirrors (Ad Astra Enterprises) cd 13.98
They'rrrrre back! Norway's archetypal artsy "post-black metal" supergroup, featuring members of Ulver, Mayhem, and more. We thought they'd broken up after 1998's peak of bizarreness, "La Masquerade Infernale", as all we'd heard from them since then was a (supposedly) posthumous remix disc, the weird and wonderful "Disguised Masters". But no, apparently the 21st century got them going again, and here's a new album, a 2002 space odyssey full of more of their unclassifable art-rock meets black metal meets electronica hybrid! Basically, imagine Emperor trying their hand at "OK Computer", or late-period Faith No More pretending to make a Dimmu Borgir album.
One of the main figures in Arcturus (you may know) is Garm from Ulver (he's also boss of the amazing Jester label, current home to Ulver, When, Rotoscope, Bogus Blimp, Single Unit, Origami Galaktika, etc.) who is responsible for "voices of ghosts and monkeys and general manipulation" and lyrics. His songwriting partner Steinar Sverd Johnsen handles keyboards and composes the music. Out of the rest of the Arcturus lineup, "Lords of Chaos" readers will also recognize Hellhammer (of Mayhem and about a million other Nordic metal outfits) on "drums and flames". The band is rounded out by "high guitar rider" Knut M. Valle and "low guitar driver" Dag F. Gravem. Emperor's Ihsahn contributes "spitting voice" on one track as well.
Together these guys meld majestic keys, blasting drums, soaring vocals, melodic piano runs, rasping screams, and electronic atmospheres into what can only be described as Arcturus music. It's similar to "La Masquerade", but what seems new is how catchy and poppy some of this is. But, at the same time it's also quite metal indeed. Dark and heavy, not allowing the keyboards to overpower the guitars. And, after the gangsta rap and drum and bass remixes found on "Disguised Masters", this record seems almost normal! That is, if you can consider bombastic sci-fi metallic prog pop 'normal'. I guess it is, in the more advanced universe Garm and company inhabit. Brilliant!
RealAudio clip: "Kinetic"
RealAudio clip: "Nightmare Heaven"
RealAudio clip: "Ad Absurdum"

ARFSYND s/t (Daemon Worship Productions) cd 13.98

ARGILE The Monotonous Moment Of A Monologue (Holy) cd 15.98
As metal band names go, Argile has got to be the least scary one since Chinchilla! (Yes, there's a German band on Metal Blade called Chinchilla). These guys -- the duo of S.A.S. de l'Argilere and Jean-Jacques Moreac -- are from France, actually, but the band Argile reminds us of the most, in spirit and in sound, is Swiss: the legendary Celtic Frost, eccentric and adventurous. Jean-Jacques and S.A.S. play technically proficient, weirdly baroque, darkly dark, black but melodic metal, with plenty of those over-the-top Children Of Bodom -style keyboard flourishes we love. Like their name and album title, a bit absurd, but never admitting to any overt humorous intent. And Argile even do a cover of "In The Shadow Of The Horns" by Norwegian black metal stalwarts Darkthrone, showing that despite their proggy, avantgarde tendencies, they appreciate the more primitive powers of metal as well. Despite their odd name (or perhaps because of it) we can't help but like this a lot.
RealAudio clip: "Satanic Music"

ARGUS Boldly Stride The Doomed (Cruz Del Sur) cd 17.98
2nd album from these Pennsylvania epic trad doom metallers, featuring bellowing "Butch" Balich, ex-Penance. We dug the twin axe attack and majestic melodies of their first album, released by Shadow Kingdom, now they've moved on up to new label Cruz Del Sur, but their sound is still plenty cult and underground in the old school Shadow Kingdom style. If you want both heaviness and harmonies in yr metal, Argus has got the goods for you. They have some prog/technical tendencies, and are well versed in classic heavy metal mastery, with echoes of Iron Maiden amidst their modern day doom. Fans of Candlemass and Grand Magus (hey where's the domestic release of their latest??) and Slough Feg, too, also ought to enjoy, as we're reminded of all of 'em, as well.
MPEG Stream: "A Curse On The World"
MPEG Stream: "Wolves Of Dusk"
MPEG Stream: "Durendal"

ARGUS s/t (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98
Shadow Kingdom Records are apparently on a quest to rule the cult heavy metal underground, snapping up a lot of cool bands lately in the true metal/trad doom genres. This list we have the debut full-lengths of two of 'em, Argus and Sinister Realm. Both happen to hail from Pennsylvania, which isn't that odd since the Pittsburgh-based Shadow Kingdom would of course wish to conquer nearby territories.
Franklin, PA's Argus are named after that classic Wishbone Ash album, and although they don't sound anything like Wishbone Ash, they do run with the dual guitar thing that band pioneered back in the early '70s, and the guitar harmonies and solos are definitely the main draw here for us. Their tasty twin guitar work is lashed to ponderous riffage and weighty grooves, over which the commanding vocals of "Butch" Balich (ex-Penance) cry out in anguish and anger. With those vocals, and the chugging metalness of it all, we're reminded of the more recent output of Sweden's Grand Magus. Furthermore, fans of the twin axes wielded by Hammers Of Misfortune, for instance, who'd like to hear that sort of thing in an epic doom context, should check this out.
PS this band also features members of stoner rockers Abdullah and the awesomely named thrashers Oh Shit They're Going To Kill Us.
MPEG Stream: "Bending Time"
MPEG Stream: "From Darkness Light"

ARISTAEUS The Raven King (E.E.E Recordings) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MPEG Stream: "The Raven King"
MPEG Stream: "The Battle"

ARKHA SVA Hymne (Satanic Propaganda) cassette 4.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More black metal cassette tape madness, this time from mysterious Japanese horde Arkha Sva, who offer up a series of super grim, ultra murky buzz drenched black rituals. Channelling the spirit of the black legions, Mutiilation, Belktre, Vlad Tepes, this is fierce and furious lo-fi blackness, the buzzing guitars a muddy swirl, the drums a throbbing murky pulse, all underpinning guttural strangled vocalisations, a swirling fuzzy black missive to the dark lord, there are some strange sonic surprises tucked away, like the WAY louder-than-everything-else high pitched scream and weird falsetto wailing in the first track. But for the most part this is just an awesome, droney blast of murky black buzz that is as hypnotic and space-y as it is blown out and brutal.

ARKHA SVA Mikama Isaro Mada (Total Holocaust) cd 12.98
Arkha Sva are another one of our favorite black metal bands, who for whatever reason, have yet to appear on our list save for one solitary cassette listed way back in 2006. But holy shit, these guys are amazing, from Japan, these guys, along with aQ faves Avsolutized (who it's rumored might share a member or two) as well as Manierisme, make up a whole scene that seems to be lurking well beneath the underground, but we can't imagine for long, as the music of these bands is mind blowing, at once beholden to the BM that came before, but so much its own entity.
Arkha Sva create a soundworld both buzzy and murky, lo-fi, with tangled arrangements, droney blasting blackness, so super atmospheric and evocative, managing to be grim and buzzy, but also haunting and intense, with some of the most insane vocals ever, a wildly operatic shriek, that will later define the band's sound, but here only pops up once or twice, more often existing as a harsh howled hellish growl.
This disc collects two early tapes from 2005, and finds the band much more raw and primitive and rough, the sound only hinting at the more outsider and avant elements that would surface later. But in 2005, Arkha Sva were creating super grim, ultra murky buzz drenched black rituals. Channelling the spirit of the black legions, Mutiilation, Belktre, Vlad Tepes (one of the Black Legions members does all the cryptic calligraphy on AS records!), this is fierce and furious lo-fi blackness, the buzzing guitars a muddy swirl, the drums a throbbing murky pulse, all underpinning guttural strangled vocalisations, a swirling fuzzy black missive to the dark lord, there are some strange sonic surprises tucked away, most notably the aforementioned WAY louder-than-everything-else high pitched scream and weird falsetto. But for the most part this is just an awesome, droney blast of murky black buzz that is as hypnotic and space-y as it is blown out and brutal. They even do a couple covers, Mutiilation and Belketre!
So so so recommended. And we suggest you do whatever you can to get everything you can by these guys, and we can guarantee that their next full length will be an epochal moment in black metal. People freaking out over Paysage and Darkspace and whoever else might just find themselves switching their allegiance.
And check out this awesome live clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpuBqeCdOCM
MPEG Stream: "Thou Disappear"
MPEG Stream: "Rekonquista"

ARKHA SVA / WINTER FUNERAL Mikalp Khis Bia Ozongon (Zyklon-B Productions) cd ep 15.98
More operatic and buzzing grim black metal madness from Japanese horde Arkha Sva, who team up here with a French BM band called Winter Funeral who we had never heard until now. More on the Arkha Sva tracks in a moment, odds are most aQ black metal freaks are already sold by the two exclusive AS tracks anyway, but Winter Funeral definitely deserve their due. This is some seriously twisted bizarre blackness. The track begins with almost indie rock sounding jangle and some tribal sounding drums, all beneath gorgeous choral hymns, a strange combination, but it sounds amazing. Creepy and haunting and really beautiful. A shirked vocal joins the fray, and the choral vocals drop out... leaving some frantic buzz, and then the band lurches into some more traditional blast and buzz. The sound is murky and muddy and muted, the vocals a grow, the guitar weirdly pretty, sounding like Alcest or Amesoeurs, until the screams return, maniacal almost operatic howls, which is what stylistically ties these bands together most, as Arkha Sva employ even more over the top operatic shrieks, but the bands do make a good combo. The end of the Winter Funeral track finds the weird minor key indie jangle returning, but this time all tangled up with the harsh demonic vox.
Then comes Arkha Sva, and of course, both tracks utterly rule. Fuzzy and blown out and a little lo-fi, chaotic drumming and tangled atonal riffage, and an insane array of shrieks, almost veering into Bathtub Shitter territory for a minute. But then the song breaks down into some cool convoluted, cinematic stop start thing, epic and strange, very dramatic and soundtracky, reminding us of a more black metal Devil Doll or Death SS. The second track is a creeped out doomy plod, the guitars anguished and jagged, the vocals a continuous howl / growl / gurgle, it almost sounds like black metal Black Flag, before the track explodes into more frosty grimness, the guitars a churning swirl, multiple vocals all over the place, growls and shrieks and another feral wail that's entirely over the top.
So fucking awesome. Equal parts traditional black buzz and fucked up far out blackened weirdness. We only got 15 of these, and it's been out for a little while so, once we run out, not sure we'll be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: ARKHA SVA "Bringer Of Hate Plague"
MPEG Stream: WINTER FUNERAL "Fallen From Grace"

ARKHA SVA / WOODS OF INFINITY Old Ugly Trees (Devoted Art Propaganda) 7" 11.98
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Holy shit, does Arkha Sva just keep getting weirder and weirder and better and better! These Japanese black metal freaks begin this latest assault with a tripped out swirly psychedelic intro, before the band launch into some super twisted POST-black metal, a loping super dramatic almost cabaret sounding avant metal, with super over the top crooned clean vocals, the guitars washed out and buzzy, the only hint of troo blackness are the occasional flurries of double kick, until finally those insane Arkha Sva vocals swoop in, impossibly high and totally operatic, a little eighties metal, soaring and shrieking, the band following suit, blasting into some filthy pounding blackness. The track's twisted and gnarled, and totally epic, with those vocals, easily the most amazing in BM, and this song is most definitely the best thing we've heard from these guys which is saying A LOT.
Woods Of Infinity counter with their own take on twisted dramatic blackness, super melodic metal with lots of synths, totally catchy, but all over the map, the vocals freaked out and manic, slipping from nearly spoken to crooned to shrieked, while the music soars majestically in the background, from midtempo Lifelover style black pop to almost symphonic sounding black metal, all the while the vocals never letting up. The second WoI track is a creepy abstract drift, all acoustic guitars, monk-like chanting, and more of those dramatic vocals, haunting and freaky, dark and mysterious and really cool.
Packaged in a super swank gatefold 7" sleeve, LIMITED TO 666 COPIES (of course), each one hand numbered...

ARKTHOS Knights Of The Eternal Sun (Supernal) cd 15.98
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ARMAGEDDON s/t (Esoteric) cd 23.00
A few things you might want to know about Armageddon (this band/album, not the Biblical battlefield of the Apocalypse described in the Book Of Revelations, and presumably depicted on the album cover, with the longhaired band lounging about smoking cigarettes in the foreground):
1) Despite the name, it's not a really heavy metal. Recorded in 1974, you could certainly call it "proto-metal", though, as well as "heavy progressive".
2) Don't confuse 'em with the other proto-metal band with more-or-less the same name. That band spells their name with two g's and one d. This band spells their name with one g and two d's. That Armaggedon were from Germany's krautrock scene, this Armageddon were a UK-USA sorta supergroup.
3) Their singer was Keith Relf, originally of The Yardbirds and later Renaissance, and this was his last recorded project before his tragic death from electrocution whilst practicing guitar in '76.
4) On drums, was Bobby Caldwell of Captain Beyond. There's some extra proto-metal cred!
5) And perhaps most importantly, this band included 2 ex-members of British bluesrock act Steamhammer, guitarist Martin Pugh and bassist Louis Cennamo. Steamhammer's best and proggiest album, Speech, is a long-time AQ fave in the heavy prog / proto-metal genre, recently reissued and relisted here not long ago. If you dig Speech, you'll also want to hear Armageddon, in fact, they open up here with a completely rippin' song, "Buzzard", that's adapted from a track on Speech.
6) According to the sleeve, Cennamo claimed to be the "originator of the electric bowed bass guitar".
7) Armageddon's sole, self-titled album has been newly reissued on cd by the Esoteric label, superseding the previous (and hard to find) Repertoire edition, with nicer packaging.
8) Oh yeah, it totally kicks ass and rocks hard, while maintaining an aura of psychedelic hippie higher-minded mysticism. We mentioned speedster "Buzzard", then there's "Silver Tightrope" and "Paths And Planes And Future Gains", both of which sound kinda like a combination of Yes and Captain Beyond, in different and complex ways. "Last Stand Before" is a rollickin', almost funky one too, and then the album wraps up with the four-part epic "Basking In The White Of The Midnight Sun", full of fierce fuzz, percussive bombardment, and some of the heaviest harmonica soloing this side of Sabbath's "The Wizard". What with their pedigree, Armageddon had a knack for breakneck (and quite catchy!) bluesrock riffage, like we said rippin' from the get-go of "Buzzard" through to the finale of "Basking", energetic and exuberant throughout but for the occasional calmer bit of reverie (like on "Silver Tightrope") wherein Relf takes the listener for some lovely astral trippin'.
9) We recommend it, especially to all proto-metal, heavy prog fiends! You know who you are, if you like Captain Beyond, Steamhammer, early Wishbone Ash, Wild Turkey, Tarkus, Toad, early Deep Purple, etc...
That's it. If you want to know more, there's always the liner notes, so buy the disc!! Then you'll get to hear the whole thing too.
MPEG Stream: "Buzzard"
MPEG Stream: "Paths And Planes And Future Gains"

ARMANENSCHAFT Psychedelic Winter (Primitive Reaction) lp 29.00
Now that doom legends Reverend Bizarre are dead and gone, main clergyman Sir Albert Witchfinder has time to dabble in about a dozen other projects, such as this one, primitive raw black metal outfit Armanenschaft. Sir Albert is in fact known as Ancient Fisherman here, as he and his partners Morbid Necrovore and Hyperborean Princess whip up a furious squall of filthy fucked up black metal. Most of the tracks are fast and furious, brutal and buzzing, although the record begins with a super spacey tripped out Tangerine Dream style synthscape before launching into some ultra raw necro buzz. The guitars are totally blown out, ultra distorted, relentless D-beat drums buried in the mix, the vocals a harsh howl that just as often slips into a super strange strangled wail. Super simple, super stripped down, Repetitive and hypnotic, definitely for fans of Bone Awl, Ildjaarn, Ash Pool, Akitsa and the like.
BUT, there's plenty of weirdness going on too. Long stretches of buzzing black noise, some slower doomy tracks with warped, almost twangy guitars, over looping rhythms and growled vocals, plenty of droning alchemical guitar rituals, crumbling dirges, and hissed inhuman vocals. One of our favorite tracks is one that is just drums and vocals, the drums super processed and locked into a looped D-beat, pounding away, the vocals maniacal and hysterical, going from shriek to moan to mumble to scream, and sounding like some possessed muppet. WOW. But even with all that weirdness, the core of the record is stripped down raw primitive black metal, thrashing and pounding, which we totally love. The weirdness only makes it that much better.
Hail the Ancient Fisherman. Highly recommended. Vinyl only. VERY LIMITED.

ARMATRON Mutation Programming (GSL) 7" 4.98
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Lincoln, Nebraska. America's heartland. Corn Huskers. Saddle Creek (technically Omaha, but whatever). Now bear witness to the spastic grinding futurist attack of Armatron. Veterans of the Midwest hardcore-metal crossover scene, the newly expanded quartet has been slowly perfecting their brand of mutant electro pummel. Two basses, one drummer and an army of synths spit sonic venom in the vein of The Locust (as Armatron mastermind Lux had a short lived stint with said groop), though with a more powerful low end rumble. A long overdue followup to their split disc with Cattle Decapitation and Ticwar on Toyo's "The Science Of Crisis". Hopefully we haven't heard the last from these kids. More to come? Incredibly hilarious artwork by J. Vonwolf (also responsible for the Erase Errata cover art).