LUGUBRUM De Totem (Blood Fire Death) cd 13.98
LUGUBRUM. The name belongs in all-caps cuz Allan and Andee have concluded that Lugubrum are the greatest black metal band EVER. Maybe. After becoming utterly enamoured of their split with their own side project Finsternis (reviewed on list #144), the two of us ordered some of Lugubrum's self-released cds direct from Belgium, for our own collections. Such sudden, massive Lugubrum exposure proved one thing: the totality of their music, their art, their concepts -- are all beyond normal mortal understanding. We must bow down to the totally fucked Lugubrum aesthetic. Yes, they are obsessed with drinking beer and eating carrots. (Yes, we just said eating carrots -- there's a spiked carrot in their logo, their motto is "Beer Us Or Die!!!"). Yes, they make music from the bowels of Hell. Yes, they have some seemingly silly songtitles ("Midgets of Evil"? "Beard Of Disease"?) -- but with totally grim and twisted lyrics, however. Being so paradoxically silly AND serious is the sort of weirdness we truly admire.
Eventually we'll try to stock their import cds, but we're lucky that now their hard-to-find-to-say-the-least 1999 masterpiece, "De Totem" has been reissued in the USA, remastered with 2 bonus tracks! This disc demonstrates that Lugubrum excel at slow-paced trudge-trawls through the doomy mire, changing up with trancey speed blasts. The sound -- their guitars, their vocals -- is so dirty nasty filthy. Makes Anaal Nathrakh sound like freshly scrubbed choirboys. The fuckin' fuzz...fuck. Such doomed, distorted, diseased atmosphere. Frosty string bends. Noisy feedback. Anguished howls. In a word: Beautiful.
And, if that wasn't enough, with the photo sessions for the De Totem booklet, Lugubrum have invented a whole new, hitherto untried look: hillbilly black metal!!! No corpse paint, rather corncob pipes, hoedown hats, shotguns, and beards. A pet hound dog, even. And yes, they actually take it so far as to play banjo on the album! Although, what's weirder is that one of the bonus tracks seems to incorporate a Jamaican dub influence... As we said, now our favorite black metal band in the world. LUGUBRUM.
RealAudio clip: "Udder Of Death"
RealAudio clip: "De Totem "
RealAudio clip: "Reet Reel"

LUGUBRUM De Vette Cuecken (Blood Fire Death) cd 13.98
Back in stock! A black metal highlight from a few lists back... Black metal's all right if you like saxophones. Huh? The Belgian beer-n-carrots black metallers Lugubrum, one of AQ's absolute favorite bands in the genre, are back with another diseased and disturbing album. And yes, while their general sonic mayhem is constructed (destructed?) from the usual distorted buzzing guitars, blasting drums, and vile vocalizations, there's some jazz saxophone blowin' through here too! And perhaps that's a tuba on the next song. I think maybe Lugubrum broke into the band room at their old high school... Yet for all the seemingly tongue-in-cheek silliness on display (like their avowed love of carrots, and use of banjo and alto sax) they somehow still manage to be one of the grimmest, truest, nastiest outfits out there. Really, even the saxophone on here is SCARY. And weird, they're so very weird. I don't think ordinary folks like us are really even equipped to understand music that's so primitive yet so advanced. It seems Lugubrum inhabit their own twisted, mythic world. I mean, what to make of the cover art even? There's something of the Brothers Grimm about Lugubrum. Freakish, childish yet so very dark and psychologically resonant, reaching back to ancient days and ways. Brilliant, doomy fucked up black metal that in it's own way is as avant-garde as Ved Buens Ende and as heavy and brutal as Anaal Nathrakh.
MPEG Stream: "Attractive To The Flies"
MPEG Stream: "De Vette Cuecken"

LUGUBRUM De Ware Hond (Old Grey Hair) cd 13.98
Maybe it's the name, but something about "Lugubrum" makes us think of a steaming witch's cauldron. A sinister sonic stew as it were. Nominally a black metal band, these mega AQ faves definitely blend in a lot of other things into their sound. Of course there's big orange carrots floating around in there (kinda like when cannibals are trying to entice Bugs Bunny into a stew-pot) 'cause we know that these Belgian weirdos just love carrots. But in terms of musical ingredients, the Lugubrum recipe calls for everything from troo grim black metal to avantgarde jazz, from dronological doom to hillbilly heehawin'. They're utterly mad master chefs, though, so when mixed properly and brought to a boil, Lugubrum's bubbling brown stew tastes like nothing else and is thick and heavy enough to eat with a forklift. Ok, enough with the culinary/cauldron metaphor, let's give you some specifics about De Ware Hond, Lugubrum's latest (9th) album. Following up last year's Live In Amsterdam, they bring four (long) new tracks of their "musick" on this one, all of it recorded live in the studio (no overdubs). That in part explains its organic, tranced-out vibe, these songs structured, we're assuming, with plenty of room for improvisation -- particularly sounding like it on the second half of the record, when the usual guitars and drums and organ are joined by "Funhouse" style saxophone and mellow, mesmeric tablas, for even more improv-jazz, out-there-fucked-up-Eastern-psych appeal. Not at all your usual black metal! Apparently "brown metal" as Lugubrum puts it. Loping and lurching and and lurking and blurting and rasping and wretching and roiling, this could be Abruptum jamming with Oxbow, Today Is The Day teamed up with Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, Neurosis playing Pharoah Sanders, or Pan-Thy-Monium vs. Dead Raven Choir... yeah it's that weird and hard to describe. But definitely dark and, dare we say it, druggily dreamy?
This is probably their least "metal" album yet, however just as Lugubrum as ever. And we're absolutely sure they were still the most metal band to appear at the recently concluded 2007 (K-RAA-K)3 Festival in Belgium, alongside such artists as Daniel Higgs, Giuseppe Ielasi, Raccoo-oo-oon, Jozef Van Wissem, Major Stars, Sun City Girls, Phil Minton, Warmer Milks, and others! OK, Witchcraft played too, they're also sorta metal. (And we just heard that the Sun City Girls were at the last minute unable to play the festival, they had to cancel for some reason. Too bad, they definitely would have liked Lugubrum we think...a band maybe even weirder than they are...)
MPEG Stream: "Movement I - Opwaartse Hond"
MPEG Stream: "Movement I - Neerwaartse Hond"

LUGUBRUM Heilige Dwazen (Old Grey Hair / Blood Fire Death) cd 13.98
So fucked. Of course it is. It's freakin' LUGUBRUM. Allan and Andee's favorite black metal band ever, pretty much, almost. Well, at least when we're in the mood for REALLY WEIRD black metal from a bunch of Belgians who dress like farmers and eat carrots with their beloved beer. Weirdos these guys are for sure, but unlike some of the more "avant-garde" black metal acts such as Arcturus, Sigh, and Ulver (amazing as those acts are/have been) there's nothing so overtly, obviously calculated to be weird for weirdness sake from these guys. Lugubrum's insanity is more organic, but not inadvertent either like the maybe idiot savant status of Rethaf Ruo or Striborg. No, these geniuses strike a balance, and do utterly their own thing, norms and abnorms be damned. On this latest album (their sixth full-length cd), saxophones and clanking chains and droning loops of organ grinder music aren't merely eccentric elements added to a formula black metal base, but are fully integrated into the band's unique musical vision. Is it even black metal? What does that mean? What does it matter?
Their seemingly scatological, "brown metal" lyrics are cryptic, beyond easy comprehension, and that might be just as well. "The Kiss On The Anus"? "At The Base Of Their Tail"? "We Slying Sucked Stolen Bread"? Don't ask. Submit instead to the music, rumbling along, vocals growling howling mad, Funhouse saxophone blowing crazily over and under the scuzzy, sloppy, necro riffery. Somehow they're THIS weird and outside of genre boundaries (employing banjos along with blastbeats) yet are accepted as being among the grimmest of the grim by the true, cult, elite, black metal diehards. They've got 'em scared. Even though they sound like Abruptum playing jazz, or Celtic Frost jamming with Residual Echoes, or Brainbombs covering Venom... They walk the fine, wavering line between intentional absurdity and deeply, confusingly meaningful art and we love 'em for it.
MPEG Stream: "Holy Fools Embodied"
MPEG Stream: "Though Chained"

LUGUBRUM Heilige Dwazen (Old Grey Hair / Blood Fire Death) lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally available on VINYL!!
So fucked. Of course it is. It's freakin' LUGUBRUM. Allan and Andee's favorite black metal band ever, pretty much, almost. Well, at least when we're in the mood for REALLY WEIRD black metal from a bunch of Belgians who dress like farmers and eat carrots with their beloved beer. Weirdos these guys are for sure, but unlike some of the more "avant-garde" black metal acts such as Arcturus, Sigh, and Ulver (amazing as those acts are/have been) there's nothing so overtly, obviously calculated to be weird for weirdness sake from these guys. Lugubrum's insanity is more organic, but not inadvertent either like the maybe idiot savant status of Rethaf Ruo or Striborg. No, these geniuses strike a balance, and do utterly their own thing, norms and abnorms be damned. On this latest album (their sixth full-length cd), saxophones and clanking chains and droning loops of organ grinder music aren't merely eccentric elements added to a formula black metal base, but are fully integrated into the band's unique musical vision. Is it even black metal? What does that mean? What does it matter?
Their seemingly scatological, "brown metal" lyrics are cryptic, beyond easy comprehension, and that might be just as well. "The Kiss On The Anus"? "At The Base Of Their Tail"? "We Slying Sucked Stolen Bread"? Don't ask. Submit instead to the music, rumbling along, vocals growling howling mad, Funhouse saxophone blowing crazily over and under the scuzzy, sloppy, necro riffery. Somehow they're THIS weird and outside of genre boundaries (employing banjos along with blastbeats) yet are accepted as being among the grimmest of the grim by the true, cult, elite, black metal diehards. They've got 'em scared. Even though they sound like Abruptum playing jazz, or Celtic Frost jamming with Residual Echoes, or Brainbombs covering Venom... They walk the fine, wavering line between intentional absurdity and deeply, confusingly meaningful art and we love 'em for it.
MPEG Stream: "Holy Fools Embodied"
MPEG Stream: "Though Chained"

LUGUBRUM Live In Amsterdam (Old Grey Hair) cd 13.98
Oh yeah! Our FAVORITE BLACK METAL BAND EVER (well, favorite black metal band ever who are heavily into carrots and beer and saxophones, that's for sure) has added to their lengthy and puzzling discography this brilliant live album, for all of us who haven't yet hijacked a jet to get to Belgium to drink beer and eat carrots with these maniacs in person. And they're someone else's favorites too -- this disc documents a show they played in Amsterdam last year, as support for a SUNNO))) performance by special request. And we know the SUNNO))) guys have good taste in weird black metal, right? Well they do, they got freaking Lugubrum to open for 'em!!
And what do Lugubrum start things off with? A version of their doomiest droniest bit of bombastic Beelzebubic bludgeon, "Haunted Ordure", from their out of print split with Finsternis!! YEEEAAH! (that would be us in the crowd, had we been there). It's laced with "prepared saxophone", unlike the studio version. Different but cool, which is what you want from a live album anyway (along with excellent loud sound and tight playing, which this also possesses). And all through this set, as on their insane masterpiece from last year, Heilige Dwazen, the saxophone is fully, usefully integrated into the grunting, groaning, lurching, churning, HEAVY CHAOTIC ART of their music. It's no novelty record, it's simply fucked up, is-it-black-metal-or-jazz-of-Hell?, live and raw and mind blowing, like an anguished black metal Painkiller. Forget SUNNO))), these guys should be co-headlining a bill with the Brainbombs!
All fans of Lugubrum definitely need this, and even if you've never heard 'em before this is surely worth checking out if the above has made you curious!
46 monstrous minutes, eight songs.
MPEG Stream: "Haunted Ordure"
MPEG Stream: "De Vette Cuecken"
MPEG Stream: "Ratteknaeghen"

LUGUBRUM / FINSTERNIS split (Full Moon ) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Starting with an introductory minute of electronic drone distortion, the half of this split cd by Belgian black metallers Lugubrum, entitled "Al Ghemist" is, simply, awesome. Unlike most black metal bands, Lugubrum aren't concerned with playing fast. But they do care about atmosphere. Slow, doomy, heavy, dirgey, dark, bleak atmosphere. The production is kinda lo-fi, but densely textured.
The opening noise piece leads into "Hunted Ordure", one of the best doom songs we've EVER heard. Buy it for this track alone and you'll be happy. Happily doomed. But the other Lugubrum tracks are good too. They do some faster stuff, but it still sounds like music from the bowels of the earth. The croaking vocals, fuzzed-out guitars, the weird non-standard rhythms, it's so nice. As they say, "Your discomfort and damaged speakers nourish Lugubrum eternally!!!"
Finsternis (a Lugubrum side-project) aren't quite as odd an outfit. They play good old-fashioned necro black metal, excuse me, "alcoholic bonesaw metal" exclusively. You've heard the likes of them before. But their half of this split does provide some hateful blasting rock n' roll for those that dig this sort of primitive, grimy black metal.
Oh, thanks to AQ customer Roberto for pointing out to us that the old man on Lugubrum's "Al Ghemist" cover art appears to be holding a carrot. For some reason that didn't convince Roberto that this was amazing, but it only added to our love for Lugubrum.
RealAudio clip: LUGUBRUM "Hunted Ordure"
RealAudio clip: FINSTERNIS "Haunting Hellfury"

LUMSK Asmund Fraegdegjevar (Candlelight / Tabu) cd 17.98
We had been eyeing this record for a while. They are called Lumsk after all. And their logo is the letters in Lumsk rendered as gnarled trees and roots, and the cover features a sketchy drawing of a long haired nordic warrior, hair blowing in the wind. The name of the album and the song titles are all in Norwegian too which is never a bad thing. At best it would be some amazingly weird black metal record, at worst some beer hoisting Viking sing along metal, either way, we'd probably be pretty into it. Well, when we finally cracked one open, it was neither of those things, and so much better than we could have hoped for. The simplest way to describe Lumsk is some strange mix of Hammers Of Misfortune, Enslaved, Scandinavian folk, and the Fucking Champs. Sounds weird. Sounds impossible actually, but that's definitely what it sounds like. Lots of complex instrumental riffing, lots of loping seasick Viking rhythms, along with simple drumming and loads of organs and keyboards, occasional violin and even a choir, but then there's the vocals, male and female, both proud and majestic, soaring and weaving, definitely reminiscent of Hammers Of Misfortune. My thumbnail review was originally "a more epic, Viking metal Hammers Of Misfortune", but on further listens there's just so much dense Carcass-y instrumental stuff going on under the surface, that it makes the soaring (almost renn-faire sounding at times) vocals sound almost alien in that context. It's a little bit power metal, a little bit folk metal, a little bit doom, a little bit prog, and yeah, a little medieval / rennaisance, but put it all together and not only does it not make sense, but it makes so little sense that it makes absolutely perfect sense. To us at least. Definitely NOT death metal or black metal, way more melodic than heavy, and downright pretty at times, but still plenty heavy enough to please all the discerning metalheads around here.
MPEG Stream: "Det Var Irlands Kongi Bold"
MPEG Stream: "Ormin Lange"
MPEG Stream: "Skip Under Lide"

LUMSK Det Vilde Kor (Tabu) cd 16.98

MPEG Stream: "Diset Kvaeld"
MPEG Stream: "Svend Herlufsens Ord III - Jeg Har Det"

LUMSK Troll (Tabu) cd 16.98
When we first heard Lumsk a few years back, it totally blew us away. Some really odd combination of Hammers Of Misfortune, Enslaved, Scandinavian folk and The Fucking Champs. Yep, you read that right.
And that is what it actually sounded like, lots of Viking riffery, some epic vocalizing, but also some serious metallic shredding, boy / girl harmonies, folky interludes, some medieval / renaissance faire filigree, some fuzzy synths, pretty weird, but pretty dang cool too.
So here's the follow up, and if anything, it's more of the same. But with a couple changes, much of the shredding is gone, and the folk element is more pronounced, but other than that, it's still some confusional combination of chugging riffage, fluttery female almost-operatic vocals, super dramatic male vocals, soaring strings, folky fiddle and a mess of over the top Viking metal chug.
A handful of the tracks are almost straight Scandinavian folk, the vocals lilting and delicate, the arrangements swooning and melancholy, and then just when you're all ensorcelled and entranced, the band will kick in with some over the top, downtuned chugging stein-hoisting metallic drinking song or some epic metal hoedown.
Definitely an acquired taste, but we can tell you that at least two people at aQ dig this band a LOT (bet you can't guess which ones).
MPEG Stream: "Dunker"
MPEG Stream: "Asgardsreia"
MPEG Stream: "Trolltind"

LUNATIC GODS Mythus (Epideme Records) cd 14.98

LURK s/t (Total Rust) cd 12.98
This is the debut release from these Finnish heavies, and is a crushing slab of gloriously abject doomsludge infused with plenty of old school slo-mo death metal crush, the label mentions bands like Coffins, Autopsy, Winter and Celtic Frost, and we're definitely feeling all of those, but we're also hearing plenty of Melvins (especially in the vocals) even some diSEMBOWELMENT, not to mention all those other modern death metal outfits like Disma, Vasaeleth, Vastum, Encoffination and the like. Lurk mix long stretches of droned out ambience, layered guitar buzz and effects drenched thrum, with bursts of churning chugging heaviness, pounding doomic sludge, the drums massive and pummeling, the vocals slipping from a growling guttural howl to a surprisingly melodic bellow (hence the Melvins comparison), there are some surprising melodies too, even some hooks, but they're less noticeable once they've been stretched way out and slowed way down. The songs often fracture into lurching lumbering stop/start workouts, or disappear in squalls of white noise, slipping into near-grooves, before splintering into something much more abstract and dirgey. The closer is the fastest of the bunch, but even then it's still basically a crawl, but when the drums and the riffs fall just right, and the band lock into a serious chunk of blackened chugging sludge, these guys become fucking monstrous, and that sort of sonic power and black hole metallic fury, should have all those other modern death metal outfits looking over their shoulders, and running for their lives.
MPEG Stream: "Soar"
MPEG Stream: "Unfinished"
MPEG Stream: "Deliverance"

LURKER OF CHALICE s/t (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Although we listed the Lurker Of Chalice cd only three lists ago, since then the old version has sold out and it's been scooped up and reissued by Southern Lord. Same music, slightly different artwork.
For those of you who just skim the list or only read the first few sentences of reviews, let us get your attention real quick. Lurker Of Chalice, in case you didn't realize, is the work of one WREST, aka SF black metal overlord LEVIATHAN. Paying attention now? Good. let's proceed. Lurker Of Chalice has existed in one form or another for several years now, but outside a cassette or two this is the only recorded evidence and man will it blow your mind. Originally conceived as a less black metal, more experimental musical outlet (and possibly inspired by Leviathan / AQ faves Benighted Leams) Lurker Of Chalice is constructed from lots of black metal parts as might be expected, but lot of very un-black metal bits as well: arpeggiated post rock guitars, martial percussion, simple propulsive krautrock rhythms, swirling droning ambience, strange haunting vocals, obscure found sounds and samples, doomy slow motion dirges, reverb drenched, almost sun dappled melodies over creepy warbly soundscapes, warm thick keyboards, heavily strummed steel string guitars, rich throaty crooning, super overblown distorted guitars, all smeared into a warm fuzzed out, dreamy and melancholy, mostly midtempo blackened doomscape. Occasionally, Lurker blasts into full on black metal, like on the second track "Piercing Where They Might", but even in a BM context, things are beautifully way off kilter, rumbling bizarrely affected vocals, dizzying riffs that swirl and slither and make it impossible to focus, huge jangly guitars over miltaristic snare drums and warbly Michael Gira like vocals. So weird. But so perfect. Imagine Leviathan and Benighted Leams and the Swans and Ved Buens Ende, all somehow mixed into some darkly evolving, gothic tinged expanse of moody metallic melancholia. This is maybe the best sounding record Wrest has made which is saying a lot. And it's definitely the weirdest, and most certainly the saddest. The whole record is dripping with intense emotion, minor key and slowly stretching toward some bleak future of broken promise and crushed spirit. From slowly evolving, almost cinematic instrumentals to massive and majestic dirges to woozy effect drenched post rockisms to ultra bleak ballads to damaged black metal crush, Lurker Of Chalice evokes total and utter misery, a musical invocation to the lost and alone, wandering in search of hope, under the suffocating black cloak of night, crushed beneath a starless sky and adrift in a soulless universe, exposing every raw nerve and dark corner of Wrest's twisted musical soul. So fucking good!
MPEG Stream: "Piercing Where They Might"
MPEG Stream: "Spectre As Valkerie Is"
MPEG Stream: "Paramnesia"

LURKER OF CHALICE s/t (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Lurker Of Chalice, the slightly more twisted alter ego of Leviathan mainman Wrest. This, his one and only album, released in two different cd editions, both out of print for ages, and a 2lp edition, also out of print, has finally been reissued. Now in a deluxe digipak, and much to the chagrin of the folks who bought the cd the first time around, this new cd version includes the previously vinyl only bonus track! So it's time to either finally hear what you've been missing, or suck it up and buy it all over again for that extra track, it's worth it...
Here's our review of the Lurker record when we first listed it in 2005:
For those of you who just skim the list or only read the first few sentences of reviews, let us get your attention real quick. Lurker Of Chalice, in case you didn't realize, is the work of one WREST, aka SF black metal overlord LEVIATHAN. Paying attention now? Good. let's proceed. Lurker Of Chalice has existed in one form or another for several years now, but outside a cassette or two this is the only recorded evidence and man will it blow your mind. Originally conceived as a less black metal, more experimental musical outlet (and possibly inspired by Leviathan / AQ faves Benighted Leams) Lurker Of Chalice is constructed from lots of black metal parts as might be expected, but lot of very un-black metal bits as well: arpeggiated post rock guitars, martial percussion, simple propulsive krautrock rhythms, swirling droning ambience, strange haunting vocals, obscure found sounds and samples, doomy slow motion dirges, reverb drenched, almost sun dappled melodies over creepy warbly soundscapes, warm thick keyboards, heavily strummed steel string guitars, rich throaty crooning, super overblown distorted guitars, all smeared into a warm fuzzed out, dreamy and melancholy, mostly midtempo blackened doomscape. Occasionally, Lurker blasts into full on black metal, like on the second track "Piercing Where They Might", but even in a BM context, things are beautifully way off kilter, rumbling bizarrely affected vocals, dizzying riffs that swirl and slither and make it impossible to focus, huge jangly guitars over militaristic snare drums and warbly Michael Gira like vocals. So weird. But so perfect. Imagine Leviathan and Benighted Leams and the Swans and Ved Buens Ende, all somehow mixed into some darkly evolving, gothic tinged expanse of moody metallic melancholia. This is maybe the best sounding record Wrest has made which is saying a lot. And it's definitely the weirdest, and most certainly the saddest. The whole record is dripping with intense emotion, minor key and slowly stretching toward some bleak future of broken promise and crushed spirit. From slowly evolving, almost cinematic instrumentals to massive and majestic dirges to woozy effect drenched post rockisms to ultra bleak ballads to damaged black metal crush, Lurker Of Chalice evokes total and utter misery, a musical invocation to the lost and alone, wandering in search of hope, under the suffocating black cloak of night, crushed beneath a starless sky and adrift in a soulless universe, exposing every raw nerve and dark corner of Wrest's twisted musical soul. So fucking good!
MPEG Stream: "Piercing Where They Might"
MPEG Stream: "Spectre As Valkerie Is"
MPEG Stream: "Paramnesia"

LURKER OF CHALICE s/t (Southern Lord) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally re-pressed, and available again for a limited time, some on black and green swirled vinyl, some on black and blue swirled vinyl (no picking or choosing, it's random). Includes an exclusive track not on the cd. And as it is, the cd versions were limited editions and are now utterly out of print.
For those of you who just skim the list or only read the first few sentences of reviews, let us get your attention real quick. Lurker Of Chalice, in case you didn't realize, is the work of one WREST, aka SF black metal overlord LEVIATHAN. Paying attention now? Good. let's proceed. Lurker Of Chalice has existed in one form or another for several years now, but outside a cassette or two this is the only recorded evidence and man will it blow your mind. Originally conceived as a less black metal, more experimental musical outlet (and possibly inspired by Leviathan / AQ faves Benighted Leams) Lurker Of Chalice is constructed from lots of black metal parts as might be expected, but lot of very un-black metal bits as well: arpeggiated post rock guitars, martial percussion, simple propulsive krautrock rhythms, swirling droning ambience, strange haunting vocals, obscure found sounds and samples, doomy slow motion dirges, reverb drenched, almost sun dappled melodies over creepy warbly soundscapes, warm thick keyboards, heavily strummed steel string guitars, rich throaty crooning, super overblown distorted guitars, all smeared into a warm fuzzed out, dreamy and melancholy, mostly midtempo blackened doomscape. Occasionally, Lurker blasts into full on black metal, like on the second track "Piercing Where They Might", but even in a BM context, things are beautifully way off kilter, rumbling bizarrely affected vocals, dizzying riffs that swirl and slither and make it impossible to focus, huge jangly guitars over miltaristic snare drums and warbly Michael Gira like vocals. So weird. But so perfect. Imagine Leviathan and Benighted Leams and the Swans and Ved Buens Ende, all somehow mixed into some darkly evolving, gothic tinged expanse of moody metallic melancholia. This is maybe the best sounding record Wrest has made which is saying a lot. And it's definitely the weirdest, and most certainly the saddest. The whole record is dripping with intense emotion, minor key and slowly stretching toward some bleak future of broken promise and crushed spirit. From slowly evolving, almost cinematic instrumentals to massive and majestic dirges to woozy effect drenched post rockisms to ultra bleak ballads to damaged black metal crush, Lurker Of Chalice evokes total and utter misery, a musical invocation to the lost and alone, wandering in search of hope, under the suffocating black cloak of night, crushed beneath a starless sky and adrift in a soulless universe, exposing every raw nerve and dark corner of Wrest's twisted musical soul. So fucking good!
MPEG Stream: "Piercing Where They Might"
MPEG Stream: "Spectre As Valkerie Is"
MPEG Stream: "Paramnesia"

LUSTRE A Glimpse Of Glory (De Tenebrarum Principio) cd 13.98

LUTOMYSL (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98

LUTOMYSL Catharsis (Mercenary Music) cd 14.98

LUTOMYSL De Profundis (Supernal) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not sure how it happened, but we've never listed any records by Ukrainian one man black metal horde Lutomysl. Even though most of the black metal folks, ourselves included, are WAY into Lutomysl's furious black metal buzz. So let's remedy that shall we...
Sonically similar to many of his countrymen, Drudkh, Hate Forest, Nokturnal Mortum, Lucifugum (of which he was once a member), Astrofaes, Blood Of Kingu... etc. Lutomysl spews raw blasting grim Ukrainian black metal of the sort we never seem to tire of, buzzing chainsaw guitars, blasting double kick beats, harsh vokills that go from weird and mysterious clean singing to full on suicidal shriek, and a surprising amount of dynamics, lots of twisted convoluted transitions, strange off kilter rhythms, all wound up into the otherwise seemingly straight ahead grim blackness. But like other Ukrainian BM, there is also plenty of melody, even at its harshest and most frenzied, the riffs are catchy, and often unravel into something almost folky before exploding back in a furious onslaught of buzz and howl.
The songs are peppered with distinctly un-black metal breaks, giving the songs a seriously avant / progressive vibe here and there, which nicely balances the relentless lightning fast drone drenched buzz that constitutes the core of Lutomysl's sound. There's also plenty of bass, or at least low end, which as we've discussed before is rare in black metal, and probably goes a long way to making this record sound so thick and heavy.
Grim and kvlt and necro, and just weird enough to keep it interesting, essential for fans of all things black and Ukrainian, and heck, probably pretty worthwhile if you just need a buzzing black soul crushing blast of sonic fury.
MPEG Stream: "Thou Shalt Shine!"
MPEG Stream: "The Blade Of Reality"
MPEG Stream: "Peace Is Not Found (Ode To Lucifer)"

LUTOMYSL s/t (Nihilward Productions) cd 13.98

LUTOMYSL s/t (Nihilward Productions) cd 13.98

LVTHN Sentinel Hill (God Is Myth) 3"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.
This is volume three in God Is Myth's 3" cd-r series paying homage to the late great H.P Lovecraft. The first came courtesy of UK experimental black metal outfit Caina, the second from Appalachian heathen metal horde Harvist. This volume features the strangely monickered LVTHN, pronounced Leviathan, and not to be confused with our own Leviathan.
LVTHN just so happens to be the black ambient ritualistic alter ego of one Gaendaal from the band Wraiths, whose Paradigms disc we reviewed recently, and if you dug the Wraiths disc, you'll for sure want to check this out.
This is gorgeously bleak and mysteriously abstract, an ambient world of strange sonic events and ominous drones. Inspired by the Dunwich Horror, Sentinel Hill is one long, slow crawl through the blackest of terrors, distant tolling bells, crumbling wastelands of blood drenched hills and drone drenched swells, rhythms are muted pulses, layer after layer of black sonic gauze is wrapped in billowing clouds around every sound no matter how slight, disembodied vocals and clanging metal are smeared into still more layers of blackness. Truly dark and dense and harrowing. Another perfect sonic tribute to the master.
Each disc includes a full color booklet as well as an insert with information on Lovecraft as well as a killer creepy portrait.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We only got 15 and it's already out of print from the label so once these are gone we will not be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "track 1 (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "track 1 (excerpt 2)"

LYCUS Demo MMXI (The Flenser) lp 14.98
One of two new releases on local label The Flenser, the other being the latest full length lp from LA black metallers Lake Of Blood (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), and this one, the first demo from Oakland funeral doom band Lycus, who existed briefly years ago in Sacramento, but reshuffled their lineup and relocated to the East Bay, and finally released their first record, and it's a doozy. A gorgeous sonically lugubrious crawl, glacial and downtuned, the sort of sludgey ultra-doom bliss that should hit the spot for folks into Skepticism, dISEMBOWELMENT and the like. And like those bands, there's a huge melodic component, this is not the sort of slow motion tuneless ultrasludge (which we also dig!), this is like classic doom, slowed waaaaaay down, there's even some groove, a little Sabbathy swing, but it's subtle, the band creeping and lumbering for the most part, but with a surprising amount of complexity, in the arrangement, the melodies, the drumming quite busy for music this slow, and the riffing active, with all manner of intertwined melodies and churning riffage. The sound slipping from classic metal to funereal dirge and back again, often letting the two bleed into each other, the resulting hybrid, impossibly catchy, heavy, and doomy all at the same time. In fact, when we were playing this in the store, it got Allan to come investigate, he being notoriously finicky about his doom, but it's that sort of sound, grim and slow and murky and dirgey enough to appeal to the doomlords, but melodic and subtly poppy enough to immediately stick in your head, rare is the sort of doom that is actually catchy, and catchy without losing any of its dark energy and blackened heft. The band also mix the typical doom vocal gurgle with clean vocals, monklike chants in places, but that dramatic croon just adds another element, not just melodic but also textural. There are even some strange melodies that sound almost like horns in one track, and the band also don't hesitate to explode into blast of furious black metal crush, but when they do, it's only briefly, then it's right back to that loping, lumbering impossibly catchy, melodic downtuned churn.
MPEG Stream: "Resonance In Aether"
MPEG Stream: "Among The Ruins"

LYKATHEA AFLAME Elvenefris (Obscene) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've been trying to get enough of these to list for a while now. Our friend Drewcifer swore up and down that when he heard this he knew we (and you, the AQ customers) would love it. And man, was he right. Lykathea Aflame is another band from the Czech Republic (following AQ faves Root among others) and they are pretty difficult to describe. They are definitely metal. And they are definitely grindcore at points. But it's the way they put it all together and what they do with it. The record starts with crazy double kick drums and guitars playing ominous Eastern melodies, while every couple of measures a furious blast beat interrupts, and it becomes this sort of triumphant march, almost like a metal theme to Star Wars or something. And this continues over the course of the record, with LA flitting back and forth between totally melodic metal, crushing monochromatic grind, weird gothy bits with bellowed male vocals, to almost classical interludes. But they always return to the blast. Half tempo grinding riffage, then blast, a melodic seasick waltz, then blast, an almost ballady bit with acoustic guitar and a stick-in-your-head melody, then back to the blast. Everyone we've played this for has freaked out and LOVED it. Listen to the sound samples, they say more than I ever could.
RealAudio clip: "Land Where Sympathy Is Air"
RealAudio clip: "To Become Shelter And Salvation"

M87 Noctilucent Threnodies (Supernal) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not to be confused with the fuzzy shoegazey bliss of AQ faves M83, M87 are a mysterious dark ambient drone outfit on the same label as Benighted Leams, Contra Ignem Fatuum, Drudkh, and Meads Of Asphodel. That alone should have you pretty psyched to see what sort of weirdness these guys conjure up. We'd be tempted to say M87 are an anomaly in Supernal's predominantly black metal roster, but some of our favorite releases on Supernal were on the ambient side of things, the weird medieval drones of Dark Ages and the crumbling pummeling SUNNO)))-like dirge of Fall Of The Grey Winged One. M87 are a much blissier affair. An outer space drift that hovers and floats, wide open expanses of shimmering static hum and glistening effervescence. The liner notes proclaim "There are no keyboards or guitar synthesizers on this disc" so we can only assume this is ALL guitar, which makes it even more impressive. Released way back in 1999, and only now finally making it to the AQ list, M87 definitely explores similar sonic territory as Fennesz, Ambarchi, Tim Hecker, Dean Roberts and the like. The opening track is a thick static blur, like standing in the middle of a busy train station, the sound of the people, and the trains and the spaces cavernous reverb building into a massive swirling whir. This dense proto industrialism surfaces elsewhere on the record, each time, adding more to the mix, buried clangs, or muted melodies, but these caustic sonic clouds are just interludes, long ones granted, drifting darkly and offering an aggressive contrast to the rest of the record's serene and beautiful soundscapes. Warm, rich, dark, dreamlike, ominous, otherworldly, each track, like some exploration of a barren alien planet, or some mysterious abandoned city, a series of abstract isolationist drones, whose textures and melodies, which once existed, have now melted, spreading out into thick pools of shimmering sound, each offering a twisting distorted reflection of the haunting world beyond.
MPEG Stream: "Mu Cephel"
MPEG Stream: "M8 (Lagoon Nebula)"
MPEG Stream: "NGC 7358"

MAD DOG 617 (Mr. Nobody) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Cow bell knockin', kick-ass hard rockin' seventies proto-metal here folks! Michigan power trio Mad Dog's lone album, cryptically entitled 617, was a private press LP originally released in 1977, though recording began back in '74. It features a raw production, heavy guitars, rough and ready vocal wailin', and songs that blend urgent, punkish energy with more languid psych stylings. Sounds like these guys didn't live too far from Detroit. And it's got a whiff of Blue Cheer and even the Pink Fairies, at least enough that we expect this tuff lil' low-budget obscurity might well charm those of you into that sort of thing.

MADE OUT OF BABIES The Ruiner (The End) cd 12.98

MAGGUT Into The Gore (Bloodbath) cd 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Ultra sick gore grind from Japan via aQ faves Bathtub Shitter. Ahh, the magic words for folks around here. Lord knows we love any and all Bathtub Shitter, so we were super excited when we heard about the band Maggut featuing folks from the 'Shitter. Total old school, nineties, downtuned, cookie monster vocals, death gore grind. We love it! Sometimes nothing hits the spot quite like 16 tracks, each averaging about 90 second, of bowel eviscerating, throat shredding, scalp peeling hypergrind, song titles like "Circle Of Maggots", "Frozen Gut", "Cannibal Carnival", "Vicious Vivit Vomit", and a vocalist who sounds like a rabid dog about to tear your throat out. Maggut are ultra tight and super heavy, with massively thick riffs, a killer production, and an appropriate taste for gore, from the lyrics right down to the Carcass homage cover art!
MPEG Stream: "Into The Gore"
MPEG Stream: "Circle Of Maggots"
MPEG Stream: "Frozen Gut"

MAGIC CIRCLE Magic Circle (Armageddon) cd 14.98
These guys have been getting a ton of hype lately, not to mention some controversy, and not necessarily because of their music, although that has something to do with it. These modern doomlords have a classic sound not that far removed from say, Black Sabbath or Pagan Altar or Witchfinder General - lumbering, true doom riffage, and some seriously wailing Ozzyish vocals - which is nothing new obviously, but these guys caused quite a stir cuz this true doom combo is in fact made up of a handful of Boston hardcore luminaries, guys who used to play in Mind Eraser, Rival Mob, Battle Ruins and Doomriders. So that fact had punk rockers crying sell out and metalheads crying poser, certainly everybody kind of shocked/surprised. And while there remains not a shred of their punk past, really, metalheads have nothing to complain about, just give "Scream Evil" a listen. Holy shit, who thought these punks had it in them? Especially the vocalist, who manages to conjure up a killer Ozzy beholden wail, without falling in to the Sabbath copycat trap lots of other doom vocalists seem unable to avoid. It's hard to say exactly what it is, but the phrasing is different, and the timbre of his voice, more rough and raspy, which gives these songs a different kind of emotion and energy, and a raw urgency. And heck, let's not forget about the riffs, which KILL. When you're done with "Scream Evil", give "Magic Circle" a try. There a distinctive pop element running throughout, making the songs crazy catchy, besides being heavy, and sorta psychedelic, the overall sound is actually quite minimal, the occasional classic metal lead, some harmonized guitars once in a while, but lots of tempo shifts, the band not afraid to crank it up, "Magic Circle" morphs into "Cloven In Two", which adds some serious swing, slipping into something very NWOBHM sounding. And "Scream Evil" too, gets downright rocking, launching into some metallic pound that sounds more like Angel Witch.
Those two tracks, originally released on a super limited 7" are buried WAY deep on the record, but opener "Winter Light" sets the stage just fine, with it's slithery downtuned main riff, a classic doomy dirge, and those vocals soaring over the top, a killer chorus, the whole thing darkly psychedelic and totally epic, as are the other three tracks, the most notable being the furious galloping onslaught of "Rapture" which almost has a Tokyo Blade feel too it, and has some seriously kick ass lead guitar, that sounds super processed and tripped out, but "Conquering Nocturnity" is pretty amazing too, another jam that sounds like it could have been transported here from back in the day, classic, soaring, majestic, emotional doom of the highest order. Fuck the haters, the doomlords around here have been digging this like crazy, and all you aQ-ers into true doom, past and present, enter the Magic Circle!
MPEG Stream: "Scream Evil"
MPEG Stream: "Magic Circle / Cloven In Two"
MPEG Stream: "Winter Light"

MAGISTRAL (STEPHEN O'MALLEY & Z'EV) s/t (Southern Lord) cd 12.98
Yet another Sunn 0))) related project, once again it's Stephen O'Malley, who here is teamed up with legendary percussionist Z'ev as Magistral. But this is way more high concept that just some old fashioned drum / guitar jam, instead, O'Malley recorded a guitar solo, 8 minutes and 42 seconds long to bee precise, and Z'ev then took those recordings and worked them over, according to the liner notes he was responsible for "renderings, recodings, percussion and submixes". Not sure what he did, or how he did it, but maybe there are some clues in the confusing ultra technical song titles: "6m 59s From Last 42s Left Channel Only - 26 Track Submix", "13m 48s From 34s From 5m - 5m 34s - 20 Track Submix"... okay maybe not. Regardless, this is an amazing disc of abstract soundscaping and stretched out blackened ambience. It's difficult to pick out any remaining bits of guitar actually, as Z'ev has rendered them completely indistinct, a wash of crumbling distortion, long expanses of grind and scrape, strange high end shimmer over haunting metallic oscillations, creepy burblings and black sonic ooze, what sounds like workmen hammering on air conditioning ducts across the street, and thick glacial flows of molten low end rumble. The sound reminds us quite a bit of the most tranquil Wolf Eyes moments, a sort of austere, slightly industrial landscape of barren sound, especially the final track, where Z'ev finally joins in with the tribal percussion, transforming a buzzing drone into some sort of haunting pagan ritual.
Packaged in a swank mini gatefold sleeve with the usual spiffy design by Mr. O'Malley himself.
MPEG Stream: "6m 59s From Last 42s Left Channel Only - 26 Track Submix"
MPEG Stream: "13m 48s From 34s From 5m - 5m 34s - 20 Track Submix"

MAGNOLIA s/t (Transubstans) cd 16.98
Another Swedish psych stoner throwback band!

MAHARAHJ Repetition (Now or Never) cd 12.98
Canada finally throws their hat into the metal core ring with Maharahj, a whirling maelstrom of drop-d riffage, blazing blast beats, howled vocals, mangled melodies, bits of black metal mayhem and totally fucked and hyper complex songs. Relentless and furious, Mahrahj barely let up, and if they do it's just to sit you back and set you up for the crushing blow that's about to come. Melodies are buried under monstrous chugging guitars and squealing feedback and the rhythm section just adds insult to injury. Fans of Heaven Shall Burn, Caliban and the like will eat this up.
RealAudio clip: "Sleep"
RealAudio clip: "Time And Death And God"
RealAudio clip: "An Insect"

MAIDEN VOYAGE / AMARANTHINE TRAMPLER The Journey Embarks / As The Colour Of Love Flows From My Shattered Teeth (Endless Desperation) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We find stuff all the time, tucked away in the close, in the backroom, copies of records that somehow slipped through the cracks, record we hoped to eventually get more of, but eventually forgot about, it's pretty exciting to (re)discover these mysterious releases, even more exciting when we can't for the life of us remember where they came from, who ordered them, or when we actually got them.
Which is the case with this killer split of ultra heavy funereal doom metal, which we've had for almost 5 years, but only just now realized we had never listed. Which is a shame, cuz both these bands are pretty incredible.
Maiden Voyage are from the UK, and traffic in some seriously extreme miserablist doom, not crushingly heavy, as much as depressive and dark, reminding us a bit of Esoteric, that same sort of weird production, spaced out and a little bit brittle, making the sound more druggy and psychedelic, the guitars are still thick and fuzzy, the riffs glacial, the rhythms a snail's pace pound, the vocals a belched demonic grumble, but the melodies are skeletal, and the songs seem to dissipate into near ambience, the riffs ringing out, leaving just ghostly traces of spidery psychedelic guitars, it's actually more like some sort of doom-d slowcore, than any sort of true doom, which is what makes it so cool. Haunting, and creepy and atmospheric and a little bit damaged.
Maiden Voyage are teamed up with another UK funeral doom combo, the awesomely monickered Amaranthine Trampler, whose sound is strikingly similar, which makes sense, as both bands are one man bands, and than one man is THE SAME GUY! Amaranthine Trampler offers up another weirdly lo-fi bit of lumbering bleak misery, the vocals a bit more chantlike, the vocals a little bit more caustic, but overall, still moody and miserable, a bit ambient and abstract, thick swaths of chugging, some almost groove, giving way to grim funereal crawls, and like Maiden Voyage, those spidery psychedelic melodies and the weirdly lo-fi vibe and doom-ed slowcore feel.
Needless to say, if you're a fan of haunting mysterious outsider doom, and depressive ambient grimness, twisted drugginess and damaged black psychedelia, all spread into thick swaths of downtuned creep and crawl, then best snag one of these before they're gone...
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, each one hand numbered, but since this came out close to 5 years ago, odds are it's undoubtedly out of print by now. We only have 4 or 5 copies, so if you want one, you'll have to move a little faster than either of these guys...
MPEG Stream: MAIDEN VOYAGE "Opaline Waterfalls"
MPEG Stream: AMARANTHINE TRAMPLER "Autumn Is Dying - Winter Is Dead"

MAKE A CHANGE KILL YOURSELF II (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
Finally, available on cd, the long awaited return of an all time AQ favorite black horde, the Danish master of depressive suicidal black metal, and certainly the most aptly named, Make A Change... Kill Yourself. It's been 2 years, but feels like an eternity since we've heard from the fellow named Ynleborgaz, and his not so merry one man band. The self titled debut was an across the board record of the year around these parts. So dark and miserable, but so gorgeously buzzing and epic, one of the greatest slabs of Burzumic mayhem we had heard, well, since Burzum hung up his axe and extinguished the torches and traded it all in for a cell, white power and some synthesizers.
II is the perfect follow up, two more lengthy stretches of bleak black miserablism, wrapped in dense swaths of thick buzz, and rife with the most gorgeous, anguished melancholy melodies ever. Two tracks, each massive and epic and miserable, and each an epic journey, sonically and emotionally.
"Life Revisited" begins with forlorn guitar melodies drifting beneath a black cloud of crumbling sound, minor key pianos, an aching funereal lament, that drifts gently along while a distant black buzz slowly encroaches, eventually becoming a blackened wash of blown out depressive misery, blasting double kick drums and teeth gnashing wails over a relentless, midtempo buzzing blurry lope, Burzumic and EPIC, trancelike and crushingly depressing. Gloriously sad and heartbroken but simultaneously brutal and furious and grim. Part way through, the black curtains are drawn back, revealing a slow swirl of acoustic guitar, crooned clean vocals and monk-like chants, a calm drift through the eye of the storm, only to be sucked back down into a black pit of endless torment shortly thereafter, launching back into a looped trancelike buzzscape, the riffs cyclical and repetitive, so completely mesmerizing and utterly and brutally epic.
The second track, "Fooling The Weak" bursts immediately and full on into a blast of black buzz, relentless riffing, blown out blast beats, so grim and frosty, before slipping into some near ambient dronescapes of drawn out buzzing drone guitar, and super processed, ominously intoned vocals, a weird almost Wolf Eyes-ian soundscape, brooding and mysterious. Eventually, the music builds back into a monstrous, beautiful, seemingly endless stretch of hypnotic riffs and simple pounding drums, a sort of black buzz drone, that just goes on and on and on, lulling the listener, into some cold dark place, a dark deathlike drift, floating along on a dense swell of buzzing guitars, and some of the most gorgeously melancholic melodies EVER.
So goddamn good. Depressive suicidal black metal record of the year? Without a doubt. Black metal record of the year? Quite possibly...
MPEG Stream: "Life Revisited"
MPEG Stream: "Fooling The Weak"

MAKE A CHANGE KILL YOURSELF II (Black Hate) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally, the return of an all time AQ favorite black horde, the Danish master of depressive suicidal black metal, and certainly the most aptly named, Make A Change... Kill Yourself. It's been 2 years, but feels like an eternity since we've heard from the fellow named Ynleborgaz, and his not so merry one man band. The self titled debut was an across the board record of the year around these parts. So dark and miserable, but so gorgeously buzzing and epic, one of the greatest slabs of Burzumic mayhem we had heard, well, since Burzum hung up his axe and extinguished the torches and traded it all in for a cell, white power and some synthesizers.
The vinyl only (so far at least, cd supposedly to follow eventually) II is the perfect follow up, two more lengthy stretches of bleak black miserablism, wrapped in dense swaths of thick buzz, and rife with the most gorgeous, anguished melancholy melodies ever. Two tracks, each taking up a whole side of the lp, and each an epic journey, sonically and emotionally.
Side one begins with forlorn guitar melodies drifting beneath a black cloud of crumbling sound, minor key pianos, an aching funereal lament, that drifts gently along while a distant black buzz slowly encroaches, eventually becoming a blackened wash of blown out depressive misery, blasting double kick drums and teeth gnashing wails over a relentless, midtempo buzzing blurry lope, Burzumic and EPIC, trancelike and crushingly depressing. Gloriously sad and heartbroken but simultaneously brutal and furious and grim. Part way through, the black curtains are drawn back, revealing a slow swirl of acoustic guitar, crooned clean vocals and monk-like chants, a calm drift through the eye of the storm, only to be sucked back down into a black pit of endless torment shortly thereafter, launching back into a looped trancelike buzzscape, the riffs cyclical and repetitive, so completely mesmerizing and utterly and brutally epic.
The flipside bursts immediately and full on into a blast of black buzz, relentless riffing, blown out blast beats, so grim and frosty, before slipping into some near ambient dronescapes of drawn out buzzing drone guitar, and super processed, ominously intoned vocals, a weird almost Wolf Eyes-ian soundscape, brooding and mysterious. Eventually, the music builds back into a monstrous, beautiful, seemingly endless stretch of hypnotic riffs and simple pounding drums, a sort of black buzz drone, that just goes on and on and on, lulling the listener, into some cold dark place, a dark deathlike drift, floating along on a dense swell of buzzing guitars, and some of the most gorgeously melancholic melodies EVER.
So goddamn good. Depressive suicidal black metal record of the year? Without a doubt. Black metal record of the year? Quite possibly...
Pressed on super heavy vinyl, housed in thick jacket, the lp in a printed inner sleeve.

MAKE A CHANGE... KILL YOURSELF s/t (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
Once again, one of our all time favorite slabs of blackened and buzzing depressive black metal is BACK IN PRINT, on a new label, not sure for how long, but for anybody who somehow missed out on this the last couple times, don't blow it again. Absolutely essential!
It's very rare that a band name cuts so succinctly to the heart of what a band is all about. So perfectly encapsulating the hate and misery and blackness of the music. Thus we have Make A Change Kill... Yourself, certainly doesn't trip off the tongue, but it's not supposed to, like the music, and the sentiments behind it, nothing here is supposed to be easy, or happy or joyful. It's meant to be hard, brutal, sad, dismal, hopeless, miserable. And it is, but on such a massively grand and epic scale it's sort of breathtaking. Huge mournful minor key swirls of buzzing guitars, ultra depressive and strangely melancholy. Mostly midtempo, often trudging into downright doom, occasionally bursting into brief blasts of furious thrashing, but never for long, always settling back into a seething lurching blackened lament. Massive stretched out epics, the shortest track clocking in at 14 minutes, the longest pushing 30. Relentless double kicks beneath a black flow of downtuned Burzumic buzz, thick and rich and dense and dark, so emotional and intense, fuzz atop buzz atop blur atop whir, swaying and loping hypnotically. This takes the very best parts of Burzum and Xasthur and other blackened depressives to the next level, introducing a massive and majestic Godspeed element, as well as some incredibly catchy melodies, albeit still appropriately raw and black and grim, but they manage to float wraithlike, endlessly in your ears, in your brain, in your soul, like the ghost of a memory, a weird feeling of sadness and loss, that sticks in your head just as much as the bleak and somber melodies. Very rare for any music, let alone buzzy blurry black metal. Incredibly poignant, ambient interludes, ghostly female vocals, strange drone-y breakdowns, mysterious chimes and swells, brief glimpses of desolate soundscapes, all serving, along with the almighty BUZZ, to lead us even further down that dark path to nothingness. BLACK METAL RECORD OF THE YEAR (2005) for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Chapter One"
MPEG Stream: "Chapter Two"

MAKE A CHANGE... KILL YOURSELF s/t (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Once again, one of our all time favorite slabs of blackened and buzzing depressive black metal is BACK IN PRINT, on a new label, not sure for how long, but for anybody who somehow missed out on this the last couple times, don't blow it again. Absolutely essential!
It's very rare that a band name cuts so succinctly to the heart of what a band is all about. So perfectly encapsulating the hate and misery and blackness of the music. Thus we have Make A Change Kill... Yourself, certainly doesn't trip off the tongue, but it's not supposed to, like the music, and the sentiments behind it, nothing here is supposed to be easy, or happy or joyful. It's meant to be hard, brutal, sad, dismal, hopeless, miserable. And it is, but on such a massively grand and epic scale it's sort of breathtaking. Huge mournful minor key swirls of buzzing guitars, ultra depressive and strangely melancholy. Mostly midtempo, often trudging into downright doom, occasionally bursting into brief blasts of furious thrashing, but never for long, always settling back into a seething lurching blackened lament. Massive stretched out epics, the shortest track clocking in at 14 minutes, the longest pushing 30. Relentless double kicks beneath a black flow of downtuned Burzumic buzz, thick and rich and dense and dark, so emotional and intense, fuzz atop buzz atop blur atop whir, swaying and loping hypnotically. This takes the very best parts of Burzum and Xasthur and other blackened depressives to the next level, introducing a massive and majestic Godspeed element, as well as some incredibly catchy melodies, albeit still appropriately raw and black and grim, but they manage to float wraithlike, endlessly in your ears, in your brain, in your soul, like the ghost of a memory, a weird feeling of sadness and loss, that sticks in your head just as much as the bleak and somber melodies. Very rare for any music, let alone buzzy blurry black metal. Incredibly poignant, ambient interludes, ghostly female vocals, strange drone-y breakdowns, mysterious chimes and swells, brief glimpses of desolate soundscapes, all serving, along with the almighty BUZZ, to lead us even further down that dark path to nothingness. BLACK METAL RECORD OF THE YEAR (2005) for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Chapter One"
MPEG Stream: "Chapter Two"

MAKE A CHANGE... KILL YOURSELF s/t (Black Hate Productions) 2lp 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For a super limited time, this all time AQ depressive black metal classic is available on vinyl, super deluxe, ultra thick gatefold sleeve, double lp on THICK vinyl, all new liner notes, new layout, same old abject bitter blackness.
ALREADY SOLD OUT AND OUT OF PRINT. We got 15 copies, and that's all we'll ever be able to get.
But be warned, the jackets are NOT in perfect condition. Thankfully, the seams are not split, none of the corners are bent, in fact, in a plastic sleeve they look perfect, but once removed, they do reveal some light marking, mostly ring wear, the covers are matte, so it shows up more than on a normal sleeve, most folks won't care, collectors though be warned, the covers are not mint, and if you're not willing to put up with some light marks, do not order. Not a problem if you're buying this to actually listen to yourself, as odds are you'll be sitting in the corner of your room with the lights off letting MACKY's black misery wash over you. Still expensive though, what with shipping from overseas (these weigh a ton!) and the weak dollar, but well worth it, these are massive, heavy and beautiful. You have been warned!
It's very rare that a band name cuts so succinctly to the heart of what a band is all about. So perfectly encapsulating the hate and misery and blackness of the music. Thus we have Make A Change Kill... Yourself, certainly doesn't trip off the tongue, but it's not supposed to, like the music, and the sentiments behind it, nothing here is supposed to be easy, or happy or joyful. It's meant to be hard, brutal, sad, dismal, hopeless, miserable. And it is, but on such a massively grand and epic scale it's sort of breathtaking. Huge mournful minor key swirls of buzzing guitars, ultra depressive and strangely melancholy. Mostly midtempo, often trudging into downright doom, occasionally bursting into brief blasts of furious thrashing, but never for long, always settling back into a seething lurching blackened lament. Massive stretched out epics, the shortest track clocking in at 14 minutes, the longest pushing 30. Relentless double kicks beneath a black flow of downtuned Burzumic buzz, thick and rich and dense and dark, so emotional and intense, fuzz atop buzz atop blur atop whir, swaying and loping hypnotically. This takes the very best parts of Burzum and Xasthur and other blackened depressives to the next level, introducing a massive and majestic Godspeed element, as well as some incredibly catchy melodies, albeit still appropriately raw and black and grim, but they manage to float wraithlike, endlessly in your ears, in your brain, in your soul, like the ghost of a memory, a weird feeling of sadness and loss, that sticks in your head just as much as the bleak and somber melodies. Very rare for any music, let alone buzzy blurry black metal. Incredibly poignant, ambient interludes, ghostly female vocals, strange drone-y breakdowns, mysterious chimes and swells, brief glimpses of desolate soundscapes, all serving, along with the almighty BUZZ, to lead us even further down that dark path to nothingness. BLACK METAL RECORD OF THE YEAR (2005) for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Chapter One"
MPEG Stream: "Chapter Two"

MALA SUERTE / UZALA split (King Of The Monsters) 7" 5.98
Killer two way doom split, the A side, from witchy Idaho heavies Uzala and the B side from Texan sludgelords Mala Suerte. Uzala are another band you can add to the current crop of female fronted doom outfits, fans of Loon, and Royal Thunder and Jex Thoth and all the rest will most definitely dig these guys and gal, the riffs a little bit Sabbathy, the sound dirgey and sludgey, vocalist Darcy's got a wicked croon, the track heavy and a little bit psychedelic, definitely has us wanting to hear more.
The flipside finds Mala Suerte pushing their doom into a more psychedelic realm, opening with swirling psych leads over some laid back slo-mo doom. But it's the vocals where things get really weird, almost folky, delivered in a gruff, sing songy monotone, sort of OM style, but more like some twisted doom metal sea shanty. Weird, but for sure kinda cool.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!

MALAKAT Collected Tracks + Yellow Swans / Grey Daturas / Malakat Collage (Sweatlung) 2cd 11.98
Sprawling double disc of self described 'other planetary field drone' from this mysterious Aussie duo featuring members of doomsludge heavies Whitehorse, avant noisemakers Bone Sheriff, and grey metallers Krystoffkrvstoffiston, one disc of collected tracks (hence the title), the other disc a 'collaborative' collage put together by Malakat, and made up entirely of an unreleased collaboration between the now defunct Grey Daturas and the also now defunct Yellow Swans, but more on that in a second.
The collected tracks disc, gathers up various jams from the last few years, all of them hushed and minimal and mysterious, strange dronescapes of abstract ambience and microscopic events, field recordings and performances, long stretches of creak and whir and thrum and rumble, laced with mysterious voices, fragments of melodies, a sound somewhere between the free forest clatter of Avarus, the ritualistic black abstraction of Abruptum and the free sonic exploration of A Handful Of Dust.
Long streaks of feedback, overloaded mics, monstrous howls, low end crumble, whirring layers of glitch and hum, washed out hazy shimmer laid over murky sonar mumbles and muted clatter and clank, doomy crumbling rhythms pulled apart into sprawling industrial blurs, all smeared into creepy hushed black ambient drifts, and groaning, creaking, whispery abstract free noise minimalism.
The second disc, finds Malakat assembling somewhat similar sounds, but using only a recording of the Yellow Swans and Grey Daturas from 2006 as source material, and according to the liner notes: "pots, pipes, a clay skull and a wooden tube". And it sort of sounds like it. Sort of. Ultra minimal, abstract and ambient, stretches of what sound like alien field recordings give way huge heaving swells of crumbling buzz, squalls of roiling blacknoize splinter into full on drum freakouts and blurred drone jams, deep cavernous rumbles explode into jagged shards of hissing static and beastly vocal mewling, gorgeous blown out swells of chordal whir dissipate into chiming metal-buzz minimalism, these lengthy bursts of sonic energy, which actually don't sound all that messed with, more like they're just straight up recordings of GD and YS rocking out,, but those blowouts are all separated by short interludes of barely there shimmer and hazy muted drift. Killer stuff. On bad ass Australian label Sweatlung, and most likely crazy limited...
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"
MPEG Stream: "III"
MPEG Stream: "Collage (Excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Collage (Excerpt 2)"

MALCUIDANT L'Hymne de la Ghilde (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what to say about a record. Especially a black metal record. Sure it buzzes and it's grim and frosty, there are fuzzy guitars, blasting drums. But it's in the way each of those elements are employed that make the music special. French one man black metal outfit Malcuidant takes those most obvious of black metal sounds and whip them into a truly mesmerizing swirl of Burzumic black metal. One of the coolest things about Malcuidant is the drummer, who can unleash a wicked blazing fast blast beat, as well as a dizzying double kick, but the double kick only comes in here and there, so a keening riff will buzz in the upper register for ages, almost like the band is being broadcast through a transistor radio, when all of a sudden a flurry of double kick will bring in a fucking wall of low end that is like a demonic black bulldozer grinding your bones to dust. And just as quick as they swooped in, they fade out, leaving more keening tinny black metal high end. But don't get the wrong idea, this is not a tinny lo-fi black metal, no not at all, L'Hymne de la Ghilde is a total blur of warm thick buzz, it just gets even heavier and thicker when the wall of double kicks drops in. But it's not just the drums, the guitars are insane and lightning fast as well, with the band occasionally dropping out to let a little riff or lick twist and squirm in space before the band drops back in with a pummelling wave of blasting blackness. And finally the vocals, a inhuman tortured shrieking VERY reminiscent of Weakling, sprawled above the spiked bed of prickly fuzz, the anguished wailing another thick sonic layer in the Malcuidant's bubbling black brew.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES. ALREADY OUT OF PRINT AT THE LABEL. WE HAVE ABOUT 20 COPIES...
MPEG Stream: "Tristesse"
MPEG Stream: "Invasions Impies"

MALEFIC ORDER Raging Evil Desekration (Satanic Propaganda) cd 13.98
Metal Archives, the go to site for metal info, a sort of metal Wikipedia, lists 348 metal bands from Turkey, none of which we'd heard, or even really heard of, until now. Malefic Order, who besides being from Turkey, have one of the coolest metal logos ever, their name rendered in the shape of a helmeted horned demon, with a pentagram on its forehead and an impaled skull atop its helmet.
Recorded to praise Euronymous and Dead of Mayhem, Raging Evil Desekration could not be more appropriately titled, everything about these songs is raging and evil, raw and buzzy, obviously heavily indebted to the Nordic elite, these songs merge epic and majestic with raw and primitive, the result a relentless buzz drenched thrash flecked slab of frosty black mayhem, nothing overtly weird or fucked up, although there are some cool arrangements and weird creepy melodies here and there, this is more about the sound and the vibe and the spirit, every single note and drum beat, every blasting buzz oozes evil, the vokills some of the rawest and most intense we've heard, the riffing frenetic often slipping into dangerously catchy territory before exploding again into a blazing blur, the drums super heavy and powerful, the whole sound just ultra raw, super intense, pitch black and very very evil.

MALIGN Divine Facing (Norma Evangelium Diaboli) cd ep 13.98

MPEG Stream: "Sinful Fleshspear"
MPEG Stream: "Divine Facing"

MALKUTH Mutus Liber (Hospital Productions) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As if those guys in No Neck Blues Band weren't prolific enough, we've now got the mighty Malkuth to contend with, a killer grim black metal combo featuring a couple of No Necks in their ranks. And this is not a case of NY hipsters slumming, this is the real deal, grim and buzzing, classic sounding old school blackness. Think Moonblood, Beherit, that sort of thing... Dense slabs of primitive buzz, simple and mostly midtempo, guitars murky and muddy, the drums buried in the mix, but peppered with soaring epic classic metal melodies. Occasionally the band will burst into full on blackness, but even at their fastest, it's still more of a lurching punk rock sort of blast, thrashy and on the verge of collapse. The vocals are super distorted and buried way down in the mix. Everything super lo-fi, a definite demo-tape style production that just adds to the grim / kvlt vibe, this really sounds like it could be some Norwegian or Finnish basement recording from the nineties.
From pounding punky blasts, to loping midtempo buzz to epic minor key doom, everything dripping in blackness, distorted and buzzing and fucking awesome.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES! Packaged in super thick black on grey heavy cardstock sleeves, with cool cryptic artwork.

MALKUTH Sefirah Gevurah (Hospital) cd 15.98
It might be a bit misleading to begin this review with "Featuring members of the No Neck Blues Band..." Or maybe not, if anyone is aware of that band's connections to the metal world. Either way, there is no denying that Malkuth is pure metal - evil, overwhelmingly negative sounding black metal at that.
Hailing from New York, Malkuth whip up a frenzied hurricane of hateful unrelenting rage that continues without pause for the whole trip. Considering the band's pedigree, we were surprised at how NOT weird this turned out to be, and quite honestly, it's awesome to have a band that bypasses all the trappings of "experimental" black metal and just fucking goes for the throat, old school style. This is not to say that there aren't any surprises, and Malkuth display a winding melodic (but still super evil) sense that has the metalheads here losing their shit. Maybe it's just that these guys take some of the outside influences that supposedly differentiate many of today's black metal bands - moments of plodding post-rock spaciousness, lumbering doomscapes, etc. - and make them unapologetically black metal. The grating vocals are right out of the book of Darkthrone, while the furious, punkish riffs and straightforward but powerful drumming are surprisingly "true". Keeping with traditions, Malkuth expertly emphasize awesome, pukey sounding guitars, each one contributing perfectly complementary parts to the potent riffage, making it so you don't even give a shit that there is no bass - this IS black metal, remember?
It's always great to have a band seemingly appear out of thin air and pummel you with their world ending fury, especially when they conjure those fundamental elements which made you become obsessed with a certain type of music in the first place. Keeping an eye on the past but no doubt in a world of their own creation, Malkuth take a tried and true approach and make it completely worthwhile and refreshing... if "refreshing" is the word you want to use to describe Sefirah Gevurah. We are just going to go ahead and assume you are like us. In that respect, you may have just stumbled upon one of your new favorite albums.
MPEG Stream: "Shevirat Ha-Zinnorot"
MPEG Stream: "Ayin Le-Ani"

MALKUTH Sefirah Gevurah (Hospital) lp 17.98
It might be a bit misleading to begin this review with "Featuring members of the No Neck Blues Band..." Or maybe not, if anyone is aware of that band's connections to the metal world. Either way, there is no denying that Malkuth is pure metal - evil, overwhelmingly negative sounding black metal at that.
Hailing from New York, Malkuth whip up a frenzied hurricane of hateful unrelenting rage that continues without pause for the whole trip. Considering the band's pedigree, we were surprised at how NOT weird this turned out to be, and quite honestly, it's awesome to have a band that bypasses all the trappings of "experimental" black metal and just fucking goes for the throat, old school style. This is not to say that there aren't any surprises, and Malkuth display a winding melodic (but still super evil) sense that has the metalheads here losing their shit. Maybe it's just that these guys take some of the outside influences that supposedly differentiate many of today's black metal bands - moments of plodding post-rock spaciousness, lumbering doomscapes, etc. - and make them unapologetically black metal. The grating vocals are right out of the book of Darkthrone, while the furious, punkish riffs and straightforward but powerful drumming are surprisingly "true". Keeping with traditions, Malkuth expertly emphasize awesome, pukey sounding guitars, each one contributing perfectly complementary parts to the potent riffage, making it so you don't even give a shit that there is no bass - this IS black metal, remember?
It's always great to have a band seemingly appear out of thin air and pummel you with their world ending fury, especially when they conjure those fundamental elements which made you become obsessed with a certain type of music in the first place. Keeping an eye on the past but no doubt in a world of their own creation, Malkuth take a tried and true approach and make it completely worthwhile and refreshing... if "refreshing" is the word you want to use to describe Sefirah Gevurah. We are just going to go ahead and assume you are like us. In that respect, you may have just stumbled upon one of your new favorite albums.
MPEG Stream: "Shevirat Ha-Zinnorot"
MPEG Stream: "Ayin Le-Ani"

MALVEILLANCE Just Fuck Off (Sabbathid / Suffering Jesus / New Scream Industry) cd 14.98
We love us our twisted, serpentine, ultra complex black metal, the weirder and more demented the better, truly wacked stuff. We love it epic and majestic, sludgy and creepy, but sometimes you just want it simple. Stripped down and furious. A single riff played over and over. A blasting drum beat that just bores full speed ahead.
Thus we have Canada's Malveillance, who manage to take what could be boring and generic and turns it into something fierce and fucked up and kind of frightening.
We were already beginning to think the French are to black metal, what the Japanese are to pretty much all other music. Whatever it is, twee pop, space rock, take a Japanese band and they can do it better and weirder. Same with France and black metal. Grim buzzing blackness? Find some weird French guy and he can make it sound like a black metal My Bloody Valentine or a blast of barbed white noise. Give them some simple punky black metal and they can turn it into a black spiked juggernaut foaming at the mouth, furiously trampling everything in its path. Now we're thinking the Canadians have the same unholy power (must be French Canadians). Malveillance wield that power with force and fury, a simple, punky, D-beat black metal, but infused with such fury that it becomes a droning black beast. It helps that every song is in the same key and played at the same tempo. It's like one hour long song split into 22 parts, or the exact same song played 22 times in a row. Totally repetitive and hypnotic and so mesmerizing. Ultimate black bliss achieved through pummel and repetition!!
Plus how can you resist a record called Just Fuck Off, with a record cover of some guy in the shadows giving us the bird, with a note inside to the listener that says:
"Just Fuck Off... yeah yeah of course but keep one thing in mind; this "fuck off" is for all misanthropic losers holding this cd."
MPEG Stream: "L'Odeur NausŽabonde Du PassŽ"
MPEG Stream: "Sans Voix"
MPEG Stream: "Accueillir La Mort"

MALVEILLANCE L'Appel Du Neant / Le Froid Du Nord (New Scream Industry / Sabbathid / Suffering Jesus Productions) cd 14.98
What's more evil and metal and "I don't give a fuck about humanity" that slapping on some corpse paint and lurking in the forest for a perfectly grimm band photo? What's more cult than strapping on a bunch of spikes and spitting fire, while a photographer expertly captures the 'ritual' on film? What's more anti-social and BROOTAL than dousing yourself in blood, leering evilly at the camera, and holding as still as possible until the timer clicks and the camera catches your pure evil for eternity?
Well how about just waking up, stepping in front of the mirror on your closet door, and snapping a picture of yourself in all your first thing in the morning, PINK tightie whiteies (pinkies?), socks, baseball jersey and bedhead, frowning grumpily and holding the digital camera in front of you in the mirror? ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING. Fuck posing and preening and make up and all that, nothing is more grim than the antisocial miscreant captured in his home, where he makes his sick sounds, and where he hides from all the filthy scum outside his front door. The colorful bedspread, the wood paneling, the vinyl tile flooring, the framed pictures above the bed, that stuff is all more intimate and personal and ultimately EVIL than any amount of forests and spiked armbands and bullet belts. Sorry for the rant, we're just a bit obsessed with the band photo on this Malveillance collection, which does in fact feature Mr. Malveillance in a t-shirt and pink undies, scowling at the mirror in his bedroom. Fucking awesome. And somehow, that sort of symbolizes the music of Malveillance pretty perfectly as well. Simple, stripped down, raw. Think Akitsa, Ildjarn, Bone Awl, that sort of super primitive
blasting crusty brutality. But with Malveillance that sound is even more punk, more pummelingly straight ahead. ONE riff over and over and over, repeated to death, the vocals a raspy howl, the drums a D-beat pound, the production raw and lo-fi but still heavy and filthy and grimy and totally BAD ASS. In some ways, it reminds us a bit of a more punk, more blackened Brainbombs.
This is actually a collection gathering up two previous releases from 2005 and 2006, as well as a handful of bonus tracks from a little earlier. The crazy thing is, there are 7 or 8 RAMONES COVERS! And what's even weirder is they sound perfect, like they could be actual Malveillance jams, all filthied up, sped up, doused in buzz and grit, they sound pretty evil and grim, even the "hey ho" parts manage to sound a bit menacing.
What more to say. We love this shit, and Malveillance does it as good, if not better than the rest, plus any metalhead with the balls to pose in pink undies and short hair on their record, deserves to have the grim corpse painted hordes bowing at their feet for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Effrondrement"
MPEG Stream: "Coup Final"
MPEG Stream: "Dans Le Sang"
MPEG Stream: "Eat That Rat (Ramones Cover)"
MPEG Stream: "The KKK Took My Baby Away (Ramones Cover)"

MAMALEEK Fever Dream (Furusiyya Recordings) lp 14.98
WOW, BACK IN STOCK!!! LAST COPIES EVER!!
We went a little crazy for the first Mamaleek record, a way too limited cd-r, packed with blown out blissed out shoegazey black metal, head spinning ultra technical metallic grind, and gorgeous blurred black ambience. That record was so intense, so gloriously fucked up, so complex and confusional, it really seemed like an impossible record to top, but this latest record, the first Mamaleek vinyl release, definitely does its best, and in some cases succeeds big time.
Like the record opener, "I Can't Stay Behind", which begins with some creepy sample, a mysterious voices, the sound of horses, then suddenly, speaker shredding blasts of start stop black grind, a haunting lull between each, before finally launching into full on hyper speed black buzz, but with weird interludes, moaning clean vocals, stuttering drum machines, a strangely almost indie rock arrangement, but shredded and shattered, cool loping arpeggiated breakdowns, the guitars impossibly distorted, the sound WAY in-the-red, the creepy intro sample resurfacing throughout.
That indie rock sensibility runs through the whole record, but is deftly twisted into much blacker shapes. The second track, is an almost looped single part song, very hypnotic, partway through keyboards surface, all sunbaked and swoonsome, and while the track remains buzzy and abrasive, those keyboards help transform the sound into something more akin to a black metal M83.
And that side of the band seems to be the most prevalent this time around, trading in much of the brutal grind and twisted blast of the first record for something a bit more melodic and sort of pretty. Gnarled fragmented and fractured angular crunch is butted up against almost loungey piano, and random Japanese vocal snippets, murky industrial rhythms underpin groovy acoustic guitars, grim buzz gets warped and twisted and draped over swinging jazz, and it almost works, but is all the better for not quite working, the result a seriously twisted mash up. And the jazz element runs through to varying degrees, so much so that there's even a Charlie Parker cover, done pretty straight, only the guitars are a bit distorted and a little off, and there are some harsh black vokills that were most likely not in the original, seriously twisted and tweaked. Elsewhere, Mamaleek unfurls drone drenched near static black metalscapes, weaves loping drum machine grooves beneath coruscating super distorted guitar melodies, incorporates what sounds like seventies FM radio rock into otherwise grim blasting blackness,
The closer is more M83 style washed out woozy drift, skittering drum machines, wheezing accordions, shimmering strings, warm and sun dappled, wreathed in crackle and hiss, until the song shatters into a full bore freakout, a squealing fractured nearly white noise free jazz blurred metal outro, that is as kick ass as it is utterly confounding.
If anything this record is WAY more varied, more experimental, less cohesive, but not in a bad way, the sounds all manage to fit together in one epic, seriously demented whole, but this time it's a much wilder ride, not for the faint of heart, or the unadventurous. But much like the first record, fucking amazing and WAY recommended.
Pressed on super thick vinyl, and housed in ultra deluxe sleeves, with striking and subtle, spot varnish inking.
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Stay Behind"
MPEG Stream: "Go Into The Wilderness"
MPEG Stream: "Paar Rosy"

MAMALEEK s/t (self-released) cd-r 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We complain a lot about the glut of cd-r releases. The whole, "even my Mom has a cd-r out" (and yes, her new limited 3" cd-r will be out soon, ahem)... The ease of recording and pressing up 50 copies, means that lots of stuff that maybe shouldn't get released does. Not everything recorded deserves to be released, and not everything played even deserves to be recorded. A serious lack of quality control for sure. But with the bad comes the good, and in this case, the good is often VERY good, and thus it's well worth slogging through all the shit, to get glimpses into some of the twisted creative musical minds, that otherwise might have toiled away in obscurity with no one but their housemate or mother (depending on the circumstances) hearing the amazing fucked up and far out sounds they've been creating.
It sometimes boggles our minds to think about the various songs and recordings, that due to lack of resource or technology, or even initiative, were lost forever, or were just never even recorded at all. We don't have that problem so much anymore (see above), but what it does mean is that folks who might be too timid to start a band, or too isolated to find likeminded folks, still have ways to create, to attempt to realize the sounds they hear in their heads.
And some of our favorite records of the last few years have been just that, random home recorded cd-r's produced not for cool points, or scene cred, but because the artists were driven to do so. The cd-r micro label is now a cottage industry, my Mom doesn't just have a new cd-r out, she also has her own labelÉ but that is still where we find the most vibrant and ultra personal music being made.
Mamaleek is the work of two brothers, from right here in SF, this is their long in the works debut and it's a killer, equal parts blissed out metalgaze, furious hyper grind, and buzzing ambient murk. In some ways, it's almost the perfect aQ record, bits and pieces of all the stuff we can't get enough of. But deftly assembled into something cohesive and pretty original. Nods to Jesu, Nadja, Xasthur, the Angelic Process, the usual suspects, but Mamaleek are definitely their own queer beast. The lo-fi recording adding to the murk and mystery, and of course the fuzzy blissy vibe.
The record opens with reverb drenched piano, lazy and laid back, all sepia toned and warm summer porch-ed, which makes the second track sound even more epic and massive. A crushing roiling slow motion riff, superdistorted and almost crumbling, the melodies in the distance soaring, the track shifts briefly into a blast of processed grind, before returning to its majestic trudge, sounding like Jesu, if Jesu still sounded like Godflesh. The track flips back and forth, slipping into a tinny, black ambient interlude halfway through, only to transform into a spacious almost math rock drift.
The rest of the record sort of slips easily between those two sounds, harsh washed out blackened bliss, often peppered with jagged sonic shards, and haunting drones, and murky ambience. The disc's centerpiece is the nearly 20 minute long "Shout On, Children", beginning with some straight up bluegrass guitar pickin', still muddy and lo-fi, some slippery slide and some fret buzz, but then, the programmed drums kick in, some gurgling demonic vocals, and then thick sheets of coruscating sunburnt guitar buzz, but that acoustic twang continues on right below the surface. But it never gets HEAVY, it just shifts between gradations of buzziness, murkiness and blur, some parts are wide open, a skeletal rhythm over smears of horn like synth and throbbing bass, other parts are gauzy, the guitar chopped into haunting pulses and layered over washed out whirs, and others incorporate operatic vocals and barely there shimmer, finally finishing off with a brief blast of ultra-lo-fi blackened metal.
The last four tracks lean toward metallic bliss, and pounding buzzing heaviness, the guitars thick and buzzy, the vocals a fierce growl, the drums simple and mechanical, everything whipped into pulsing waves of sound, occasionally coalescing into blasting blackness, but just as often, becoming unmoored, and drifting skyward the various riffs and beats spreading out like a sky full of black wraiths shot through with sunbeams.
Handmade packaging. Fold over cardstock sleeves, with paste on full color front and back images, and a printed insert on nice thick textured paper. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "I Wish I Was Dead"
MPEG Stream: "Winter'll Soon Be Over"