ORPHAN Decapitated Lovers (From The Nursery) lp 14.98
This brutal Brooklyn boy-girl two-piece unleashes their second full length, also vinyl-only like their debut (too bad for those of us who like cds). Once again, Orphan are UBER heavy, with thudding thunderous drums and destructive distorted bass, laying down total metal riffery, decapitatin' lovers left and right... but also, there's an undeniable "pop" streak in these songs, which can get quite bouncy-catchy, and can even remind us a bit at moments of an evil Nirvana, stripped down and buffed up, bathed in extreme amp buzz and fuzz. Or if not Nirvana, then Unsane. Also, the bassist's shredded throat-torn vokills are varied enough to manage a fair amount of memorability and character (the song "Soda Pressing" is in fact almost sung cleanly, though still meanly, making us think of Dan Higgs in Lungfish, actually). Orphan's arty/weird side is also on display, most obviously via some rather atypical track titles for a metal record, like "Love Is A Stealthy Hitman (Love Is A Healthy Stuntman)", "Mister Sensitive", and "Thug Luv (Gun Oil)". Also, probably less for punk cred than just 'cause they figured it would slay, they do a Born Against cover, "Well Fed Fuck".
As we've said before, those who lament the late great godheadSilo should check out Orphan. Another heavy two-piece they could be compared to is Black Cobra, and as much as we like BC, we have to say Orphan do it better! So, fans of grinding bass heavy distorted-to-hell art metal duos, you really oughtta take this Orphan home! Hmm, but be careful... while being orphaned is an unfortunate plight, you get the idea that THIS Orphan might be so by choice. They probably killed their parents and the rest of their family!
Numbered, limited to 500 copies. Oh, and stay tuned for another Orphan release soon, a split with a Baltimore band called Dope Body being released by Black Tent Press...
MPEG Stream: "Fetus In Fetu"
MPEG Stream: "Big Black Hog"
MPEG Stream: "Soda Pressing"

ORPHAN / DOPE BODY Self Entitled (Black Tent Press) lp 15.98
The return of the Brooklyn based boy-girl, bass and drums duo Orphan, with another slab of thick fuzzed out riffing and thunderous drum damage, here matched up with the until now unknown to us Dope Body who somehow sound like an impossible hybrid of Lightning Bolt, Melt Banana, Man Is The Bastard, and Konono No.1! More on those guys in a sec. First up, ORPHAN.
Like on past records, these two bash and pound, the bass blown out and distorted the riffs massive and fuzzy, the drums pounding and crashing, with a sound that lurks somewhere between Bleach era Nirvana and Unsane, a sort of pop flecked low end noise rock, that KILLS. And everything we love about Orphan is in full effect here, AND they do a cover, that suddenly reveals another band we would never have thought to compare them to but makes perfect sense, UNWOUND! They definitely have that same sort of nineties noise rock sound, and they prove it by making Unwound's "Dragnalus" their very own, a bit sludgier and downtuned than the original, but with all the same energy. Which is exactly what infuses the other songs here, the sound is proggy, mathy, sludgey, metallic, heavy, noisy, poppy, bombastic, sweaty and frantic and seriously fun. But also a bit dark and menacing at the same time.
The real discovery for us here, though, is Dope Body, who we know very little about, but the first track sounds like a noise rock Konono No.1, which pretty much sealed the deal in seconds, chiming guitar harmonics, wild tribal drumming, yelped vox, crunchy and distorted and rhythmic and fucking awesome, quickly becoming something more like a Deerhoof meets Melt Banana sort of thing, which again, is perfectly fine with us! The sound is super varied and weird as all get out and all over the map, super mathy and bizarre, like Man Is The Bastard one second, howled vox and fuzz bass and Neanderthal pound, frantic and frenzied Lightning Bolt the next, freaked out math prog held down by some super chaotic drumming, and then still later, a sort of home brewed industrial, fractured and fucked up, twisted and cracked, the sound flitting between those various sounds, often mashing 2 or more into a whole new weirdo sound. But whatever it is, we LOVE it.
Gorgeously packaged of course. Thick silkscreened jacket, each one hand numbered, and limited to 500 copies, with a nice, printed heavy paper insert as well.

ORPHANED LAND Mabool: The Story of the Three Sons of Seven (Century Media) cd 14.98

ORPLID s/t (Prophecy Productions) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Creepy German folk-music band with industrial and experimental leanings. On Germany's Prophecy Productions label, who seem to specialize in this sort of autumnal dark pagan bombast and beauty (Tenhi, Empyrium, Gods Tower). Militaristic drumming, droning synths, male and female choir-style vocals, whinnying horses, doleful folk melodies, acoustic guitar, and weird surprises...lovely and doomful. Titles and lyrics in German. Equally for fans of World Serpent label stuff and black metal atmospheres (a la old Ulver). Andee and Allan both bought one.

ORQUESTA DEL DESIERTO s/t (MeteorCity) cd 13.98
Just by listing the members of this 'super group', I know some of you are gonna buy this before we even get to the part about how crappy this record is. Oops. I think I just blew it. Anyway. In case you're just scanning these long ass reviews let's try to get you to stop here a second: KYUSS QUEENS OF THE STONEAGE GOATSNAKE FATSO JETSON.....okay. Gotcha. Orchesta Del Desierto is made up of Alfredo Hernandez from Kyuss and QOTSA, Pete Stahl from Goatsnake and the Earthlings?, Mario Lalli from Fatso Jetson and the Desert Sessions, and Steve Brown from Hermano. So what does it sound like you ask? Well, it's sort of like stoner desert rock, but imagine if someone took away all of their effects pedals (especially the distortion pedals), took away their Marshall stacks and replaced them with Fender twins, and laced their pot with horse tranquilizers. So yeah, mellow and sleepy and uninspired. And add in Mr Pete 'My vocals can ruin any band' Stahl and you've got yourself a big ol' PASS ON THIS ONE. And for those of you who think I'm full of shit, here's the quote from the obi: "Soulful, spacious and mellow, but no less powerful than the heaviest riff-rock records Meteor City has released. Discard all your expectations of desert music and you'll be ready to take this journey."
RealAudio clip: "Shadow Stealing"
RealAudio clip: "After Blue"

ORTHODOX Amanecer en Puerta Oscura (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
We're probably not the first to say it, but doom metal band Orthodox are *anything but* orthodox on their second offering for the Southern Lord label. Spanish sludge lords with a psychedelic bent, Orthodox's 2006 debut album Gran Poder was a major sensation among connoisseurs of the heavy, being selected as an Album Of The Month on Julian Cope's Head Heritage website, in part for its pagan-Catholic imagery, in part for its monolithic heaviness. What about eagerly anticipated album number two? Though we think it's great, and most likely Mr. Cope does too, this new one will no doubt cause some consternation among the less open minded of doom fanatics, as it's got a lot more going on that sheer sludge-ry. Not that Gran Poder wasn't an eccentric effort either, but this one's extremely so. Extremely eccentric, and eclectic, indeed.
The first track, "Con Sangre De Quien Te Ofenda" could easily be mistaken for a moody piece of instrumental avant-jazz, with that wide-open-desert-spaces feel of Hex-era Earth, baroquely adorned with a shuffling, dramatic drum solo and an almost-joyous improv-blowing session for trumpet and other horns. It actually brings back fond memories of the late great metallic math-rockers Engine Kid, the band that SUNNO))) member and Southern Lord label boss Greg Anderson used to play in back in the day, like when they would get jazzy like Iceburn and cover Coltrane... Minus the horns, that disjointed, free-jazz vibe continues on the second track, the nine-minute "Mesto, Rigido E Ceremoniale", though they heavy it up quite a bit. Imagine a slowed-down, fractured Black Flag instrumental, like something from The Process Of Weeding Out made more abstract, slower and heavier. Entering into the territory of defunct Dutch instro-metallers Gore here! With the third song, though, vocals finally enter the mix, weirdly distressed and wailing chant-like, and the riffing gets more intensely metallic, rigidly clawing through a miasma of chaotic, psychedelic, paranoid jamming. That one, "Solemne Triduo", makes us think of Om mixed with Los Natas at their strangest. And then, just when things are getting loudest and most insane, the album takes an abrupt shift into the quietly windswept, acoustically strummed "Amancer En Puerta Oscura" which flows immediately into the ominous "Puerta Osario", with stark repeated chords, and cruelly plinking piano keys. Though just two minutes minutes long, this is no brief detour like the piano interlude heard in the middle of Gran Poder, as it seamlessly segues into the sedated, suspenseful "Templos" that pulsates for 15 minutes in an darkened dreamworld of eerie clarinet, shimmering cymbals, slow-paced percussion, sparsely echoing bass, sheer moody atmosphere... It's a kind of creeping chamber music, that could be the score from some Italian horror soundtrack, or the sinister cousin to the epic tracks on Circle's mellow and mesmeric Miljard, mixed maybe with the 20th Century style stuff Ghost was experimenting with on their last album, In Stormy Nights.
The seventh and final track, "Parte II. Apogeum", then hits like a ton of bricks, massive doom-riff guitars smashing all before it, as if to say, you want ye olde DOOOOOOM? You got it! This song should shut up any complainers who didn't entirely get what was going on before, it's a doozy of a doom number all right, complete with even frenzied, metallic, acid-fried guitar soloing, and insanely effected alien Ozzy vocals. Closest comparisons would be to Thrones, and Yob and/or Middian, at their most claustrophobically crushing. It's like Orthodox wanted to wrap the album up with one song that in 7 minutes, 54 seconds would utterly satisfy anyone wanting Gran Poder Part II, for whom some of the more mystifying, weirdly proggy stuff elsewhere on this album could just be a bonus. Of course for us it's all good.
Recommended to all unorthodox doom lovers! Art and design by Seldon Hunt, by the way, and as long as we're dropping his name, here's some other names that we should have worked into the review somehow, as we think fans of the following might quite like this: Boris, Comets On Fire, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, Ennio Morricone, Dragonauta...
MPEG Stream: "Mesto, Rigido E Ceremoniale"
MPEG Stream: "Solemne Triduo"
MPEG Stream: "Templos"

ORTHODOX Baal (Alone Records) cd 18.98
At last!! It's been a while since we last caught up with entirely UN-orthodox Spanish dooooooooooom mongers Orthodox. Yeah, doom with so many o's that we're surprised they had any left for the 3 in their name. But also doom that takes a lot of strange twists and turns into the furthest far out zones of the genre.
This band's first two outstanding albums, Gran Poder and Amanecer En Puerta Oscura, were issued stateside by Southern Lord back in 2007. Now, six years later, we have the Spanish release of the their fourth opus, Baal. (Their third album, 2009's Sentencia was MIA at aQ, but maybe we'll be able to get some now that we tracked down an import supplier for this new one.) Billed as a return to their heavy doom Gran Poder roots, after the psychedelic, almost jazz-like experimentation of the last couple, this IS hellishly heavy, though still quite avant-garde, as well.
Lead off instrumental track "Alto Padre", despite its deep distorted low-end, is definitely more psych than doom, in fact... skittering percussive pitter-patter and chiming guitars conjure a hazy, mellow mood. It's a woozy ritual that could easily appeal to Six Organs Of Admittance fans, for instance. But then the band brings the doom hammer down, big time, on the next song, "Taurus", quite a surprise for some of us here who didn't know what we were listening to... Crushing, crashing chords and peals of feedback begin the jagged death march that continues over Baal's remaining four tracks. You don't listen to this for conventional "songishness", nor really even for riffs (though there are RIFFS), more for the totality of the experience of Orthodox's tectonic rumble and psychedelic sickness... It's a combo of lumbering sludge bulldozing, twisted gnarled leads, and alien, underwatery atmospheres. And vocals - with a weird, wavering effect on 'em, very much like OM meets YOB, intoning grim and desperate chant. With those vocals, one starts to think about the band inhaling from a balloon filled with, not helium, but some other, psychotropic gas... actually maybe not sucking on the balloon, but being sucked INTO it, the entire band inhabiting some impossible, drug-filled inner space. Which also sounds like it could be deep under the earth. Soon you'll be trapped there too, possessed by the churning metallic attacks, spacious drones, and proggy freakouts found throughout the demonic Baal...
The grande finale, 14 minute "Abrase Le Tierra" sums it up, explosions of distortion detonating over drum clatter and organ drone, then the guitarist goes offffff and it's a doomed out Earthless... before a wild, heavily effected finish. Imagine a mix of Yob, Gallhammer, Earth, and even Comets On Fire, here!
If the well-used terms psychedelic and heavy, which have been cited umpteen thousand times on this list alone, have any relevance to your listening habits, especially at their extremes, then we suggest you get this Orthodox album (and The Wounded Kings also this list, and the Elder reviewed last time, too, for that matter, if you haven't already), you'll be happy you did!
MPEG Stream: "Taurus "
MPEG Stream: "Iatromantis"
MPEG Stream: "Hani Ba'al"

ORTHODOX Baal (Alone Records) lp 29.00
At last!! It's been a while since we last caught up with entirely UN-orthodox Spanish dooooooooooom mongers Orthodox. Yeah, doom with so many o's that we're surprised they had any left for the 3 in their name. But also doom that takes a lot of strange twists and turns into the furthest far out zones of the genre.
This band's first two outstanding albums, Gran Poder and Amanecer En Puerta Oscura, were issued stateside by Southern Lord back in 2007. Now, six years later, we have the Spanish release of the their fourth opus, Baal. (Their third album, 2009's Sentencia was MIA at aQ, but maybe we'll be able to get some now that we tracked down an import supplier for this new one.) Billed as a return to their heavy doom Gran Poder roots, after the psychedelic, almost jazz-like experimentation of the last couple, this IS hellishly heavy, though still quite avant-garde, as well.
Lead off instrumental track "Alto Padre", despite its deep distorted low-end, is definitely more psych than doom, in fact... skittering percussive pitter-patter and chiming guitars conjure a hazy, mellow mood. It's a woozy ritual that could easily appeal to Six Organs Of Admittance fans, for instance. But then the band brings the doom hammer down, big time, on the next song, "Taurus", quite a surprise for some of us here who didn't know what we were listening to... Crushing, crashing chords and peals of feedback begin the jagged death march that continues over Baal's remaining four tracks. You don't listen to this for conventional "songishness", nor really even for riffs (though there are RIFFS), more for the totality of the experience of Orthodox's tectonic rumble and psychedelic sickness... It's a combo of lumbering sludge bulldozing, twisted gnarled leads, and alien, underwatery atmospheres. And vocals - with a weird, wavering effect on 'em, very much like OM meets YOB, intoning grim and desperate chant. With those vocals, one starts to think about the band inhaling from a balloon filled with, not helium, but some other, psychotropic gas... actually maybe not sucking on the balloon, but being sucked INTO it, the entire band inhabiting some impossible, drug-filled inner space. Which also sounds like it could be deep under the earth. Soon you'll be trapped there too, possessed by the churning metallic attacks, spacious drones, and proggy freakouts found throughout the demonic Baal...
The grande finale, 14 minute "Abrase Le Tierra" sums it up, explosions of distortion detonating over drum clatter and organ drone, then the guitarist goes offffff and it's a doomed out Earthless... before a wild, heavily effected finish. Imagine a mix of Yob, Gallhammer, Earth, and even Comets On Fire, here!
If the well-used terms psychedelic and heavy, which have been cited umpteen thousand times on this list alone, have any relevance to your listening habits, especially at their extremes, then we suggest you get this Orthodox album (and The Wounded Kings also this list, and the Elder reviewed last time, too, for that matter, if you haven't already), you'll be happy you did!
MPEG Stream: "Taurus "
MPEG Stream: "Iatromantis"
MPEG Stream: "Hani Ba'al"

ORTHODOX Gran Poder (Alone Records) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT -- ORDER THE SOUTHERN LORD EDITION THAT'S NOW AVAILABLE!
DOOM. As per AQ tradition, we should throw some extra 'O's in there just to indicate just how doomy this is -- DOOOOOOooooooooOOOM! Not to get sidetracked, but Doom might be the only musical genre that you can deliberately misspell to indicate extra enthusiasm for whatever example of said genre you're describing. RRRRap doesn't work. Nor would you say Woooorld Music. And adding extra 'o's to Pop is a just bad idea, unless you're talking about pop you don't like. But doom, being all about being slow and low, just gets doomier when you exaggerate the spelling into doooooooooooom. The point of all this? That the debut disc from Spanish doom band Orthodox, needs, like, exponential 'o's to really get at its doominess.
Recently and rightly hailed as an Album Of The Month on Julian Cope's psychedelic drone/doom/druid rock lovin' website Head Heritage, Orthodox's Gran Poder ("Great Power") consists of three looong tracks of gloomy, glacial heaviness mixed with more chaotically rockin' parts, with one brief piano-laced interlude seperating tracks two and three. These crushing compositions are almost symphonically grand, an often exceedingly slow grind of eternally doomed drone like Earth or SUNNO))), sometimes speeding up to rock out psychedelically in the style of Argentina's Los Natas, graced with heavily tremelo-laden vocals or utterly spaced out ambience that make us think of Thrones and Yob.
Throughout this sludgey stoner soundscape, you'll hear feedback wailing like lamenting lost souls, the rumbling drum battery either nervously dodging the lugubrous riffs as they fall from the sky, or pounding in unison with the guitar and bass, sounding like the gates of an abandoned ancient cavernous cathedral slamming shut... over and over again.
We imported a whole bunch of these direct from the label in Spain because we're pretty sure that fans of the likes of Corrupted (who also sing in Spanish, after all) and Yob and Sleep and UFOmammut and all the other extra-o's deservin' dooooooOOOOoom bands that we love would want this! And if for some reason you need further convincing, please look up Julian Cope's review on his site, where he references Flower Travellin' Band's Satori and the Mediterranean paganistic roots of Catholic ritual and "Rumble" by Link Wray and much much more, his incredibly enthusiastic review almost a call to arms for doom fanatics... and he also includes cool pictures of the black-robed band members he took on a trip to their land!
MPEG Stream: "Geryon's Throne [excerpt 1]"
MPEG Stream: "Geryon's Throne [excerpt 2]"
MPEG Stream: "El Lamento Del Cabron"

ORTHODOX Gran Poder (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
We listed the import of this last year, and now Southern Lord has put it out domestically -- with an exclusive added bonus track, for you slackers who didn't get it already...geeze! The bonus track is a cover of Venom's "Genocide", by the way!
DOOM. As per AQ tradition, we should throw some extra 'O's in there just to indicate just how doomy this is -- DOOOOOOooooooooOOOM! Not to get sidetracked, but Doom might be the only musical genre that you can deliberately misspell to indicate extra enthusiasm for whatever example of said genre you're describing. RRRRap doesn't work. Nor would you say Woooorld Music. And adding extra 'o's to Pop is a just bad idea, unless you're talking about pop you don't like. But doom, being all about being slow and low, just gets doomier when you exaggerate the spelling into doooooooooooom. The point of all this? That the debut disc from Spanish doom band Orthodox, needs, like, exponential 'o's to really get at its doominess.
Recently and rightly hailed as an Album Of The Month on Julian Cope's psychedelic drone/doom/druid rock lovin' website Head Heritage, Orthodox's Gran Poder ("Great Power") consists of three looong tracks of gloomy, glacial heaviness mixed with more chaotically rockin' parts, with one brief piano-laced interlude separating tracks two and three. These crushing compositions are almost symphonically grand, an often exceedingly slow grind of eternally doomed drone like Earth or SUNNO))), sometimes speeding up to rock out psychedelically in the style of Argentina's Los Natas, graced with heavily tremelo-laden vocals or utterly spaced out ambience that make us think of Thrones and Yob.
Throughout this sludgey stoner soundscape, you'll hear feedback wailing like lamenting lost souls, the rumbling drum battery either nervously dodging the lugubrious riffs as they fall from the sky, or pounding in unison with the guitar and bass, sounding like the gates of an abandoned ancient cavernous cathedral slamming shut... over and over again.
Before this Southern Lord version appeared, we had imported a whole bunch of these direct from the label in Spain because we were pretty sure that fans of the likes of Corrupted (who also sing in Spanish, after all) and Yob and Sleep and UFOmammut and all the other extra-o's deservin' dooooooOOOOoom bands that we love would want this! It seems we were correct. But if for some reason you need further convincing, please look up Julian Cope's review on his site, where he references Flower Travellin' Band's Satori and the Mediterranean paganistic roots of Catholic ritual and "Rumble" by Link Wray and much much more, his incredibly enthusiastic review almost a call to arms for doom fanatics... and he also includes cool pictures of the black-robed band members he took on a trip to their land!
MPEG Stream: "Geryon's Throne [excerpt 1]"
MPEG Stream: "Geryon's Throne [excerpt 2]"
MPEG Stream: "El Lamento Del Cabron"

ORTHODOX Gran Poder (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.
We originally stocked the import version of this massive slab of doom a while back, but recently sold a bunch of the domestic version on Southern Lord, who in addition to reissuing it, also tacked on an exclusive bonus track... a cover of Venom's "Genocide"! Well, now it's available on vinyl (a super swank 2lp housed in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve, pressed on cool red/brown swirled vinyl), and guess what? You got it, ANOTHER bonus track!! This time, a cover of Black Sabbath's "Black Sabbath"!! Holy crap! Essential for any of you out there who haven't picked this up yet, and quite possibly worth buying all over again for you doom freeks!!
DOOM. As per AQ tradition, we should throw some extra 'O's in there just to indicate just how doomy this is -- DOOOOOOooooooooOOOM! Not to get sidetracked, but Doom might be the only musical genre that you can deliberately misspell to indicate extra enthusiasm for whatever example of said genre you're describing. RRRRap doesn't work. Nor would you say Woooorld Music. And adding extra 'o's to Pop is a just bad idea, unless you're talking about pop you don't like. But doom, being all about being slow and low, just gets doomier when you exaggerate the spelling into doooooooooooom. The point of all this? That the debut disc from Spanish doom band Orthodox, needs, like, exponential 'o's to really get at its doominess.
Recently and rightly hailed as an Album Of The Month on Julian Cope's psychedelic drone/doom/druid rock lovin' website Head Heritage, Orthodox's Gran Poder ("Great Power") consists of ultra looong tracks of gloomy, glacial heaviness mixed with more chaotically rockin' parts, with one brief piano-laced interlude separating tracks two and three. These crushing compositions are almost symphonically grand, and often exceedingly slow grind of eternally doomed drone like Earth or SUNNO))), sometimes speeding up to rock out psychedelically in the style of Argentina's Los Natas, graced with heavily tremelo-laden vocals or utterly spaced out ambience that make us think of Thrones and Yob.
Throughout this sludgey stoner soundscape, you'll hear feedback wailing like lamenting lost souls, the rumbling drum battery either nervously dodging the lugubrious riffs as they fall from the sky, or pounding in unison with the guitar and bass, sounding like the gates of an abandoned ancient cavernous cathedral slamming shut... over and over again.
Before these Southern Lord versions appeared, we had imported a whole bunch of these direct from the label in Spain because we were pretty sure that fans of the likes of Corrupted (who also sing in Spanish, after all) and Yob and Sleep and UFOmammut and all the other extra-o's deservin' dooooooOOOOoom bands that we love would want this! It seems we were correct. But if for some reason you need further convincing, please look up Julian Cope's review on his site, where he references Flower Travellin' Band's Satori and the Mediterranean paganistic roots of Catholic ritual and "Rumble" by Link Wray and much much more, his incredibly enthusiastic review almost a call to arms for doom fanatics... and he also includes cool pictures of the black-robed band members he took on a trip to their land!
MPEG Stream: "Geryon's Throne [excerpt 1]"
MPEG Stream: "Geryon's Throne [excerpt 2]"
MPEG Stream: "El Lamento Del Cabron"

ORTHRELM Iorxhscimtor (Tolotta) cd ep 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ok, we were wrong back on AQ-L 117 when we said that former Crom Tech guitarist Mick Barr's Octis project was "the polar opposite" of his other band, Orthrelm. For some reason we had gotten the idea that while Octis specializes in short, fast, squiggly guitar mayhem (over drum machine backing), Orthrelm was some sort of droney, doomy thing with super-long songs. Nope. Not at all. Now that Tolotta has released this 16 minute long, 12 track Orthrelm cd debut, we can't figure out what the distinction between Mick's two projects really is supposed to be (except that Orthrelm boasts an actual human drummer, Josh Blair). Mick's modus operandi is the same here: trebly, twisted guitar soloing over rapid-fire drum beats. A metallic fretboard frenzy. Spastic, spiraling, skronky stuff that's almost silly. These twelve tracks sound like segments of one sixteen minute long "song", with pauses for breath every minute or two. Just as insane as Octis, and thus pretty cool if you're into such stuff, kind of like a cross between Lightning Bolt and Necrophagist or something -- but we'd still like to hear the Orthrelm we'd imagined. (Can anyone clue us into the source of our misconception? Like, does Mr. Barr have yet another band, one that's slow and epic?)
RealAudio clip: "track 2"
RealAudio clip: "track 7"

ORTHRELM Ov (Ipecac) cd 15.98
Orthrelm spells...? Not relief from headache, that's for sure! Notorious guitarist Mick Barr (ex-Crom Tech, and of Octis and Flying Luttenbachers infamy also) and drummer Josh Blair continue their assault on musical sanity with Ov, newly released by Mike Patton's envelope-pushing Ipecac label. Ov leaves the envelope pretty much pushed beyond what most people can take -- it will be quite the endurance test for some, but pure bliss for a select few. By the end of this review you should know who you are if you don't already (owning other records involving Barr is one clue).
Way back when we reviewed Orthrelm's debut ep Iorxhscimtor, we admitted that we'd been under the mistaken impression that Orthrelm was supposed to be "some sort of droney, doomy thing with super-long songs". It wasn't... but now it is. Sort of. Unlike previous Orthrelm releases (and Barr's other project Octis), Ov isn't about a million trebly tracks of stop-start skronk. No, here the duo's frenetic drumming and insidious ADD guitar squiggle are harnessed into a single, 45 minute long track of intense, almost metallic, repetitive minimalism. A high-pitched, note-dense, trance-inducing (maybe seizures too?), insectoid symphony that slowly shifts gears and builds tension but offers little respite or resolution until its 45 minutes are up or your ears/speakers/the disc iself shatters from the stress. Yet, if you can take it, Ov's continuous rumble of drums and precision frenzies of tinny guitar shred also create a thing of static, maddening beauty. I think...or maybe I've lost it. Am I crazy when I think that some of the feedbackier parts remind me of moments of the Boredoms' Super Ae? Or that this is not entirely unlike something that Boris or SUNNO))) would do... but with a million times more emphasis on the high end, and the notion of motion on the micro if not macro level??
MPEG Stream: "Ov [excerpt 1]"
MPEG Stream: "Ov [excerpt 2]"

ORTHRELM / TOUCHDOWN split (Troubleman Unlimited) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Look out, here's a split release from two off-the-hook instrumental rock duos, Orthrelm and Touchdown. Both bands tend to get described with ridiculous hyper-hyphenated terms like avant-thrash-free-jazz-math-rock.
New Jersey's Orthrelm -- spasmo guitarist extraordinaire Mick Barr (Octis, Quix*o*tic, ex-Crom Tech) and human drum machine Josh Blair -- contribute four tracks of gnarly, twisted stuff with maddeningly fast and convoluted squeaky guitar and hectic stop-start drums, but perhaps more in the way of actual song-structure than on previous outings. Now, probably either you're already an Orthrelm fan (or you can't stand 'em), but this is a fine example of their art for newcomers and fans alike.
Touchdown, from nearby Brooklyn, are a two-piece a la Orthrelm, but with bass instead of guitar. Their nine songs here represent their recorded debut. They do sound a lot like what you'll hear earlier in the disc from Orthrelm, but with the high-end guitar replaced by equally busy low-end bass (which makes 'em sound a bit Ruins-like). Short-attention-span post-hardcore madness to massage your brain and bother your housemates. If this split was a contest, I'd have to award the prize to Orthrelm, for their more metallic, more manic, totally fucked attack, but that's just me. Do you like insects buzzing in your ear?
RealAudio clip: ORTHRELM "track two"
RealAudio clip: TOUCHDOWN "Low Pressure Storm System"

OS The Living (Sygil) cassette + bones + coffin box 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We have only 4 copies of this, a super limited cassette tape release from weirdo abstract blackened doomscapers OS, whose Twelve Truths lp we raved about a while back. Besides being another sick slab of crusty creepy crawly black filth, the packaging is to die for, small, black-painted wooden coffins, each with a brass plaque affixed to the front, and each of course NAILED SHUT, inside is the tape, and a handful of tiny BONES! Pretty awesome. And CRAZY limited. Already out of print. We managed to get a mere FOUR copies from the band, and will not be able to get more. So if you're in the market for some howling, atonal, sludge-y blackened doom sprawl and lumbering chaotic caterwauling abject detuned black ambient heaviness, or even if you just want a killer coffin-cloaked bone-surrounded blackdoom cassette, well better act fast, cuz odds are these will be gone in no time...

OS Twelve Truths (self-released) lp 11.98
We know very little about these guys, where they're from, who they are, in fact, even the front cover / logo is so abstract it took us a while before we even figured out they were called OS, which makes this all the more appealing, a mysterious murky slab of blackened doomic filth, pounding and ominous and harsh and downtuned and hellish, these guys traffic in a sound not that far removed from the black doom of aQ faves like Amort, Monument Of Urns, and Light, but with a definite nod to classic crusty doom of the past, not to mention a sound that also seems informed by modern dronescapers and noisemakers like Gnaw Their Tongues, Pussygutt and the like.
Two epic sidelong tracks, the guitar unfurling huge slabs of rumbling grinding crunch, the drums a funereal plod, the vocals anguished and unhinged. The first side spends half its time plodding along doomily, fans of Monarch, Moss, and other monumental slowpokes will dig it big time, but gradually the sound gets more and more melodic, until the band shift gears completely, and spread out into a strangely pretty dirge, all clean guitars, over still pounding drums, and a backdrop of hellish wails and buzzing static drones, before finishing off in a tangle of slow motion mathiness.
The flipside starts off similarly, a massive sprawling creep, but laced with some gorgeous melodies, the guitars ringing out, the distortion crumbling, almost more slowcore than doom, but still heavy heavy heavy, the vocals even more harsh and demonic sounding than before, the track is epic, and lumbers monstrously, building to another strange crescendo, the sound growing warm and more dense and strangely melodic, without ever shedding any of its doom or sludge.
Fucking epic stuff, crushing droned out heaviness, that will definitely appeal to doomlords and dronelords alike, way recommended for anyone into Khanate, Wicked King Wicker, Habsyll, Thou, Fleshpress, Atavist, and of course Moss, Monarch and all the above mentioned heavies.
Killer packaging, super abstract skeletal / logo cover, folded over to make a partial back cover, printed insert, each one hand numbered, LIMITED TO 400.

OSBOURNE, OZZY Blizzard Of Ozz (Epic) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the same spirit as listing My Bloody Valentine's 'Loveless' a few lists past, it occurred to us that like 'Loveless' there are probably some of you who don't own 'Blizzard Of Ozz.' Or perhaps some of you probably had it when you were 15, but haven't thought about it in years or bothered to pull out that dirty old cassette and throw it on. And if you're anything like us, you've become mildly obsessed with MTV's 'The Osbournes', and you've been getting a good laugh at doddering, senile old Ozzy, who is perplexed by the TV remote control, his dogs that shit all over the house, his truly bizarre children, and who occasionally loses control and throws a log through his neighbors' windows. The show is so popular, the BBC reported that President Bush is a fan and has asked Ozzy to have dinner with him at the White House. Never thought I'd see the day. (Neither did Ozzy, who said "I thought I'd be on a wanted poster on the wall, not invited to his place to tea.") And if I did see the day, I imagined it with a much hipper president. But with all this media hype, it's easy to forget that Ozzy (in Black Sabbath and solo) is responsible for some of the best heavy metal ever! The first two Ozzy records ('Blizzard Of Ozz' and 'Diary Of A Madman') are total classics, ultra heavy and completely kick ass, with some of the best riffs ever comitted to tape, as well as some ridiculously catchy songs (it's strange to look back now and realise how much poppier Ozzy was than we remember, closer to Van Halen than Slayer). And since these were both re-released (remastered with bonus tracks and extra photos/liner notes) they technically -are- new releases. And since some of you may have missed the boat (even Windy, who's always loved 'Crazy Train' yet never knew it was Ozzy) we figured what the hell. And while both are great, we figured we would focus on 'Blizzard Of Ozz' since it is the best place to start for the uninitiated ('Diary Of A Madman' is a little weirder and a little heavier) and since it holds a special place in Byram's heart, who has the following to say about it:
"I would certainly never claim to be an expert on metal and my eyes fairly glaze over shortly after Andee and Allan begin one of their 'which album by _____ (random metal band) is the best' arguments. Having identified with punk rock in my formative years (though my appearance and actions made me look more like an effete and dorky new-waver at best), I was scared of the big hairy guys who I associated with metal in high school. But long before all that nonsense of cliques and fitting in, I used to ride around the suburbs on my BMX bike and listen to music regardless of its association to a particular fan demographic. With my walkman strapped on, "Blizzard of Ozz" was my soundtrack while I made my rounds checking the pay phones and newspaper machines for change. And I'm certain that I wasn't the only young suburbanite who wandered the streets plugged into Ozzy. As his first solo album away from Black Sabbath, the million-plus-selling "Blizzard of Ozz" demonstrated that Ozzy had a broader appeal than his earlier efforts with the group had. Over 20 years later, after people get over their ironic chuckling, this album still holds its ground. Those of you who've now lost or worn out your old cassettes and those of you who never gave the post-Sabbath Ozzy a chance should pick this 24-bit remastered and low priced classic up immediately!"
Also, if you were disappointed by the totally pointless / throwaway bonus tracks on the recent Judas Priest reissues (and let's be honest, 90 percent of bonus tracks on *all* reissues), you won't be here. The bonus track, 'You Lookin' At Me Lookin' At You,' is more kick ass-catchy metal and seems like it would have fit perfectly on the original album. A total timeless classic, for metalheads and non-metalheads alike.
RealAudio clip: "Crazy Train"
RealAudio clip: "I Don't Know"
RealAudio clip: "Mr. Crowley"
RealAudio clip: "Suicide Solution"
RealAudio clip: "No Bone Movies"

OSBOURNE, OZZY Blizzard Of Ozz (Epic / Legacy) cd 13.98
Remember, that's right, we made an earlier reissue of this a Record Of The Week way back on list #134! And deservedly so, it's one of the greatest heavy metal albums ever, the 1980 solo debut from the former Sabbath singer, quite a comeback in his career. Teamed up with the ill fated guitar whiz Randy Rhoads, Ozzy waxed a total timeless classic, for metalheads and non-metalheads alike.
What we didn't realized when we ROTW'd this back then, was that that 2002 reissue edition had been tampered with - the bass and drum parts had been totally re-recorded!! Weird. And wack. Apparently due to some sort of monetary dispute with the original rhythm section of bassist Bob Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake, Ozzy (or rather, his wife/manager Sharon Osbourne) elected to have his then current bassist and drummer (ex-members of Suicidal Tendencies and Faith No More, respectively) redo the rhythm tracks, which seems kinda fucked up, right? We learned of that later, and mentioned it in our subsequent review of the reissue of Ozzy's 2nd album, Diary Of A Madman, which also had been purged of Daisley and Kerslake's contributions.
Well, thankfully, now they've (of course) finally re-reissued these, with the original rhythm tracks restored! Presumably all parties have buried the hatchet, or perhaps Ozzy & Sharon just decided to do the right thing, we don't know. From reading Ozzy's recent autobiography, I Am Ozzy, which is highly recommended by the way, we get the idea that he was a bit embarrassed / ashamed about the whole affair. Or maybe it was all a ploy to get us to buy these several times (though they've also added a couple extra bonus tracks to Blizzard, and the new cd reissue of Diary Of A Madman, also in stock, comes with an entire bonus live disc!).
Here's some of what we wrote about Blizzard back when we first listed it...
In the same spirit as listing My Bloody Valentine's Loveless a few lists past, it occurred to us that like Loveless there are probably some of you who don't own Blizzard Of Ozz. Or perhaps some of you probably had it when you were 15, but haven't thought about it in years or bothered to pull out that dirty old cassette and throw it on. And if you're anything like us, you've become mildly obsessed with MTV's The Osbournes, and you've been getting a good laugh at doddering, senile old Ozzy, who is perplexed by the TV remote control, his dogs that shit all over the house, his truly bizarre children, and who occasionally loses control and throws a log through his neighbors' windows. The show is so popular, the BBC reported that President Bush is a fan and has asked Ozzy to have dinner with him at the White House. Never thought I'd see the day. (Neither did Ozzy, who said "I thought I'd be on a wanted poster on the wall, not invited to his place to tea.") And if I did see the day, I imagined it with a much hipper president. But with all this media hype, it's easy to forget that Ozzy (in Black Sabbath and solo) is responsible for some of the best heavy metal ever! The first two Ozzy records (Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman) are total classics, melodic, heavy and completely kick ass, with some of the best riffs ever committed to tape, as well as some ridiculously catchy songs (it's strange to look back now and realize how much poppier Ozzy was than we remember, closer to Van Halen than Slayer)... While both are great, we figured we would focus first on Blizzard Of Ozz as probably the best place to start for the uninitiated and since it holds a special place in [former AQ staffer] Byram's heart, who had the following to say about it:
"I would certainly never claim to be an expert on metal and my eyes fairly glaze over shortly after Andee and Allan begin one of their 'which album by _____ (random metal band) is the best' arguments. Having identified with punk rock in my formative years (though my appearance and actions made me look more like an effete and dorky new-waver at best), I was scared of the big hairy guys who I associated with metal in high school. But long before all that nonsense of cliques and fitting in, I used to ride around the suburbs on my BMX bike and listen to music regardless of its association to a particular fan demographic. With my Walkman strapped on, "Blizzard of Ozz" was my soundtrack while I made my rounds checking the pay phones and newspaper machines for change. And I'm certain that I wasn't the only young suburbanite who wandered the streets plugged into Ozzy. As his first solo album away from Black Sabbath, the million-plus-selling Blizzard of Ozz demonstrated that Ozzy had a broader appeal than his earlier efforts with the group had. Over 20 years later, after people get over their ironic chuckling, this album still holds its ground. Those of you who've now lost or worn out your old cassettes and those of you who never gave the post-Sabbath Ozzy a chance should pick this 24-bit remastered and low priced classic up immediately!"
As mentioned, the cd has not one, but 3 bonus tracks (B side "You Lookin' At Me Lookin' At You", which was included on the previous reissue, and is both poppy and kick ass enough to have fit perfectly on the original album, plus there's a 2010 guitar and vocal mix of "Goodbye To Romance", and the brief "RR").
And, this is also now available on the vinyl format, picture disc in fact!! No bonus tracks there. But of course way cool.
MPEG Stream: "Goodbye To Romance"
MPEG Stream: "Mr. Crowley"

OSBOURNE, OZZY Blizzard Of Ozz (Epic) picture disc lp 23.00
Remember, that's right, we made an earlier reissue of this a Record Of The Week way back on list #134! And deservedly so, it's one of the greatest heavy metal albums ever, the 1980 solo debut from the former Sabbath singer, quite a comeback in his career. Teamed up with the ill fated guitar whiz Randy Rhoads, Ozzy waxed a total timeless classic, for metalheads and non-metalheads alike.
What we didn't realized when we ROTW'd this back then, was that that 2002 reissue edition had been tampered with - the bass and drum parts had been totally re-recorded!! Weird. And wack. Apparently due to some sort of monetary dispute with the original rhythm section of bassist Bob Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake, Ozzy (or rather, his wife/manager Sharon Osbourne) elected to have his then current bassist and drummer (ex-members of Suicidal Tendencies and Faith No More, respectively) redo the rhythm tracks, which seems kinda fucked up, right? We learned of that later, and mentioned it in our subsequent review of the reissue of Ozzy's 2nd album, Diary Of A Madman, which also had been purged of Daisley and Kerslake's contributions.
Well, thankfully, now they've (of course) finally re-reissued these, with the original rhythm tracks restored! Presumably all parties have buried the hatchet, or perhaps Ozzy & Sharon just decided to do the right thing, we don't know. From reading Ozzy's recent autobiography, I Am Ozzy, which is highly recommended by the way, we get the idea that he was a bit embarrassed / ashamed about the whole affair. Or maybe it was all a ploy to get us to buy these several times (though they've also added a couple extra bonus tracks to Blizzard, and the new cd reissue of Diary Of A Madman, also in stock, comes with an entire bonus live disc!).
Here's some of what we wrote about Blizzard back when we first listed it...
In the same spirit as listing My Bloody Valentine's Loveless a few lists past, it occurred to us that like Loveless there are probably some of you who don't own Blizzard Of Ozz. Or perhaps some of you probably had it when you were 15, but haven't thought about it in years or bothered to pull out that dirty old cassette and throw it on. And if you're anything like us, you've become mildly obsessed with MTV's The Osbournes, and you've been getting a good laugh at doddering, senile old Ozzy, who is perplexed by the TV remote control, his dogs that shit all over the house, his truly bizarre children, and who occasionally loses control and throws a log through his neighbors' windows. The show is so popular, the BBC reported that President Bush is a fan and has asked Ozzy to have dinner with him at the White House. Never thought I'd see the day. (Neither did Ozzy, who said "I thought I'd be on a wanted poster on the wall, not invited to his place to tea.") And if I did see the day, I imagined it with a much hipper president. But with all this media hype, it's easy to forget that Ozzy (in Black Sabbath and solo) is responsible for some of the best heavy metal ever! The first two Ozzy records (Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman) are total classics, melodic, heavy and completely kick ass, with some of the best riffs ever committed to tape, as well as some ridiculously catchy songs (it's strange to look back now and realize how much poppier Ozzy was than we remember, closer to Van Halen than Slayer)... While both are great, we figured we would focus first on Blizzard Of Ozz as probably the best place to start for the uninitiated and since it holds a special place in [former AQ staffer] Byram's heart, who had the following to say about it:
"I would certainly never claim to be an expert on metal and my eyes fairly glaze over shortly after Andee and Allan begin one of their 'which album by _____ (random metal band) is the best' arguments. Having identified with punk rock in my formative years (though my appearance and actions made me look more like an effete and dorky new-waver at best), I was scared of the big hairy guys who I associated with metal in high school. But long before all that nonsense of cliques and fitting in, I used to ride around the suburbs on my BMX bike and listen to music regardless of its association to a particular fan demographic. With my Walkman strapped on, "Blizzard of Ozz" was my soundtrack while I made my rounds checking the pay phones and newspaper machines for change. And I'm certain that I wasn't the only young suburbanite who wandered the streets plugged into Ozzy. As his first solo album away from Black Sabbath, the million-plus-selling Blizzard of Ozz demonstrated that Ozzy had a broader appeal than his earlier efforts with the group had. Over 20 years later, after people get over their ironic chuckling, this album still holds its ground. Those of you who've now lost or worn out your old cassettes and those of you who never gave the post-Sabbath Ozzy a chance should pick this 24-bit remastered and low priced classic up immediately!"
As mentioned, the cd has not one, but 3 bonus tracks (B side "You Lookin' At Me Lookin' At You", which was included on the previous reissue, and is both poppy and kick ass enough to have fit perfectly on the original album, plus there's a 2010 guitar and vocal mix of "Goodbye To Romance", and the brief "RR").
And, this is also now available on the vinyl format, picture disc in fact!! No bonus tracks there. But of course way cool.
MPEG Stream: "Goodbye To Romance"
MPEG Stream: "Mr. Crowley"

OSBOURNE, OZZY Diary of a Madman (Epic / Sony) cd 12.98
One bizarre fact that we overlooked in our review of the reissue of Ozzy Osbourne's "Blizzard of Ozz": the bass and drum parts have been totally re-recorded!! Weird. Apparently due to some sort of monetary dispute with the original rhythm section of bassist Bob Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake, Ozzy elected to have his current bassist and drummer (ex-members of Suicidal Tendencies and Faith No More, respectively) redo the rhythm tracks, which seems kinda fucked up, in theory. While most of us couldn't tell the difference, a couple AQ customers were adamant that the differences were extreme, night and day. Whatever. If you don't have these, it's either beat up old copies from the thrift store, or these shiny new aluminum versions. Regardless, 'Diary Of A Madman' is just as much of a classic as 'Blizzard Of Ozz'. With some of Ozzy's greatest tunes: 'Over The Mountain', 'Flying High Again', 'You Can't Kill Rock And Roll' and a bunch more. The bonus track here isn't nearly as crucial as the unreleased gem on 'Blizzard Of Ozz' but fans will be pleased nonetheless with the live version of "I Don't Know" featuring Randy Rhoads. Extra liner notes and photos, but if you don't have this, what the hell is wrong with you?! A little weirder and a little heavier than 'Blizzard Of Ozz' maybe, but still kick ass metallic rock and roll, and better than most anything else released in the last 20 years!
RealAudio clip: "Over The Mountain"
RealAudio clip: "Flying High Again"
RealAudio clip: "Diary Of A Madman"
RealAudio clip: "You Can't Kill Rock And Roll"

OSBOURNE, OZZY Down To Earth (Epic) cd 16.98
A new Ozzy record! His first in quite a few years. And we have to say, it's not all that bad. The sound is a lot heavier, due in no small part to the return of Zakk Wylde (which is also why a lot of the songs sound quite a bit like Wylde's Black Label Society) and the Ozzfest nu-metal connection. But Ozzy's nasally whine is in fine form and some of the songs are even kinda catchy. Comes with a bonus video for your computer that features a synopsized history of Sabbath/Ozzy and some of the only footage of Ozzy with former guitarist Randy Rhodes, who died in a plane crash.

OSBOURNE, OZZY Prince Of Darkness (Epic) 4cd boxset 42.00

OSI Free (InsideOut Music) cd 17.98

OSKOREIEN s/t (Pest Productions) cd 9.98
We were first turned on to this, the debut full length from one man black metal band Oskoreien, by another one man black metal band, Botanist, who was quick to proclaim this his new favorite black metal record. The awesome metal blog Invisible Oranges also included this in their year end picks, and once you hear it you'll immediately understand why. It literally took us maybe 90 seconds of the opening track to be just as smitten as everybody else. The cover is definitely misleading, an image of a figure, walking through a sun dappled glade, and no, not a dark forest, a gorgeous warm, verdant landscape, which had us imaging this to be some sort of shoegazey blackened post metal pop, a la Amesoeurs or Alcest. And while there are definitely some shoegazey elements, the sound of Oskoreien is much more black and buzzy, the sound thick, and distorted and blown out, but warm and layered and lush, super melodic too, but without losing any of its power or its black energy.
Opener "Illusions Perish" begins with the sounds of crickets, and footsteps, beneath soaring keening minor key guitars, hazy and darkly lovely, we would have been way into this if it had gone on like that for ages, but a little burst of feedback signals the launch of the song proper, an avalanche of blasting drums, and crumbling super distorted riffage, howled vox, and soaring melancholic melodies, we can imagine people lumping Oskoreien in with Wolves In The Throne Room, which to a certain degree would be somewhat appropriate, but the sound of Oskoreien is something much more raw and melodic, dense and darkly melancholic, with some amazing not traditionally black metal guitar parts - whether it's dark atonal tangles, or soaring almost choral sounding high end, the song slipping from dirge-y lumber to transcendental slow build epic and back again, the sound laced with psychedelic shimmer, and a vibe that to these ears owes more to post rock than black metal. The vocals too, odd even by experimental black metal standards, slipping easily from a more traditional raspy demonic howl to a deep throaty dramatic croon, that comes super close to a slightly less over the top Urfaust, which is most definitely a very good thing.
The record is super varied too, slipping easily from furious blast, to moody meander, the sound too drifting effortlessly from dense, black and brutal, to hushed and shimmery, peppered with gorgeous stretches of near Appalachian sounding clean guitars, as well as soaring streaks of softly psychedelic buzz, often the two combined to great effect, and for all the buzzing blackness and soaring epic heaviness, much of the record is in fact spent much more sonically contemplative, whether it's the dark forest folk of "Rivers Of Eternity", or the gorgeous solo piano coda that is "Ashen Remains", elements of both showing up within the more metal tracks throughout the record, Oskoreien is a master of mood, infusing the sprawling expanses of majestic metallic fury with a mournfully moody undercurrent, while transforming the more abstract movements into something much more ominous, and fusing the two into a single epic, ultra personal blackened songsuite, that is fast becoming one of our favorites too!
MPEG Stream: "Illusions Perish"
MPEG Stream: "Entropic Collapse"
MPEG Stream: "Transcendence"

OSTROGOTH Ecstacy And Danger / Full Moon's Eyes (Mausoleum) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Talkin' to the real metal fans here: We list a fair number of rare '70s proto-metal reissues... and then there's all the cult black metal demos from just a few years ago that get reissued on cd... but we haven't really provided all you AQ list/website readers with as much in the way of obscure reissues from metal's glory years in '80s, have we? Well not as many as we think you should hear, anyway. So let's not let this Ostrogoth cd slip past without making mention of it. After all, Allan's been listening to this non-stop for some weeks now, ever since we first got a copy.
Ostrogoth were a Belgian band playing Iron Maiden/NWOBHM inspired metal that's fairly hard and heavy for the era but also quite melodic and memorable. Ostrogoth's got dramatic but not screechy vocals (that remind us a bit of the guy from Omen), classy riffing, lots of headbanging energy, twin guitar leads galore... all the epic sweep and galloping power you could want! Killer old school true metal. Just check out the gothic logo (and literally gothic name), the extraneous lightning bolt, the cool metallic scorpion/hand grenade on black background cover art, the Ecstasy and Danger title -- they live up to all of that! We're impressed, especially considering we'd never really even heard of them before getting this reissue. Just goes to show that amid all the also-ran metal bands of the '80s, there were definitely a few that should have been better known, and this is one of those forgotten classics. Definitely the real deal, waaaay better than so much of the pretend '80s Euro "power metal" that makes the rounds today.
This disc contains their first ep, 1983's Full Moon's Eyes, and their 1984 debut full-length album Ecstasy And Danger, plus a bonus track, 13 cuts in all, with titles like "Scream Out", "Rock Fever", "Paris By Night", "Stormbringer", and "A Bitch Again" amongst others. It's nicely done reissue with liner notes and photos (that reveal Ostrogoth to be a kinda funny, nerdy looking band). You'll learn that one of their guitarists was a professor of Egyptology. His nickname was "Sphinx" of course. The other goofy nicknames possessed by the band members were "White Shark" (also on guitar), "Red Star" (vocals), "Bronco" (bass), and "Grizzly" (drums). Plus, the original cover art to both releases is provided, on the front and back covers of the cd booklet, so you can choose between 'em, always a nice touch with "two-on-one" cd reissues.
MPEG Stream: "Ecstasy And Danger"
MPEG Stream: "Heroes' Museum"

OSTROGOTH Feelings Of Fury / Too Hot (Mausoleum) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
On one cd, the 3rd and 4th albums from this underrated '80s Belgian heavy metal act. Get Esctasy and Danger first, then this.

OTARGOS No God, No Satan (Season Of Mist) cd 14.98
We've gone on and on in the past about how much we love French black metal, a list of our French faves should definitely speak volumes: Deathspell Omega, Spektr, Peste Noire, Mutiilation, Alcest, Aurvandil, Arrival Of Satan, Blut Aus Nord, Hell Militia, Diamatregon, S.V.E.S.T., Wolok, you get the picture, so how the hell did we miss out on these guys? With a seriously killer sound that falls somewhere right between classic Norwegian style blackness, and modern French Industrial black a la Spektr and Blut Aus Nord, as well as creepy album covers, bad ass song titles ("Hoax-Virus-God", "Cloning The Divine", "The Hulk Of Conviction And Faith") not to mention their awesomely and blasphemously titled debut Fuck God-Disease Process, anyway, better late than never, thanks to the suggestion of an aQ customer, we can now revel in the glorious black filth of these agents of Satan (although lyrically, they are equally concerned with quantum physics!) and glorious it is.
After a creeped out, seriously grim almost industrial intro, all black noise, and looped riffs beneath harsh hateful vox, the band launch into the record proper, a brief bit of mechanical blast, and then into a strangely psychedelic stop start thing, before exploding into frenzied furious blackness, that never lets up, until the sound shifts into a doomy lumber complete with classic metal sounding leads, and some surprising melodies. The follow up is a black industrial blow out, with some of the fiercest vokills ever, and woozy detuned guitars, a lurching warped midtempo lead in, to yet another stretch of blurred black buzz.
The record is a relentless onslaught of gnarled Deathspell like riffage, tangled almost psychedelic leads, mysterious samples, buzzing black drones, martial percussion, strange field recordings, some seriously awesome angular warped guitar crunch, super dense flurries of frenzied blastbeats, spaced out atmospheric droning doom, grinding industrial black fury, and lots of abstract black sonic weirdness woven in.
Needless to say, we're doing our best to make up for missing out on these guys the first time around, by listening to this pretty much nonstop. A contender for black metal record of the year quite possibly, and thus obviously recommended to anyone who likes their black metal grim and mechanical, fucked up and furious, frantic and FRENCH!
Alos includes a short film / music video!
MPEG Stream: "Cloning The Divine"
MPEG Stream: "Worship Industrialized"
MPEG Stream: "Hexameron"

OTESANEK Final (Nancy Jo / Reification of Misery) 12" 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Final recordings from these East Coast, ultra doom sludgelords, and holy shit do these two tracks utterly destroy. We never managed to review their only full length, from back in 2004, but we raved about their more recent splits, one with Japanese heavies Coffins, and more recently, the Four Burials comp with fellow doom brethren Loss, Orthodox and Mournful Congregation. In fact, these two tracks here are from the same sessions that produced their Four Burials track. And like was said, these songs are massive, epic, sprawling, intense, and so so heavy.
It kills us these guys are no more. The first side/song is ultra heavy, sloooooooow, crushing heaviness, with some insanely gurgly vokills, somehow it manages to be surprisingly melodic at the same time, the guitars ringing out, spacious and measured, eventually slipping into something more slowcore, sounding a bit like Khanate covering Codeine, but infused with plenty of classic doom melodies and grooves, a strange combo, but it works so well.
The second side/track begins with a wall of feedback and then a wild tangle of gnarled psychedelic guitars and spazzed out drum-age, before smoothing out into a doomy crawl. But throughout the next few minutes, the track continually erupts into super dense bursts of chug and churn, every time sounding like the start of a more frenzied jam, but always settling back into that slow motion lumber. The second half of the track gets super minimal, almost mellow, the guitars warm and low, laced with strange clicks and distant tones, all spaced out and spare, eventually building back up to a caustic corrosive crawl, the vocals even more sick and inhuman sounding. So goddamn good.
One of these cats is now in Serpent Throne, but here's hoping the rest of Otesanek start up something this heavy and intense. Too bad this is the end. But what a way to go.
The packaging is amazing as well. Super thick cardstock sleeves, screenprinted with super intense woodcut, fold out the lp to see the whole image of an impaled woman, her hair a tangle of foliage, the hilts of the swords super dense and intricate, inside liner notes and lyrics, also woodcut style. And included are a couple printed inserts. SUPER LIMITED of course, not sure we can get more when we run out.

OTESANEK / LOSS / ORTHODOX / MOURNFUL CONGREGATION Four Burials (Battle Kommand) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Somehow managed to score another 8 or 10 copies!
The good news, is that this disc will be absolute heaven (or hell if you prefer) for the doom obsessed, for those who NEED utter and extreme heaviness, who thrive on massive walls of sludge, of creeping crumbling downtuned riffage, of skull splitting rib cage rattling drum pound. And the fact that this disc contains exclusive tracks from four of THEE heaviest and THEE doomiest bands around. The bad news though, is that somehow, this disc is already sold out at the label, so this could very well be the last we see of Four Burials. We did get a bunch of these, but since so many of the aQ faithful are of the doomier persuasion, odds are these will disappear in no time.
So most doomlords will see the above names and that's all it'll take, four exclusive tracks, LONG ones, from Loss, Orthodox, Mournful Congregation and Otesanek. For avid readers of the aQ list, you too are probably familiar with 2 or 3 of those. But just in case, we'll give a quick rundown of the bands / tracks that make up the Four Burials here...
Otesanek is up first. Last heard from splitting a disc with Japan's Coffins. They are definitely doomy, obviously, but might also be the heaviest of the bunch, a sort of Eyehategod meets Moss thing going on, and one of the few bands this slooooooow, to also fuck things up big time. Super strange arrangements, ultra dynamic, lots of weird starts and stops, angular riffs, crazy vocals (both male and female, both super intense and harsh). Definitely for fans of Khanate and Bunkur and all that sort of ultradoomdirge, but weirder and more fucked up. Definitely dying to hear more from these guys.
Next up is Loss, whose approach to doom is much more classic and melodic, beginning with some unnerving samples, woven into a spare doomy plod, the band slip into some seriously melodic post rock, all clean guitar and sparse drumming, eventually morphing into a sound majestic and massive, a bit like old My Dying Bride, impossibly loooow vocals, super mournful melodies, very dramatic and miserable. The song weaves back and forth between that classic doom-ic crush and the melancholy loping post rock, eventually somehow fusing the two.
Then comes longtime faves Orthodox, from Spain, whose sound, especially here, is way more spacious and spare, very minimal. with long stretches that are practically inaudible over the daily din of the store (this is headphone doom for sure!). Chanting, monk-like and somber, clean guitars drifting and shimmering, simple stripped down drumming, some wailing dramatic vocals, the sound an abstract mysterious slowcore that seems to get more and more strangely psychedelic, without ever getting overtly heavy. Really strange, but fans of Orthodox will already be well used to their, umm... un-Orthodox approach to all things doom.
Last up, legendary purveyors of true doom, Australia's Mournful Congregation, whose sound is sad and sorrowful, melancholy and miserable, a gorgeously epic lugubrious crawl, super melodic, but totally washed out and painted in sweeping shades of black and grey. Think Skepticism, Thergothon, Esoteric, Asunder, the sort of dark, slow motion, soul stirring creep we could listen to forever.
MPEG Stream: OTESANEK "Seven Are They"
MPEG Stream: LOSS "(To Pass Away) Death March Towards My Ruin"

OTESANEK / LOSS / ORTHODOX / MOURNFUL CONGREGATION Four Burials (The Flenser) cd 10.98
Originally released in 2008 on Battle Kommand, this crushing ultra doom four way split is available again, courtesy of local label The Flenser.
Absolute heaven (or hell if you prefer) for the doom obsessed, for those who NEED utter and extreme heaviness, who thrive on massive walls of sludge, of creeping crumbling downtuned riffage, of skull splitting rib cage rattling drum pound. And the fact that this disc contains exclusive tracks from four of THEE heaviest and THEE doomiest bands around is reason enough to grab one of these if for some reason you didn't the first time around.
Thus, most doomlords will see the above names and that's all it'll take, four exclusive tracks, LONG ones, from Loss, Orthodox, Mournful Congregation and Otesanek. For avid readers of the aQ list, you too are probably familiar with most if not all of those. But just in case, we'll give a quick rundown of the bands / tracks that make up the Four Burials here...
Otesanek is up first. Who have previously shared a disc with Japan's Coffins and released the killer Final 12". They are definitely doomy, obviously, but might also be the heaviest of the bunch, a sort of Eyehategod meets Moss thing going on, and one of the few bands this slooooooow, to also fuck things up big time. Super strange arrangements, ultra dynamic, lots of weird starts and stops, angular riffs, crazy vocals (both male and female, both super intense and harsh). Definitely for fans of Khanate and Bunkur and all that sort of ultradoomdirge, but weirder and more fucked up. Next up is Loss, whose approach to doom is much more classic and melodic, beginning with some unnerving samples, woven into a spare doomy plod, the band slip into some seriously melodic post rock, all clean guitar and sparse drumming, eventually morphing into a sound majestic and massive, a bit like old My Dying Bride, impossibly loooow vocals, super mournful melodies, very dramatic and miserable. The song weaves back and forth between that classic doom-ic crush and the melancholy loping post rock, eventually somehow fusing the two.
Then comes longtime faves Orthodox, from Spain, whose sound, especially here, is way more spacious and spare, very minimal. with long stretches that are practically inaudible over the daily din of the store (this is headphone doom for sure!). Chanting, monk-like and somber, clean guitars drifting and shimmering, simple stripped down drumming, some wailing dramatic vocals, the sound an abstract mysterious slowcore that seems to get more and more strangely psychedelic, without ever getting overtly heavy. Really strange, but fans of Orthodox will already be well used to their, umm... un-Orthodox approach to all things doom.
Last up, legendary purveyors of true doom, Australia's Mournful Congregation, whose sound is sad and sorrowful, melancholy and miserable, a gorgeously epic lugubrious crawl, super melodic, but totally washed out and painted in sweeping shades of black and grey. Think Skepticism, Thergothon, Esoteric, Asunder, the sort of dark, slow motion, soul stirring creep we could listen to forever.
Obviously, WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: OTESANEK "Seven Are They"
MPEG Stream: LOSS "(To Pass Away) Death March Towards My Ruin"

OTHER SIDE OF THE SKY, THE Rorschach (Retribute) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
WAREHOUSE FIND! Another cool discovery, a record we've dug for ages, and were meaning to review, but somehow overlooked until now. So we discovered a handful of these, and figured we oughta get it reviewed and up on the site, better late than never, and all you folks into crushing epic post metal, Neur-Isis style slow build sludge are gonna flip.
Cuz boy do these guys fit neatly right there between Mogwai, Isis, Neurosis, Pelican and the other post metal combos we're partial to, Tides, Mouth Of The Architect, Grails, Rosetta, Mono, Souvenir's Young America, Angel Eyes, Irepress, you know what we're talking about, gorgeous post rock sprawls, all clean guitar and delicate harmonies, gradually building in volume and intensity, until exploding in a frenzy of blown out metallic psych rock, huge heaving swells of churning downtuned crunch, epic and majestic and heavy.
The Other Side Of The Sky also just so happen to have two bass players, so they're able to whip up these dense tangled basslines, infusing their post metal with an extra layer of low end rumble and low slung buzz, perfectly balancing the long stretches of prettier, meandering melody, hushed blissed out ambience, and woozy slowcore, with most tracks working their way toward that explosive, cathartic climax. Shit, we still love this stuff, and these guys push all our post rock / ambient metal buttons. Odds are if you dig any of the above mentioned bands, they'll probably do it for you too.
We only have a handful of these, and it's been out for a while, so if we run out, be prepared to wait for a restock, with the possibility that we might not be able to get more. And eagle eyed aQ-ers might notice the familiar cover art, the same image used on the cover of Servile Sect's Stratospheric...
MPEG Stream: "No Compromise"
MPEG Stream: "Rorschach"

OUTLAW ORDER Dragging Down The Enforcer (Season Of Mist) cd 16.98

OUTLAW ORDER Legalize Crime (Southern Lord) 7" 3.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is just what you might expect (and certainly hope for) from a band made up of five, that's right, FIVE members of sorely missed Southern doom sludge legends Eyehategod. The only difference this time around is the occasional burst of speed, like EHG, if they were chasing their cough syrup/heroin with a case of Red Bull. Crushing, pummelling, shrieking, howling, grinding metallic sludge. So good.

OV HELL The Underworld Regime (Prosthetic) cd 15.98
After a protracted legal battle over the name Gorgoroth, various members went their separate ways, with Infernus keeping the Gorgoroth name, and recently releasing a decent slab of black metal under that moniker. Meanwhile former Gorgoroth guitarist King Ov Hell and vocalist Gaahl went on to form the oddly named God Seed, but before the duo could release a record, that band fell apart, resulting in the formation of this group right here, Ov Hell, which finds King (now sans the Ov Hell) teamed up with Dimmu Borgir vocalist Shagrath, along with a pretty serious supporting cast: Frost from Satyricon, Ice Dale of Enslaved and Teloch of Nidingr and 1349! But initial reports had been grim (and not in a good way), with a pretty much across the board dismissal of the new record. So we were prepared for the worst, which could be why we find ourselves digging this so much.
It's not groundbreaking or revolutionary (then again little black metal is), but it's also not terrible, in fact, it's pretty dang good, and not that far removed from what you might expect from the various contributors. Plenty of the record is blasting blackness, all furious beats and insectoid buzzing, and Shagrath's demonic vokills, but the record is surprisingly varied, with some cool warped dirgier numbers, with strange samples, and tangled spidery guitars, some definite grooves, gnarled riffing, epic melodies, all under a seriously glossy modern production, and every song that seems to be on the surface some sort of a throwaway black metal by the numbers jam, has a lot more going on than meets the ear, and there's plenty of awesomely twisted, blasting and brutal tracks that stand up pretty well to any of the bands in Ov Hell's pedigree. It takes a few listens, definitely, and if you were hoping for some sort of return to classic Gorgoroth, you'll probably be disappointed, but every spin we dig this more and more...
MPEG Stream: "Devil's Harlot"
MPEG Stream: "Post Modern Sadist"
MPEG Stream: "Hill Norge"

OVAL / LITURGY split (Thrill Jockey) lp 16.98
An odd matchup indeed. We weren't sure whether this was a joining of convenience, since both bands are now labelmates, or if it went deeper than that, considering the two groups are sort of iconoclasts, Markus Popp and his Oval project constantly reinventing himself and following his own idiosyncratic path, and Liturgy, whose 'transcendental black metal' has been known to ruffle a few feathers, and whose frontman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix has been outspoken in his academic/spiritual approach to black metal, which seems to be at odds with the true grim hordes, not to mention his distinctly UN black metal pretty boy appearance. Regardless, these two definitely make a good team, at least in terms of splitting a record. We were secretly hoping this was in fact a collaboration, but this is the next best thing.
Popp's Oval has definitely moved on from those beloved skipping cd underwater dronescapes we love so much, his return heralded a move toward manipulating acoustic instrumentation, and the tracks here continue in that direction. The main song here is a sort of glitchy electronic flecked post rock, sounding a bit like a more warped and abstract Tortoise, all manner of squiggles and squelches tangled up into the loping rhythm and melancholic strum, the result blissed out and melodic. The following three tracks are brief bits of experimentation, solo guitar it seems, processed buzz, transformed into distinct melodies that sound less like guitars and more like thumb piano or gamelan.
Liturgy subvert all expectations and come out with some seriously chugging churning math rock, repetitive and droney, looped and mesmerizing, it's pretty compelling, a sound we love, and these guys nail it, it's not until about halfway through that any black metal riffing comes in, but instead of launching into it, the track slips into something way more minimal, a haunting, pulsing electronic ambience, so gorgeous and hushed, until FINALLY, the song does explode into that soaring and majestic transcendental black metal we love so much, but even here, the blasting is kept to a minimum, the rhythms more midtempo, seemingly a sonic extension of the math rock opening. Great stuff. Definitely has us chomping at the bit for the new full length, and hoping for more of this transcendental math rock!
This too was a Record Store Day release, and thus was extremely limited, so not sure if we can get more once this batch sells out. Includes a download coupon as well.
MPEG Stream: OVAL "Kreak"
MPEG Stream: LITURGY "Untitled"

OVO Miastenia (Load) cd 14.98
Italian duo OvO is a band that we think a select crowd of AQ-customers will totally appreciate. But...don't look at that awful cover. Oooh, what were they thinking? Well the (sorta) little-girl voice of OvO's singer Stefania does perhaps explain the little-girl drawing on the cover (which she drew). As does the Load label's often willfully 'ugly' aesthetic. But where that illustration is sort of twee, cringe-inducing cutesiness, Stefania's voice is far from cutesy! It's a rabid, wretched little girl we're talking about. Her yelping shriek has been compared to both a squeaky toy and a wheezing dog dying by folks here at AQ. Basically, if you hate the extended high-pitched babble of Yoko Ono, stay away! Nerve-grating for sure. We don't know how she does it. Must need a lot of lozenges.
Meanwhile, OvO's music ranges from chaotic punk frenzy to plodding, art-rock dirge. In addition to the unusual, extreme vocals, OvO also uses/abuses cello, for extra droning ambience. They're hard to compare to anybody, but we'll throw out these names: the aforementioned Yoko Ono, Load labelmates Noxagt, Double Nelson, Oxbow, and Khanate. Or maybe a twisted, primitive, Japanoise version of Devil Doll ('cause they're Italian and sorta theatrical sounding). Definitely not always (ever?) easy listening, but strangely fascinating. For us, it's the endurance-testing 20 minute title track that makes this a keeper. A torturous trudge with throaty rasping and heavy doomy death-knell drums and guitar. Oppressive. Depressive. Feedback hell gargle. Very much in the vein of Corrupted and Khanate. But with witchy Yoko vox! Like we said, the select few will love it.
MPEG Stream: "Miastenia"
MPEG Stream: "VooDoo"
MPEG Stream: "Anime Morte"

OVO Miastenia (Load) lp 11.98
Italian duo OvO is a band that we think a select crowd of AQ-customers will totally appreciate. But...don't look at that awful cover. Oooh, what were they thinking? Well the (sorta) little-girl voice of OvO's singer Stefania does perhaps explain the little-girl drawing on the cover (which she drew). As does the Load label's often willfully 'ugly' aesthetic. But where that illustration is sort of twee, cringe-inducing cutesiness, Stefania's voice is far from cutesy! It's a rabid, wretched little girl we're talking about. Her yelping shriek has been compared to both a squeaky toy and a wheezing dog dying by folks here at AQ. Basically, if you hate the extended high-pitched babble of Yoko Ono, stay away! Nerve-grating for sure. We don't know how she does it. Must need a lot of lozenges.
Meanwhile, OvO's music ranges from chaotic punk frenzy to plodding, art-rock dirge. In addition to the unusual, extreme vocals, OvO also uses/abuses cello, for extra droning ambience. They're hard to compare to anybody, but we'll throw out these names: the aforementioned Yoko Ono, Load labelmates Noxagt, Double Nelson, Oxbow, and Khanate. Or maybe a twisted, primitive, Japanoise version of Devil Doll ('cause they're Italian and sorta theatrical sounding). Definitely not always (ever?) easy listening, but strangely fascinating. For us, it's the endurance-testing 20 minute title track that makes this a keeper. A torturous trudge with throaty rasping and heavy doomy death-knell drums and guitar. Oppressive. Depressive. Feedback hell gargle. Very much in the vein of Corrupted and Khanate. But with witchy Yoko vox! Like we said, the select few will love it.
MPEG Stream: "Miastenia"
MPEG Stream: "VooDoo"
MPEG Stream: "Anime Morte"

OVSKUM Atto I - Atto II (Insikt) cassette 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We don't know too much about this strange Italian black metal band other than we fucking LOVE them. One of our new favorite BM outfits for sure. This is no ordinary buzzing black metal, although it does buzz and is most definitely BM, Ovskum, do some sort of midtempo, near ambient blackened plod. The guitars are huge and thick and seem to be crumbling into pieces, the drums are a midtempo trudge or a relentless martial march, the riffing is sometimes sludgy and thick, other times, angular and jangly, often both, a swirling slithering low end beneath keening upper register guitar skree and howled vocals. It's almost weird to call these guys black metal, they sound more like some super chaotic ambient noise rock, or spacey black sludge, or dreamy noise rock doom, all definitely fit... melodies are angular and obtuse, the drumming is sort of stumbly and simple, but the sound is HUGE, thick and swirling, raw and atmospheric, guitars are gnarled and convoluted, bits of melody and keening droneguitar are whispy streaks above the roiling fury below, some tracks forego the drums completely, and become these haunting abstract riffscapes, drifting and throbbing and crawling along malevolently... it's all so intense and dark and so so so good. No cds yet as far as we know, so needless to say both this and the s/t cassette are absolutely essential.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

OVSKUM Atto III (Obscure Origins) lp 17.98
Finally, the first proper vinyl release from mysterious Italian avant black metal horde Ovskum, presented by the just launched Obscure Origins label. Atto III is the first in an Ovskum reissue campaign that will hopefully also include a cd on Andee's tUMULt label.
Bu for now, let's just revel in the blackened musikal actions that make up this amazing collection of haunting and otherworldly blackness. We don't know all that much about Ovskum, but one thing we do know is that we fucking LOVE them. One of our favorite BM outfits for sure. For the uninitiated, this is no ordinary buzzing black metal, although it does buzz and is most definitely BM, Ovskum, conjure up some sort of midtempo, near ambient blackened plod. The guitars are huge and thick and seem to be crumbling into pieces, the drums are a midtempo trudge or a relentless martial march, the riffing is sometimes sludgy and thick, other times, angular and jangly, often both, a swirling slithering low end beneath keening upper register guitar skree and howled vocals. It's almost weird to call these guys black metal, they sound more like some super chaotic ambient noise rock, or spacey black sludge, or dreamy noise rock doom, all definitely fit... melodies are angular and obtuse, the drumming is sort of stumbly and simple, but the sound is HUGE, thick and swirling, raw and atmospheric, guitars are gnarled and convoluted, bits of melody and keening droneguitar are whispy streaks above the roiling fury below, some tracks forego the drums completely, and become these haunting abstract riffscapes, drifting and throbbing and crawling along malevolently... it's all so intense and dark and so so so good.
This deluxe vinyl version, comes in a plain black sleeve with a sticker on the front of the jacket, as well as a front cover insert, along with a massive printed booklet of original artwork from Morte404, the mysterious woman whose creepy line drawings have accompanied all the Ovskum releases. III collects all four actions from the 2006 s/t tape on Insikt as well as a track from Ovskum's split with Necrolust.
LIMITED TO 490 COPIES!!!

OVSKUM Atto III (Northern Sky Productions) cassette 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

OVSKUM s/t (Insikt) (Insikt) cassette 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We don't know too much about this strange Italian black metal band other than we fucking LOVE them. One of our new favorite BM outfits for sure. This is no ordinary buzzing black metal, although it does buzz and is most definitely BM, Ovskum, do some sort of midtempo, near ambient blackened plod. The guitars are huge and thick and seem to be crumbling into pieces, the drums are a midtempo trudge or a relentless martial march, the riffing is sometimes sludgy and thick, other times, angular and jangly, often both, a swirling slithering low end beneath keening upper register guitar skree and howled vocals. It's almost weird to call these guys black metal, they sound more like some super chaotic ambient noise rock, or spacey black sludge, or dreamy noise rock doom, all definitely fit... melodies are angular and obtuse, the drumming is sort of stumbly and simple, but the sound is HUGE, thick and swirling, raw and atmospheric, guitars are gnarled and convoluted, bits of melody and keening droneguitar are whispy streaks above the roiling fury below, some tracks forego the drums completely, and become these haunting abstract riffscapes, drifting and throbbing and crawling along malevolently... it's all so intense and dark and so so so good. No cds yet as far as we know, so needless to say both this and the Atto I - Atto II cassette are absolutely essential.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

OVSKUM s/t (Raging Bloodlust) (Raging Bloodlust) cassette 5.98
While we wait patiently for the long awaited first proper lp release (reissuing some of the previous cassettes) from Italy's obscure black metallers Ovskum, coming soon on the newly launched Obscure Origins label, we're graced, or cursed perhaps by what is essentially a new full length from these masters of mysterious blackened mood music. Four tracks, nearly 40 minutes, of a sound that really can hardly be compared to any other black metal groups. A gorgeously blackened languid doom, abject and miserable and suicidal, but also hauntingly pretty, the guitars clean, seemingly floating over a bed of buzz, tangled minor key melodies, the drums a barely there pound, the whole sound so weary and woozy, the vocals appropriately anguished and howled, but way back in the mix, it's the guitars that weave the magic here, lots of harmonics, spare almost post rock guitar lines, the sound not so much loping as sort of slowed down and dragging, like listening to Make A Change Kill Yourself, with someone pressing the finger down on the vinyl, lethargic and warbly, black, and sorrowful, and haunting and almost otherworldly. A bit like a less distinctly doomy Skepticism, or maybe like a black metal Mazzy Star or something. That same sort of gauzy shoegazey quality, but not the way most bands use that quality to get all blissy, Ovskum take that sound somewhere much more abstract and dark, a truly creepy, haunting, mopey blackened slowcore. So fucking great.

OX Aftermath (Kult Ov Nihilow) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For those of you unfamiliar with OX, a quick look at the cover should tell you all you need to know. The image on the front it a towering Orange amplifier, the back cover, a close up of some amplifier vacuum tubes. Two songs to a side, with titles like "Seismic", "Mass", "The Horror" and "Abyss". And hell, the record's called Aftermath. Plus, it's on Finnish label Kult Of Nihilow, who in the past have brought us records from Boris, , Dot [.], Church Of Misery, Fleshpress and Stumm. So if you guessed massive, pummeling, sloooooow, doooooom, dirge heaviness, you've definitely come to the right place.
We listed a 10" from OX years ago, and sadly we were only ever able to get about a dozen. We got a whole lot more this time, but these will probably still be gone before you know it. OX is the one man guitar doom project of Ken Baluke, who spends most of his time wielding his axe in Canadian doom groove outfit Sons Of Otis, but in OX, it's just him, and his guitar, and what sounds like lots and lots of really big amps. OX is definitely a practitioner of that sort of slow motion sludge guitar ambience, but definitely has his own unique angle. The core of OX's sound is a thick slithery Earth 2 style glacial riffing, a black liquid doom that sort of seeps out of your speakers, but above this dense low end is a gloriously fuzzed out effulgence, all glistening fuzz and radiant sparkle. Those two extremes all tangled up and constantly bleeding into one another. Haunting and heavy and so beautiful. Not sure whether it's supposed to play at 33 or 45, but sounds great either way. On 33 it's a sloooooooooooow crawl, at 45, it's still slow, but a little less murky and more luminous. Sort of like having two different, but equally heavy and kick ass records in one!
LIMITED TO 255 COPIES!! We got about 40 of those, and once they are gone we most likely won't be able to get more.

OX Movements (Kult Ov Nihilow) 10" 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another amazing release from Finland's Kult Of Nihilow label (who brought us the Dot [.] 10" elsewhere on this list), this time from Ox, otherwise known as Ken from Canada's Sons Of Otis. Movements finds Ken, the axeman responsible for some of the heaviest stoner doom we've ever heard, taking his guitar playing to the farthest reaches of metal, ending up in some seriously grim and glacial territory, alongside minimal doom brethren Earth and Sunn 0))), In fact, if one didn't know better, on first listen, one could certainly be forgiven for thinking this was indeed a record by one of those slow motion doom legends. But that would be selling Ox a little short. Imagine Earth at their most ambient, then smooth off all the rough edges, until distorted guitars become slowly shifting tectonic plates, a glacial drone, dense with lumbering, rumbling tones. Doomy and dark, beautiful and serene.
Seriously limited to only 320 copies, of which we have 12, and we will NOT be able to get more. Beautifully packaged in thick black sleeve printed with metalllic silver ink.

OXBOW (FEAT. JUSTIN BROADERICK & STEPHEN O'MALLEY) Presents: Love's Holiday Orchestra: Super Sonic 07 (Capsule) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We sold through our stash of these in nothing flat when we first listed this a little while back. Luckily, one of our distributors got a handful in, so we grabbed all we could, so everyone who missed out on this the first time around, now's your chance (probably your last chance)...
Two different sides of longtime aQ faves Oxbow, recorded live at the Supersonic festival in 2007.
The A side features a handful of Oxbow tracks, all stripped down and acoustic - just acoustic guitar, and the wild feral mewling of frontman Eugene Robinson. And you would think that playing stripped down and acoustic would make it sound more mellow, less frenzied and intense, but it doesn't. In plenty of places, it's like the guitar isn't even there, it's definitely Eugene's show. A wild caterwaul that even somehow gets the crowd shouting along. Intense and emotional, darkly intimate, but still strangely sinister and explosive. Essential for sure for all Oxbow fanatics.
But it's the flipside that will probably make this disappear in no time. A side long jam, that begins much like the A side tracks, simple urgently strummed acoustic guitar, and those primal vocals, until the guests make their presence known, Stephen O'Malley from SUNNO))), and Justin Broadrick from Jesu / Godflesh, the bass player from God, and even a string quartet. When those folks join the fray, it sounds almost like you might imagine, the acoustic guitar and vocals, buried under moaning strings and sheets of soaring blissed out high end, streaks of glistening feedback, crumbling rumbling swells of downtuned amp melting grind, thick sheets of buzz and shimmer, all draped over the haunting acoustic Oxbow musical drama unfolding beneath. Pretty amazing. Here's hoping these guys stopped by a studio to capture more of this stuff. But until that happens, this will most likely be your only chance to hear Oxbow's twisted, frenzied, so called "Love's Holiday Orchestra".
Beautifully packaged in super thick black matte sleeves, with silver metallic printing, with an insert featuring photos of the evening's festivities, as well as Oxbow guitarist Niko Wenner's recollection of the evening's festivities... which according to Eugene, leaves out the critical part where they left him for dead, knocked out and unconscious on the stage!

P.H.O.B.O.S. Anoedipal (Megaton) cd 28.00

PAGAN ALTAR Judgement Of The Dead (Buried By Time And Dust) lp 36.00
AS OF APRIL 2010, THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT, BUT WE'VE BEEN TOLD THAT IT IS BEING REPRESSED IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS. SO PLEASE INQUIRE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PLACE A PREORDER FOR IT.
We know you folks love limited edition vinyl releases, as Record Store Day just proved yet again. Well, here's something we just got a handful of copies of, and might not be able to get again - it's on the same label that did the Saint Vitus Die Healing vinyl that sold out so fast. And it's another one for vintage doom fanatics, a vinyl version of the debut album, aka Vol.1, from NWOBHM (aka New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, in this case, make that very very British) cult Pagan Altar! Songs written circa 1978-'81, recorded 1982, not released for the first time officially until 1998, and now available again in a deluxe gatefold vinyl edition. Obscure as it is, this is really a classic, '70s Sabbath/Priest styled (proto) metal, with an authentic occult vibe, powerful and melodic, up there with Angel Witch and, especially Witchfinder General - if you like them, you need to hear Pagan Altar as well!
Amazingly, the band is still around, still quite active, having released a couple other excellent albums, with work proceeding on a new one. They also did a split 7" with Jex Thoth not too long ago. As a matter of fact, Allan had the pleasure of seeing Pagan Altar play live just last week, at the Roadburn Festival in Holland! As far as he was concerned, one of the highlights of the fest (along with one of the only bands there to have been around longer, Comus!!!). When they came out on stage, the silver-haired singer (Terry Jones, brother to lead guitarist Alan Jones) was wearing a feathered top hat, that he gracefully doffed towards the audience, greeting us in a mellifluous Yorkshire accent. He possessed a theatrical, charismatic presence that made him seem not unlike one of the earlier incarnations of Dr. Who! They then proceeded to kick out an utterly classic sounding set of twin guitar NWOBHM, including of course many songs from this album, folkloric metal of witchery and doom, sung in a reedy voice that sounds a lot like a British version of Roky Erickson. They were really, really good.
So, if you're lucky enough to get a chance to see 'em, do so! And, at the very least, if doom and NWOBHM is your thing, check out their recordings, this being a great one to start with, except that we probably won't have it for very long (we only got, like, 8, and already have sold a few)...
MPEG Stream: "Pagan Altar"
MPEG Stream: "In The Wake Of Armadeus"
MPEG Stream: "Night Rider"

PAGAN ALTAR Lords Of Hypocrisy (Buried By Time And Dust) 2lp 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Red letter day here for old school doom vinyl fanatics. Buried By Time And Dust bring us two essential reissues, the Witchfinder General lp boxset reviewed elsewhere this list, and this, a vinyl version of the 2nd album from those mystic, misty masters of British metal majesty, Pagan Altar. A truly "cult" doom act from the NWOBHM era, somehow still kicking in the here-and-now. Their debut was recorded in 1982, but kept secret and unreleased until almost the year 2000. They followed that with this album in 2004, featuring songs which were originally written back in the late '70s, early '80s by the brothers Terry Jones (vocals) and Alan Jones (guitar). While all Pagan Altar rules, this just might be our fave. Terry Jones' nasal voice is a dramatic, wizened croak and caw, that can soar with ravens in the night sky... evoking both both Roky Erickson and Ozzy Osbourne (which means, Witchcraft fans should hear Pagan Altar). His brother brings the Sabbathy riffs and lead guitar rippage, also playin' some banjo on twangin' folk instrumental interlude "The Devil Came Down To Brockley".
Throughout the album there's drifting soft folky parts and epick metal stormers, Pagan Altar combining a pastoral prog vibe with a Satanic metal one... sad and melancholic, with intelligent lyrics, and it doesn't get more DOOM than songs about nuclear armageddon! Somehow the overall sound reminds us of Ozzy (early solo, circa Randy Rhodes Blizzard Of Ozz era), but gone way underground and druidical. A classic that stands with the best of the NWOBHM even though it was released so many years later... like a time capsule from the '80s.
The original cd release of this we never were able to get enough of to list, so it's nice to finally review it and on vinyl, too. Not cheap, but super swank and of course limited... as you may recall, earlier this year we blew through Buried By Time And Dust's vinyl reissue of Judgement Of The Dead (aka Vol. 1), PA's first album, all too quickly. This one may or may not stick around longer...and in any case it's just as recommended. Brilliant stuff any NWOBHM and/or doom lover who's got a pagan bone in their body ought to own. 180g vinyl, heavy gatefold sleeve with lyrics, and it also includes the 2 bonus tracks ("Witch's Pathway" and "Flight Of The Witchqueen") from the original limited vinyl pressing by Miskatonic in '05, not found on the cd version.
MPEG Stream: "The Lords Of Hypocrisy"
MPEG Stream: "Sentinels Of Hate"

PAGAN HELLFIRE The Will Of Night (Tour De Garde) cd 13.98

MPEG Stream: "From The Highest Halls"
MPEG Stream: "Isolation"

PAGE NINETY NINE Document #8 (Robotic Empire) cd 13.98

MPEG Stream: "In Love With An Apparition"
MPEG Stream: "Your Face Is A Rape Scene"