SAINT VITUS Saint Vitus b/w Born Too Late (Volcom) 7" 6.50
Skate clothing company Volcom is also a cool weird record label. Especially lately. Wildildlife, Best Coast, and now... legendary SST doomlords Saint Vitus??? Yep, they've got the reunited Vitus (with new drummer Henry Vasquez, RIP Armando Acosta), fronted by Wino, on 45rpm 7" colored wax doing two moldy oldies live, "Saint Vitus" and "Born Too Late", both classics of Sabbath styled doom metal. Recorded at the Palladium in Worcester Mass on October 17th, 2009, apparently the first time they'd played on the East Coast since 1993, when the band's original run was petering out. The A-side features some added vocals by their punk pal Dez Cadena (Black Flag, DC3, the Misfits)!

SAINT VITUS The Walking Dead / Hallow's Victim (SST) cd 16.98
"Welcome to darkness!!" It's a red letter DOOM day here at Aquarius, with the arrival of this long awaited reissue! For some reason, SST had never before released these essential Saint Vitus records on compact disc. Now they're here, officially together on one cd, the LA doom legends' 2nd full length album Hallow's Victim and subsequent 12" ep The Walking Dead, both first unleashed back in 1985! Plus, a bonus track!!
There were other great underground metal bands in the '80s who practiced what doom messiahs Black Sabbath preached: Trouble, Candlemass, Witchfinder General, Pentagram... But it was LA's Saint Vitus who took the Sabbath sound to even further extremes. They were heavier, slower, doomier than anyone else. Psychedelic, wasted, DOOM. Both of these essential doom documents boast the unique vocal presence of Vitus' original singer, Scott Reagers. As we've no doubt mentioned in other reviews, it's been a subject of some debate 'round here about who was the best Vitus vocalist, Reagers or his replacement, Scott "Wino" Weinrich. Whatever your preference, we'd hope you agree that Reagers was pretty AMAZING, his dynamic, dramatic banshee wailings somehow like an unholy hybrid of both Ozzy and Dio! But way more twisted, wretched, and over the top than even that would sound. And although the recent Vitus reunion lineup is with Wino, when we saw 'em, Wino made a point of paying tribute to Reagers, talking about how awed he was to have to try and fill his shoes back in the day. (Man, we wished we'd been at the show in LA, where Reagers did show up on stage to sing a few songs!).
Containing classic tracks like "White Stallions", "War Is Our Destiny", and "Mystic Lady", we can't recommend disc this highly enough to any traditional doom fan who doesn't have this stuff! Druggy frizzy fuzzy punk rock burn out Black Sabbath worship doesn't get much better (maybe Vitus's self-titled debut from '84 edges this out). While guitarist Dave Chandler is technically a mess, he sure had a knack for writing a riff, and his demented wah-happy soloing makes up in sheer psychedelic chutzpah what it lacks in chops. Drummer Armando Acosta and bassist Scott Adams revel in the slow and low, respectively (though Vitus do crank up the speed at plenty of spots on this disc, actually). And then there's the mournful cries of Reagers on the mic, delivering the goods, proving that a scuzzy band of stoners from LA playing the '80s hardcore punk rock circuit might just have had the best metal vocalist of all time EVER... well that's what some of us here think, anyway. Hear for yourself.
The bonus track happens to one of our favorite songs in the Vitus catalog, "Look Behind You". This is the original recording of that tune, as sung by Reagers, taken from SST's 1986 Blasting Concept Vol.II compilation (it was later redone with Wino on the Thirsty And Miserable ep in '87).
MPEG Stream: "War Is Our Destiny"
MPEG Stream: "The Walking Dead"
MPEG Stream: "Look Behind You"

SAINT VITUS V (Southern Lord) cd 15.98
Of all the classic "doom metal" pioneers who kept the spirit of Black Sabbath alive in the '80s -- Trouble, Witchfinder General, Candlemass, Pentagram -- the most significant to me (Allan) by far is LA's Saint Vitus. Perhaps 'cause they recorded for seminal punk label SST, their influence was broad. In some way, you can thank Saint Vitus for side two of Black Flag's My War, for the Melvins, for SUNNO)))... "Stoner rock" owes them too. These guys were proudly retro '70s longhairs when it definitely wasn't cool, and for that they will forever be badasses. I pretty much like *all* of their albums, many of which aren't in print anymore. But this one, 1989's V (their 5th LP, natch) has just been reissued by the powers-that-be-doomed at Southern Lord. It's certainly classic Vitus, their final release with vocalist Scott "Wino" Weinrich before he split to reform The Obsessed for a brief and unsurprisingly ill-fated major label stint. And it was the first Vitus LP not to come out on SST. Instead it was released by the now long-defunct German doom specialists Hellhound. So, in the States, it was a hard to find import, and little publicized. For these reasons, V acquired quite a mystique -- some fans going so far as to consider it their best. I can't exactly agree with that -- for one thing, V is marred by perhaps the worst 2 minutes in Vitus' career ("When Emotion Dies", a sensitive acoustic number featuring Wino dueting with a female vocalist -- that ain't what Saint Vitus is all about!) -- but elsewhere on this slab you'll find some essential heaviness, from the psychedelic powerhouse opener "Living Backwards" to the wrenching, rocking "I Bleed Black" to the massive melancholy dirge of "Patra (Petra)" and the epic, shivering "Jack Frost". As well, tracks like "Angry Man" and "Ice Monkey" provide uptempo inklings of stoner rock to come... So, a prime Vitus platter that anyone with records by Electric Wizard/High On Fire/Spirit Caravan etc. ought to also own. And, there's more: Southern Lord have unearthed a video of Wino's first-ever performance fronting Vitus, shot by Larry Lally at the Palm Springs Community Center on May 16th 1986. It's included it on the cd as a bonus Quicktime file! It looks kind of like black and white '50s TV footage, but it's great to see and hear this vintage Vitus show, the band tearing through five classics including "Clear Windowpane" and "Saint Vitus".
MPEG Stream: "I Bleed Black"
MPEG Stream: "Patra (Petra)"

SAINT VITUS V (Southern Lord) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Of all the classic "doom metal" pioneers who kept the spirit of Black Sabbath alive in the '80s -- Trouble, Witchfinder General, Candlemass, Pentagram -- the most significant to me (Allan) by far is LA's Saint Vitus. Perhaps 'cause they recorded for seminal punk label SST, their influence was broad. In some way, you can thank Saint Vitus for side two of Black Flag's My War, for the Melvins, for SUNNO)))... "Stoner rock" owes them too. These guys were proudly retro '70s longhairs when it definitely wasn't cool, and for that they will forever be badasses. I pretty much like *all* of their albums, many of which aren't in print anymore. But this one, 1989's V (their 5th LP, natch) has just been reissued by the powers-that-be-doomed at Southern Lord. It's certainly classic Vitus, their final release with vocalist Scott "Wino" Weinrich before he split to reform The Obsessed for a brief and unsurprisingly ill-fated major label stint. And it was the first Vitus LP not to come out on SST. Instead it was released by the now long-defunct German doom specialists Hellhound. So, in the States, it was a hard to find import, and little publicized. For these reasons, V acquired quite a mystique -- some fans going so far as to consider it their best. I can't exactly agree with that -- for one thing, V is marred by perhaps the worst 2 minutes in Vitus' career ("When Emotion Dies", a sensitive acoustic number featuring Wino dueting with a female vocalist -- that ain't what Saint Vitus is all about!) -- but elsewhere on this slab you'll find some essential heaviness, from the psychedelic powerhouse opener "Living Backwards" to the wrenching, rocking "I Bleed Black" to the massive melancholy dirge of "Patra (Petra)" and the epic, shivering "Jack Frost". As well, tracks like "Angry Man" and "Ice Monkey" provide uptempo inklings of stoner rock to come... So, a prime Vitus platter that anyone with records by Electric Wizard/High On Fire/Spirit Caravan etc. ought to also own.
MPEG Stream: "I Bleed Black"
MPEG Stream: "Patra (Petra)"

SALE FREUX Subterraneus (Misanthropic Art Productions) cd 13.98

SALOME s/t (Vendetta) cd 13.98
For the Biblically impaired out there, Salome was the stepdaughter of King Herod, ruler of Galilee, and her infamy comes from the fact that she was convinced by her mother Herodias to seduce her stepfather (euwww) with an eye to getting him to promise her anything she wished. And what she wished was the head of John The Baptist on a platter. Why? Because John condemned the marriage of Herodias and Herod. Harsh.
Thus Herod did her bidding, and she was able to present John's severed head on a platter, to her satisfied mother. One of the most gruesome Biblical moments for sure (although only one among MANY), that has oft been the subject of paintings and plays. But that sort of cold hearted brutality, that sort of gleefully grim bloodshed, how would that play out sonically? Well, perhaps a bit like Virginia's Salome, a female fronted slow motion sludge juggernaut, whose sound falls somewhere between Eyehategod, Khanate and Monarch. Four long songs, each a gloriously filth encrusted, downtuned dirge, with frontwoman Kat's vocals a raspy wraithlike shriek, that is at times a dead ringer for Khanate's Alan Dubin. The music, while definitely sludgey and pummeling is rife with surprising melody, even some of the slowest heaviest parts sound more like 16 rpm Sabbath than the more static and sludgey dronedirgedoom that's all the rage. But the band definitely mix it up, some lo-fi jangle here and there, some classic UK doom sounding mournful melody, some incredibly lugubrious chug and churn, some rocking parts that have a bit of a Melvins feel, all stretched out into slow slithery spaced out ultradooooooom.
The record closes with the 21 minute "Onward Destroyer", which while incredibly heavy and sooooo slooooow, manages to be weirdly pretty, with clean guitar melodies drifting in between the rest of the song's abstract spacious plod, almost like a funereal doom Low. Some awesome sheets of Eyehategod style feedback, with the band eventually kicking it up a notch, and -almost- rocking, a midtempo doomic groove, more harsh hellish vox, and an amazing stretch of feedback that sounds almost orchestral before the band pound out a sludgey groovy slow motion finale.
Monarch, Moss, Eyehategod, Khanate, Thou, Corrupted, Bunkur, if that sounds like your ideal playlist, then this is pretty much a no brainer. But for folks into troo classic doom more than this extreme modern variant, Salome might just be the perfect gateway to whet your appetite for something more black and more grim, and with a few more o's. Doooooooooooooooooooooooooom........
Both the cd and the lp are limited to 500 copies. The lp is already out of print, so when those are gone, that's it, but the cds should be around a bit longer, although probably not much.
MPEG Stream: "The Vivification Of Ker"
MPEG Stream: "White Tides"

SALOME s/t (Vendetta) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For the Biblically impaired out there, Salome was the stepdaughter of King Herod, ruler of Galilee, and her infamy comes from the fact that she was convinced by her mother Herodias to seduce her stepfather (euwww) with an eye to getting him to promise her anything she wished. And what she wished was the head of John The Baptist on a platter. Why? Because John condemned the marriage of Herodias and Herod. Harsh.
Thus Herod did her bidding, and she was able to present John's severed head on a platter, to her satisfied mother. One of the most gruesome Biblical moments for sure (although only one among MANY), that has oft been the subject of paintings and plays. But that sort of cold hearted brutality, that sort of gleefully grim bloodshed, how would that play out sonically? Well, perhaps a bit like Virginia's Salome, a female fronted slow motion sludge juggernaut, whose sound falls somewhere between Eyehategod, Khanate and Monarch. Four long songs, each a gloriously filth encrusted, downtuned dirge, with frontwoman Kat's vocals a raspy wraithlike shriek, that is at times a dead ringer for Khanate's Alan Dubin. The music, while definitely sludgey and pummeling is rife with surprising melody, even some of the slowest heaviest parts sound more like 16 rpm Sabbath than the more static and sludgey dronedirgedoom that's all the rage. But the band definitely mix it up, some lo-fi jangle here and there, some classic UK doom sounding mournful melody, some incredibly lugubrious chug and churn, some rocking parts that have a bit of a Melvins feel, all stretched out into slow slithery spaced out ultradooooooom.
The record closes with the 21 minute "Onward Destroyer", which while incredibly heavy and sooooo slooooow, manages to be weirdly pretty, with clean guitar melodies drifting in between the rest of the song's abstract spacious plod, almost like a funereal doom Low. Some awesome sheets of Eyehategod style feedback, with the band eventually kicking it up a notch, and -almost- rocking, a midtempo doomic groove, more harsh hellish vox, and an amazing stretch of feedback that sounds almost orchestral before the band pound out a sludgey groovy slow motion finale.
Monarch, Moss, Eyehategod, Khanate, Thou, Corrupted, Bunkur, if that sounds like your ideal playlist, then this is pretty much a no brainer. But for folks into troo classic doom more than this extreme modern variant, Salome might just be the perfect gateway to whet your appetite for something more black and more grim, and with a few more o's. Doooooooooooooooooooooooooom........
Both the cd and the lp are limited to 500 copies. The lp is already out of print, so when those are gone, that's it, but the cds should be around a bit longer, although probably not much.
MPEG Stream: "The Vivification Of Ker"
MPEG Stream: "White Tides"

SALOME Terminal (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
Record number two from this grim doom sludge trio, named of course for the stepdaughter of King Herod, in the Bible, who was the one that requested John The Baptist's severed head on a platter, a fitting name certainly for the aural horrors these three deal in, and one of the three just so happens to be vocalist Katherine Katz, who also does time in genius grind outfit Agoraphobic Nosebleed.
Her time in AnB must have rubbed off on her main group, cuz things aren't nearly as slow and sludgey as we remember. That said, opening track "The Message" might have you thinking otherwise, a slow building sludgescape, all twisted electronics, and spare downtuned chug, we were prepared for some serious Moss/Monarch/Bunkur sort of dirgery, but then after about three minutes of abstract avant doom, the track kicks in proper, and the band unfurl something practically midtempo, a weirdly lumbering groove that is thick, and heavy, and awesomely brutal, with Kat's insanely harsh bellowed and screeched vokills. The 'verses' are way more stripped down, leaving lots of space for Kat's vox to be the focal point, draped over simple plodding drums and occasional chug, but then the song veers back into that more propulsive doomy groove. It's not as slow and sludgey maybe, but this is still some seriously brutal stuff.
And there are still more sonic surprises in store, the title track is downright mathy, with still more sludgey groove, and some killer start stop dynamics, sounding more like some Harvey Milk / Khanate hybrid. Which actually sort of describes the whole record, it's like they fused that sort of abject shrieking minimal doom, to something more 'rocking', cuz this is actually seriously rocking, way more than the last record, and it definitely suits them. The riffs are gnarled and blackened, the drums are crushing, and intricate, those vocals are incredible, slipping easily from Dubin-ish shriek to Cannibal Corpse like bellow, and instead of relying on mood and ambience, like a lot of doom/sludge outfits, these songs are definitely composed, and are complicated, and occasionally weirdly catchy.
We figured the 17+ minute "An Accident Of History" might be the album's centerpiece, and it still could be, although instead of more churning heaviness, it's a weird abstract drone piece, all static and hiss, shortwave radio, twisted feedback, bizarre samples, disembodied voices, glitched out electronics, malfunctioning effects, a pretty fantastic bit of audio experimentation, that somehow sounds like it belongs, dropped right there in the midst of Salome's complex math sludge heaviness. Awesome.
Housed in super striking embossed black & white, six panel digipak packaging.
MPEG Stream: "The Message"
MPEG Stream: "Terminal"
MPEG Stream: "Master Failure"

SALT Issue 8 magazine 4.00
Another year, another Salt. In fact it's been way more than a year, maybe almost two, but it's always well worth the wait. No one does zines any more, which is a huge shame, loosed from the binds of relying on advertising, and someone else's money, a zine can cover anything, explore music, art, even wrestling, can opt for any layout, but the problem is, that without that monetary support, sometimes you are forced to wait years between issues, which is criminal. Especially with zines like Salt. Every time we review a Salt, we always end up sending out a request for somebody, ANYBODY, to get in touch with Salt mastermind Kevin, give him a bunch of money and set him up with a real magazine. All the other mags out there can breathe easy since that is probably unlikely to happen any time soon. But if it did. Decibel, Terrorizer, the Wire, Signal To Noise, your days would be numberedÉ
So issue 8, as is the pattern, is even better than 7, which was already kick ass. On the cover, a super striking drawing of Diamanda Galas, done by Kevin Salt himself, and inside, well hell, it's like a zine custom made for aQ. A Pharoah Sanders live review, a Suishou No Fune / RKF South By Southwest tour diary, an interview with comedy grind masters 7000 Dying Rats, an interview with aQ beloved dronescapers Hywl Nofio, Finland's masters of hypnorock and kings of the NWOFHM, Circle, a handful of record reviews, an interview with Malefic from Xasthur, an interview with the Clientele, and since Kevin is strangely fascinated with Professional Wrestling, there is an elegy for the now defunct ECW, including an interview with author, journalist and ECW expert John Lister, and finally, an interview with our very own Andee about tUMULt, a follow up of an original label spotlight in one of the earlier issues.
The mind boggles what this guy could do with a real magazine. Not that we really want anything to change with Salt. But we sure wouldn't mind if it came out every month. Heck, every week!
And for the first time, this issue comes bundled with a super limited, exclusive 3" cd-r from Hwyl Nofio. A fourteen minute track called "Christ Distort", another gorgeously sprawling expanse of metallic shimmer and blissed out buzz. Exclusive to this issue of Salt.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES. Each mag/cd hand numbered.

SALT Issue 9 magazine 5.00
It's hard to believe it's been two years since the last issue of Salt, but we're willing to be patient, after all it is possibly our favorite zine going, and as in our reviews of every issue of Salt, we really can't heap enough praise on this kick ass DIY zine, and as always, lament the fact that it somehow remains a zine, it seems like by now, Salt should be up there with Terrorizer and Rock A Rolla and Decibel. But you know what, fuck it, we love Salt just the way it is, virtually unchanged since issue #1, still black and white, a little oversized, same style layout, most of the illustrations done by Kevin, the guy who pretty much IS Salt, and the stuff he chooses to focus on, as always is weird and wonderful, varied and unlikely. Always something we're super into, always something else we've never even heard of, and even the stuff that seems like it would be of little interest, ends up being a fantastic read, always the sign of a great magazine.
This issue is especially exciting as it contains perhaps the first interview EVER with aQ fave and tUMULt recording artist, the mysterious Korean teenage black metaller Pyha, talking about life in Korea, black metal, mandatory conscription, protest music and more.
There's also a killer interview with Alicia from legendary crust doom outfit 13 (which also featured Liz Buckingham, now in Electric Wizard). There's a feature on doomdrone juggernaut Korperschwache, an extensive and WAY in depth review of the Some Bizarre Album, an extensive guide to getting drunk on cheap vodkas, a feature on indie poppers Grandaddy, and a guide to their best B-sides, a lengthy interview with comic artist Carla Speed McNeil, and an interview with the man behind new label The Great Pop Supplement (he also once upon a time ran both Enraptured and Earworm!). All that for five bucks! This time around there are no record reviews, and less pieces, but as Kevin explains in the intro, that's so the interviews and features could be longer and more extensive. Which they absolutely are.
What more do you need to know? You love music. You love reading about music. You love underground music, and underground zines, if you haven't been reading Salt, you've been missing out big time...

SAMAEL Above (Nuclear Blast) cd 13.98

SAMAEL Ceremony of Opposites / Rebellion (Century Media) cd 15.98
These Satanic Swiss metallers' last full album before the the beginnings of their "techno" metamorphosis (a transition which first yielded the amazing Passage disc, before several disappointing follow-ups), reissued with the pre-Passage Rebellion ep added on. A now value-added black metal classic.

SAME SEX DICTATOR From Beneath You It Devours (Longway) lp 10.98
Hard to not dig a band described as "deep space power violence", which is fine, cuz we dig the shit out of this. The debut full length from this two piece from Seattle, who like many heavy duos before them, make a sound much bigger than their lineup would suggest. And yeah, that whole deep space power violence thing actually seems pretty accurate, the band flitting from churning chugging heaviness, rife with gnarled riffage and bellowed vox, to spaced out synth driven minimalism, even stretching out into weird woozy ambience, and they're at their best when they cram all of that stuff together, like on "The Shocking Discovery", with its tribal drumming, and squelchy synthy electronics, it's spaced out and psychedelic, until the riff comes in, then it gets heavy fast, before slipping back into something WAY more hushed: minimal drumming, a loping two note bass melody, all wrapped in feedback, until some howled vox starts bringing it all back in, getting more and more anguished, the drums getting busier, then some seriously thick bass buzz bursts in, and the song explodes like a progged out power violence Ruins, the song slipping effortlessly from part to part, tempo to tempo, hence the progginess.
The songs are all super varied, sometimes blossoming into some weird sort of bass driven spaced out psychedelia, but just as often some sort of lumbering downtuned doom, or electronic synthy drift, or super intricate post punk power prog, the various power violence elements holding all the disparate elements together, those vocals, the murky grinding low end, but the cool thing, is, when they're at their heaviest, there's still some weird spacey shit going on, and when they're getting all psychedelic and spaced out, there some serious heaviness happening simultaneously.
Some seriously rad twisted heaviness, way recommended for anyone into, well, anyone into twisted heaviness. Which we're imagining is a whole lot of you...
MPEG Stream: "The Shocking Discovery"
MPEG Stream: "Get Out Of My Dreams And Into My Trunk"
MPEG Stream: "The Redeadening"

SAMHAIN Box Set (Evilive) cd 63.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally available again, but for now only in box set form.
Everyone knows Samhain were cool, and that at least the first 3 records are essential (and they are of course included here) so we will focus on the other stuff. The box also includes the "Final Descent" cd as well as an unreleased double live cd. Also included is a pretty cool live video and the Samhain comic book (although it seems more like a comic pamphlet, being all of 8 pages). So far, if you don't have these records, it all seems like a pretty sweet deal. Except...all of the cds are packaged in simple cardboard, promo-style sleeves. No jewel cases or booklets. Kind of shoddy. And for some reason, this all comes packaged in a HUGE box, most of which is taken up by some sort of plastic 'space-taker-upper' and not actual stuff, which means it takes up extra, valuable space in our cramped apartments. Suitable for Danzig's ego, not our shelves. So aside from the lame packaging, if you do not have these records already, we say, go for it.

SAMHAIN III November Coming Fire (Evillive) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Reissue of Danzig's post-Misfits pagan goth-punk classic. Unfortunately, there are no liner notes, no lyric sheet, no bonus tracks, no extra photos. Gotta get the box set for all that extra stuff. Originally released in 1986, features the classics "In My Grip", "To Walk the Night", and the haunting reworking of the Misfit's anthem "Halloween II".

SAMOTHRACE Life's Trade (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98
For fans of the heavy, it has been a pretty good year! Cough, Thou, Trees, The Wounded Kings, Asva, et. al. And it just seems to keep getting better and better. Here's one of our latest slow, low, doooooomed-out faves, brought to us by the ever-reliable, ultra-heavy 20 Buck Spin label. Samothrace offer up 4 long tracks of mournful, slo-mo sludge on their debut full length Life's Trade. This not-so-merry band of black stone wielders hail from Lawrence, Kansas but recorded this in Chicago with producer Sanford Parker (Pelican, Buried At Sea, Indian, Minsk, Rwake, Nachtmystium... he knows his heaviness!). They're not the first band to employ emotive loud-soft dynamics, post-rock style, but they do it quite well, and it sounds fantastic, this whole album exuding utter dismal despair. And, hopefully, provoking some form of catharsis. Everything - the guttural vokills, the effects-blanketed guitars - are weary, weeping, wailing lamentations echoing across the Midwestern prairie, finding common cause with our favorite funereal doom from Finland, British doomdeath of the '90s like My Dying Bride, and fellow sludge lords like Atavist and Ocean. Not bad company to keep, if not clinically depressed.
Sometimes it seems that bands move too far away from metal and get into some kinda mediocre, boring post-rock middleground. Like -- fuck, dude, where's the metal? However, Samothrace manages to stay heavy even while incorporating other elements. The thing is, it's not metal with something else thrown in, they take other things and make them metal. At times it's quite pretty and melodic. It's like His Hero is Gone (Fifteen Counts of Arson era) mating with the gorgeous new works by Earth. There's many long, exquisite stretches of mellowed out beauty, calm and quiet, to lull the listener before being bulldozered by fat fuzzed riffage in a more metallic, stoner mode, which sometimes flows into some sweet, Iommi-envious soloing. Samothrace's loping lethargy and mopey melody is such that even at its most crushing, the band's music still seems suffused with the sunset's psychedelic twilight rays, or perhaps radiates its own comforting warmth, somehow. If that speaks to you, grab a copy, spark one, and turn it up. You'll want this one loud. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "La Llorona"
MPEG Stream: "Cacophony"

SAMOTHRACE Life's Trade (20 Buck Spin) 2lp 22.00
For fans of the heavy, it has been a pretty good year! Cough, Thou, Trees, The Wounded Kings, Asva, et. al. And it just seems to keep getting better and better. Here's one of our latest slow, low, doooooomed-out faves, brought to us by the ever-reliable, ultra-heavy 20 Buck Spin label. Samothrace offer up 4 long tracks of mournful, slo-mo sludge on their debut full length Life's Trade. This not-so-merry band of black stone wielders hail from Lawrence, Kansas but recorded this in Chicago with producer Sanford Parker (Pelican, Buried At Sea, Indian, Minsk, Rwake, Nachtmystium... he knows his heaviness!). They're not the first band to employ emotive loud-soft dynamics, post-rock style, but they do it quite well, and it sounds fantastic, this whole album exuding utter dismal despair. And, hopefully, provoking some form of catharsis. Everything - the guttural vokills, the effects-blanketed guitars - are weary, weeping, wailing lamentations echoing across the Midwestern prairie, finding common cause with our favorite funereal doom from Finland, British doomdeath of the '90s like My Dying Bride, and fellow sludge lords like Atavist and Ocean. Not bad company to keep, if not clinically depressed.
Sometimes it seems that bands move too far away from metal and get into some kinda mediocre, boring post-rock middleground. Like -- fuck, dude, where's the metal? However, Samothrace manages to stay heavy even while incorporating other elements. The thing is, it's not metal with something else thrown in, they take other things and make them metal. At times it's quite pretty and melodic. It's like His Hero is Gone (Fifteen Counts of Arson era) mating with the gorgeous new works by Earth. There's many long, exquisite stretches of mellowed out beauty, calm and quiet, to lull the listener before being bulldozered by fat fuzzed riffage in a more metallic, stoner mode, which sometimes flows into some sweet, Iommi-envious soloing. Samothrace's loping lethargy and mopey melody is such that even at its most crushing, the band's music still seems suffused with the sunset's psychedelic twilight rays, or perhaps radiates its own comforting warmth, somehow. If that speaks to you, grab a copy, spark one, and turn it up. You'll want this one loud. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "La Llorona"
MPEG Stream: "Cacophony"

SANCTUM On The Horizon (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98
Following up their recent split with Oakland's Stormcrow, this warlike Seattle-based crew of crusties drop their full-length for 20 Buck Spin. And it's the sound of a whole lotta new ones being torn! Angry, crushing metallic mayhem. Guttural vox over churning, deathly guitars n' battery. Inspired by the likes of Bolt Thrower, Unleashed, Extreme Noise Terror and Amebix, they do their influences proud, carrying the banner of "War Crust" high, following their own marching orders into the meatgrinding artillery barrage and resulting bloody red mist that their music creates.
Packaged in a nice cardboard mini-LP-style gatefold sleeve, adorned with black and grey grim graphics. We count AT LEAST twenty-three obvious skulls and/or severed heads on stakes in the artwork. The disc also includes seven bonus tracks taken from two earlier vinyl ep releases.
MPEG Stream: "In The Shadow Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "Last Breath"

SANDERS, KARL Saurian Meditation (Release) cd 14.98
Solo record from the guitarist of death metal geniuses Nile. Not what you might be expecting. Think all the 'Asian/Eastern' interludes from Nile records, all new agey with some very questionable vocals/lyrics. Ugh. A bit cheesy. Not sure what Sanders (and Release/Relapse) was thinking. Definitely worth checking out for it's WTF value, but even diehard Nile obsessives will be hard pressed to find a reason for having this in their collection.
MPEG Stream: "Awaiting The Vultures"
MPEG Stream: "Luring The Doom Serpent"

SANGRAAL Unearthly Night (Goatowarex) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another fucked and demented and mysterious metal record, this one from the East Coast of the United States via Australian label Goatowarex. We weren't able to find out too much about these guys, other than the description: "Pure fucking depraved death metal lacking political goals or other such human bullshit." All right then. This may be 'death metal' although it definitely sounds to us, at different points, more like black metal and doom metal than death metal, and in fact it's some sort of confusional blend of the three. Some tracks are blazing fast, a roaring murky buzz, others are a lurching slow motion dirge, they even open with their own version of Mayhem's "Voice Of A Tortured Skull". The sound is super cavernous and lo-fi, with tons of natural reverb drenching the thrashing blackness in a thick cloak of ambient buzz, like it was recorded in some musty murky cave. That opening cover is a creepy Abruptum-ish ambient drone, with thick buzzing guitars and creepy anguished voices, and all sorts of weird sounds, which gives way to a super blackthrash freakout with buzzing riffs and blown out drums, the whole thing so in the red that it almost sounds like some sort of Merzbow-metal. The rest of the record shifts back and forth between totally fried black thrash and creepy ambient midtempo plod, and it's the doomier stuff that is the weirdest, with strangely obtuse riffs, lots of space, and fucked up arrangements. Halfway through there's another haunting ambient track, all organs and buzzy guitars, almost like Devil Doll or some Satanic wedding march or something, before lurching back into some killer Darkthrone style blackness.
MPEG Stream: "Voice Of A Torturred Skull"
MPEG Stream: "Autumn 1440"
MPEG Stream: "Eve Of Chaos"

SANGRE AMADO Inane (Catastrophic) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Local black/death metallers Sangre Amado finally release a (non-demo) cd, and it's wicked and dark and really good. Obviously influenced by the blackest of Norwegian metal technology, with nasty rasping (female!) vokills and epic riffing. Atypical of their Nordic heroes, however, Sangre Amado utilizes lots of scary cinematic sampling (Gummo perhaps?) in-between songs. Lastly, the raging drumming is courtesy of Li'l Sunshine, last heard on the amazing Weakling album!

SAPTHURAN ...In Hatred (Wraith Productions) cd 13.98

MPEG Stream: "A Wolf And It's Prey"
MPEG Stream: "Through The Eyes Of The Vulture"

SAPTHURAN The Beast In The Cave (God Is Myth) 3" cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Probably most well known around these parts for sharing a split with SF black metal overlord Leviathan a while back, Sapthuran pretty much held their own, which in that sort of company is saying something for sure. Their most recent full length was pretty great as well, a gloriously buzzed out slab of Burzumic brutality, as blissed out and hypnotic as grim and fuzzy. And a logical choice to be a part of God Is Myth's ongoing series of 3" cd-r's paying tribute to the writer H.P. Lovecraft, who has probably had more of an affect on metal music than almost any other writer (minus J.R.R. Tolkien obviously).
This is volume four in the series. The first came courtesy of UK experimental black metal outfit Caina, the second from Appalachian heathen metal horde Harvist, the third from the strangely monickered LVTHN, pronounced Leviathan, but not to be confused with our own Leviathan and number four comes from this Kentuckian black horde.Ê
Three songs, a little under twenty minutes, thematically Lovecraftian, but sonically, much like the last Sapthuran full length. The guitars are a drone-y buzz, loping and looping, fuzzed out and hypnotic, very Burzumy for sure, the vocals a strangled demony growl, the drums a chaotic black blast, the whole thing swirled into a relentlessly mesmerizing, pounding black buzz that wraps it's spiky tendrils around you and pulls you into the bleak and black emptiness below.ÊÊ
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We only got 20 and it's already out of print from the label so once these are gone we will not be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "Into The Mouth Of The Earth"
MPEG Stream: "The Watcher"

SAPTHURAN To The Edge Of Land (God Is Myth) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Being on a split record with another band can be rough. If the other band sucks, your band gets dragged right down with them. If the other band is great, they can make the listener completely forget that your half of the split even exists. So imagine being a black metal band, a pretty darn good black metal band, and doing a split with the current king of USBM Leviathan. You can't pass it up. It's fucking Leviathan man! But talk about pressure. But heck, it's gotta say something that Sapthuran shared a split with Leviathan a while back, and not only did we not ignore them, but we actually dug their half of the split quite a bit. So much so that when we learned they had a new full length, we got a bunch for the store.
Not nearly as weird as Leviathan, Sapthuran traffic in a more sort of trance like Burzumy buzz, single riffs are repeated and looped into a mesmerizing black metal hypnorock. Vocals howl and shriek, drums pound and blast, but it's all about the riffs, dense and fuzzy, a thick blanket of buzz laid over everything. Almost like a black metal Circle or Gore. Not a whole lot of parts, in fact, often just one or two, but the riffs are so good, and they are recorded so hot and blown out. It's like dipping your head in a furnace of black flames. Probably the weirdest thing about Sapthuran is all the acoustic guitars. It seems like almost half the record is not metal at all, instead a sort of lilting dark folk, fingerpicked minor key melodies, simple strumming, often placed in dark soundscapes of ambient drone, or distant black buzz, or crackling campfires, or the sound of howling wind, or burbling streams and chirping birds. Pastoral and tranquil, but still dark and ominous, the perfect sonic counterpoint to the hypnotic buzzing blackness surrounding that fragile serenity on all sides and perpetually threatening to swallow it whole.
MPEG Stream: "Three"
MPEG Stream: "Four"
MPEG Stream: "Six"

SARDONIS s/t (MeteorCity) cd 11.98
We're pretty skeptical of the two man band, a lot of the time we end up wishing a bass / drums duo just had a guitarist, or that a guitar / drums duo had some more low end. There are of course exceptions: godheadSilo, Om, Ruins, and you can now add Belgian duo Sardonis to the list. The latest blast of kick ass heaviness from MeteorCity, who are on the roll to end all rolls, recent releases from Freedom Hawk, Egypt, Leeches Of Lore, Whitebuzz, Village Of Dead Roads, Flood, Ararat, those guys are killing us! And we love it.
So Sardonis are a guitar and drums duo from Belgium, who traffic in epic, heaving, monstrous instrumental metal, equal parts classic stoner rock, old school doom and post rock/post metal or whatever you call it. Needless to say, you won't even notice the lack of bass here, the sound is MASSIVE, the low end crushing, and the riffs killer. We'll be the first to admit that instrumental rock can definitely get boring, often sounding like it's unfinished, where you're constantly expecting the vocals to kick in at any minute, but Sardonis solve that problem by crafting super catchy songs that are as much about texture and timbre and mood as they are about rhythm and riffery. Slipping from slow motion lurching crush, to wild frantic blasting, to woozy meandery drift, to full on Sabbathy dirge, this is some seriously heavy, seriously atmospheric shit, the chords not always predictable, the melodies veering of into strange directions, the band sometimes locking into totally mesmerizing trancelike jams, but just as often, exploding into bursts of in-the-red downtuned psychedelia.
It's hard to say exactly what it is about these guys, it's a little bit of everything, some sort of alchemy between the two, and their ability to conjure these songs, riffs, this tone, the overall sound, whatever it is, it fucking rules, and we find ourselves unable to stop listening. Which is always a good sign...
MPEG Stream: "Nero D'Avola"
MPEG Stream: "Skullcrusher AD"
MPEG Stream: "It Walks The Mountain"

SARGEIST Disciple Of The Heinous Path (Moribund) cd 13.98

SARGEIST Lair Of Necromancy (Hospital Productions) 7" 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SARGEIST Satanic Black Devotion (Moribund) cd 14.98

SARKE Vorunah (Indie Recordings ) cd 21.00

SAROS Acrid Plains (Profound Lore) cd 13.98

SAROS Five Pointed Tongue (Hungry Eye) cd 13.98
Saros, featuring the (amazing, need we say?) drummer from the legendary Weakling, is one of San Francisco's up and coming heavy metal outfits, playing a blend of thrash, black and speed metal that takes no prisoners live (and now, on record). Saros are all about old school rippage mixed with weird black metal epic experimentation... On their debut full-length Five Pointed Tongue you get a fierce lesson in modern metal melding, the band both galloping and trudging (depending) through five fairly long tracks (43 minutes total) that mix up blackened rasps, clean vocal melodies, some acoustic guitar, prog-rock song structures, widdly solos, and plenty of traditional Bay Area 'banging. No matter the twists and turns, in one of Saros' songs you're never far from a blast of icy riffage. And quite a beating when it comes to the drums! Requisite obscure metal nerd reference: I wonder if these guys are at all familiar with French Canadian tech metallers Obliveon? I think they'd like them.
MPEG Stream: "F Sub Zero"
MPEG Stream: "Collapse Of The Tower"

SATAN Court In The Act (Roadrunner / Metal Mind) cd 17.98

SATAN'S ALMIGHTY PENIS Pulsing Feral Spire (Pagan Flames Productions) cd 9.98

SATAN'S HOST Burning The Born Again (Moribund) cd 14.98

SATAN'S HOST By The Hands Of The Devil (Moribund) cd 14.98
For whatever reason, we never really paid too much attention to Satan's Host, in the fine tradition of book cover judging, we sort of assumed they would be just another generic boring Satanic black metal band, and apparently they were at some point, and it makes sense, the band name, the cheesy (but cool) cover art, they're on Moribund, but this is maybe their 8th record or something, so we checked it out, and wow, not boring black metal, instead some strange sort of Satanic blackened power metal, led by the powerful soaring clean vocals of their original vocalist Harry "The Tyrant" Conklin, he also of the mighty Jag Panzer, and it's a pretty potent combination for sure, total epic TRUE metal vocals, nestled in some crushing, melodic, heavy as hell hybrid of classic metal and buzzing blackness, pretty tough to resist, especially if you love black metal, but tire of the raspy shrieks, or love metal, but find true metal and power metal a little to wimpy, well, then, this is for you.
And to top it off, they do an amazing/ridiculous/dumb/brilliant cover of the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood", appropriately metallized (and damn it sounds good all buzzy and blasty), but even better, they rewrote the lyrics, so now it's about burning churches, "Norwegian Wood", get it?! Anyway, some seriously melodic blackened satanic power metal heaviness that the metalheads around here have been digging like crazy, and thus comes way recommended it you're of a similar stripe...
MPEG Stream: "By The Hands Of The Devil"
MPEG Stream: "Shades Of The Unlight"
MPEG Stream: "Norwegian Wood"

SATAN'S SIGNS OF WAR s/t (Werewolf) cd 15.98

SATANIC WARMASTER ...Of The Night (No Colours) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SATANIC WARMASTER Carelian Satanist Madness (No Colours) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MPEG Stream: "The Vampiric Tyrant"
MPEG Stream: "Carelian Satanist Madness"

SATANIZE Demonic Conquest In Jerusalem (Cocainacopia) cassette 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SATELLITE CIRCLE Way Beyond The Portal Of The Bone White Rubber Sun cd ep 7.98
Huge groovy Swedish stoner sludge. Warm fuzzy guitars, crashing drums and soaring vocals. On UK label Rage of Achilles.

SATURNALIA TEMPLE Aion Of Drakon (Ajna) cd 13.98
We first heard these occultic stoner psychedelic black doom Swedes on the four way split On The Powers Of The Sphinx, where they were teamed up with Aluk Todolo, Nightbringer and Nihil Nocturne. We were pleasantly surprised, as we were expecting some sort of black metal, but what we got was way more stonery and psychedelic, and as we described in that review sounding "like Kyuss at 16 rpm", which still pretty much holds true. This is tripped out, downtuned lysergic heaviness, thick stoner riffs, wild wah wah guitars, swirling occultic atmospheres, woozy low slung basslines, some serious grooves, and some totally tripped out, heavily effected vox, Electric Wizard fanatics might have just found their new band, that is if they were dreaming of a band that sounded sort of like Electric Wizard, but WAY weirder and WAY more druggy and seriously fucked up. Which is pretty much what these guys are.
Laying down massive thick, super distorted riffs, the band slow motion swinging, slipping from stoner groove, to doomy churn and back again, the bass doing that weird walking thing that was all over Sabbath songs, the guitars occasionally erupting into little druggy effects drenched licks, and then the vocals, drawled and woozy and hazy and laid back, also wreathed in effects, a sort of true doom croon, but run through a wall of blown out fractured effects, and it's not just the sounds, the songs are pretty fucking bizarre too. "Aion Of Drakon" builds the whole track on a weird effected stuttery guitar loop thing, making it sound super hypnotic, a pulsing and pulsating groove, still super saturated, and in-the-red, but warped and subtly rhythmic, wound around big pounding drums, and all blurred into heaving black swells, the sound building to almost raga like tranced out stoner doom rituals, super psychedelic and seriously freaky.
Some of the other tracks slip into a more straight forward lumbering lurch, but even then, things continue to twist and transform, while other tracks, weave all manner of sounds, high end streaks, flute like flutters, warped effects, processed vox, into impossibly damaged, bit irresistibly mesmerizing slo-mo grooves, some tracks with dubbed out drums careening all over the place, sounds weird, and it is, but it works. Imagine a Sabbath 45, dipped in peyote, melted a bit over an open flame, and then spun manually on an old Victrola, broadcast through a wall of Orange amps, heavy heady, far out and fucking absolutely incredible. Just might be our new favorite metal record. And as we mentioned above, all of you folks freaking out over Electric Wizard, Saturnalia Temple is what ET would sound like if you were dosed with PCP and horse tranquilizers, which is, at least in this case, a very good thing...
MPEG Stream: "Black Magic Metal"
MPEG Stream: "Aion Of Drakon"

SATURNALIA TEMPLE Aion Of Drakon (Ajna) lp 14.98
The cd version of this just recently went out of print, waah, but the Ajna Offensive has now thankfully repressed it on vinyl, which is especially nice since somehow we never got a hold of the wax the first time around anyway. So, if you want to burden your turntable with something super HEAVY, and you don't already have this, we recommend it highly! Our review:
We first heard these occultic stoner psychedelic black doom Swedes on the four way split On The Powers Of The Sphinx, where they were teamed up with Aluk Todolo, Nightbringer and Nihil Nocturne. We were pleasantly surprised, as we were expecting some sort of black metal, but what we got was way more stonery and psychedelic, and as we described in that review sounding "like Kyuss at 16 rpm", which still pretty much holds true. This is tripped out, downtuned lysergic heaviness, thick stoner riffs, wild wah wah guitars, swirling occultic atmospheres, woozy low slung basslines, some serious grooves, and some totally tripped out, heavily effected vox, Electric Wizard fanatics might have just found their new band, that is if they were dreaming of a band that sounded sort of like Electric Wizard, but WAY weirder and WAY more druggy and seriously fucked up. Which is pretty much what these guys are.
Laying down massive thick, super distorted riffs, the band slow motion swinging, slipping from stoner groove, to doomy churn and back again, the bass doing that weird walking thing that was all over Sabbath songs, the guitars occasionally erupting into little druggy effects drenched licks, and then the vocals, drawled and woozy and hazy and laid back, also wreathed in effects, a sort of true doom croon, but run through a wall of blown out fractured effects, and it's not just the sounds, the songs are pretty fucking bizarre too. "Aion Of Drakon" builds the whole track on a weird effected stuttery guitar loop thing, making it sound super hypnotic, a pulsing and pulsating groove, still super saturated, and in-the-red, but warped and subtly rhythmic, wound around big pounding drums, and all blurred into heaving black swells, the sound building to almost raga like tranced out stoner doom rituals, super psychedelic and seriously freaky.
Some of the other tracks slip into a more straight forward lumbering lurch, but even then, things continue to twist and transform, while other tracks, weave all manner of sounds, high end streaks, flute like flutters, warped effects, processed vox, into impossibly damaged, bit irresistibly mesmerizing slo-mo grooves, some tracks with dubbed out drums careening all over the place, sounds weird, and it is, but it works. Imagine a Sabbath 45, dipped in peyote, melted a bit over an open flame, and then spun manually on an old Victrola, broadcast through a wall of Orange amps, heavy heady, far out and fucking absolutely incredible. Just might be our new favorite metal record. And as we mentioned above, all of you folks freaking out over Electric Wizard, Saturnalia Temple is what EW would sound like if you were dosed with PCP and horse tranquilizers, which is, at least in this case, a very good thing...
[Correction - Ajna just found a missing box of the cds, so that format's not out of print anymore, not quite anyway...]
MPEG Stream: "Black Magic Metal"
MPEG Stream: "Aion Of Drakon"

SATYRICON Dark Medieval Times (Moonfog) cd 12.98
Now reissued and available again, this is the very very first black metal record (!) that I (Andee) ever bought, along with Cradle Of Filth's The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh, and upon my very first listen was immediately converted to the dark side. The circumstances of my introduction certainly helped. There are plenty of ways to be introduced to new music, getting a mix tape, having a friend play it for you, hearing it on the radio, whatever, but my introduction to black metal was a little different. And a whole lot better if you ask me. There was a cool punk rock collective record store here in SF years ago (Epicenter, now long gone). I used to work at the thrift store downstairs, so like any self respecting record nerd, I spent all my free time upstairs listening, browsing, shopping, hanging out. There was a woman who worked there who was a punk rock / metalhead dream come true. Super tall, lots of spikes and leather and denim, waist length dyed dreadlocks, earrings, noserings, huge black boots, tattoos, and on top of all that she was totally drop dead gorgeous. Almost like a super model dressed up as a metalhead. And as you might imagine she seemed absolutely and totally unapproachable. Well, one day, she started talking to me, handed me this disc and the Cradle Of Filth and insisted that I'd dig 'em. Not sure why she thought I would or how she may have known, but it hardly mattered, she was talking to me, and there was no way I was not going to walk up to the counter with her and leave proudly clutching those discs. Thankfully, I did in fact love both of them, and like I mentioned, I immediately became obsessed with black metal. My mysterious black metal angel drifted off and disappeared, but my love of black metal stuck.
Hard to imagine not being blown away by this record, Satyricon's debut, a gloriously dense, snarling black buzz, with plenty of loping Viking flecked riffage, haunting folky acoustic breaks, blasting double kick, howled guttural vocals. Coming long before the super polished black tech of Satyricon's later records, this is raw and furious, the production is lo-fi but still super thick and heavy, lots of reverb, lots and lots of buzz and fuzz, perfectly situated between the ultra complex blasts of Emperor and Mayhem and the plodding hypnotic buzz of Burzum. It's plenty weird too, huge too-loud keyboard swells, haunting angelic vocals, buzzing sing songy riffs, but already even way back then, you could hear the hints of Satyricon's future as black metal masters, so heavy and strangely catchy, weird and warped, but totally grim and utterly black.
MPEG Stream: "Walk The Path Of Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Medieval Times"

SATYRICON Intermezzo II (Nuclear Blast) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A four-song teaser to Rebel Extravaganza full-length. Much in the tradition of their Meggido ep, Norwegian black metal masters Satyricon veer off into left field a bit with a new song, a remix of an old song, a cover (a weirdly futuristic version of old school Brazilian thrashers Sarcafago's "INRI"), and an electronic-ambient experimental track.

SATYRICON Megiddo (Moonfog) cdep 13.98
Satyricon are one of the more advanced Norwegian black metal bands around, and this four song ep is a worthy addition to their catalog...you get a live recording, a re-recording, and a Motorhead (!) cover, but the highlight is the techno (!!) remix of "The Dawn Of A New Age" from their last masterpiece, the Nemesis Divina album. And it's not at all lame, in fact, it might be the way to introduce your friends in the baggy pants to the joy of corpsepaint.

SATYRICON Nemesis Divina (Century Media) cd 14.98
One of the best, most influential, most perfectly grim and black, most brutal, and most importantly one of our -favorite- black metal records EVER! Easily the bands finest moment. When anyone asks us to recommend the most essential black metal releases EVER, this record vies for the top spot along with Burzum's Filosefem, Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse, Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Darkthrone's Transylvanian Hunger and Immortal's Blizzard Beasts. Pretty seriously daunting company for sure, but depending on our mood, a lot of the time Nemesis Divina easily bumps the others out of the top spot. From the all time classic "Mother North", quite possibly THE catchiest black metal songs ever, to the barely audible sscccching! of a sword being unsheathed about 3 minutes into the first song, to the fucking awesome band photos, this record is tough to beat. Any of the above mentioned records would be perfect introductions into the grim world of black metal, but somehow, Nemesis Divina seems like the perfect secret weapon, the record that even a non-metalhead would hear and be forced to bow down to the dark lord. So fucking great!

SATYRICON Now, Diabolical (Century Media) cd 14.98
That title sounds like an advertising line. New, improved... now, diabolical! The weird thing is, Norwegian black metal originators Satyricon (thee big shots, along with Darkthrone, Emperor, Mayhem, Immortal and a handful of others) have ALWAYS been plenty diabolical. If they'd called the album Now, Rockin' that would maybe make more sense, as this disc takes the midtempo blackened rock sound of tracks like "Fuel For Hatred" from their previous effort Volcano even further into "I just burned down a church, but I want my MTV" territory. Maybe the title IS an advertising line, trying to reassure old school fans that they haven't lost their way on the left-hand path.
Well, it's true that the relatively melodic, headbanging catchiness of many of these tracks isn't perhaps what people expect from grim Nordic black metal warriors like Satyricon -- but we're not complaining. Further curveballs include a horn section on one track, clean (guest) vocals on another. But rest assured, the Grover growl and Slayerizing guitar riffs of Satyr, as well as Frost's muscular drum battery, are also all in full effect, and Snorre Ruch of Thorns appears besides, so it's no drastic break from their past, though it's certainly Volcano to which this sounds the most akin. You can go listen to Frost's other (excellent) band 1349 if true, pure blazing blackened grimnity is all you desire, but we're enjoying Now, Diabolical's dire, gloomy rock n' roll apocalypse just fine at the moment!!
Includes bonus track and (unfortunately, cheesy MTV style) video clip.
MPEG Stream: "Now, Diabolical"
MPEG Stream: "K.I.N.G."

SATYRICON Rebel Extravaganza (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98
One of Norway's premier black metal bands shows even the likes of Emperor who's boss with this amazing new disc. Eschewing their previous sword-wielding medieval fixation for a focus on the grit and horror of modern urban nightmare, these guys have crafted a dizzyingly intense, heavy, and always surprising masterpiece. They hint at the industrial/electronica weirdness of label-mates Dodheimsgard (or contempories Ulver & Arcturus) without totally going that route - they keep it metal, they keep it black, they keep it Satyricon. But it's somehow more twisted and filthy than before (yes, filthy, as in the songs "Filthgrinder" and "Rhapsody In Filth"). Genius.
NB new domestic version tacks on the Intermezzo II ep as a bonus.

SATYRICON Ten Horns Ten Diadems (Moonfog) cd 14.98
It's a tough call, but I think I can safely say that Satyricon is definitely our #1 favorite black metal band. Burzum's Filosefem or Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse or Dissection's Storm Of The Light's Bane are certainly contenders for best black metal records ever, and there are hundreds of other mindblowing bands/records, but as far as consistancy and brutality and originality and forward thinkingness and sheer kick ass-ness, Satyricon leads the pack. After ten years and nary a false step, Satyricon continue to reign supreme. This commemorative box celebrates Satyricon's first decade in grand fashion compiling a greatest hits, with a song from their upcoming full length album Volcano to whet our appetites. Greatest hits are always a risk, and aren't always the way to go in terms of an introduction to a band, and Ten Horns is no different. If you were to buy only one Satyricon record, we would have to insist on the unsurpassed Nemesis Divina, a record that even non-metalheads here at AQ are proud to have in their collections. An frosty epic of grandiose, ultra complex and ultra brutal black metal. Melodies are pummelled with furious blast beats and walls of furious guitars. Two of that album's best tracks are included here including the classic "Mother North"! As are two tracks from their last record, the brilliantly titled Rebel Extravaganza, which is good enough to almost be Nemesis Divina pt. 2. Also included are some older tracks from their debut Dark Medieval Times and their less well known second record The Shadowthrone, more primitive and buzzing, but definitely hinting at the greatness to come. The big selling points though are the two exclusive tracks, "Serpent's Rise" exclusively for this compilation, and "Repined Bastard Nation" from their forthcoming Volcano record. The new direction is exciting, hinting at a slower doomier direction. We can't wait. Packaged in a fancy box, with an equally fancy digipak inside and a booklet of lyrics and exclusive photos past and present. As well as super cheesy centerfold of a dirty girl in a bikini, laying amidst all the Satyricon collectibles. Dumb! So if you're only ever gonna buy one Satyricon record, make it Nemesis Divina, but if you want a great overview of their recorded output, or you are a completist and need the exclusive track, or you can't wait and need a sneak peak of the new record, then you can't go wrong with this collection. SUPER LIMITED. So if you want one, ACT FAST!
RealAudio clip: "Mother North"
RealAudio clip: "Serpent's Rise"
RealAudio clip: "Repined Bastrad Nation"

SATYRICON The Age Of Nero (Koch) cd 16.98
All hail! Here's the 2009 release from the band who, along with Emperor, Immortal, Darkthrone, Mayhem and very few others, basically established the template/threw down the gauntlet for a vast majority of all the black metal we've raved about over the years. This Norwegian duo - frontman Satyr and drumgod Faust - have earned their rep as black metal legends. Yet they still keep pushing to get bigger and better... bigger at any rate. Their last couple of albums (Volcano and Now, Diabolical) saw them developing in a more commercial, or at least more mainstream metal, ROCK direction. While they didn't pull a Metallica, they definitely moved out of the underground. More power to 'em, even though they don't boast the best corpsepainted band photos in the biz anymore...
Now, with The Age Of Nero, we hear a Satyricon comfortable with their new, MTV-ready "black n' roll" status, but who also stand ready to remind their old fans just how grim and blasting and blackened they can be. With extra help from their old pal Snorre Ruch of the very cult Thorns, they've crafted a bombastic attack that's truly grim yet grooving, mostly midtempo and exceedingly tight. And quite catchy, a quality certainly not limited only to this disc's designated "hit single" / video clip "Black Crow On A Tombstone". (By the way, we dig that song, but sorry, the video is too funny, the slicked-back Satyr especially ridiculous, check it out on YouTube sometime...!) But if you only -hear- the song, it'll knock you on your ass. A massive, pounding "hit" indeed.
While some bemoan the overall "slowdown" of their sound, some of our favorite moments here are those more atmospheric ones, like the moody breaks in the midst of "The Wolfpack" for instance. And they can still grind you to dust beneath the lashing brutality of their distorted guitars, seasick riffage, and (when it kicks in) blazing battery. One of the album's other highlights is the epic closer, "Den Siste", which sees the return of the horn section that appeared on Now, Diabolical but also is sung/rasped entirely in Satyr's native Norwegian, old school style. Horns in black metal have always been all right with us, actually, from Potentiam to Sear Bliss to Den Saakaldte.
While we wonder if this band will every really surprise us again, that's ok. They can bring this brand of heaviness on album after album and we'll be happy!
MPEG Stream: " Black Crow On A Tombstone"
MPEG Stream: "The Wolfpack"
MPEG Stream: "Die By My Hand"