500 FT. OF PIPE Dope Deal (Beard of Stars) cd 14.98
Detroit's 500 Ft. Of Pipe are another new band of hard-rockin' hopefuls in the crowded stoner rock arena, and they are better than most. What with their Motor City pedigree, they align more with Stooges-fans Monster Magnet than with Kyuss (Kyuss being the most common template for young stoner rock bands to follow, y'know). There's (of course) a big drug fixation going on here -- witness song titles like "420 to Go", "Dope Deal", and "D.E.A." Loud, bass-heavy, rock action, with psychedelic balls enough to cover Donovan's "Sunshine Superman"! Allan's fave stoner rock disc of the year.
RealAudio clip: "Detroit City (Never Done Me No Good)"
RealAudio clip: "Wear It Out"

5IVE Hesperus (Tortuga) cd 14.98
The cover photo on this digipack release shows placid waters, probably some sheltered harbor near Boston, from whence this guitar-drums two-piece hail. The photo on the interior gatefold also depicts relatively calm seas. But the sonic waves that 5ive stir up are something else, bigger and meaner! 5ive's relentless and riff-repetitive, mostly-instrumental music is HEAVY all right. And thus, floats our boat, even as it tosses said boat about upon its stormy waves.
We've been waiting for some new 5ive for quite some time. This is their first full-length of new material in forever. 2006's Versus ep, featuring a couple remixes by Justin Broadrick (Jesu), only left us hankering for more... so we're glad to report that this new 5ive is finally here and it's got what we want. Thick n' distorted stoner rock meets post rock jams, full of loud soft dynamics for maximum sludgecore beauty and power. Tracks like "Heel" and "Big Sea" have plenty of rollicking psychedelic swing to 'em, after the pretty parts that set you up for the heavier hitting... and while the likes of "News II" gets up into the 12 minute range, even the shorter tunes here manage some epic, hypnotic heft. Fans of 5ive won't be disappointed, and if you haven't heard 'em before check this out if stuff like Pelican, Kinski, godheadsilo, Isis, Old Man Gloom, etc. is on your personal playlist.
MPEG Stream: "Gulls"
MPEG Stream: "Big Sea"

5IVE s/t (Tortuga) cd 13.98
Not to be confused with the identically named "ladband" we discovered while trying to look up info on this one on the internet -- no, this 5ive are no boyband, they're a Boston psychedelic-doom-core duo making their cd debut after releasing one amazingly heavy LP last year. Their label Tortuga is also the home of AQ-faves Old Man Gloom. Following in the prolific footsteps of OMG (and GnR for that matter), 5ive have not one but two simultaneous new releases. The self-titled one is actually just the cd version of the aforementioned LP. And it's a monster. Six long tracks of mostly-instrumental sludge heaviness. Their weighty distortion-dirge-demonics are in a league with Gore, Earth, Corrupted, Electric Wizard, and fellow Bostonians Warhorse. That hypnotic, heavy, and stoned! Follow-up full-length "The Telestic Disfracture" is similarly heavy, and adds not-entirely necessary guest vocals (from another Boston metalcore band, Milligram) on several tracks. Brutal. Again, the songs are long and droney, but with good use of quiet/loud dynamics for maximum punishment effect (and surprising beauty too). These discs would make that ladband go running for mommy!
RealAudio clip: "The Baron"

5IVE The Telestic Disfracture (Tortuga) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not to be confused with the identically named "ladband" we discovered while trying to look up info on this one on the internet -- no, this 5ive are no boyband, they're a Boston psychedelic-doom-core duo making their cd debut after releasing one amazingly heavy LP last year. Their label Tortuga is also the home of AQ-faves Old Man Gloom. Following in the prolific footsteps of OMG (and GnR for that matter), 5ive have not one but two simultaneous new releases. The self-titled one is actually just the cd version of the aforementioned LP. And it's a monster. Six long tracks of mostly-instrumental sludge heaviness. Their weighty distortion-dirge-demonics are in a league with Gore, Earth, Corrupted, Electric Wizard, and fellow Bostonians Warhorse. That hypnotic, heavy, and stoned! Follow-up full-length "The Telestic Disfracture" is similarly heavy, and adds not-entirely necessary guest vocals (from another Boston metalcore band, Milligram) on several tracks. Brutal. Again, the songs are long and droney, but with good use of quiet/loud dynamics for maximum punishment effect (and surprising beauty too). These discs would make that ladband go running for mommy!
RealAudio clip: "Nitinol"
RealAudio clip: "Shark Dreams"

9DW / BORIS Golden Dance Classics (Catune) cd 16.98
It's been a while since we've heard from Boris, mostly because they've seemingly been touring non stop for the last few years, but it looks like finally some new music is happening, including a forthcoming split with low end sludge popppers Torche, and this, another split with a Japanese band we've never heard of called 9DW, who as far as we can tell is sonically about as far removed from Boris as any band could be. A sort of eighties cosmic disco, like a way less edgier Justice maybe. More on those tracks in a second, since odds are most aQ customers will be all over this for the two brand new Boris tracks.
But be warned, not sure if it's a general shift in sound, or they were just trying to mix it up for this split, but this is Boris like you've never heard them. The first Boris track, "Tokyo Wonder Land", in a blind listening test, everyone here, when asked who they though it was, invariably said Ariel Pink, or John Maus, yep, a warbly warped blurry lo fi alien FM radio pop, with primitive drum machine, mumbled vocals, shimmery eighties production, whirring synths, jangly reverbed guitar, buzzy rubbery cop show basslines, super woozy and trippy and WAY druggy, there are even some falsetto 'oooh's. It only really gets Boris-y briefly in the middle with a wild tangle of super distorted psychedelic leads. Woah, What the fuck? Not sure what's going on, or what happened, but we are digging it BIG time, in fact, we might go so far as to say, this is one of our favorite Boris jams in ages, as is the second track here, "Akirame Flower", which finds Boris in full on washed out bleary eared nineties shoegaze mode, My Bloody Valentine, Bailter Space, fuzz guitar, weary vox, tons of delay and reverb and effects, all smeared and blurred into a gorgeous hazy 16 Candles / Dinosaur Jr / M83 soft focus, dream jam. Fuck. Awesome.
So what the heck are Boris doing with a band like 9DW? Can't say, and can't really say, how often we'll find ourselves listening to their two tracks, groovy, slightly jazzy, a little house-y, definitely eighties, not one guy, an actual band, sounds a bit like M83 if he were to do a techno record, stir in a little Justice stomp, some post rocky skittery, looped synths, and some total eighties MTV new romantic guitar jangle, a little Shadowfax and some worrisome funkiness...
But fuck it, Boris is why you're here, and if you're an adventurous Boris fan, who won't be disappointed by the lack of fuzzed out buzzy psych rock, then two Boris jams will kick your ass something good. Dying to hear if they continue on in this direction, and give the rest of the warbly new wave noise pop outsiders a run for their warped druggy money.
MPEG Stream: 9DW "Stingray"
MPEG Stream: BORIS "Tokyo Wonder Land"

9DW / BORIS Golden Dance Classics (Catune) lp 16.98
It's been a while since we've heard from Boris, mostly because they've seemingly been touring non stop for the last few years, but it looks like finally some new music is happening, including a forthcoming split with low end sludge popppers Torche, and this, another split with a Japanese band we've never heard of called 9DW, who as far as we can tell is sonically about as far removed from Boris as any band could be. A sort of eighties cosmic disco, like a way less edgier Justice maybe. More on those tracks in a second, since odds are most aQ customers will be all over this for the two brand new Boris tracks.
But be warned, not sure if it's a general shift in sound, or they were just trying to mix it up for this split, but this is Boris like you've never heard them. The first Boris track, "Tokyo Wonder Land", in a blind listening test, everyone here, when asked who they though it was, invariably said Ariel Pink, or John Maus, yep, a warbly warped blurry lo fi alien FM radio pop, with primitive drum machine, mumbled vocals, shimmery eighties production, whirring synths, jangly reverbed guitar, buzzy rubbery cop show basslines, super woozy and trippy and WAY druggy, there are even some falsetto 'oooh's. It only really gets Boris-y briefly in the middle with a wild tangle of super distorted psychedelic leads. Woah, What the fuck? Not sure what's going on, or what happened, but we are digging it BIG time, in fact, we might go so far as to say, this is one of our favorite Boris jams in ages, as is the second track here, "Akirame Flower", which finds Boris in full on washed out bleary eared nineties shoegaze mode, My Bloody Valentine, Bailter Space, fuzz guitar, weary vox, tons of delay and reverb and effects, all smeared and blurred into a gorgeous hazy 16 Candles / Dinosaur Jr / M83 soft focus, dream jam. Fuck. Awesome.
So what the heck are Boris doing with a band like 9DW? Can't say, and can't really say, how often we'll find ourselves listening to their two tracks, groovy, slightly jazzy, a little house-y, definitely eighties, not one guy, an actual band, sounds a bit like M83 if he were to do a techno record, stir in a little Justice stomp, some post rocky skittery, looped synths, and some total eighties MTV new romantic guitar jangle, a little Shadowfax and some worrisome funkiness...
But fuck it, Boris is why you're here, and if you're an adventurous Boris fan, who won't be disappointed by the lack of fuzzed out buzzy psych rock, then two Boris jams will kick your ass something good. Dying to hear if they continue on in this direction, and give the rest of the warbly new wave noise pop outsiders a run for their warped druggy money.
MPEG Stream: 9DW "Stingray"
MPEG Stream: BORIS "Tokyo Wonder Land"

A STORM OF LIGHT As The Valley Of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver ÊMemories Fade (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
Latest slab of epic, apocalyptic, psychedelic doom from A Storm Of Light, the project of Josh Graham, who also plays in Red Sparowes, Blood And Time, and of course the psychedelic doom sludge granddaddies of them all Neurosis. So it makes sense that Graham's project explores similar sonic territory, but where Neurosis is all downtuned crush and bellowed howl, ASOL is more spaced out, more Hawkwind, more melodic, more atmospheric. Even moreso than the last full length, As The Valley spends much of its time drifting, and smoldering, hovering and shimmering, but when the songs do lock in, and get heavy, it's still on the melodic psychedelic side of heavy, the vocals the driving force, way up in the mix, wreathed in echo and delay, giving the sound a bit of a Kyuss vibe, which is definitely not a bad thing, but when the band do crush, the sound MASSIVE, the guitars impossibly heavy, the production epic, but those stretches of extreme heaviness surprisingly brief with the tracks more often than not slipping back into the broodier moodier minimalism that much of the record explores, and those pronounced vocals, and the vocal heavy mix, definitely give this As The Valley a distinctly pop vibe, which probably screams sell out to some, but to us, just makes this less a doom metal record, or a post doom record, or whatever you want to call it, and transforms it into something tougher to pigeonhole, a sort of pop flecked metallic psych, or psychedelic doom pop. But let's to put too much of an emphasis on the pop element, cuz this stuff is still pretty goddamn heavy, it just happens to have hooks and melodies, and chooses not to bury them, and instead flaunts them, and often lets the melody, instead of the riff, drive the song. Which is actually pretty refreshing...
MPEG Stream: "Missing"
MPEG Stream: "Collapse"
MPEG Stream: "Black Wolves"

A STORM OF LIGHT As The Valley Of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver ÊMemories Fade (Burning World) 2lp 33.00
Latest slab of epic, apocalyptic, psychedelic doom from A Storm Of Light, the project of Josh Graham, who also plays in Red Sparowes, Blood And Time, and of course the psychedelic doom sludge granddaddies of them all Neurosis. So it makes sense that Graham's project explores similar sonic territory, but where Neurosis is all downtuned crush and bellowed howl, ASOL is more spaced out, more Hawkwind, more melodic, more atmospheric. Even moreso than the last full length, As The Valley spends much of its time drifting, and smoldering, hovering and shimmering, but when the songs do lock in, and get heavy, it's still on the melodic psychedelic side of heavy, the vocals the driving force, way up in the mix, wreathed in echo and delay, giving the sound a bit of a Kyuss vibe, which is definitely not a bad thing, but when the band do crush, the sound MASSIVE, the guitars impossibly heavy, the production epic, but those stretches of extreme heaviness surprisingly brief with the tracks more often than not slipping back into the broodier moodier minimalism that much of the record explores, and those pronounced vocals, and the vocal heavy mix, definitely give this As The Valley a distinctly pop vibe, which probably screams sell out to some, but to us, just makes this less a doom metal record, or a post doom record, or whatever you want to call it, and transforms it into something tougher to pigeonhole, a sort of pop flecked metallic psych, or psychedelic doom pop. But let's to put too much of an emphasis on the pop element, cuz this stuff is still pretty goddamn heavy, it just happens to have hooks and melodies, and chooses not to bury them, and instead flaunts them, and often lets the melody, instead of the riff, drive the song. Which is actually pretty refreshing...
MPEG Stream: "Missing"
MPEG Stream: "Collapse"
MPEG Stream: "Black Wolves"

A STORM OF LIGHT Forgive Us Our Trespasses (Neurot) cd 14.98
Maybe some of you remember the awesome Primitive North split lp between Nadja and A Storm Of Light, the newish project of Josh Graham (Red Sparrows, Blood And Time, Neurosis visuals dude). Some of us neglected to take note of A Storm Of Light's debut, which we're now kicking ourselves over, because the band's latest, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, is certainly satisfying our sweet tooth for epic, metallic post rock grandiosity with a healthy dose of DOOM. Like Neurosis, ASoL takes things into sprawling psychedelic territory, but Graham's clear and powerful vocals may actually be enough for this to appeal to the non-metalheads as well. The sound here is absolutely HUGE, and the awesome/ridiculous artwork, with its collection of discarded objects, animals, and massive landforms, should give you a pretty good indication of the surreal, dreamlike qualities represented on this disc. It's pretty refreshing hearing a band bring such crushingly heavy sounds into a realm that is also very tuneful, catchy, and triumphant. Thematically, the album seems to revolve around some sort of post-industrial collapse - you know, like the one just around the corner - perfectly represented on the opening track, which features a chilling spoken word piece by Lydia Lunch accompanied by a... banjo? Yep, the "almost sea shanty-ish" arrangements we described on Primitive North prevail here as well, not that you'll be thinking of pirates (or maybe you will), it's just that the songs take on a massive, back and forth sort of sway like they are being controlled by the elements.
So yeah, maybe it took us a while to take note of these guys, but we're sure glad we did. Better late than never.
MPEG Stream: "Amber Waves Of Gray"
MPEG Stream: "Tempest"
MPEG Stream: "The Light In Their Eyes"

A STORM OF LIGHT Forgive Us Our Trespasses (Neurot) lp 22.00
Maybe some of you remember the awesome Primitive North split lp between Nadja and A Storm Of Light, the newish project of Josh Graham (Red Sparrows, Blood And Time, Neurosis visuals dude). Some of us neglected to take note of A Storm Of Light's debut, which we're now kicking ourselves over, because the band's latest, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, is certainly satisfying our sweet tooth for epic, metallic post rock grandiosity with a healthy dose of DOOM. Like Neurosis, ASoL takes things into sprawling psychedelic territory, but Graham's clear and powerful vocals may actually be enough for this to appeal to the non-metalheads as well. The sound here is absolutely HUGE, and the awesome/ridiculous artwork, with its collection of discarded objects, animals, and massive landforms, should give you a pretty good indication of the surreal, dreamlike qualities represented on this disc. It's pretty refreshing hearing a band bring such crushingly heavy sounds into a realm that is also very tuneful, catchy, and triumphant. Thematically, the album seems to revolve around some sort of post-industrial collapse - you know, like the one just around the corner - perfectly represented on the opening track, which features a chilling spoken word piece by Lydia Lunch accompanied by a... banjo? Yep, the "almost sea shanty-ish" arrangements we described on Primitive North prevail here as well, not that you'll be thinking of pirates (or maybe you will), it's just that the songs take on a massive, back and forth sort of sway like they are being controlled by the elements.
So yeah, maybe it took us a while to take note of these guys, but we're sure glad we did. Better late than never.
MPEG Stream: "Amber Waves Of Gray"
MPEG Stream: "Tempest"
MPEG Stream: "The Light In Their Eyes"

A STORM OF LIGHT Untitled (Latitudes / Southern) cd 14.98
The latest in the ongoing series of limited Latitudes releases comes from psychedelic doom heavies A Storm Of Light, whose most recent full length, As The Valley Of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade, we just reviewed on last week's list. ASOL is the project of Josh Graham, who is a member of epic doom sludge legends Neurosis as well as Blood And Time and Red Sparowes.
And like that full length, this is another killer batch of epic psychedelic doom jams, the guitars chugging and churning, the melodies epic and soaring, the drums a colossal pound, the vocals effected and tripped out, the sound like a swirling druggy hybrid of Neurosis, Hawkwind and Godspeed, the tracks smoldering slow burners, which sometimes erupt into full on crushing metal blowouts, but just as often, remain murky and psychedelic and droney and dirgey.
"Tempest" starts out kinda weird, with some cool lo-fi backwards guitars, some creepy whispered vox, dark dolorous piano, a staticky field of what sounds like chirping crickets, before finally exploding into a lumbering, mathy post metal workout, and their version of Joy Division's "Day Of The Lords" sounds like it could have been an ASOL original, but the big surprise is the final track, a spacey psychedelic cover of Big Black's "Kitty Empire", which definitely adds a new twist to an already ruling jam.
A handful of guests pop up too, one of the Wolves from Wolves In The Throne Room, and the legendary Lydia Lunch, among others. Packaged as usual in that distinctive Latitudes packaging. the cd in a brown and white origami style sleeve, with a red metallic foil stamp on the front, and a full color insert inside with liner notes, the lp in a black and white sleeve, with the same insert. BOTH LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, each one hand numbered!
MPEG Stream: "Day Of The Lords"
MPEG Stream: "Vast And Endless"

A STORM OF LIGHT Untitled (Latitudes / Southern) lp 16.98
The latest in the ongoing series of limited Latitudes releases comes from psychedelic doom heavies A Storm Of Light, whose most recent full length, As The Valley Of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade, we just reviewed on last week's list. ASOL is the project of Josh Graham, who is a member of epic doom sludge legends Neurosis as well as Blood And Time and Red Sparowes.
And like that full length, this is another killer batch of epic psychedelic doom jams, the guitars chugging and churning, the melodies epic and soaring, the drums a colossal pound, the vocals effected and tripped out, the sound like a swirling druggy hybrid of Neurosis, Hawkwind and Godspeed, the tracks smoldering slow burners, which sometimes erupt into full on crushing metal blowouts, but just as often, remain murky and psychedelic and droney and dirgey.
"Tempest" starts out kinda weird, with some cool lo-fi backwards guitars, some creepy whispered vox, dark dolorous piano, a staticky field of what sounds like chirping crickets, before finally exploding into a lumbering, mathy post metal workout, and their version of Joy Division's "Day Of The Lords" sounds like it could have been an ASOL original, but the big surprise is the final track, a spacey psychedelic cover of Big Black's "Kitty Empire", which definitely adds a new twist to an already ruling jam.
A handful of guests pop up too, one of the Wolves from Wolves In The Throne Room, and the legendary Lydia Lunch, among others. Packaged as usual in that distinctive Latitudes packaging. the cd in a brown and white origami style sleeve, with a red metallic foil stamp on the front, and a full color insert inside with liner notes, the lp in a black and white sleeve, with the same insert. BOTH LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, each one hand numbered!
MPEG Stream: "Day Of The Lords"
MPEG Stream: "Vast And Endless"

A STORM OF LIGHT / NADJA Primitive North (Robotic Empire) 2lp + cd 25.00
Not sure why we never reviewed the recent full length from A Storm Of Light, if we remember correctly, it was a pretty excellent collection of post Neurosis brooding metallic heaviness. But we can't review everything, so we'll try to make up for it with this one, which features ASoL teaming up with big time aQ faves Nadja for some seriously blissed out doom drone heaviness.
The A side features two tracks from A Storm Of Light, "Brother" and "Sister", the first, a sort of Neurosis / later period Swans hybrid, the verses a sprawling snare flecked rumble, the male vocals a deep croon, countered by more ethereal female vox, the verses crashing into an explosive chorus, huge soaring downtuned guitars, howled vocals, pounding drums, dirge-y but not doomy so much as epic, the guitar layered into thick swells, the whole thing getting almost orchestral near the end. "Sister" follows up with something a bit more mathy and lurching rhythmically, the vocals more raspy and rough, the guitars wreathed in effects, keyboards swirling and shimmering, the drums tribal and solid, the middle part features long stretches of softer drift, the arrangement almost sounds almost sea shanty-ish, albeit lumbering and heavy as fuck, super dramatic, and almost emo sounding when the two vocals harmonize near the end.
Nadja counter with a sidelong jam called "I Make From Your Eyes The Sun" which begins with warm muted backwards guitars, skittery barely there percussion, tinkling chimes, woozy sun baked melodies, lots of gauzy hiss and whir, even some piano, eventually, as it always does, the song blossoms in a slow motion supernova of sound, the guitars thick and viscous, the vocals a near whisper way down in the mix, the drums spare and simple, a gentle pop song buried beneath all manner of distortion and decay, woozy and washed out and dreamy and distant, although at one point, the ethereal guitar parts coalesce into some serious chugging, and for a short stretch the sound of Nadja gets all Godfleshed, a fierce industrial pound, beneath streaks of feedback, and undulating layers of buzz building and building and building to a warm, wonderfully warped climax, before the parts gradually slough off leaving just a minimal bit of warm whir.
The last two tracks are remixes, the first lets Nadja transform ASoL's "Brother" into something very Nadja-like, a slow, brooding build up, all deep swell and swirls of muted feedback, warped reverby guitars, bits of backwards swoop, gentle tinkling keyboards, until the MASSIVE breakdown, ultra heavy pounding crush, the guitars epic and crumbling and fierce as fuck, the drums distorted and pummeling, the drums eventually dropping out for the most part, leaving just the guitars to drone and buzz their way to the end. And finally, A Storm Of Light gets to tackle the Nadja track, and right out of the gate, they chop it up quite a bit, bumping the vocals up in the mix, muting most of the guitars except for a little industrial squall of grinding buzz, stretching it out into something less warm and woozy, but still dark and ominous, eventually letting the guitars tangle and wrangle over the roiling sea of murk below, all sort of atonal and off kilter, the drums more machinelike, finishing off with a weirdly dreamy stretch of crumbling chug.
Normally there would be a side 4, but here, that side is instead rendered unplayable by a beautiful super detailed etching. And both lps are pressed on super subtle blood red / black vinyl. And the packaging, holy shit is it over the top. The artwork is super eye popping photoshopped fantasy art with strange humanoids and polar bears and sweeping expanses of tundra and starlit skies and ruined castles, and birds and rams, it's almost silly it's so over the top but it's VERY striking. Gatefold, super thick, inside there's also a full color printed lyric sheet with liner notes AND a cd (not a cd-r) featuring all the music from the two records.
MPEG Stream: A STORM OF LIGHT "Brother"
MPEG Stream: NADJA "I Make From Your Eyes The Sun"

A TORTURED SOUL Kiss Of The Thorn (Eyes Like Snow / Northern Silence) cd 11.98
A change of pace from the usual black metal grimnity we expect from the Northern Silence label (who have brought us the likes of Angmar, Alcest, Amesoeurs, Stielas Storhett, Necrofrost...) comes from Milwaukee metallers A Tortured Soul (not to be confused with another metal band called This Tortured Soul fyi). In truth, they're on a Northern Silence sub-label called Eyes Like Snow, and actually ARE pretty grim. But not in a black metal way, unless you count Mercyful Fate/King Diamond as black metal (which they were definitely considered, back in the day, due to KD's LaVeyan Satanic philosophies). This is '80s styled epic power metal, with soaring-with-the-eagles, then-tearing-them-to-shreds singing that reminds us at times of Judas Priest's Rob Halford -- or even ol' Ozzy Osbourne -- especially on this album's best track, "Not Tonight"...
Vocalist Black (that's his name) has a high falsetto attack that mixes it up with more growly-man discourse. Likewise, A Tortured Soul's music ranges from moody n' melodic to ball-crushingly heavy, from doomy plod to speedy chug, doing their damnedest to deliver on their negative, depressive moniker. For fans of KD's outfits, also Justice-era Metallica, Nevermore/Sanctuary, '90s Judas Priest, Iced Earth, maybe even Shadows Fall. All despite the looks of their very black metal seeming band logo/symbol!
MPEG Stream: "Tomorrow's Door"
MPEG Stream: "Not Tonight"

ABDULLAH Graveyard Poetry (MeteorCity) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ohio stoner/doom/post-grunge metal band Abdullah return with their 2nd proper album, continuing (sort of, read on) their tradition of heavy Black Sabbathy guitars/riffs overlaid with melodic vocals, that kinda sound like those of Dax Riggs of Acid Bath/Agents of Oblivion/Deadboy and the Elephant Men. Songwise, Abdullah are a bit like a slightly doomier version of the late lamented Spirit Caravan (if you didn't hear, Spirit Caravan recently broke up -- but don't worry, Wino joined up with Victor Griffin in his band, Place of Skulls...dunno if that means Wino's a Christian now, but whatever...ok, back to the Abdullah review) but with some big twists this time out. Before we heard "Graveyard Poetry", we were a bit surprised to see that that Abdullah's European record label was comparing this release not only to doomsters like Trouble as we'd expect, but also to a bunch of obscure, traditional 80s metal acts, among them, local SF semi-legends Brocas Helm! Well, it's kinda true, at least on a few tracks anyway (like "Deprogrammed" and "They, The Tyrants"), wherein they leap from the moody, grungy doom style they established on their previous releases (and much of this one) into full-on rockin', quasi thrash metal territory. In this context, the vocals remind us a lot less of Dax Riggs and a lot more of the guy from Diamond Head!! I guess they've been listening to, if perhaps not Brocas Helm, at least some early Metallica and NWOBHM stuff!! Cool. A nice surprise. Although, while WE like the mixture, it might be a problem for some folks who will either dig the 60 percent doom content, or the 40 percent thrashin', but maybe not both.
RealAudio clip: "Black Helicopters"
RealAudio clip: "Deprogrammed"
RealAudio clip: "Secret Teachings Of Lost Ages"

ABDULLAH s/t (MeteorCity) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ohio stoner/doom band, with grunge leanings. Maybe not as doomy as one might hope, 'cause the drummer/vocalists Ozzy-ish voice makes one wish for more Sabbath, less Soundgarden. Good tho.
Nice cd booklet art/design, kind of a surprise coming from the usually aesthetically-impaired Meteor City...

ABDULLAH / DRAGONAUTA split (Dias De Garage) cd 12.98
We last heard from Sabbathy stoner rockers Abdullah back in 2002, when the Ohio-based quintet released their second album, Graveyard Poetry. Now they've reappeared on this split release in the company of Argentinian weirdos Dragonauta, whose previous full-length Luciferatu was justly celebrated 'round these parts when it came out last year. Celebrated by those of us at AQ who like eccentric, proggy doom metal, that is! It's nice to hear something new from both bands, and although they take differing approaches to the stoner/doom style, they both have a love of Black Sabbath in common and also aren't afraid to be, well, a bit different (in very different ways, we should add).
Abdullah serve up six new tracks of moody, dynamic rock/metal with what we've described before as having somewhat of a "grunge" flavor. But Abdullah are much darker and heavier than the average Seattle band of the '90s... For fans of Down, CoC (circa Blind or Deliverance), Alice In Chains, and Acid Bath, we'd venture to say.
After the relatively mainstream and melodic Abdullah, Dragonauta seem even less "normal" than they already are (aren't?). They offer three new studio cuts and two live tracks, all of 'em being creaky, spreaky, riff-freaked workouts marked by fat psychedelic guitar noodle and raspy, strangulated Spanish-language vocals. From headbanging gallop to mellow jazz chords, Dragonauta take their compositions to various unexpected extremes, wild-eyed and drunkenly metallic at all times (except for when they're not). They're a bit like Los Natas but with even more of a 'we're crazy and we don't give a damn, let's play!' attitude. As far as we're concerned, they're the main reason to get this split, even though we like the Abdullah stuff ok too. But Dragonauta are just plumb loco and that really floats our boat in their moat.
MPEG Stream: ABDULLAH "Grey Sky Faith"
MPEG Stream: DRAGONAUTA "Revolucion Luciferiana"

ACID KING III (Small Stone) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
San Fran stoner metal heroes (and heroine) Acid King roll their big ol' ball of fuzz in our direction with this latest (presumably third, but we didn't count 'em) album of heavy Sabbath-influenced spacey sludge rock. Singer/guitarist Lori S. and company kick out the jams (albeit slowly) on such tracks as "2 Wheel Nation", "Heavy Load" and "Into The Ground". With her wailing moan drifting over the sort of plodding, low-end riff repetition you'd expect from pals of Boris, this is one for those of you into the likes of Om, Sons Of Otis, Dead Meadow, that sort of thing. Of course, you might nod off before the cool guitar part or catchy bit of the song heaves into view...but that's the risk you take with a lot of the stonier stoner stuff like this!
MPEG Stream: "Heavy Load"
MPEG Stream: "War Of The Mind"

ACID KING / THE MYSTICK KREWE OF CLEARLIGHT Free... / The Father, The Son and The Holy Smoke (Man's Ruin) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Split release of stoner rock majesty. First up, the doomier side of the album courtesy of local SF heavies Acid King (the band lead by Dale Crover's ex-wife Lori, featuring as well 'Thee' Guy Pinhas of ex-Obsessed, ex-Goatsnake, ex-Beaver fame). Their four tracks of sludge love are followed by the somewhat 'funkier' stylings (well, there's an organ player in the band) of deep South instrumental combo The Mystick Krewe... Funky spelling anyway. This New Orleans band (boasting members of Eyehategod) aren't actually instrumental on this disc, though, as they are joined by stoner rock legend Wino (Spirit Caravan, ex-Saint Vitus, ex-Obsessed) on vocals, a smart move. Again, heavy stuff. Rock out! Recommended.
RealAudio clip: MYSTICK KREWE OF CLEARLIGHT "Veiled"
RealAudio clip: ACID KING "Free"

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE Electric Heavyland (Alien8 Recordings) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I know we're all thinking the same thing: Enough with the Acid Mothers Temple already! Can't Makoto Kawabata and his band of krautrock-obsessed Japanese pyschedelic hippy freaks go on a six-month nature retreat or something, and give us (and our wallets) a break? But, the fact remains, that for fans of psych-rock weirdness, very few of the many AMT releases have been disappointing, really.
So, then, what's the deal with this one? "Electric Heavyland" (one thing Kawabata & co. are NOT good at is titles) is a bit unsubtle, wearing its intentions on its all-black sleeve (or, rather, obi): this is AMT's stab at non-stop, super-heavy rockin'. Alien8 compares it to "Mellow Out", the now out-of-print first album from Mainliner, the High Rise related group that Kawabata played in prior to AMT's debut. (They even point out that "Electric Heavyland" even LOOKS a lot like "Mellow Out", something which hardly seems all that meaningful or significant...I mean, c'mon.) Regardless, it's certainly in the ballpark. Sloppy, noisy, spacey, utterly indulgent, this is the sound of a stoner heavy psych band fully amped up, plugged in, and jacking off. The blown-out, sub-Stooges motorcycle metal of Mainliner (and High Rise) is perhaps more purposeful than this, without the spacey detours, synth fx, and wordless female vocalizing of this disc. But, when you're in the midst of "Loved And Confused" or "Atomic Rotary Grinding God" or "?Quicksilver Machine Head" on this disc (see, decidedly un-subtle indeed), that hardly matters. Not the heaviest ever, but heavy enough. Would Monster Magnet dare take 'em on tour?
RealAudio clip: "Loved And Confused"

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE Recurring Dream & Apocalypse Of Darkness (Important) cd 14.98
This is the new album from Japan's Acid Mothers Temple, that AMT leader Kawabata Makoto contends is heavier than the average heavy AMT release, going so far as to say it's in the league of something like SUNNO))). Well, is it really?? Would he bet his beard on it? (We all ask, salivatin'.)
The answer: holy shit, yes. It's like indeed kinda like SUNNO))) jamming with Amon Duul, in a relentless riff orgy. That heavy. That droney. That creepy. That kosmic. A slow screaming blackened drone-groan vomiting forth from bad trippin' hippy minds, third eyes staring dull and glassy into the spinning vortex of the void. There's about ten minutes of pure bliss-out at the end of the disc, but before that, what you get is psychedelic guitar gunk out the wazoo. Riff after plodding riff, adorned with alien electronics. Dirge, splurge and more dirge. A roar to end all roars. A space-sludge feedback fantasy.
Each clocking in at about 36 and a half minutes, there's two long tracks (with long track names) here: "Eternal Incantation Of Perpetual Nightmare" and "Recurring Dream & Apocalypse Of Darkness". Sound kinda black metal don't they? Actually they do. This is an EXTREME Acid Mothers Temple experience let me tell you. Boris, beware! Ufommamut, watch your backs! Electric Wizard, better take another hit!!
Definitely worthy of the nifty, unmistakable Seldon Hunt cover art. Also, FYI we have this in both digital and analog formats. The vinyl version, a heavy gatefold double LP affair, is limited to 1000 copies, and it includes two bonus tracks!!! So act fast...
MPEG Stream: "Eternal Incantation Of Perpetual Nightmare"
MPEG Stream: "Recurring Dream & Apocalypse Of Darkness "

ACID WITCH Midnight Mass b/w To Magic, Sex And Gore ( Hells Headbangers) 7" 10.98
Hell's Headbangers printed these up with two different covers, one for each of the two songs on it, so on some "Midnight Mass" is the the A side, with correspondingly blasphemous cover art, and on others "To Magic, Sex and Gore" is the A side, also adorned with appropriate artwork, that would never pass the Comics Code that's for sure.
Both songs are gonna be pure manna for fans of Acid Witch, whose brand of psychedelic stoner doom death metal we hope you all already know about and worship with cackling glee. If not, you should check this out and also Stoned, their recent full-length for Hell's Headbangers. Or be turned into a newt.
Translucent (blood) red vinyl with black splatter. Limited edition, natch. The cover you get will be random, btw.

ACID WITCH Stoned (Hells Headbangers) cd 12.98
Hails to Hells Headbangers, the label is on a roll lately, bringing us long-awaited new releases by two of the most outre of AQ metal faves: Ominous Doctrines Of The Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm by black metal aberrations Inquisition (Record Of The Week last list) and this, the more simply titled Stoned, from psychedelic doomsters Acid Witch! It's their 2nd full-length, after the now out of print debut Witchtanic Hellucinations we cackled over a couple of years back. Once more, Shagrat and Slasher Dave (minus Finnish friend Lasse Pyykko, who wasn't actually the main guy in the band as it turns out) have stirred up a bubbling cauldron of tripped out, horror-loving metal that draws upon their love of old school death metal, doom, fright flicks, and drugs! They say it best themselves: "Metal, punk, comic books, and horror vhs / Nothing else to live for so you might as well obsess / Discovering books of power on the arcane and occult / Eating psilocybin leaves you feeling quite possessed" (lyrics from their song "Stoned To The Grave"). Now, we're not gonna say if we condone that lifestyle or not, but we sure do like the sick, slightly tongue in cheek music that results!! And if you can appreciate a song title like "Metal Movie Marijuana Massacre Meltdown", then you'll probably like this album and band. THAT song features another verse we've just got to quote: "Seen these movies so many times / Turn off the volume cause I know all the lines / So fucking high, just let the stereo play / But only if it's Lizzy Borden or Fastway." Sheer poetry to our ears. However, Acid Witch themselves sound a lot more underground than those '80s metal bands they mention, the Hellhammer poster and Bulldozer t-shirt in the band photo represent more likely '80s inspirations.
So, if you've heard their debut, you what to expect. After an intro of Goblin-y keyboards and looped samples, the album kicks into metallic gear with track two, "Witchfynder Finder", a song about turning the tables on Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General. It's a catchy juggernaut, sounding not unlike Cathedral or Electric Wizard (or Pykko's band Hooded Menace) riding Hawkwind's "Silver Machine". One of the many killer cuts here with skull caving riffery and fuzzed out guitars. Those Goblin-y keys return later on the eerie "Whispers In The Dark" and elsewhere... while in "Live Forever" the keyboards take on more of a Deep Purplish hue! All in all, a heavy, rockin', horror show of guttural vokills, '70s Sabbathry, and spooky-ooky atmospheres.
Their favorite holiday is obviously Halloween. October is a long way off but if you like Halloween too, Acid Witch have a treat for you right now. Buy this along with that Wooden Stake / Blizaro split also highlighted this week, and your inner psych doom freak monster will be well fed.
MPEG Stream: "Witchfynder Finder"
MPEG Stream: "Whispers In The Dark"
MPEG Stream: "Live Forever"

ACID WITCH Stoned ( Hells Headbangers) lp 17.98
Cackle cackle cackle. Now we've got the vinyl version of this slab of stoned psych freak doom death metal! So you can see the warts of the witch in the cover painting closer to "life" size...
Hails to Hells Headbangers, the label is on a roll lately, bringing us long-awaited new releases by two of the most outre of AQ metal faves: Ominous Doctrines Of The Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm by black metal aberrations Inquisition (a recent Record Of The Week) and this, the more simply titled Stoned, from psychedelic doomsters Acid Witch! It's their 2nd full-length, after the now out of print debut Witchtanic Hellucinations we cackled over a couple of years back. Once more, Shagrat and Slasher Dave (minus Finnish friend Lasse Pyykko, who wasn't actually the main guy in the band as it turns out) have stirred up a bubbling cauldron of tripped out, horror-loving metal that draws upon their love of old school death metal, doom, fright flicks, and drugs! They say it best themselves: "Metal, punk, comic books, and horror vhs / Nothing else to live for so you might as well obsess / Discovering books of power on the arcane and occult / Eating psilocybin leaves you feeling quite possessed" (lyrics from their song "Stoned To The Grave"). Now, we're not gonna say if we condone that lifestyle or not, but we sure do like the sick, slightly tongue in cheek music that results!! And if you can appreciate a song title like "Metal Movie Marijuana Massacre Meltdown", then you'll probably like this album and band. THAT song features another verse we've just got to quote: "Seen these movies so many times / Turn off the volume cause I know all the lines / So fucking high, just let the stereo play / But only if it's Lizzy Borden or Fastway." Sheer poetry to our ears. However, Acid Witch themselves sound a lot more underground than those '80s metal bands they mention, the Hellhammer poster and Bulldozer t-shirt in the band photo represent more likely '80s inspirations.
So, if you've heard their debut, you what to expect. After an intro of Goblin-y keyboards and looped samples, the album kicks into metallic gear with track two, "Witchfynder Finder", a song about turning the tables on Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General. It's a catchy juggernaut, sounding not unlike Cathedral or Electric Wizard (or Pykko's band Hooded Menace) riding Hawkwind's "Silver Machine". One of the many killer cuts here with skull caving riffery and fuzzed out guitars. Those Goblin-y keys return later on the eerie "Whispers In The Dark" and elsewhere... while in "Live Forever" the keyboards take on more of a Deep Purplish hue! All in all, a heavy, rockin', horror show of guttural vokills, '70s Sabbathry, and spooky-ooky atmospheres.
Their favorite holiday is obviously Halloween. October is a long way off but if you like Halloween too, Acid Witch have a treat for you right now.

ACID WITCH Witchtanic Hellucinations (Razorback) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Despite all the Acid- suffix and -Witch prefix bands out there (and vice versa for that matter), it appears that this is the very first band ever to use the name Acid Witch! And it really would have sucked if the name had already been taken, 'cause these guys are the PERFECT Acid Witch. Nobody could possibly do better justice to a moniker like that than this, um, coven.
Are they psychedelic? Yes. Are they metal? Yes. Are they creepy? Yes. Are they deathly? Yes. Are they doomy? Yes, yes, yes! Psychedelic drug doom death horror metal that cackles, wears a pointy hat, and flies on a broomstick. And, they have a sense of humor about it (hence song titles like "Witches Tits"), the same sense of humor -and- horror that gets us all into those cult '70s and '80s Italian fright flicks. Speaking of which, this album is amply laced with sinister, proggy Goblin-esque keyboards, draped over fuzzy chugging heaviness worthy of early Cathedral. Heavy, heavy doom riffs indeed abound, along with guttural grunting deeper-than-thou vokills, both of which manage to be fairly catchy as well, this album casting a spell of instant headbanging most definitely. Acid Witch's songs are furthermore infested with droning psych guitar soloing, weird electronics, witchy laughter, and spooky-ooky sound FX (is that a bubbling, boiling cauldron in there?) which makes this sound something like a "haunted Hawkwind" version of death/doom metal! Or let's say, take Acid Mothers Temple and Witchfinder General and mix them together (including the band names), then get 'em to play old school death a la Hellhammer. It's a bewitching, if totally gonzo, sound.
Further coolness: did we mention the main guy in the band is from Finland? And did you see the freaky EC Horror comics meets Cracked Magazine cover art? Which was done by Acid Witch member Shagrat (doubtless an Amon Duul II fan), who also provides a b&w portrait of the band done in the style of one of Witchfinder General's singles covers. Also, Witchtanic Hellucinations? Heck that's our review right there. These guys are brilliant (at least as much so as Electric Wizard and their "Satanic Rites Of Drugula" on Witchcult Today - hey maybe those two bands should go on tour and make black magic together!). Other bands that if you might like, probably means you should listen to this, include: Solar Anus, Coffins, Sigh (circa Imaginary Sonicscape), Moss, and Pan-Thy-Monium.
As soon as we heard 'em, we knew this was a definite AQ highlight. It took us a while to get more, our suppliers never had enough, but finally we contacted the label directly and got some, so here they are! Get 'em before they turn us all into (lysergic) toads.
MPEG Stream: "Into The Cave"
MPEG Stream: "Swamp Spells"
MPEG Stream: "Witchblood Cult"

ACRIMONY Bong On - Live Long! (Leaf Hound) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've long been fans of the druggy stoner grooves of the UK's Acrimony, ever since 1996'sÊTumuli Shroomaroom, a record that has been out of print for a while now, otherwise we would have most certainly given it some long overdue love on the AQ list. Just recently, Japanese label Leaf Hound reissued Tumuli Shroomaroom (which we now have in stock, and will list next time) but also this killer odds and sods collection called appropriately enough Bong On - Live Long! So we figured we oughta tackle the newest release first, plus for long time fans like us, there's tons of amazing out of print stuff on it we'd been dying to hear.
Acrimony exist in a similar sonic universe as their metallic countrymen Electric Wizard (as well as folks like Boris, Church Of Misery, Kyuss, Bongzilla, etc.) and while not quite as filthy and blown out and Sabbath obsessed, they are definitely just as heavy, but probably way more groovy and spaced out, adding some Hawkwind to the mix, and some organ (fuck yeah!) turning crushing druggy jams into crushing freaked out groovy druggy SPACE jams which is never a bad thing.Ê
Collecting tracks from old eps, compilations, and a split with Church Of Misery (even a badass Status Quo cover!), every song here is a sludgy groovy stoner space jam of the highest order, the riffs are massive and downtuned, the drums a barrage of pounding pummel, the vocals a raspy howl, wah guitar everywhere, hooks galore, lots of swing and groove, throbbing distorted bass, churning riffage that often slowly morphs into a spaced out sprawl a la Monster Magnet or Hawkwind, even the folks who don't get high here (Andee, and...?), can imagine that this is exactly what that must (or at least -should-) sound like, heavy and freaky and groovy and mind blowing.Ê
Fans of bands like Electric Wizard and Nebula and Ufomammut and Orange Goblin and Spiritual Beggars and the like who have somehow missed out on these guys might just have found a new favorite band...
MPEG Stream: "Spaced Cat #7 (Hammond Moon - Bong Mix)"
MPEG Stream: "Earthchild Inferno"
MPEG Stream: "O Baby"

ACRIMONY Tumuli Shroomaroom (Leaf Hound) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A few lists back, we reviewed a newly released collection of odds and ends from stoner doomlords Acrimony, a UK band, who combined all the best parts of many of our favorite bands, Electric Wizard, Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, Church Of Misery, Boris, Bongzilla, that list alone should have many of you already leaping for the 'buy' button, and that's as it should be. These guys destroy. Unbelievably heavy, crazy catchy, killer riffs, hooks galore, and plenty of spaced out druggy drone.
But YEARS before that comp, Bong On- Live Long!, we were already huge fans of this here disc right here, Tumuli Shroomaroom, now reissued with new improved sound, maybe one of the best stoner rock records EVER. High praise indeed, but not unwarranted we think. The guitars are massive, downtuned and crunchy, spitting out groovy Sabbathy riffage, but way more psychedelic, plenty of wah guitar, streaks of wild leads, all over a super dense rhythmic foundation. The drums heavy as fuck, pounding away, the bass throbbing and buzzing and holding it all together. The vocals a rough raspy, but melodic caterwaul. And the songs, as catchy as they are heavy, super charged and blown out, like someone took perfect pop songs, dipped them in LSD, rolled them in broken shards of Monster Magnet, wrapped them in thick sheets of Hawkwind, lit them on fire and smoked them, and then picked up guitars and this was the result. Not sure why these guys weren't huge.
Besides being a kick ass band, heavy and catchy, they also have a serious thing for repetition, and drone, most of the songs have long stretches of churning riffage that just repeats and repeats, mantra like, mesmerizingly headbanging, lots of them also lock into some sort of endless groove near the end, the song often transforming into an ultra heavy hypnorock workout, looped over and over, repeating sometimes for minutes, and then sometimes unexpectedly slipping right back into the song. Definitely part of what gives them such a druggy vibe. The best example of that is the track "Motherslug (The Mother Of All Slugs", a massive stoner rock jam, that is constantly locking into perfect looped grooves, so tight and hypnotic they almost sounds like the cd is skipping, a single riff churning again and again, so completely trancelike, while all around the main riff, other guitars swell and swoop, shimmering in little squalls pf psychedelic FX, sort of like those kick ass spaced out Hawkwind outros but way less spacey and more relentlessly and repetitively rocking, until the track suddenly and effortlessly slips back into the main groove again, eventually drifting apart into some awesome spacious doom jam, the guitar and drums locked in big crashes, spaced way far apart, the guitar chords crumbling and fading almost completely before the next crash comes, finally fading into some throbbing drone, buzzy and muted, maybe a didgeridoo or faux throat singing or something, finally fading out into the space-rock Sabbath riff that opens the next track.
Hard to know what else to say, one of our favorite heavy records ever, every track on here is a killer. Heavy and groovy, droney and hypnotic, druggy and spaced out, the ultimate stoner rock doom disc for sure. As we mentioned above, folks into Monster Magnet, Sleep, Electric Wizard, Ufomammut, Orange Goblin, Kyuss, Black Sabbath, Spiritual Beggars, Nebula, Bongzilla, Green Machine, Boris, Lowrider, Spirit Caravan, Solarized, Fu Manchu, Dozer and Mammoth Volume and have somehow made it this far without hearing Acrimony, might just have discovered their new favorite band.
MPEG Stream: "Hymns To The Stone"
MPEG Stream: "Million Year Summer"
MPEG Stream: "Vy"

ACROSS TUNDRAS Dark Songs Of The Prairie (Crucial Blast) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Ramblin' In The Shadows"
MPEG Stream: "If God Cuts You Down"

ADERLATING The Nectar Of Perversity Springs From The Well Of Repression (Shadowgraph) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A quick glance at this, the first release from the strangely named Aderlating, will reveal some very telling clues, the record is called The Nectar Of Perversity Springs From The Well Of Repression, the cover features a terrified figure, clad only in a bit of cloth, cowering from the darkness, and on the other side some sort of ritual that involves a naked woman with burning candles inserted in her ass, laying on an altar in front of mysterious cloaked figures. The songs are titled things like "Cut Off My Penis In Praise Of Black Satan", "Rope, Pig's Blood, Dead Flesh And Two Candles", "Death Knell" and "Doodstorm", so even before we get to the caustic gritty blackened filth on the disc, we're feeling a pretty heavy Gnaw Their Tongues vibe, which makes perfect sense as Aderlating is in fact another project by Gnaw mastermind Mories.
It's a little unclear what differentiates this from a proper Gnaw Their Tongues release, there's plenty of harsh black noise, rumbling mysterious drones, buried riffage and mysterious chanting, creepy almost choral sounding voices, pounding percussion, harsh hissing feedback, crumbling distortion, buzzing black metal guitars smeared into blurred buzzscapes, howling harsh vocals buried in the mix, static, whir, glitch, all doused in effects and buried under layer after layer of distorted noise and noisy distorted. Hell, even sounds like we're describing a GTT record. Fuck it, anyone into Gnaw Their Tongues, you're gonna want this, it could essentially be the new GTT record, the only difference we can hear really, is that it's a little more harsh, a little less orchestral, where GTT employed all sort of almost cabaret like sounds, Aderlating is a much more furiously aggressive and abrasive beast, but even amidst all the white noise and grinding feedback drenched distortion, there lurks all sorts of sonic mystery, be it buried melodies, haunting disembodied voices or fucked up fragmented loops. Needless to say, we dig it. Heavy and harsh and droney and dark and just what we needed to tide us over until the next Gnaw Their Tongues record...
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!! We got about a quarter of those but judging by past Gnaw Their Tongues releases, those won't be around for long...
MPEG Stream: "Death Knell"
MPEG Stream: "Rope, Pig's Blood, Dead Flesh And Two Candles"
MPEG Stream: "Doodstorm"

AELTER Dusk-Dawn (Wolvserpent) lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One half of epic cinematic ambient black chamber doom soundscapers Pussygutt strikes out on his own to create an epic bit of abstract doom creep, that strips down the Pussygutt sound to its essence, and creates something equally as haunting and harrowing. Clean spidery guitars unwind over squalls of distorted rumble, drums offer the occasional thud, feedback streaks and shimmers, the sound subtly intensifying, but never really moving beyond a slow motion moonlit drift. It almost sounds like Slint at 16rpm, a glacial post rock, laced with hints of doom, allowed to creep and crawl through an ever shifting field of whir and buzz and shimmer.
The song(s) continues on the B side, the drums and guitar dropping out leaving just a high end shimmer like a soft focus Sunroof! ur-drone, until some of the doom drifts back in, lush swells of ominous keyboard, muted chugs, sloooow minor key guitars, distant vocals, the overall affect way more pop and pretty than Pussygutt, but still retaining the same overall grim vibe, eventually finishing off with another soaring sheet of harmonized high end which gives way to that original spidery guitar line, drifting all by it's lonesome in an epic expanse of black, only to be joined by delicate pointillist piano for the slowly slipping away outro. So nice.
Beautiful packaging, a silver on black silkscreened tri-fold sleeve, released on Pussygutt's Wolveserpent label. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, hand numbered...

AGONHYMN Doom Jazz (Heathen Skulls) cd 13.98
Fair warning, we only have a dozen copies of this, and given our druthers, we probably would have had 3 times as many, in fact at one point we wanted to make this a Record Of The Week, but were never able to get enough, and now it's out of print, so these are the VERY last copies of the debut record from this heavy Aussie duo, whose sound, as the record title might suggest, is definitely doomy, not so much jazzy, but most definitely HEAVY.
Beginning with a melodic little ditty all wheezing accordion and minor key guitar, very Parisian sounding weirdly enough, but it doesn't take long before the band lurches into action, and by action, we mean chugging, slow motion dirgery, super abstract and dynamic, a churning ultra math doom, stop / start, with occasional bursts of all out heaviness, but returning to that strange doomic chug, and somehow even as minimal and abstract as it is, it's sort of catchy, not poppy, not at all, but the repetition, and the chordal structure, it gets lodged in your head.
The whole record sort of follows a similar pattern, as if each track was a part of the bigger whole, the clipped chug, the explosive downtuned metallic blow out, occasional harsh vox too, some stretches of shimmery near silence, even some spidery melodic grooviness, which reminds us quite a bit of Harvey Milk, in fact, overall, if we had to pick a band to compare these guys too, it might just be HM overall, the same sort of willful antagonism, the same sort of subversive hookiness. It also reminds us of a slooooowed down sludgier Stinking Lizaveta (who also label their music "Doom Jazz"), sinewy and mathy, either way, this is some crushing heaviness that should definitely appeal to fans of Harvey Milk, and the more metallic of post rockers, as well as dooooomlords like Monarch, Moss, Bunkur and the like (and if you believe the sticker on the cd, Yob, Neurosis and Pelican too)...
LAST COPIES EVER, less than a dozen left, apologies for not being able to get more, but figured it would be cool if at least a few folks could get their hands on one of these....
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "3"
MPEG Stream: "7"

AHAB The Call Of The Wretched Sea (Napalm) cd 16.98
While it may have been a bit of a misstep to release a metal record based on Moby Dick and with a big ol' whale on the cover in the long black shadow cast by Mastodon's Leviathan record, it would be even more of a mistake to pass up this Ahab record based solely on that. Obviously a lot of thought went into the sound and the artwork and the execution, and if anything, we actually like this record more than the Mastodon.
So if you can get past the whole Mastodon thing, you're in for some massive and fantastically epic slow motion doom. This German outfit is CLASSIC doom, well not quite like Sabbath and Candlemass, but not the filthy slow motion grungy grimey dirgey sludge sort of doom either, this is epic and majestic, slow and sorrowful, occasionally loping with bursts of wild kick drums, more often trudging along glacially, a funereally death march through the pouring rain, knee deep in black sonic murk, but with a surprising amount of dynamics, stops and starts, some super hooky riffs, mournful guitar melodies, massive downtuned chugs that sometime morph into mathy metal workouts. Vocals that rumble and groan, a huge guttural gurgle, the whole thing impossible heavy and aggressive, but strangely pretty. Definitely reminds us of old Cathedral, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, that sort of thing. Like classic heavy doom metal slowed waaaaay down and made somehow even heavier. As much as we love extreme doom, the slower and the sludgier the better, it's actually nice to hear some extremely dark depressive doom with some actual melodies, and some memorable riffs, heck even some songs. We'd forgotten how good stuff like this sounds. One of our favorite new TRUE DOOM records for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Below The Sun"
MPEG Stream: "The Pacific"

AJILVSGA Gathering Of Owls (Digitalis) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Some super experimental low end doom drone minimalism from Brad Rose, who besides playing in The North Sea, Corsican Paintbrush, Jade Emperor also runs the insanely cool Digitalis label.
Up until now, most of what we've heard from Rose has been on the folky side of things, who knew he had this in him. A seriously grindingly dense churning buzzscape. Caustic and thick, huge slabs of heaving low end, layer upon layer of black hole heaviness. Dentist drill high end surfaces here and there, but overall, every track here is some sort of leap into sonic tar, struggling to breath or even hear, your ears clogged with crumbling back grit, your body pinned to the ground beneath wave after wave of slow motion blacknoise pummel.
You know if you need this. If you're into the slow, and low and HEAVY, you probably do. But this was LIMITED TO ONLY 72 COPIES. It's out of print. We have 15. Do the math.
Red cassette cases, red cassettes, cool full color sleeves on nice textured paper, each copy hand numbered.

ALABAMA THUNDER PUSSY Constellation (Man's Ruin) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

ALABAMA THUNDER PUSSY River City Revival (Man's Ruin Records) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY / HALFWAY TO GONE split (Slow Ride / Game Two / Underdogma Records) cd 8.98
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ALKERDEEL De Bollaf! (Universal Tongue) 3"cd-r 9.98
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The long overdue return of these Belgian musical miscreants, whose last release, the super limited tape and then not so limited cd Luizig, was a huge favorite around these parts, and why the hell not, a blown out blackened smear of in the red doom dirge weirdness, that we compared to folks like Ash Pool and Akitsa and Ancestors. But that had a lot more to do with the quality of the sound, the timbre and tone, the brutally lo-fi recording, the music itself was much more twisted and blurred and tangled and whatthefuck.
For this two song follow up, Alkerdeel change gears pretty dramatically, opening up with nearly 4 minutes of super spare stripped down doom. The guitar distorted, but surprisingly clean by Alkerdeel standards, the drums a simple funereal plod, until finally the vocals swoop in, a hellish shriek, WAY up in the mix, before just as quickly drifting off, leaving the same skeletal doom, but this time, the guitar explores a bit more, more melody, more sprawling ambience, and again, the vocals come in and the track shifts gear into a pounding lo-fi midtempo dirge, all buzzy guitar, stumbly drumming, growled howled vocals, even a stretch of buzzing blastbeat blackness, before fracturing into something more mathy and woozy and off kilter, and for the remainder of the track (a long one at 13 minutes) slipping from super dirgey atonal crawl, to furious frenzy of chaotic buzz, to blurred washed out blackness. Pretty awesome stuff. This time we might add to the above mentioned bands outfits like Moss and Bunkur and the like, much doomier this go round.
But then band go and follow up with an Ildjarn cover, total raw and primitive buzz drenched black metal d-beat pound. As crusty and punk rock as it is kvlt and grim, simple pounding drums, hypnotic almost looped sounding riffage, even a sort of double time more punk rock second half, the whole thing laced with perfectly yowled whiskey soaked crusty vokills.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! We managed to get the last 20, it's already out of print, so once these are gone, they are gone forever. Packaged in a cool mini 3" dvd style plastic clamshell case, full color insert, each one hand numbered of course.
MPEG Stream: "De Bollaf!"
MPEG Stream: "Natt Og Take - Nattens Ledestjerne (Ildjarn)"

ALKERDEEL De Spleenzalvinge (At War With False Noise) cd 13.98
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Brand new record from these blackened Belgian weirdoes, whose sound has changed dramatically from our first exposure to these guys, the grim noisy Luizig cassette, releases on Silvester Anfang's Funeral Folk label, which seemed apt at the time, a raw grim lo-fi sort of abstract black metal, along the lines of the blown out primitive fury of groups like Bone Awl and Akitsa, everything in-the-red, blown out and utterly chaotic and noise drenched. Not sure if you can just chalk it up to the natural progress of a band, but the now out of print 3" cd-r on Universal Tongue found the band shifting their sound considerably, tighter, not so distorted or damaged, yet they managed to make this shift and remain as head cavingly baffling as ever. Which thankfully remains the case here, three new loooong tracks of stripped down trancelike minimal black metal, that sounds almost more like some sort of noiserock or noisy krautrock. The band lock in a riff, and a blasting beat, and just pound away on it, over and over and over, the sound gloriously murky and muddy and blown out, the only things that really change are the vocals, which howl and mewl and shriek, occasionally becoming engulfed in reverb or delay (dub style) and spinning into a swirling cloud or processed voices, and the drums which shift from minimal pound, to super sizzly cymbal driven cacophony, the opening track finds the band spending most of their time pounding away relentlessly, only to shift gears about halfway through, get a little doomy, and then shift gears again and get all abstract and spaced out, sounding more like some weird sort of underground post punk band that any sort of black metal band. They do of course return to the murky muddy pound that started things off, only to stumble and collapse into heap of feedback and black buzz.
The second track is a super stripped down, minimal chunk of slowcore, abstract, doomy, but not heavy, just simple drumming, and skeletal guitars, it does eventually lurch into something more heavy, filthy and crusty, with sick vomited vokills and super distorted downtuned crunch, but it quickly slips right back into that doomy dirge complete with Sabbath style basslines, eventually exploding into a weirdly proggy almost Voivod sounding black metal workout, with long stretches of woozy bass driven doomy drift, and some super dense blowouts of churning riffage that is more dronelike than metal-like.
The final track is a 29 minute juggernaut, which begins with a cloud of grinding low end blackness, the drums eventually coming in, creating some sort of motorik hypnorock blackmetal dronedirge, which splinters into something way more frenzied and chaotic, and from there, the track is constantly shifting, long stretches of cinematic strings and mysterious samples, Khanate like ultradoom, more meandering downtuned metallic post rock, super spaced out minimal sludge, laced with ethereal vocals, and weirdly melancholy melodies, bursts of bass heavy prog, some Burzumic black metal, and finally a blast of frantic almost D-beat sounding blackened fury that finishes things off.
Another fantastic and fucked up batch of damaged doom and abstract avant black metal weirdness, needless to say this is the kind of shit that we live for. WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

ALKERDEEL Luizig (At War With False Noise) cd 14.98
We had copies of this on tape last year, and they flew out of here in no time. Not a huge surprise since A, it's a fucking fierce and sludgey slab of sonic weirdness and B, it was limited to 66 copies! So for everyone who missed out, it's At War With False Noise to the rescue. These guys are quickly turning into our new favorite label, having released the twisted bedroom black metal of Zarach'Baal'Tharagh, the blown out psych prog of Veee Deee, the fucked up damaged sludge of Sloth, as well as THREE other releases on this list, including discs from huge aQ faves Gnaw Their Tongues and Marzuraan. But we've been dying for the cd version of this Alkerdeel record. You'll understand why when you read below and listen to the sound sample.
We had a handful of customers recommend these fucked up doomdamagemetalnoise weirdos, and from the first sick, depraved, filthy fucked up note, we were sold...
These Belgians create a serious ruckus, pounding super distorted grim necro ultra raw dirgey droney doom metal, we saw it described as filthyblacksludgedoomdrone which pretty much sums it up. Pounding sludge, with blown out practice space production, grinding guitars, blasting super distorted drums, filthy super sick vocals, with bursts of blackness and stretches of loping minimal crunch, sort of mathy, very doomy, all very very heavy and noisy and awesome. One of our favorite new bands easy.Ê
Essential for fans of Bone Awl, Ancestors, Ash Pool, Beherit, Akitsa as well as other practitioners of grim buzz and noise drenched sludge...
The packaging is super swank too, screen printed, 6 panel, off-black ink on thick black cardstock. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Luizig"

ALKERDEEL Luizig (Funeral Folk) cassette 5.98
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We had a handful of customers recommend these fucked up doomdamagemetalnoise weirdos, and around the same time, in some glorious moment of serendipity, the band dropped us a line so we grabbed as many copies as we could of their super limited (only 66 copies) cassette, released on the same label that fellow countrymen Silvester Anfang call home...
These Belgians create a serious ruckus, pounding super distorted grim necro ultra raw dirgey droney doom metal, we saw it described as filthyblacksludgedoomdrone which pretty much sums it up. Pounding sludge, with blown out practice space production, grinding guitars, blasting super distorted drums, filthy super sick vocals,Êwith bursts of blackness and stretches of loping minimal crunch, sort of mathy, very doomy, all very very heavy and noisy and awesome. One of our favorite new bands easy.Ê
Essential for fans of Bone Awl, Ancestors, Ash Pool, Beherit, Akitsa as well as other practitioners of grim buzz and noise drenched sludge...
LIMITED TO 66 COPIES!!! In super DIY packaging, printed sleeve, photocopied insert, each tape hand numbered...Ê

ALL NIGHT s/t (Tee Pee) cd 15.98
I think the Champs toured with these guys and loved 'em. At least, I know Josh from the Champs raved about them to me once. All Night are retro rock n' rollers from North Carolina, doing the seventies guitar rawk thing with rare authenticity. Bluesy, swaggering, Stonesy, drawling, kick ass stuff a la Cherry Valence, The Want, Gorilla and few others today. The kind of band you hope will be playing in the next bar you visit. They sound more '70s than the last dozen "stoner rock" bands you ever heard. Boogie!
RealAudio clip: "Come On Baby"

ALTAMONT Civil War Fantasy (Man's Ruin Records) cd 11.98
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ALTAMONT Our Darling (Man's Ruin) cd 13.98
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Melvins drummer Dale Crover's side band, where he straps on a six string and does his southern rock, '70s stoner thing. The Altamont trio also includes a member of Acid King. Their last album had a Hendrix cover, this time they do one by the Heartbreakers, and a Mose Allison by way of The Who tune, among their retro originals.

ALTAR OF OBLIVION Sinews Of Anguish - Opus 1 In D Minor (Shadow Kingdom) cd 14.98
Danish doom metal, from a band who apparently don't think that calling your album "something of something" when your band's name also follows the "something of something" formula is any sort of faux pas, like for example wearing denim with denim. Something of something overkill is not of concern to them, not when they're also willing to subtitle their album "Opus 1 In D Minor". Furthermore, while we're not sure what exactly an altar of oblivion is, we might guess that sinews of anguish is the result of not stretching properly before exercise?
Ok, we're poking fun, but just to lighten the mood, 'cause these guys are really indeed quite DOOOMY. In the epic, traditional, sorrowful style of Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus, as applied to a concept album that's about WWII - as experienced by a German soldier on the Eastern Front. Don't worry, this doesn't glorify the Nazis, Altar Of Oblivion are not that sort of band, instead this is about the horrors of war, and furthermore the horrific realization comes to this album's protagonist about just who and what he's fighting for, as, demoralized by the harsh reality of war, he shakes off his Nazi indoctrination and it dawns on him that Hitler is an evil madman, leading the Germans to defeat, not victory! Imagine being likely to die at Stalingrad, fighting the Russians for a cause in which you no longer believe, hopelessly struggling for survival because you have no choice. Now that's doom.
AoO's heavy chugging riffage does its job, creating a massive mood of depressive fatalism, and evoking the crushing juggernaut of war, o'er which this inglorious tale is spun, delivered by a singer whose stylings range from deep voiced majesty to a more biting, gritty whine. Probably his "operatic invocations & ars melancholica" are what will either make or break this for you, quite compelling to some, but mere morose monotony for others. Of course, morose monotony is what doom is all about, really, and melded with metallic guitars what's not to like if you're into doom? There is plenty of guitar here, in fact, 3 of the 5 band members are credited with "lead guitar" - even including the drummer! But, as you might a expect from a concept album, an additional '70s prog edge is added as well by the use of Mellotron (also handled by the drummer) and flute (by a guest "flute mistress"). We could imagine them playing with another something of something band, Hammers Of Misfortune.
MPEG Stream: "The Final Pledge"
MPEG Stream: "Wrapped In Ruins"

AMORT Weird Tales (Orobas) cassette 4.00
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This cassette just showed up in the mail one day, with a short note asking us if we wanted to sell it in the store. Hard to tell what it would sound like: band called Amort, two songs, cover image an oil painting of wild horses, very striking, but still no clear sonic picture. The tape came wrapped in a flyer, with the words "Slow end sonic destruction" printed in thick black letters across the top. Our first clue...
So we threw it on, and were first greeted with the sound of lilting piano, notes hanging suspended in wide open expanses of near silence, but soon that piano was joined by a slow lava like flow of glacial riffing, a downtuned low end thob, a la SUNNO))), Earth, Corrupted, but draped over a delicate slowcore background, then in came some incredibly low, gurgling vocals, and suddenly all was revealed to us, gloriously hauntingly beautiful slowcore sludge. The massive riffing and monstrous vocals, drift in and out, often leaving just a lilting minor key guitar, to gently pick out the melody, hushed and minimal, like some sort of super abstract post rock, before the guitars pour back in and the vocals croak forth, but even at its heaviest and sludgiest, it's strangely pretty, the melody a minor key lament, the sound more murky and muddy than pummeling and heavy, like Corrupted covering Low maybe... The tempo gets upped a notch or two, sounding like the band might lurch into full on rocking, but instead, the riff just loops over and over, becoming more of a rhythmic drone than an any sort of actual rock riff, eventually fading to black.
Side two creeps along similar ground, beginning with abstract minor key guitar figures, allowed to unfurl and drift through an empty space, joined by simple piano, before launching into a slow motion ambient doom, all burnt out guitar and reverb drenched vocals. Very reminiscent of the Tomb Of... cassette, a strange melding of abstract ambient piano and dirgey doom drenched sludge. The interesting thing about Amort is there are no drums, this is all just huge walls of guitar, harsh demonic vocals, and tinkling piano, on the second track, the guitar becomes weirdly harmonized, creating super tense harmonic melodies, like some displaced Iron Maiden lick, slowed down to 2 or 3 rpm. This track two sort of wanders back and forth between forlorn slow motion cabaret, just piano and undistorted guitar, and pummeling drone doom crush. But in the hands of Amort, they sound so perfect together. The ultimate post rock downer doom...
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!!

AMORT / IVES split (Boue) cd 9.98
BACK IN STOCK!
Latest from long time aQ fave one man ultra doom outfit, Amort, here expanded to a quartet, with extra members handling gong, keys, saxophone and extra guitar. Here teamed up with crusty black metal punks Ives.
Amort offer up a single 14 minute track, the begins with haunting female vocals, over deep reverberating piano, and rumbling low end drones, very ritualistic and choral, it's not until nearly 3 minutes in, that the song splinters into what sounds like some sort of abstract free jazz doom, the gong rippling out thick metallic waves of sound, the sax skronking and squeaking, all wrapped in thick whorls of rumble and thrum, a monstrous ominous slo-mo creep, until finally, the song proper kicks in after about 5 minutes, an impossibly glacial chunk of slow motion doom sludge, drumless, and surprisingly melodic, the melodies nearly pop, but the guitars oozing and blackened, the vocals a demonic gurgle, a strange combination for sure, this filthy downtuned evil sound, but the song itself almost happy, like some pop song slowed waaaaaaaay down and then filtered through Corrupted and Nortt and Bunkur, the prettiest, most melodic slab of ultradoom you'll ever hear. It does build, and get louder and louder, there are spidery guitar leads, and more piano, but the sound never gets any less melodic.
Ives are pretty much on the other end of the sonic spectrum entirely, spitting out blasting, thrashing crusty blackness, minor key riffing, furious pounding drumming, harsh vokills, sonically quite akin to the punkier Darkthrone sound, or classic Discharge, but for every bit of D-beat pound, the band unleash a blast of face melting black metal buzz, the sound lo-fi, but still heavy and frantic and frenzied, brutal and blasting, galloping and churning, crusty but plenty grim and black. Killer stuff from both bands, the Ives stuff is from an old cassette, so a little curious to hear more recent stuff, and Amort, well, we can never get enough of their/his gloriously abject slow motion piano pounding dismal doom...
MPEG Stream: AMORT "In Bed With Decay"
MPEG Stream: IVES "A Tangle Of Hair And Bone"
MPEG Stream: IVES "Feral"

AMORT / THE COMFORT WIVES Black Blood / Locusta (Orobas) cassette 4.00
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Tape number two from ambient slowcore doom outfit Amort, whose first tape we dug heavily. A dense drifty blend of SUNNO))) style ultra doom, and lilting Low like atmospherics. This time they're teamed up with the strangely named Comfort Wives, who based on the name were ready to be disappointed by, but just like Mom always told us about books and covers, The Comfort Wives actually kick up a pretty mean din. The strange thing is how different Amort sound here. Actually to be honest, the labeling is sort of confusing and we just assumed Side A was the Comfort Wives but in fact appears to be Amort unless the tape was mislabeled. Either way, both sides are awesome, we'll go by the label for now. So Amort sound much more like a band, than a man crafting bleak dronescapes on his own. A plodding midtempo, noisy blackness, huge guitars so low and blown out they threaten to overwhelm the whole recording, which is in no way a band thing, in fact, it's the sort of guitar sound most bands would kill for. An in the red throbbing downtuned buzz, wrapped around a sort of melodic noise rock. The sound here is not so much black metal as it is taking bits and pieces of black metal and incorporating them into their own sound. And the sound here is more of a mournful minor key midtempo dirge rock, with super catchy melodies, simple drumming, some cool harmonies, all wrapped in a blacker than normal production, with some harsh howled vocals. Like a poppier, noise rockier version of Bone Awl or Beherit maybe? Cool stuff regardless, but a strange direction for Amort, while The Comfort Wives end up sounding more like Amort did on the last tape, but somehow darker and doomier and sludgier and much more black metal. An epic and corrosive sonic sludge, that unfurls like some thick black fog. Slow minor key guitar figures drift amidst wide open space, vocals gurgle and growl, all swallowed up by a MASSIVE glacial downtuned dirge, before the low end abates and leaves a simple strummed, almost out of tune guitar to sort of meander, before the blackness falls again. This is not so much BM as ultra doom, or black ambience, the guitars rumble and reverberate, single chords stretched out over vast expanses, the vocals another layer of low end, the riffs so slow they seem to be single plodding thuds that ring out and bleed into the next crusty note, a bit like Abruptum, a ritualistic black minimal doom, epic and murky and hellish and muddy and massive and seriously scary...

ANCESTORS Invisible White (Tee Pee) cd 17.98

ANCESTORS Neptune With Fire (North Atlantic Sound / Tee Pee) cd 14.98
Not to be confused with the -other- Ancestors, the noise drenched, blackened lo-fi, blown out raw as fuck punk metal outfit, no, this is something all together more stoned and groovy, spaced out and ROCK.
Don't know too much about these guys other than they're a 5 piece from LA, and man can they riff with the best of 'em. Two looooong songs, one nearly 17 minutes, the other almost 22, each a sprawling stoner rock psychedelic groovescape. Think Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, Earthless, Dead Meadow, Acrimony, Los Natas. The songs are less proper songs, and more epic jams, the actual verses and chorus and vocals relegated to popping up here and there, while the majority of the song is spent rocking the fuck out, unfurling majestic sun baked soundscapes of riff and groove and killer leads EVERYWHERE. Occasionally, the songs bliss out, and get all tripped out and druggy, with soft Santana-y guitar squalls, and tons of effects, but those parts inevitably build and build until suddenly the song is back in full swing, the band lurching and lumbering and grooving relentlessly. This is the sort of jam band we can get behind, epic heaviness and endless riffery.
The second track is almost Melvins-y at the beginning, howled vocals over slow churning guitar grind, before slipping back into something way more sixties and psychedelic sounding. Like the super kick ass outro of every killer space rock song all stitched into one epic mega-jam. Near the end, the track blisses out and transforms into a loping moody dirge, with reverbed guitars and haunting female vocals way off in the distance, finally kicking back into gear for the last few minutes, a whirring minor key organ making the groove seem melancholy and strangely funereal.
Killer stuff for sure. Any one into heavy heavy post rock, stoner rock, riff heavy jams, sweet leads, or ANY or any of the above mentioned bands will most definitely dig this.
Housed in a sweet digipak with awesome artwork by Arik Moonhawk Roper!
MPEG Stream: "Orcus"
MPEG Stream: "Neptune With Fire"