Cult Ritual - Cult Ritual (2009)

If bands that push the envelope are your sort of thing, Cult Ritual is for you. Cleverly structured riffs and sneaky noisy interludes weave this 30 minute experience. Ranging from fast and heavy d-beats to lengthy ambient passages, this album has quite an inventive take on the genre.

Enjoy!

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Tsjuder - Desert Northern Hell

Pretty standard Black Metal, decent but raw production. Nothing new brought to the table, but very well done nonetheless. For orthodox black metal, this is one of the better albums of the last few years. Somewhat reminiscent of Marduk but without the blatant emphasis on all-out speed. Nice chainsaw guitar tone. Cool Bathory cover too (Sacrifice).

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Infernal Stronghold - Godless Noise

This is raw-as-fuck, thrashy BLEEAAYACK METAUUL from America. If you don't like it, fuck off. Or not. It's like the internet, man, I can't really force you to leave. Unless I was like a moderator or something, but I digress. This is some top-fucking-notch blackened thrash right here with a sprinkling of d-beat added in for good measure. It's one of my favourite black metal full-lengths of last year, and I implore each and everyone one of you subhumans to listen to it right-fucking-now. Yeah, that's right, and you should sacrifice a couple of small animals in some Satanic ritual while your at it.

Smashing your car/family's car into a church and slaughtering all the occupants inside with a claymore is also a good idea.

AVE SATAN, AVE LUCIFER

SPK - Leichenschrei (1982)

Seminal Industrial band from the UK. If you're like me and have never delved much into the genre but want to, this is as good a place to start as any. Definitely not casual listening, but not the harshest music I've heard; it's more centered on being subversive than pummeling, so sit back, turn down the lights and get ready to be carried away into a world of madness and death.

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Gösta Berlings Saga - Detta Har Hänt (2009)

Genre: Instrumental Progressive Rock
Country of Origin: Sweden

Carrying a tradition on is sometimes not an easy task. And when prog rock fell into a lull sometime in the 1980s, the odds did not appear to be in its favor. Several groups kept the flame burning, and some lights shone brighter than others. Gösta Berlings Saga is one of those beacons. Pushing the envelope on technicality, while staying true to the eerie, almost dirty sound of their predecessors.

Along with the technicality, there is emotion behind the keys, guitars, bass and drums; working together, even if they are in separate time signatures at times. True musicianship throughout.

Watchtower - Instruments of Random Murder [Demo] (1987)

Nothing to see here folks. Just a really fucking hard-to-come-by demo by one of the most seminal bands in all of extreme music, featuring a track never again recorded or reissued.

Nope, nothing at all...

Church Of Misery - Houses Of The Unholy (2009)

Alrighty, so I've had a taste for stoner/doom these past couple of months. I'm not real sure about how I came across this band, so far this album is pretty dope. The vocalist Yoshiaki Negishi was the past vocalist for Coffins (another great doom band), and his vocals are superior to what I've heard from most bands who try to recreate the 70s doom mantra. And although I wouldn't necessarily call this Black Sabbath worship, it definitely has some Sabbath undertones to it. Personally, I like the Sludgy riffage, the groovy melody, the heavy bass licks, and just the whole psychedelic effect of the music's ambience in general. The songs are dedications to some of the sickest known serial killers in history; Albert Fish, Richard Trenton Chase and Richard Speck to name a few. This album pretty much blew me away. I cannot do it's description full justice by trying to explain it to you (as it's hard to describe such the wonderful experience that it gives) so what the hell is there to say? You need to experience this album for yourself, then maybe you'll be more likely to understand exactly what I mean.

Rapid

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Review by Michelle034

Gasp - Drome Triler of the Puzzle Zoo People (1998)

powerviolence/sludge/noise

Gasp are true crucial heroes. They're one of those hyper underground bands that has experienced somewhat of a resurgence of popularity on the internet (think Demilich or something like that). They were signed to Slap a Ham back in the day so they naturally got mad cred for that, but they seem to be one of those bands that never got the appreciation they deserved.

Honestly by the late 90's the Powerviolence scene had started to breakdown in a big way. Everything had kind of reached it's limit. The whole Crossed Out worship sound had kind of worn out it's welcome by this point. Gasp however took the sound to new places. They stretched the blueprint to the breaking point and shattered all expectations.

Drome Triler of the Puzzle People has the basic fast/slow/fast structure that is the building block of the whole Powerviolence ethos, but they basically threw out the whole standard playbook. Here you've got noise and drone sections. There you've got shoegazing. And over here you've got borderline screamo sections. However at the end of the day they never forget the bottom line, which is power violence brutality. Despite the albums variety it all eventually reels itself into one coherent entity.

Hipsters will especially like the psychedelic middle section.

Recalcitrance - Fragmented Reality [Demo]

Given the good reception the first Recalcitrance demo got hereabouts, I thought I may as well post their second as well.

"Fragmented Realities" was recorded and released in 1990.
By this time, the band was a three piece, with Mike Smith having left to play in Deceased, bassist Billy Allen having been replaced by Chris Howard, and Mike Klein going off to do whatever it is ex-thrash vocalists do.

With them went the death metal flirtations and typical thrash metal structuring their previous demo, to be replaced with rapid-fire instrumental technicality, fluid, attention-neccessary songwriting, and a flair for experimentation with non-metal sounds.

You can get it here.

If you at all enjoy their material, and would like copy of one of their tapes, or you just would like to send the your regards to the members of the band, you can do so here.
I'm sure they would appreciate it.
- FeatherofHuginn

Kralizec - Origin

Quirky key-heavy melodically-inclined sometimes-technical death metal with the odd nod to folk metal ala Ensiferum, Brutal Death, and oldschool Gothenburg bands. They also have some of the most blatantly programmed drums I think I've ever heard.

If some of the clean vocal sections sound oddly familiar to you, it's likely because they were contributed by Patrick Loisel (now the frontman of Augury) who also played lead guitar and keys on this album.

This album is ridiculously hard to come by on the interwebs, so I hope you like it.
Get it here.