Vincebuz - La Dimension Desconocida (2009)

Genre - Stoner Rock, Hard Rock, Acid Rock
Review - As you might have guessed by now, this band from Brazil is a Blue Cheer worship band. Now how can that be anything but awesome? Its another one of those gems I stumbled upon while browsing sludge swamp website. Apparently, the band members send their music to the site's admins to be posted on the blogs.
This album contains the compilation of songs from their EPs and few live acts.
"You’ll find heaps of fuzzy, super dense, distorted riffs building up a wall of sound which tastes of trippy desert-space rock and fat, dirty, groovy, doomy tunes that remind me so much of Church of Misery. As a bonus feature, this album possesses the vibe of the live performances but rendered with the high quality of a studio production. Beautiful indeed …"
Mediafire

Adversarial - Thralls (2008)

Just a demo today, folks, but this is some prime shit. Adversarial are a band I hadn't even heard of until a friend of mine on RYM recommended their first, and only demo, "Thralls." This hit me like a sack of bricks, as it deftly combines practically every awesome element of modern and old school death metal into a three track block of excellency. Tempos shift from groovy midpaced riffs into frantic (but controlled) blasts of semi-melodic frenzy, and then into a fierce whirlwind of dissonance reminiscant of The Chasm or Immolation, two of the most prominant influences here, yet others shine through (evidenced in an homage to Suffocation's "Torn Into Enthrallment" on the second track.). Even the production shines, being incredibly above average for a demo. About the only flaw I see here is that there isn't more from this band, so drink up what you can now.

Karp - Self Titled LP

Genre : Noise Rock \ Post Hardcore \ Heavy Metal \ Hardcore Punk \ Sludge Metal

Year : 1997

Do you like the Melvins ? Do you worship Black Sabbath ? The in your face attitude of punk ? Follower of High On Fire ? And yet love your metal to be fun and enjoyable ? Them come, grab a chair, sit down and let's have a little chat.

This band, Karp (short for Kill All Redneck Pricks) is one of those indie, never heard of bands that is in fact a sonic sludge assault of sonic brutality , whose only aim was being serious of not being serious. They are nerds, geeks and wear it on their sleeve proudly (the album prior to this was called 'Suplex'). Above all they want to have fun (the lyrics of the 3rd track are AHHHHHHH I'M FUCKING WITH YA HEAD, I'M FUCKING WITH YA HEAD, I'M FUCKING WITH YA HEAD"), and it it is this characteristic of their music that makes them infectious. With the name of the album being "Self Titled LP", the band merged and innovated all of their eclectic influences and spawned this really enjoyable release, which in the core of the all the fun and frolic and nerdiness is actually a really good slab of well constructed metal. It ironic enough to be hip, dedicated enough to be brilliant.



The old Melvins' formula [if a riff is good enough to repeat once, it's good enough to repeat one hundred times] is adhered to, albeit in a punkish form, which in KARP's hands works pure wonders. With the record's economical thirty minute length, everything is condensed, tight and vividly succinct, and all the better for it. Eight sandpaper-raw, bulldozer-heavy and raucous tracks smash, bash, crash and burn through your right ear, and exite through your other one, but it is the impact on the pink squishy mush between those ears that is worth mentioning, leaving a permanent mark. Each piece is centered around one main riff or a riff sequence, which is then tinkered and played around with throughout the track's duration. And boy, do these fellas know their way around their riffs! They turn and twist, change tempos, build up tension, squeezing just about all they can from these chords in the time allotted, while descending into the gluey, sludgy pits of hell and then rising above to gallop through a vast, wide-open faraway.

What a friggin' ride! Get on it!

Interstate Blues - El Diablo (2005)

Genre - Blues Rock, Hard Rock
This is fuckin' KILLER!
I discovered this band while browsing on Sludge Swamp blog (easily my favourite blog for music). Since I am in no mood to write the review myself, I am shamelessly copying the review for this from that site itself.

"El Diablo”, the sixth & best studio disc by Interstate Blues, features 8 trax of killer, bad-ass, straight-ahead, in-your-face, solid bluesy hard rock power trio riffage with powerful rippin’ lead guitar that will rock your world. This is a true bona-fide heavy guitar monster.

California-bred axeripper Jamie Purpora kicks ass on the guitar and leads his power trio through 8 trax of killer heavy guitar riffage. The powerhouse rhythm section of Roger Brown & Jeremy Crowther nails down serious hard-assed heavy power trio grooves for J.P. to “rip it hard” on his guitar. This is definitely their best & heaviest disc to date.

This disc is HIGHLY recommended to fans of killer bluesy heavy guitar power trio riffage complete with bad-ass, heavy-duty, hi-powered rippin’ leads that are worthy of guitar hero status."

We arent friends anymore if you dont like it!

Midnight - Complete and Total Fucking Midnight (2005)

Here you go motherfuckers, the best goddamn shit you’ll ever hear. I know I’ve introduced a few select members of this group to Midnight, but here’s an open invitation to the rest of you. Unholiness from Cleveland. Simple fucking riffs. Songs about sluts, graves, and other badass shit. One could call this blackened speed metal with some thrashing on the side. What other band has gotten shut down because the singer had his guitar on fire while playing?
Endless sluts and hot graves


ALL HAIL HELL

post courtesy of Drew Wenston-Ball.

Naked City - Leng Tch'e (1992)

Genre - LENG TCH'E

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_slicing

if drone doom Boris had a lovechild with John Zorn and the offspring was as fucking horrifying of a monster as you could imagine (in a very, very wonderful way).

Super mega essential

its in FLAC because it deserves to be

Twenty Sixty Six and Then - Reflections on the Future (1972)

Genre - Krautrock, Heavy Psych, Progressive Rock.
Review - According to ProgArchives.com "Krautrock (also called "Kosmische musik") is a German avant-garde / experimental rock movement that emerged at the end of the 1960's. It was intended to go beyond the eccentricities developed by the wild psychedelic rock universe of the US, by giving a special emphasis to electronic treatments, sound manipulation and minimal hypnotic motifs (continuing the style of "musique concrete" and minimalist repetitive music but within a more accessible environment)."

Nevermind the pretentious band name, Twenty Sixty Six and Then play a unique brand of krautrock (but then, Isnt Krautrock all about experimenting with your usual Psychedelic rock sound which was so famous back in the days). THis album will go down the throats of most of you guys here. I know there a lot of hard rock, psychedelic rock (?? Space rock too) loving crowd in this group (I am looking at you feather, ethan, Rectal, Poseidonx, Funeralmass). But this will also find favours with guys who like bands that like to experiment with their music.(I know a lot of you guys hate the experimental tag here). I remember someone posting a Randy Holden album here and it was well received by the truly grim crowd. Well this band is like a few steps of ahead of what Randy Holden did on Population II. The guitar tone is thick and heavy with too many melodic overtones to handle. While you are being bombarded with bluesy Jimmy Hendrixesque riffs, you also find slowly ascending spacey passages ala Nektar (Hey Hawkwind have become a household name in this group yoy know! but seriously this reminds me more of Nektar than Hawkwind). The vocals are husky and raw which will force you think of Garage rock movement of the 60s and is one of the reasons why I like this album so much. So if you love to dig the vocals of Blue Cheer and the legendary "The Electric Prunes", there is no reason why you wont love it. The drumming is immaculate and the fills and rolls along with long guitar leads impart a progressive touch to the music ala King Crimson. The bass is pretty much audible and particularly great on the title track.

The production is kinda poor, but I like it somehow because its the production that imparts an even thicker sound to the guitar tones and makes it sound closer to the garage rock/hard rock than your usual German Krautrockers. Oh and why the heck I was forgetting about incredible flute playing on the albums.

Krautrock was one of the most abused genre in the 70s, Infact the krautrock albums that came in the mid 70s made a mess of the legacy left by the early bands. But this is one of the early gems from a band that had a rather shortlived career.

I absolutely love the song BUTTERKING here, cheesy lyrics with incredible vocals (there are times when all you can hear is the vocals and the vocal tones are matched incredibly by the geeeetars!). I would say that go for this album just for that fuckin' song.

PS - The Link contains 8 tracks, The actual album has 5 tracks only (the first five ones) the rest are BONUS!
Your choice baby!

Palace In Thunderland - Apostles Of Silence

To dare, to will, to dominate, to demolish.

Little is known about this Stoner \ psychedelic band from the US. The band distinguishes itself from other like-minded bands of the time by incorporating a rapid fire progression of riffs and fuzzed out metal songs backed by long winded psych rock jams all fitting together to form a complex yet beautiful and trippy jigsaw puzzle in the end. The band wanders carefully down the 70's rock road with heavy psych elements tugged deeply into their hands. With influences ranging from Sabbath to Monster Magnet to Floyd, Rush, Zeppelin, Hawkwind and as well as Faith No More the tunes of the band seem to move from a groovy stoner rock song to a slow mo psyched out space psych jam.



It was a long bumpy ride for the band, but the era of Palace has come to a close after seven long years. The singer from this band would eventually move on into Black Pyramid which released their debut album earlier this year, thus garnering some of the much deserved reputation for the band.

Get Pschyed

Thelonious Monk - Monk's Dream (1963)

Thelonious Monk was a jazz pianist born in North Carolina, but know mostly for being a fixture of the New York jazz scene from the 40's until the 70's. He is considered to be one of the inventors of the Bebop style. His trademark was his use of up tempo melodies interspersed with percussive and atonal piano chords and frequent rests and pauses. He would take a basic melody, speed it up and chopped it into pieces.

Monk's Dream is his most well know album, possibly due to its accessibility combined with the fact that it was his Colombia Records debut. This undoubtedly gave it wider exposure than any of his previous efforts. Don't be fooled by into thinking it isn't kvlt or whatever though, this is his best work in my opinion.

This album actually has a special place in my heart though, I've probably listened to this album more than any other album regardless of my charts. When I was a wee little tyke I used to listen to Monk's dream every night before I went to sleep. Along with Sargent Pepper and the Magical Mystery Tour by the Beatles I listened to this album daily for years upon years. Unlike the Beatles though, I still have as much appreciation for Monk as I did when I was 6. I guess that I'm lucky to have grown up with Monk intstead of say... The Wiggles.

Just A Gigolo

Gräfenstein – Death Born

Genre – Black Metal

Country – Germany

Just about when I thought that “Well I had enough of Black Metal” as nothing seemed to click with me from the past few weeks, I gave this band a random try to rejuvenate my love and fondness for this genre which had always amazed me and surprisingly it clicked.

Yes, Gräfenstein is one of those bands who play a rather modern style of Black Metal with a bit of Thrash influences here and there without clinging away from the roots. A bit generic and monotonous (but that’s where my interest in Black Metal lies) so it was never a problem with me.

So what do we expect from Gräfenstein ? These guys play No Nonsense Black Metal and this an out and out 46 minutes of Non-stop Black Metal onslaught, yes the riffs are there and they are right in your face one after another leaving you wanting for more, Very Very Impressive. Talk about the drumming, again very good. I always had this insta-connection with German black metal bands right from mighty Katharsis to Zarathustra, Gräfenstein is the latest addition, so get it here.

Ps. I find it a bit similar to Witchmaster, i don't know how though. =\

Nikolay Karlovich Medtner - Forgotten Melodies

Requested By - Necrobobsledder
Genre - Classical, Romantic
I am the last person to be recommending classical music since I havent even covered the tip of the iceberg in this immensely vast amount of music out there in the genre. But this is some really great work on piano. Stunningly beautiful and melodic! Check this out!
Megaupload!

Frigid Bich - A&M Promo (1981)

(No cover art available so here is the logo instead)

This demo is a classic. Well, it would be if more people listened to it. This could be NWoBHM if it wasn't from the US. It also has a bit of that NWoBHM sound, too.

The lyrics are in this demo are about being rebellious and Jack teh Ripper. A good example of this is "We don't care about society. Our long hair and leather stays."

What I like most about this is the audible bass, it really stands out, even when things speed up. All in all, this is a pretty enjoyable, albeit short demo.

Mediafire

Handful Of Hate - You Will Bleed

If nothing else, Italy's Handful of Hate is a damned consistent band, writing average if aggressive material that echoes the work of the black forces further North. Nicola Bianchi's spiteful snarling, a solid set of bleeding riffs, and a high end production (for the field of black metal) combine to damn their 5th effort, You Will Bleed to the deepest reaches of human suffering.

Handful of Hate might not be quite so aggressive, but they manage to balance tempos well enough that you don't become flaccid through and endless blasting boredom. Enough of the band's diabolic force is used in the creation of cruel, thrashing rhythms as you will find in "The Pest'Son", the drudging "March of Hate" and the horrific glory of "Bliss Between Thorns". The album also ends with a nice pair of extremes, from the pondering evil of "The Fault to Exist" to the carnal, melodic "Extremism Made Fire".

Right on! You Will Bleed is another vibrant, open jugular emptying its essence into the massive cauldron of European black metal. It's not original enough to sate the avant-garde tastel it's not extremely hooky; it's not as violent or brutal as other bands in the field. But Handful of Hate know what they're doing.

Verdict: Win

Witchrist - Curses of Annihilation (2009)

Artist: Witchrist

Album: Curses of Annihilation

Genre: Death Metal

Country: New Zealand



Not so much a standard album but a compilation of the first two demos with (one unreleased) from this new band from New Zealand, playing primitive Black/Death Metal. Witchrist share members with Diocletian so one would rightly assume there are some comparisons sound-wise, however Witchrist lean further towards Death Metal and have a slightly more plodding/ritualistic atmosphere than the full-on attack of Diocletian. As is usual with this style of Death Metal, riffs are rather straightforward and focus more on pummelling the listener with huge slabs of heaviness and creating an ominous atmosphere than impressing with technical wank. The drumming follows suit, nice solid beats full of conviction, gotta love a drummer that hits hard. Production is rather bottom-end heavy but not too muddy that details get lost as is often the case with this style. Probably not a release for everyone, but check it out if you like Archgoat, Teitanblood, older Bolt Thrower and early Incantation.

Download

Thralldom - A Shaman Sterring The Vessel of Vastness (2006)

Artist: Thralldom

Album: A Shaman Steering The Vessel Of Vastness

Genre: Black Metal

Country: U.S.A.

Since some months ago when I got bored of black metal, s one of the few bands that still manage to catch my attention was Thralldom, as well as the other BM projects by the Unearthly Trance guy Ryan Lipynsky. He has a very distinct style that could be described as noisy and raw in the vein of Darkthrone, only less riff-ridden and with more noise-influenced parts, and more emphasis is placed on the atmosphere, which gets really dark and unsettling in some moments. A Shaman Steering the Vessel of Darkness is the final Thralldom album and also the less conventional where more focus is put on noise than on their previous releases, which doesn't mean there isn't some really cool riffs to be found here. Anyway I suck at writing so here goes the linky:

DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN-NANUNUNUN DAAAH

P.S. Thanks go to Vorephallack. This is his pick, his review and his link. Prizzzops.

Pocahaunted - Passage (2009)

Artist: Pocahaunted

Album: Passage

Genre: Psychedelic/drone/ambient

Country: U.S.A.

Definitely some strange stuff here, this girls are the self-proclaimed 'Olsen twins of blissed out drone' and their music sound as if Nadja were a couple of native american hippies who got lost for five years in a little island in the middle of the Caribbean. I'm not really sure how to further describe this, just download it and relax for half an hour while listening this. I saw them live last July and they put out possibly the most weirdly awesome / awesomely weird shows I've ever seen. And the bassist is hot as hell (looks worth a poke to me)


^^hairsecks


Leech

P.S. the prippity props go to Vorephallack.

After The Bombs - Relentless Onslaught (2007)

Genre - Crust Punk, Thrash Metal

Well Thrash is dead :( Well apparently Its not!
Apart from a few bands like Fastkill, Sauron and to some extent Heathen, there hasnt been any truly great thrash release in this decade. (I am leaving out the black/thrash bands if you dont mind).

But this album has restored my faith in the genre. They play super heavy thrash laden with extraordinary chunky bass riffs in the background with relentless riffing which will force you to think about Amebix.

Harsh vocals like early sodom, primitive drumming and war themed lyrics add to the whole fun!
Mediafire

Sun of Nothing-...In the Weak and the Wounded(2007)

Genre:-Experimental Blackened Sludge

Country:-Greece

Flashback:-
  Weeks and weeks of searching for Sun of Nothing's debut album,"...And Voices,Words,Faces,Complete The Dream",proved to be futile,as I was just not able to find a link.
Finally one day I got a link at metalarea and checked the debut.Fucking impressive and remarkably unique.So I decided to check out their critically acclaimed masterpiece,''...In the Weak and the Wounded''.

SO.

HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT!!

What we have here is a behemoth of an album.Skull crushing Sludge metal meets the aggressiveness of Black Metal.Right from sections of dark ambient to black metal shrieks to death metal growls to goddamn sludge...fuck this album has it all.Everything's perfect here.Starting with the BASS!It's so damn prominent with orgasmic and catchy as fuck basslines.The basslines form a solid backbone of many of the songs on this album.The vocals vary throughout the album.At times death metallish and other times switching from the necro vocals of grindcore to tortured raspy black metal shrieks.Sometimes they are clean and actually sung.The riffing is awesome and heavy as fuck.Imagine your head being pounded with a maul continuously.Distorted and well structured riffs that never lose their intensity.The tempo of the album is vary varied.The drumming is also very good and doesn't sound sloppy at all.Production-wise the album is also perfect.A very powerful and overwhelming atmosphere.What we have here is a top notch experimental sludge album.Kinda grabs you by the balls and fucks you repeatedly.

I can't recommend this album enough to any fan of metal.

From the band's mouth,

"Somewhere between the esoteric phantasmagoria of The Melvins & the majestic open spaces induced by Hydrahead sound (Pelican, Mare, Isis) & sheer black metal (from Enslaved to Xasthur…), lies the southern hellboy known as Sun Of Nothing."

Part 1(95 mb)

Part 2(7 mb)

Links are Mediafire.

P.S:-For those who care,their debut is equally awesome although the 'power electronics' factor is much more pronounced there.

Skullflower - IIIrd Gatekeeper(1992)

Ok,this one is TxusMx's Album of the week.I'm posting it on his behalf since he hasn't got the blog rights yet.

Genre:Noise/Drone

Country:England

Year:1992

Skullflower is the long running project of Matthew Bower, but in its initial incarnation the band did have other members and was a bit more "rock oriented" than the cacophonous oppression of sound and noise that Skullflower is today with Bower as the (pretty much) sole member and driving force. IIIrd Gatekeeper is a re-release of the extremely difficult to find third record from this seminal band from when it actually was a collaborative group of individuals; this album is also considered a touchstone album from the band's early years that has a lasting effect on the current noise and drone scenes. IIIrd Gatekeeper is an ear opening experience as one can hear where many of the current crop of drone and noise groups find inspiration from, if you like both of these genres you should definitely check this one.

Part 1

Part 2

Harassor - Harassor

Genre – Raw Black Metal / Hardcore Punk

Country – U.S.A.

So GRIM OBSCURE and KVLT, that there isn't an album cover for Harassor, instead there is this

Remember Lord Foul ? A supposed "joke project" by Roach, the guitarist/vocalist for the old underground grindcore band, Son of Dog, the funny part was Kanwulf (Nargaroth) actually covered a song called "I Burn For You" in his Black Metal ist Krieg album from Lord Foul’s Killing, Raping, Burning demo.

Harassor is the project of Roach from Lord Foul along with Pete Majors and Sandor GF, so do we expect another joke over here ? No not at all or wait, Yes! A song titled She Who Makes Dogs Shiver makes you feel that this is where Lord Foul left off and Harassor picked it, but this is rather upto you how you take it, something very original and is a treat especially if you are game for some Raw Aggressive Music.

Talking about the music, it is something in between raw black metal and hardcore punk, the riffs are catchy and the production isn’t too muddy neither clean, the vocals aren’t your trademark Black Metal vocals but the vocalist maintains a raspy sound which goes very well with the music, the drumming is done exceptionally well , especially when you play Raw Black Metal, the drum production in some cases are bound to be sloppy but it is done pretty well over here, right from the intro riff in Marching Abomination to various chaotic and noisy passages this album lives upto my expectations and please don’t let the Hardcore Punk tag bother you, just get it.

Leech