Venom Lord - Return of the Wizards (2007)

Venom Lord was a Bemidji, MN-based 4-piece comprised of Simon Mahlberg (guitar, also of docks, PFAZAR), Eli Balbach (Bass, also of docks), Matt Houle (Vocals, also of Hound), and Alex Narveson (drums, also of Fulcrum, docks, Creep Speak, etc., etc.).
They played a riff-happy style of metal that combined elements from a myriad of extreme genres.

Having reunited with former guitarist Andy Kelly; on September 26, 2009, Venom Lord play their last show to a crowd of enthusiastic fans at a fundraiser at the Elks Lodge in Bemidji, MN, for the Blue Ox Cooperative, an organization attempting to gain funds to buy a practice-space, recording studio, and venue for the diverse Bemidji music scene.

I was there. The show ruled. End of story.

"Return of the Wizards" was the sole full length they released over their 4 year span of rock, and whether or not our followers like this, I'm friggin' posting it.

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Morbius - Sojourns Through the Septiac (2005)

This is what The Chasm would sound like without any doom influences; well, almost. Another ethereal, epic death metal band with no absolute peers and a penchant for obscurity and noteworthy cameos (one of Morbius' drummers went on to play in Arghoslent, under the alias of Alienchrist, an album by the latter). It's nothing truly amazing, but it certainly works and deserves far more attention than it has received at this point.

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Adramelech - Psychostasia (1996)

This may or may not be redundant, but if you haven't heard this yet, do so now and save yourself from the eternal fires of ignorance.

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Flac Part One, Part Two

Bonus: Seven and The Fall EPs, in full lossless glory.

Pharaoh - Be Gone (2008)

Riff-tastic progressive/power metal featuring the vocalist of Control Denied. I was never a fan of that project, and luckily where it failed to exceed Pharaoh accomplishes perfectly. The melodies are memorable, and every song stands apart from the rest. When I used the phrase riff-tastic, I was really doing the band a disservice, because the flow of every song, the arrangements, the transitions, practically every aspect is spot on. It may take a while to become used to some of the production quirks (pitifully absent bass sound, for example) but the payoff is far more than worth the effort.

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Falls of Rauros - Into the Archaic

Falls of Rauros is a US based band (from Maine) which plays a form of blackened folk. Originally the project consisted of two members playing a form of neofolk which was mostly improvised. Over the course of time, their sound began to shift into a sound more inspired by black metal, but still retained the pagan feeling of their previous work.

Their first album, Into the Archaic, was barely rehearsed, and recorded in a small shack using low-budget equipment and primitive techniques. The philosophy of this band is interesting in the fact that they're largely influenced by a prechristian, natural world as opposed to many bands which are inspired by the work and ideas laid down by other individuals.

Currently there are around four members contributing to this project, but this release was the effort of the two founding members.

Highly recommended.

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--Goat Christ // YourAntiGod

Decrepit - Tired of Licking Blood From a Spoon (1998)

Genre - Crust, Hardcore
Review - I may not be an expert on this genre but I definitely know what I like and this is admittedly a skull crushing record. Recommended to me by a fella with an arguably impeccable taste, I couldn't have gone wrong with this one. They sound pretty similar to Amebix only with deadlier and more insane vocals. The best way to describe them would be the thick chunky bass sound of Amebix with a riffing style of Discordance Axis and vocals of Discharge. This should get you all worked up.
-EyehateDoG

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John Zorn - Astronome

As an introductory post, I figured something rooted in metal would be appropriate, since I will be diverging from that stream pretty frequently later on, so I present to you John Zorn's epic, Jazz Metal non-verbal opera, Astronome. Using the same line up as his earlier release, Moonchild, (in which he managed to persuade a jazz duo to play metal) Zorn crafts an insane three act wordless drama of grim insanity. The concept here is the lack of language, all the vocals are incomprehensible screams, growls, wails, grunts, chokes and basically any other noise you can possibly imagine the human vocal chords producing, and the effect is beyond belief. Quite terrifying at times.

On top of that, the instrumentation, while sounding like metal, is much closer to jazz in its improvisational style. You don't really get repeated riffs, there are themes and motifs but they flit in and out of existence without establishing themselves with any permanence, and the result is a mind-bending randomness that belies a much deeper complexity of form and content. If you like the more out-there forms of metal, noise or jazz music, you should definitely check this one out.

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Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - In Glorious Times (2007)

This little gem is a hodgepodge of weirdness. There's really no way to easily sum up every influence, but be prepared for something new with every song.

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When Knives Go Skyward - A Thousand Miles of Rope (2007)

When Knives Go Skyward, an infamous band for those in the know. They existed fairly briefly, for a period of a couple of years in St. Louise. They released a promising demo and then started recording and album. Tracks surfaced on myspace and the like in various states of production,and then...... nothing happened. The album never saw the light of day. A leak of the album has been doing the rounds for years, but there are tracks that remain unheard/unreleased to this day. It will probably never surface because the damned band members seem to think it's funny to taunt their fans.

The members went on to form the very promising Goddamn Rodeo. Once again tracks were recorded videos put up on youtube, but to my knowledge, nothing was ever released.... FFFFUUUUUUUUUU

The Vocalist and bassist have a new band called A Dark Orbit and the guitar player is currently in the Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza

Ok, but enough about that. What does it sound like? When Knives Go Skyward play a scathing brand of math/metalcore reminiscent of Will Haven among others. It's been done before, but here it has a certain ju ne sais quoi. For one thing it's heavy as fuck. I know, I know: you guys like OSDM. Come on though, at least give it a shot. Most of you will probably hate this, but Mastod0n Man has been eating this shit up for one. Whatever.

PEACE

Ascended - The Art of Necromancy (2008)

Genre - Death Metal
Country - Finland!
Review - I dont really need to do this, Why?

1) They play old school death metal.
2) They are from Finland.
3) A sick and horrifying artwork to boast of.
4) Abhorrence + Cartilage + Convulse with modern production.

Enuff said, they are one of the sickest outfit from the country among the recent crops of bands. And I have already praised them a lot in my previous review of Swallowed. Just get THIS!
-EyehateDoG
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Swallowed - Discography

Genre - Old School Death Metal, Death/Doom
Reviews - There has been a surge of new bands that worship old school death metal bands and try to play in their vein. I tried more than hundreds of them but to be honest, I wasnt impressed much by any of them (excepting a few like Dead Congregation, Deathevokation, Necros Christos, Maim, Excoriate and of course Swallowed).

This band is a massive Autopsy worship and thats why a cover of "In The Grip of Winter" doesnt quite come as a sweet surprise. The band picks up right from where the album Mental funeral had ended. Though Autopsy have been a source of inspiration for many death/doom bands but most of them fuck it up entirely by adding melodic/synth element. But some of the bands who are intelligent and talented enough are able to sound at least partly like Severed Survival. But in the case of Swallowed we are talking about "Mental Funeral" worship. Yes, you heard me right! Its really a collosal task to create slow doomy music yet sound massively brutal. Thats what Autopsy had achieved with that towering release of theirs which other bands cant even dream of.

Swallowed employs the same slow, crushing, doomy guitars with bluesy touch of Sabbath. It sounds heavy enough to devour you into its choking strangehold. The vocalist sounds as he is himself is Chris Reifert. You can almost touch those similar growls and high pitched screams when he goes berserk. The production is a bit iffy but its quite alright considering its a demo and almost all instruments and just listenable. And "In The Grip Of Winter" is probably one of my favourite Autopsy covers. Watch out for these guys and the band does need some attention so that they get signed and release a full length which I can hardly wait for.

To sum it up this "Epitaph of Nauseation" is like three unreleased tracks from Mental Funeral" unleashed upon you after 16 years.
The tape is long sold out from Detest records but the band may still have some copies left with them. The first demo as well as two rehearsal tracks are provided free on their website, The first demo is more like your usual death metal.

Other bands to be checked out on Detest Records - Miasmal, Abhorrot, Stench of Decay, and more recently the finnish maniacs "Ascended". I hope you guys have heard of the demo "The Art Of Necromancy" by Ascended which was released on Enucleation Records. They are coming up with their new EP "Temple of Dark Offerings" which will also be available on Detest Records.

-EyehateDoG
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