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