Priesticide Lust - Pride of Ignorance (1994)

"It's like being hit with a sack of hammers that were fans of Incantation." - Funeralmass

Priesticide Lust, aside from having an amazing band name play extrememly kvlt death doom from Poland. This shit is fucking crushing. They pummel you into oblivion and then just when you can't take any more they change the pace with a blasting death section. The vocalist is of Demilichian flavor. Well enough rambling, hit this shit up.

peace

When - Death in the Blue Lake (1988)

When - Death in the Blue Lake(1988)
experimental/post industrial/psychedelic

When is a solo project of Norwegian musician Lars Penderson. He began the musical project under the curious name "Hospital Blimp" in 1983 before settling on the bands current enigmatic moniker in 1987.

Death in the Blue Lake is Penderson's sonic answer to André Bjerke's pschological thriller novel of the same title. Although I haven't read the novel (it appears to be difficult if not impossible to find in english) Penderson's work definitely caries a foreboding and schizophrenic atmosphere that wouldn't be out of place in a tale of murder and madness. The album being Norwegian and from the late 80's also has the significance of enjoying quite a bit of popularity among the country's second wave black metalers. Perhaps the album inspired Varg to flirt with dark ambient? That's just conjecture on my part though. What I do know is that Satyricon sampled the title track of Death in the Blue Lake to use as the intro on their debut full length Dark Medieval times.

So forget all of that, what does the album sound like? Well the album ultimately carries many pop sensibilities. They are however obscured by the dark atmosphere and dissonance that create a patina of decay above everything else. The album begins with a grueling journey through a 20+ minute sound scape. All hope seems to be lost, but when the next track begins the album reveals it's true colors as catchy hooks and melodies begin to surface. The album works best as a cohesive whole so I recommend listening to it all the way through. Otherwise you will miss the contrasting elements.

peace

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.

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

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

Deadguy - Fixation on a Coworker (1995)

Deadguy are an interesting beast. They're somewhat difficult to classify. The most noticeable thing on first listen is their heavy Today is the Day influence. Aesthetically they are distinctly American featuring heavy metallic guitars mixed with highly dissonant accents and harsh intense vocals. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what metalcore should sound like.


Makeshift Atomsmasher, nothing dangerous sounding about that...

Full Blown A.I.D.S. - s/t [2008]

According to Wikipedia: "The band is mostly known for making songs an octave lower than most bands."

That is actually a surprisingly good description. Full Blown A.I.D.S. is a musical project by none other than Seth Putnam of Anal Cunt fame. Vaginal Jesus this isn't, this is finally a serious project by the man everyone loves to hate. This album was supposedly recorded between 2003-2004 and released on Limited Appeal Records, but I don't really know. Why he waited so long to let this see the light of day while releasing lackluster AxCx albums I have no idea.

Full Blown A.I.D.S. is the aural equivalent of the worst toilet in Scotland from Trainspotting; this shit is filthy. The guitar tone is one of the worst I've ever heard (in a good way). People familiar with Accept Death should be right at home with this. The guitar on this album is like a prolapsed rectum, the strings are so loose you can practically hear them flopping in the breeze. Putnam's vocals are true to form, and he turns in a good performance if it is a bit monotonous. I've always thought his distinctive screams were wasted in his joke bands. The drumming is adequate, but has a loose organic quality that suits the music. The songs here vary from thrashy uptempo grind, to droning sludge. There is even an AC/DC cover included for good measure.

Check it out if you like stupidly heavy things.

derp?

Fungus Liver - The Real Core of the Inevitable Shit (2009)

I'm not really sure how to describe these Finnish rockers. They're drunken hard rock howling isn't really normally my kind of thing but I saw this album on Mininova and downloaded it because of the title. When I booted up iTunes and got this shit cranking I was really pleasantly surprised by the quality of this release. It turns out that these guys uploaded their album to Mininova and the Pirate Bay themselves and completely forwent any traditional form of album release, kudos to them for that.

As for what the band actually sounds like, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to describe them. I don't really listen to a lot of similar stuff, but they do remind me a bit of Turbonegro if that's helpful at all. The singer is also in Feastem who play a pretty good if unspectacular brand of grind. I hope Fungus Liver proves to be more than just a Feastem side project, because I definitely see a lot of potential here.







HEAVEN OR HELL
LET'S ROCK

Dissassemble - Demogrinder (2008)

Disassemble are a sludge tinged grind band out of Baltimore, Maryland. They are new band to the scene, but they definitely show a lot of promise for such young musicians. They've got a split coming out soon with Man Will Destroy Himself.

Not a whole hell of a lot more to say. This is a four track demo, get this and be sure to keep an eye on this band in the future.






MADNESS

Finnish Death Metal Megapost

Now I am no expert on Finnish death metal, oldschool death metal, or even death metal in general really; but I find that Finnish death metal has a certain dark grimy aspect not present in Swedish death metal. The Finnish scene is and has always been smaller than either the Swedish or US scenes, but it has still plenty of quality material. I am still exploring musically and finding new bands everyday, so this should just be considered a mere scratch of the surface.

Abhorrence

Taken from last.fm: "Abhorrence was a death metal band from Finland, which was only active for one year. They recorded a demo tape, that was in heavy circulation all the way to mid 90’s underground scene and an EP for the Seraphic Decay records, infamous for ripping off the bands whose music they released."

They were approached a about a record deal by Relapse, but unfortunately it was too late, and they had already broken up. This is all a real shame because if they hadn't been ripped off by Seraphic Decay (who also ripped off Xysma, Derketa, and Incantation) they may not have broken up, and if they had been able to accept Relapse's record deal they may have become more well know and been able to further developed their sound....

Speaking of sound, what do they sound like? Abhorrence play a fuzzed out unearthly brand of death metal. The fast parts are brutal in an old school sense, but the slow parts reveal a more melodic doom influence.

The production isn't amazing but it's acceptable. Their demo has pretty much shit sound quality, but the s/t 7" is actually probably helped by the production as it adds to the otherworldly feel.

Excrement

Excrement seems to be a very mysterious band. They formed in 1990 as Apoplexy released one demo, changed their name to Excrement released a demo and an EP and promptly split forever.

Excrement seems to me to be the Finnish Dismember, they chug ahead with reckless abandon. This is classic old school brutality. The production here is great as well, perfect guitar tone and drum sound.

Purtenance Avulsion

Purtenance Avulsion is one of the most soul crushingly brutal bands I have ever heard, they capture the spirit of death metal in a way that modern bands do not. Their blasting sections are killer, but when they slow down the tempo every thing dissolves into one vicious wall of murk. The slow murky parts of this album are everything that I look for in death metal, dark brooding, and filthy. Absolutely amazing. They only released one four song demo under this name then changed there name to...

Purtenance
Purtenance released one EP and then one full length before splitting up in 1992. This release shows a lot of musical maturation form the Purtenance Avulsion days, but it still shows a lot of energy. They developed a style mixing heavy sludgy doom sections with faster death thrash sections. Purtenance also managed to incorporate some melodic elements lacking from their early days. This release rips just as much as the Purtenance Avulsion demo and the mix of Doom/Thrash/Death gives it a unique character.

I have compiled the following releases into the two links below:
Abhorrence - Vulgar Necrolatry (1990)
Abhorrence - S/T 7" (1990)
Excrement - Scorched (1994)
Purtenance Avulsion - s/t (1991)
Purtenance - Member of Immortal Damnation (1992)

DL Link 1
DL Link 2

In Disgust/Sidetracked - split (2007)

This is one hella tasty nugget of grind. In Disgust play a brand of grind violence immediately reminiscent of Insect Warfare. This is some brutal shit; extremely rapid changeups, heavy sludge mosh parts and blazing blast sections.

Sidetracked play an interesting youth crew influenced brand of power violence. Sidetracked's side is actually better in my opinion simply due to the fact that they play serious mind games. They'll start to settle into a stereotypical hardcore mosh riff, only to suddenly rip out a blazing blast section. They will use multiple tempo changes in a 10 second song. You never know what to expect. Crazyness. *interesting note*: none of Sidetracked's songs are scrobble-able, they're all under 30 seconds.

In Disgust/Sidetracked

Cosmic Atrophy - Codex Incubo (2008)

From Myspace: "Cosmic Atrophy started in the very beginning of 2008 with the rather simple and straightfoward idea of "playing some metal". Cory and Juan met and decided to see if they could get something to work for them, and came to the conclusion that playing oldschool influenced death metal with a bit of otherworldly touch to it is what they wanted. Fast forward half a year and 6 songs later and their debut full length album is complete. A deal was struck with both Suffering Jesus Productions and Metalbolic Records to release this album which is quite frankly a huge blessing to the CA duo; to have a distribution deal this early is just unspeakably excellent! Now the only thing to do is wait to see what the future holds for Cosmic Atrophy, who are still hard at work writing new material."

I am amazed (and jealous) that these guys already have such a great release under their belts (with only two members no less). I wish that me and my friends were this musically gifted/productive... *sigh*

Cosmic Atrophy pick up where Demilich left off. Dissonant guitar noodling abounds. Don't get me wrong though, there is no sweep picking here.

The drums rock, surprisingly considering they don't have a full time drummer. Tons of tasty fills and grooves, along with the occasional blast. They have an organic flow though, and never overpower the guitars.

Great stuff. Not as crazy as Demilich, but still pretty damn crazy.

Codex Incubo (2008)

Antropomorphia - Necromantic Love Songs (1993)

Antropomorphia is a Death Metal band from the Netherlands. They formed back in 1989. They have a few other releases, but this record is their best known. I can't really tell what the bands current status is, M-A says they've changed their name, but doesn't explicitly say whether or not they are still active... it's doubtful as their last release was in 1998 so yeah... all of this bands members seem to have pretty much dropped off the radar. These days most people only know Antropomaorphia from DeathenvokatioN's cover of Chunks of Meat.

I have negligible knowledge of the Dutch metal scene, but from what I've heard these guys take the cake for Death Metal.

This is dirty, heavy, and low-pitched... the way death metal should be. Unintelligible grunts for vocals, groovy down tempo parts, blistering tremolo picking.

Get this if you like your death metal brutal, but old school. No Suffo worship here.

Necromantic Love Songs [1993]

Patterns Make Sunrise - s/t 7" (1995)

This is another shot in the dark, I'm not sure if any of you guys will like this but here goes...

Patterns Make Sunrise were a fairly low key Indie/Emo band from Seattle. They existed from 1993-1995. They only released this one 7" as far as I can tell, and consequently seem to have slipped through the cracks of history. It's unfortunate because this is quality stuff, though somewhat derivative.

Musically Patterns Make Sunrise play a jangly brand of mid 90's emo with a tight driving rhythm section (the drums in particular stand out as quality). They often play poppy/catchy slower sections, which are then offset by sections with more driving drums and angular guitar.

Musically my only real complaints are that the vocals can be off putting at times, and the short length.

Give this a shot, you may be surprised and like it.

Patterns Make Sunrise - 7" [1995]

myspace

Neil Young - Dead Man O.S.T. (1995)

This is some cataclysmic, post apocalyptic shit. Forget what you thought you knew about Neil Young, his work for the soundtrack of Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man is an excellent dystopian soundscape. Droning electric guitar interspersed with dialog from the movie.

The soundtrack is still great out of context, but I'm going to put up the movie for your enjoyment as well. It's a great surrealistic western.



Neil Young - Dead Man OST (1995)

Dead Man (1995)[torrent]

TOMBS

Tombs is a pretty new band (formed in '07)that has been generating some buzz lately, but has yet to get picked up by the hype machine and really blow up.

Pretty grim a crushing, but sludgy and atmospheric at the same time. They vary between modern style sludge atmospherics and heaviness, and full-speed-ahead modern crusty sections, bringing mad guitar textures and layer the whole time. Faster parts bring a heavy black metal influence as well.

Mike Hill (ex Anodyne) brings the Boston noise/metal/hardcore influence, and Andrew Hernandez (ex A.S.R.A.) holds it down with the drums.

I'm going to put up their new album Winter Hours along with a split they did last year with the melodic, Tragedy style crust band Planks.


Tombs/Plank split [2008]

Winter Hours [2009]

Tombs last.fm
Planks last.fm

Maruta - In Narcosis (2008)

The name Maruta comes from Project Maruta, a secret WWII era experiment program of the Japanese government. Project Maruta was the Japanese equivelent of the testing carried out by Josef Megele carried out on the prisoners at the Nazi concentration camps. The Project had the pretense of a weapons testing program, but in reality it was just an excuse for the sadistic Japanese Unit 731 entertain themselves by divising and implementing horrific atrocites on Japanese poltical prisoners.

Maruta then is a fitting name for this South Florida trio; their music is just a sick a sadistic as the murderers of Unit 731. They rep a modern style of grindcore characterised by their intentional lack of a bass player. This may partly be respossible for the sonic similarties between them and other bassless grind bands like Pig Destroyer and Discordance Axis. Maruta generally utalize the classic fast-slow dynamic, and unusually for a grind band, they are often at their best during the slow parts of their songs.

Check this shit....

Download

Mystik Journeymen - The Black Sands Ov Eternia (1999)

Quick History Lesson:

Mystik Journeymen (Sunspot Jonz & Luckiam.PSC) are a hip-hop duo out of Oakland. They formed back in 92'. In 96 they teamed up with 3 Melancholy Gypsys to form the Living Legends crew.

Journeymen dropped Black Sands Ov Eternia in 1999 and it stands as an underground hip-hopclassic. Black Sands has very relaxed atmospheric beats. The lyrics are somewhat average,but the subject matter is refreshing, as the Journeymen don't sing on endlessly about cars and bitches.

Give it a listen, bitch.

-Dylan

Download (mediafire)


last.fm