Bonesaw - Sawtopsy

Band : Bonesaw
Album : Sawtopsy
Genre : Death Metal

Artwork done by Riefert. The name of the album Sawtopsy. Backing vocals done by Riefert (in some tracks). There's no prizes for guessing what this band's main influence is. Bonesaw from Aberdeen in Scotland has one major influence: Autopsy. On this full-length debut they didn’t try hiding their adoration for this Californian band and fans of this style of death metal will know enough to get an urge to check out Bonesaw.

Taking the filth of Severed Survival and mixing it with the heaviness and atmosphere of Mental Funeral, this band has got to be the best old school death metal revivalist band o one heard or cared about.

DEAD !!!!!!!!

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!

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

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

Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat - If the Sky Falls, We Shall Catch Larks (2005)

Genre : NeoFolk \ Apocalyptic Folk \ Drone

Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat. No, it's not a snappy insult. Although it could be. The name is derived from a florid description of part of the instructions that a witch had to perform back in the 1800s. Fun times.

Instead of a one-man bedroom black metal project, Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat is Stef Heeren's (formerly of some unnamed punk band) one-man freak folk solo project; a tribal, ritualistic extravaganza of layers upon layers of folk drone, chanting, bells ringing, whispers and atmosphere. A live band and occasionally full orchestra hits the road alongside him for gigs.

Those of you who enjoy weirdy-beardy freak folk along the lines of Six Organs of Admittance, Espers or even stoner drone like Om, you'll probably dig it. The vocals have a distinct Current 93-esque quality, which is probably why this is labeled as apocalyptic folk; the music does not really bear out that comparison either.

Of this project, Stef Heeren writes:

"Although the songs on this cd are folksongs really and have a structured course, my musical approach and interest goes out to religious and shamanistic music, be it buddhist, krishna or american indian music. Not because of it's contents but because of it's repetitive, mantra, dronelike character. I tried to create this timeless, trancelike atmosphere which you can find in religious music through using non-western instruments such as harmonium, tanpura, bowls and bells and repetitive singing. I very much enjoy their rattling and clanging."

Rejoice, It's Mediafire

Fleshpress - Pillars (2007)

Genre : Sludge Metal \ Dark Ambient

Minimalism is the watchword of this release, as demonstrated right from the start. Opener “I am your Sacrifice” begins with rumbling, creepy, atmospheric noise and a very slow, loose and abstract figure on guitar which focuses on discord rather than melody. It reminds me strongly of the techniques used by bands such as Khanate, and should be of interest to fans of this style. This is sustained for some three or four minutes before the song proper explodes into form.
This opening section, with its cloying and oppressive atmosphere is returned to in spirit with the title track, which is not based on the same sound, but rather the same atmosphere. This time around, the main sound is more sustained and consistent, but with many half-heard noises buried in it: odd pattering noises, something akin to dropping water, and rumbling bass-created groaning noises that nearly sound like distorted whale song. It’s a chilling, but also sonically very interesting layer over which the focus of the piece is layered—a rather repetitive acoustic figure which is again based around discords. Overall it’s a very bleak soundscape which will draw in fans of dark ambient and perhaps some of the more droning forms of doom, since the “background” noise is actually far more absorbing than the guitar line!
Perhaps the strongest example of this kind of thing, however, is the final track, “Ave Nihil”. This is a pretty minimal dark ambient piece. It’s clearly influenced by several black/ambient works, but the flanging effect on the guitars reminds of Electric Wizard’s “Weird Tales”. It’s multi-layered and thus never boring, which is a blessing as it lasts almost ten minutes, making it the second-shortest piece on this album! I’d like to see Fleshpress develop this aspect of their sound, as it’s something that they’ve never really explored in depth before, but that they seem to be very skilled at. The strange percussion and strange tape manipulation noises near the end, in particular, make this a very strong piece.

Yah, It's No Longer Rapidshare

Paul Chain - Sign From Space (2001)

Paul Chain, has always been overlooked in the metal scene, right from his early days when he created the ever so influential Death SS (FeatherofHuginn: with Steve Sylvester). Being from Italy, it wasn't a surprise that he turned out to be one of the best doom metal acts to have ever graced the metal circles. However, with the release of Alkahest he gained a small fraction of his long over due fame and respect.

Ever since, his open mindedness to experimentation has led his crazy mind to wander off of the streets of doom metal and heavy metal, the very streets that gave him some of the recognition he so badly deserved, into such genres of music one would never in his wildest dreams dreamt of him to go off to. And that brings us here today with his release, "Sign From Space" which as pretty easily decipherable belongs to the space rock genre.

Heavily heavily influenced by 70's rock and space rock bands such as Hawkwind, this release has been divided into 4 tracks, Sign From Space 1 - 4. This musical journey is in fact a musical realm of bluesy guitars, the signature psychedelic chaotic calmness and wicked studio effects. If you like 70's rock with a touch a psychedelia mixed with a tad of metal influenced guitar solos, then you cannot go wrong with this release.

~ Vaibhav (formerly: SpectrumOfDeath)

Mediafire