Leeches of Lore - S/T

A band hailing from New Mexico. They play a blend of stoner rock fused with 'western music', thrash, psychedelic, etc.

These guys are everywhere when it comes to genre, almost like they wrote several separate stoner, country, thrash, and psychedelic albums then cut up the music and pasted it back together. Except it works, and sounds great.

MF

v/a - Vinland vs. Finland

The clear winner for me is Vinland, but it's all pretty good. Bone Awl's part is what anyone has come expect of them with their raw black metal goodness. Hammer was surprisingly good. Volkurah created some good rifs, but Vordr. No. That was pretty bad. The vocals, Oh god, the vocals. They sounded horrible, and some of the isntrumentation sounded like there was a cat scratching on a scratching post in the background. Luckily, it wasn't bad enough to ruin the whole split, but especially during "Sabbath of Ruin" my ears were not happy when I was listening to it. So, this is a great compilation... if you just skip Vordr's part.

Hail, "Permafrost" and "Seeds"

Don't know if anyone is gonna be into this at all, but these are ultra-limited and thus ultra-rare demos from one of the other bands of L'Acephale's Set Sothis Nox La. They only exist in CDr editions of 30 each, and somehow I got lucky enough to buy them from some dude in South America dirt cheap. I have the full-length "Crimson Madrigal" as well if anyone is interested, but that's not as limited (edition of 93) and can be found elsewhere on the interwebs (I think).

They consist of neo-folkish ambient metal noise, so yeah, they can't really be categorized. But they are amazing, that's for damn sure. A very different experience than L'Acephale, but equally as rewarding. Check 'em.

Permafrost

Seeds

Elder - Elder (2008)

Country: USA
Genre: Sludge/Doom


This album is quite possibly some of the grooviest, and most solid sludge/doom that has ever entered my ear canals.
Lyric excerpt:

earth behind me
universe in front
so grab your matches man
and take a hit of the cosmic blunt

I think I just blew a megaup"load".

Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance (1978)

Artist - Pere Ubu
Album - The Modern Dance
Year - 1978
Country - US
Genre - Post-Punk

DC told me to rip my review from RYM. So:

A band of street musicians plays punk music with robots and angry hobos at a train station in a noisy and chaotic future city. They are interrupted and accompanied by the noises of the station; trains, passengers in conversation running off to unknown destinations, traffic, and the general noises of the city. As night falls and the station quiets down, their music takes a somber tone. Once alone, the group take part in an anarchic jam session and vandalize the station. As dawn approaches they play one last song, a fitting finale to their performance.

One of my favorite albums of all time... it just has such a wonderful energy to it, and it really builds an atmosphere. There's catchy shit, but at the same time it does stuff that would scare away anybody just looking for catchy shit. The album has a great flow, and I absolutely love some of the sounds the band gets out of the instruments. From the shrieking solo on the Modern Dance, to Thomas' at times psychotic sounding vocals, to the cacophony of noise that Sentimental Journey builds to, I just love this album.

Download

Torture Chain - Humbling Isolation Terror (2008)

"Humbling Isolation Terror" consists of 3 great compositions filled with aggression, some melody and spectral atmospheres, in which music and emotion interweave overwhelmingly. This band does an exceptional job at creating fast paced, 2nd generation Black Metal experiences while adding hints of modern Raw Black Metal to the already tasty recipe. All 3 tracks are garbled with blast beats and completely restless guitars leaving you very little time to breathe before the next onslaught tears your pansy ass ear drums apart. The vocalist bleeds it all out with his trademark scare-the-shit-out-of-your-parents gargling rasp, which fits very well in with the music and adds to the general mood." - The Funeral Stench


Mediafire

Catharsis - Passion (1999)

Band: Catharsis
Album: Passion
Year: 1999
Genre: Hardcore / Metal

Catharsis were an anarchist hardcore band from North Carolina. Heavily influenced by Integrity and Neurosis, they created this strange monster with roaring guitars, pounding rhythms, spoken word passages, and a tormented scream. All of the elements praising and adding an apocalyptic atmosphere. Maybe not the most unique, or unique at all, but it's still some good shit.

Check it

Cold Cave- Love Comes Close (2009)

Cold Cave- Love Comes Close
2009
Synth-pop/Industrial/Darkwave

Where do I start with Cold Cave? I could start by introducing them as a synthy pop band with catchy hooks, industrial soundscapes, almost new-wavey-Tears-for-Fears-esque at times. I could mention they feature members of American Nightmare/Give Up the Ghost, Ash Pool/Prurient and Xiu Xiu! The former hardcore frontman, Wesley Eisold, teams up with noisy motherfucker Dom Fernow and a few others to make tracks of toe tapping synth catchiness. Heavy beats, distorted keys switching off between Ian Curtis-y male vocals and somber female vox.
You can't really say that Cold Cave is completely original, but then again the sound kinda fizzled out in the early 80s. They apparently rejuvenated the interest in synthpop among the hipsters.
I suck at writing reviews, just download


http://www.mediafire.com/?xmnmdqulmzw

The Angels of Light - How I Loved You (2001)

You should all be well familiar with SWANS by now, and if not I'd highly recommend perusing their material before venturing into lead man Michael Gira's extra-curricular works. This happens to be his best in that catagory; down-tempo folk-rock with plenty of other influences seeping in through the dusty cracks. Good music for the end of a long day, when you're tired and broken, but still know there's much more hardship to come.

Mediafire

Bardo Pond - Bufo Alvarius, Amen 29:15 (1995)

I don't really know how to classify this album. Drone, shoegaze, noise rock, post rock, space rock, psychedelic rock, or is it some kind of Frankenstein monster made up of all of them? Fuzzy droning guitars build up layers of solid sound and then the band weaves melodies through the wailing wall of sound, whether they are some sort of cosmic blues, meditative chant, or some other remnant of whatever musical influences built this album.

The main portion of the album explores all of the possibilities contained within that collection of influences. The album ends on the collosal "Amen," and while I love the kind of sloppy noisy blues rock that makes up the rest of the album, Amen feels relaxing. It relieves the tension of the album. It is almost a peaceful song, despite the droning guitar. The bells and the female vocalist have a sort of beauty that is lacking in the rest of the album and is a fitting way to end it.

I figured this was the least likely album of my possible choices to have overlap with the group, so hopefully I will be giving some people a new listening experience. DemonCashew is pretty positive about it, so hopefully thats a good sign for the rest of your preferences. (Though he likes Lady Gaga and Animal Collective so I'm not sure if we can trust him.) He says I should mention the vocals, which I guess are kind of weird when they are actually trying to say something. I don't know what that guy is going on about.

the place of sending

post courtesy of Florpy.

Cult Ritual - Cult Ritual (2009)

If bands that push the envelope are your sort of thing, Cult Ritual is for you. Cleverly structured riffs and sneaky noisy interludes weave this 30 minute experience. Ranging from fast and heavy d-beats to lengthy ambient passages, this album has quite an inventive take on the genre.

Enjoy!

mediafire

Infernal Stronghold - Godless Noise

This is raw-as-fuck, thrashy BLEEAAYACK METAUUL from America. If you don't like it, fuck off. Or not. It's like the internet, man, I can't really force you to leave. Unless I was like a moderator or something, but I digress. This is some top-fucking-notch blackened thrash right here with a sprinkling of d-beat added in for good measure. It's one of my favourite black metal full-lengths of last year, and I implore each and everyone one of you subhumans to listen to it right-fucking-now. Yeah, that's right, and you should sacrifice a couple of small animals in some Satanic ritual while your at it.

Smashing your car/family's car into a church and slaughtering all the occupants inside with a claymore is also a good idea.

AVE SATAN, AVE LUCIFER

Watchtower - Instruments of Random Murder [Demo] (1987)

Nothing to see here folks. Just a really fucking hard-to-come-by demo by one of the most seminal bands in all of extreme music, featuring a track never again recorded or reissued.

Nope, nothing at all...

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.

Sixx - Sister Devil

Satanic Post-Punk by members of Von.
Needless to say, it rules.

Megaupload

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!

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

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

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.