Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody to The Victims of Hiroshima and Other Classical Works

Genre - Modern Classical
Requested By - Demoncashew

Here You Are!

Argentum - Mega Post!

Argentum are a black/death/doom metal band from Mexico. Any avid metal fan who searches his metal vigorously on metal archives must be familiar with "drowned" guy on that site. While, I do agree that I dont go by metal archives reviews, but there are certain users that happen to rate music judiciously and give appropriate scores to the albums on that site. So, dont be surprsed if you see "The 3rd and the Mortal" getting a high average ratings on that site and Asphyx's "The Rack" lagging behind with 75 percent of average scores. Enough of metal-archives talk, lets get down to the real deal. The "Drowned" fella seems to be engrossed in old school death metal and death/doom. Half of the obscurities of the early 90s and late 80s have been added by him. So it was pretty genuine for me to check some of his reviews out. It happened that there was only one album rated with a 100 per cent. What did you expect? diSEMBOWELMENT or Convulse or Winter? Nah, It was Argentum's debut "Ad Interitum Funebrarum". Frankly speaking, that was the only motive behind getting that album because the RYM ratings are rather disappointing for that album. I gave the albums a few listens, and forgot about it and it baffled me why this album was rated so high by that guy? Yesterday, I went to jog and decided to give this album a spin on my ipod. Canalophones do come in handy if you want to fully appreciate the beauty of a rather underproduced album. Bull's eye! It was a chilly and a foggy winter morning and the album worked like a wonder. I couldnt believe that this was the same band I had decided to snub a couple of months earlier.

This album has everything I love to hear in a doom metal record. Sinister use of growls and high pitched howlings, extremely downtuned riffs constantly buzzing in the background, and a thick bass supporting the scary instrumentation. Some of you guys know my love for bands like Faustcoven and Dark Prophecies, But this is beyond everything. The keyboards create a dark atmosphere and are masterfully used here. The second album is equally good with better production but little weaker in songwriting and is way too short and leaves you gasping for more. The two demos are raw and contain faster sections more in the vein of Bathory and early Celtic Frost.

Ad Interitum Funebrarum @ 320 Kbps
Mediafire Guys

Stigma Mortuorum @ Mediafire
The two demos

Mater Misericordiae 1993

Exothaernium 1994

Zenocide - Zenocide (2009)

Genre - Sludge Metal
Annihilatingly Awesome!

Hmmmm

Vincebuz - La Dimension Desconocida (2009)

Genre - Stoner Rock, Hard Rock, Acid Rock
Review - As you might have guessed by now, this band from Brazil is a Blue Cheer worship band. Now how can that be anything but awesome? Its another one of those gems I stumbled upon while browsing sludge swamp website. Apparently, the band members send their music to the site's admins to be posted on the blogs.
This album contains the compilation of songs from their EPs and few live acts.
"You’ll find heaps of fuzzy, super dense, distorted riffs building up a wall of sound which tastes of trippy desert-space rock and fat, dirty, groovy, doomy tunes that remind me so much of Church of Misery. As a bonus feature, this album possesses the vibe of the live performances but rendered with the high quality of a studio production. Beautiful indeed …"
Mediafire

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!

Twenty Sixty Six and Then - Reflections on the Future (1972)

Genre - Krautrock, Heavy Psych, Progressive Rock.
Review - According to ProgArchives.com "Krautrock (also called "Kosmische musik") is a German avant-garde / experimental rock movement that emerged at the end of the 1960's. It was intended to go beyond the eccentricities developed by the wild psychedelic rock universe of the US, by giving a special emphasis to electronic treatments, sound manipulation and minimal hypnotic motifs (continuing the style of "musique concrete" and minimalist repetitive music but within a more accessible environment)."

Nevermind the pretentious band name, Twenty Sixty Six and Then play a unique brand of krautrock (but then, Isnt Krautrock all about experimenting with your usual Psychedelic rock sound which was so famous back in the days). THis album will go down the throats of most of you guys here. I know there a lot of hard rock, psychedelic rock (?? Space rock too) loving crowd in this group (I am looking at you feather, ethan, Rectal, Poseidonx, Funeralmass). But this will also find favours with guys who like bands that like to experiment with their music.(I know a lot of you guys hate the experimental tag here). I remember someone posting a Randy Holden album here and it was well received by the truly grim crowd. Well this band is like a few steps of ahead of what Randy Holden did on Population II. The guitar tone is thick and heavy with too many melodic overtones to handle. While you are being bombarded with bluesy Jimmy Hendrixesque riffs, you also find slowly ascending spacey passages ala Nektar (Hey Hawkwind have become a household name in this group yoy know! but seriously this reminds me more of Nektar than Hawkwind). The vocals are husky and raw which will force you think of Garage rock movement of the 60s and is one of the reasons why I like this album so much. So if you love to dig the vocals of Blue Cheer and the legendary "The Electric Prunes", there is no reason why you wont love it. The drumming is immaculate and the fills and rolls along with long guitar leads impart a progressive touch to the music ala King Crimson. The bass is pretty much audible and particularly great on the title track.

The production is kinda poor, but I like it somehow because its the production that imparts an even thicker sound to the guitar tones and makes it sound closer to the garage rock/hard rock than your usual German Krautrockers. Oh and why the heck I was forgetting about incredible flute playing on the albums.

Krautrock was one of the most abused genre in the 70s, Infact the krautrock albums that came in the mid 70s made a mess of the legacy left by the early bands. But this is one of the early gems from a band that had a rather shortlived career.

I absolutely love the song BUTTERKING here, cheesy lyrics with incredible vocals (there are times when all you can hear is the vocals and the vocal tones are matched incredibly by the geeeetars!). I would say that go for this album just for that fuckin' song.

PS - The Link contains 8 tracks, The actual album has 5 tracks only (the first five ones) the rest are BONUS!
Your choice baby!

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!

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

Embers - Embers EP (2007)

Genre - Black Metal, Doom Metal, Crust, Atmospheric Sludge Metal
Review - This is a truly obscure EP. A mind fucking mix of relentless brutality and beatiful soundscapes. Its as if you are experiencing Agalloch, Dystopia, Bone Awl all together. Vocals are harsh as well as low growls. There are slow doomy/sludgey passages often reminiscent of atmospheric sludge bands like Isis and Neurosis.
Drumming is the highlight here. The drum rolls are magnificent and loud as fuck! And dont forget I mentioned the word CRUST guys, so prepare to get assaulted by incessantly fast and crushing parts in the album.

Absorb!
-EyehateDoG

O.L.D. - Old Lady Drivers (1988)

Genre - Grindcore, Death/Grind, Crossover Thrash

I thought it would be nice if I got out of the avant-prog hangover and post some kickass metal instead! It was about time guys. It cant get better than some real fast and chaotic old school grindcore.

Let me present to you guys Old Lady Drivers aka O.L.D. Yesterday I finally managed to check out the highly acclaimed Khanate and to tell you the truth the first two songs of the self titled didnt do much for me. But during those 20 minutes I came to realise what a goddamn awesome vocalist Alan Dubin is! That may be the only reason I may think about revisiting Khanate sometime later. Alright, I checked metal archives and came to know that he was a vocalist for a fuckin' GRINDCORE band way back in late 80s. Isnt that a reason enough to check those guys out?

Anyways O.L.D. play a chaotic, super fast grindcore (The way it is meant to be played!) with super cool lyrices throughout. In the later part of their career, they tried experimenting with their music and ended up playing avant-garde/industrial bullshit (going by some of those you tube samples, they were not worth it). James Plotkin has done a great job on guitaring, coming up with catchy riffs throughout. Solos come up for a very small time but they are tasty too. Dont be surprised if you find acoustic parts in between. Alan Dublin has delivered some of the sickest vocals you would have ever heard in grindcore. I always thought Jon Chang (Discordance Axis) was one of the best grind vocalist ever, but I think after listening to the track "Old Ladies Always Break Their Hips" on this record, I am in a fix! He goes from slow low guttural vocals to extremely fast and high pitched screams which will leave you awestruck. This is one of their album that features real drummer. And, He is awesome. Prepare to get assaulted by inhuman blastbeats and snareshots.And before I forget how can you not like a bands that wrote such legendary lyrices

"When we were young - it was only a game
You would win - at everything
Chilhood rivalry - developed and grew
Games became battles - the I would always lose
Now you're a big shot - controlling my life
Causing me nothing - but pain and strife
But I know your weakness - you haven't a friend
Except from your puppy - who soon will be dead

Here is your puppy's head
Your only friend - bloody red
It's all your fault - it is dead
Tides have turned - now you lose
If you want the rest
It's too late - there's nothing left
Mangled poodle - makes good stew
I ruined your life - I laugh as I chew"

This band is like the combination of sheer aggression of Wehrmacht and Cro-Mags with added brutality of Carcass! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnd On!

Guys this came out before Terrorizer's World Downfall,Relusion's Horrified, Carcass' Reek of Putrefaction and Dr. Shrinker's Wedding The Grotesque. Wonder why this is so underrated and not considered the holy grail of grindcore?

According to MA - The band were originally called Regurgitation, and recorded the widely circulated demo tape "Bathrooms Rule" in late 80's. This demo attracted the attention of Earache to their brand of humorous super-fast grind. Too bad, this album has never been released on a CD :(
Mediafire

BONUS - For all you Clapton fans, This one features a kickass COCAINE cover which may seem a little out of place but extremely funny and amazing.

Dark Prophecies - On the Edge of Black Eternity (2000)

Genre - Death/Doom
This band is really underground, just 8 listeners on Last fm. This band hailing from Poland seems like a long lost brother of diSEMBOWELMENT. They play a crushing death/doom with prominent black metal and grindy passages through out. There are evil use of keyboards, and some painfully slow parts in between. I am looking for their "VERGIL" demo. If anyone has it, Let me know.
This is the only rip I could find, This one is missing the intro track. Sorry for such a pathetic upload, I FAIL :(

Megaupload

Art Zoyd - Berlin (1987)

Genre - Avant-Prog, Rock In Opposition, Dark Ambient

Listen to this only after you are done with the UZ mega post (at leats the first two of those albums). This French band has an impressive career of almost 40 years. Within this period they released 13 full lengths and a number of live albums. This again relies heavily on minimalism, fratic use of synthesizes and sinister key sounds with added haunting passages of violin and cello. Undoubtedly this is their most underrated yet the greatest piece of work. Reminds me of earliest UZ and Magma.

Megaupload 320 KBPS

Univers Zéro Mega Post

There have been quite a few bands that have helped define the kind of music I listen to. I have virtually tried a lot of genres (thanks to RYM and the Truly Grim group). Its not very often that you come across a certain band that makes you want to delve into the respective genre more and more and more. The results may be awesome in some cases. But in others, it is very much possible that you encountered the pinnacle of the genre already and you fail to find bands that meet your expectations. In other words, they raised the bar to an altogether different level. A few of such bands that helped defined my musical orientations in chronological order would be Pink Floyd, Judas Priest, Slayer, Rush, Morbid Angel, Incantation, Autopsy, Master's Hammer and of late Shub-Niggurath and the mighty UNIVERS ZERO.

There was a reason I posted that band pic above. That pic has something to with how I got interested in the band in the very first place. I was already a huge Master's Hammer fan, And given below is the cult Master's Hammer pic doing rounds on the internet.

Now dont you think, they are scarily similar??!! I thought, "Who knows, May be these guys were inspired by UZ". I know its a lame reason to check out a band, But yeah, I have my own methods. And considering how Master's Hammer draw classical and neoclassical elements into their music, who knows the real truth?

Go to the Univers Zero Official Webpage and this is what you find "If Starvinsky had a Rock Band, It wuld sound like THIS!" How can a Punch Line like that not get you excited? Fans categorize their music as Avant-Prog. I hate this term AVANT, especially in context of music (though you will find me using that term more often than not!). Whatever is unclassifiable and sounds complex enough to be given a progressive label can be safely be dumped under this avant-prog burial ground. But this doesnt do justice to the kind of music these guys play. I read that these guys took huge influences from dark modern classical composers like Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Starvinsky and Albert Huybrechts. They had different phases in their career. While their first self titled album relied heavily on acoustic guitars, nerve wrecking use of violins and Bassoons. On this album you can recognise the chamber music which is often used as a tag for these guys. But what followed after this was their most accomplished work. Let me present to you "HERESIE"

This is undoubtedly the darkest, and filthiest music ever created. Its still unparallelled even after 30 years of its existence. I can only imagine what effect did Black Sabbath's debut would have had on the minds of people back then. Its a trillion times more unsettling, and horrifying and the cd should come with a disclaimer "Beware, The content inside could be arrythmogenic! Listen to it with caution. Keep away from children". If you got terrified by Bernard Hermann's score in the staircase murder scene in Psycho, or the nightmare scene in Vertigo, I bet you try this! few months back, I had a theory that bands like Incantation, Profanatica and Esoteric had created some of most evil piece of music known to humanity. I stumbled upon Shub-Niggurath's Les Morts and I came to know How wrong I was! And this album surpassed even that masterpiece.

With the upcoming albums they came to rely heavily on electric guitars and thick bass. But they still maintained the dark sound throughout.

I know quite a lot of you have already heard this, but this still is missing from some of you guys' charts, If this review cant convince you, I dont know what else will.

Heresie
If you find the track 2 corrupt, The link to that broken track can be found in the comments!

Ceux du Dehors Part 1
Ceux Du Dehors Part 2


Uzed

Black Goat - Black Goat (1997)

Requested by - Featherofhuginn
Genre - Black Metal
Review - Pure Satanic Hate! This is how the kvlt black metal crowd would want to describe this album. Do you know that this band has two members of the legendary heavy/power band "Lord Weird Slough Feg". No wonder this band draws a lot of influences from early 80s heavy metal. There is a huge Venom influence on the riffing and that is the highest point of the album. The vocals on the first song are so lame that they actually sound hilarious, thankfully it gets better subsequently. Sloppy and poorly produced drumming, but hey, its black metal Guise! Recommended for fans of bands like Weakling, Amon, Amon Goeth, early Root, Venom etc!

-EyehateDoG
Megaupload

Dead Can Dance - Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (1987)

Genre - Darkwave, Neoclassical Darkwave, Ethereal Wave (I dont know what all those mean, But thats what RYM told me :D)
Reviews - I am not an ardent follower of soothing music (I rather prefer the term Elevator music), neither I am impressed much by all the atmospheric music out there. But this album is a perfection in every sense. It takes time to grow on you, but when it does, you just cant take it out of your mind. I had kept avoiding this band because I still remember this being band being mentioned in reference to Burzum on some of the blog(not that I hate Burzum, I am a big Filosofem fan, but somehow it does get boring after a while). I don't know in what context, but surely it seems ridiculous after I heard it.

-EyehateDoG
Mediafire

Annexus Quam - Osmose (1970)

Genre - Krautrock, Jazz-Rock
A krautrock post again! Whoaaaa!
This is a weirdly beautiful album. Recommended for fans of German giants "Amon Düül II". This album crosses the limits of all your imaginations. The sound ranges from jazzy rock style Frank Zappa to psychedelic sounds of many early German krautrockers. There are a number of instruments used here, Clarinet, Trombone, Saxophone, Trumpet all add a mesmerising touch to the usual heavy guitar leads and haunting percussions. I wouldnt be exaggerating if I labelled this as avant-prog instead. Too bad this was another one of those records that got lost among the massively huge 70s rock scene.

-EyehateDoG
-Megaupload

My Solid Ground - My Solid Ground (1971)

Genre - Krautrock, Space Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Its difficult to define their genre. Since Krautrock itself is a wide term, it doesnt necessarily help define the sound of "My Hairy Chapter". I have seen people on prog archives lable it as progressive rock but honestly their isnt much progression going on either. Its more of a hard rock album with spacey and psychedelic passages.

Its a beautifully executed album. There is this "A Saucerful of Secrets" aura about this record, It may not be as spacey as that legendary album, but its more varied as a whole. Keep in mind that I am not suggesting that its a Floyd rip off by any means. Just that it will be a sure hit among early floydheads. The album begins with the song "Dirty Yellow Dust" which has the psychedelic guitar tone throughout, Its immensely repititive to the point that you end up loving the song. Then there are definitely a few fillers here and there but that dont distract you much from the original sound. This version has a 25 minute version of the song "Flash" which is where you see all the improvisations, melodic key solos, stoner guitar leads, and whatnot! ENJOY!

-EyehateDoG
-Megaupload

Armoros - Pieces (1988)

Genre - Thrash Metal
Review - This album is relentless, fast and headbangable, just the way thrash is meant to be played. If you dont give a fuck about "Oh! Thrash! It must be boring and repititive" attitude, then this album will rule your playlists for a long long time. If Sodom, Demolition Hammer, Destruction and Morbid Saint are your kind of thrash, then it will just be another jewel in the crown. It has some of the coolest solos you would ever hear in thrash and surprisingly well produced for a self-released material. The drumming and riffing combine well together and vocals are reminiscent of Exodus. Supporting the flawless musicianship of the band, there is thick, heavy bass riffing in the background (Imagine Sadus!!).

The highlight of the album obviously is the song "Autopsy (Dementia)". The demo version of the song is fuckin' 7 minutes long!!!! (and believe me it requires fuckin' balls of metal to write a 7 minute long thrash song that doesnt lose the intensity even for one single second). That song is like Canada's answer to Morbid Saint's Assassin (may be its not as brutal or devastating as that song, But it will still leave you gasping for your breath). Too bad the song has been curtailed to just 5 minutes on this album.

I have added the 7 minute demo version of the above mentioned song along with the album.

-EyehateDoG
Megaupload

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

Mediafire

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
Mediafire