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 :(

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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

Edward Artemiev - Solaris, The Mirror, Stalker (1999)

Hello. I forgot that I had posting rights on this blog, so I thought I'd go ahead and make a first upload. Just hope I do it correctly~

Artist: Edward Artemiev (Эдуард Артемьев)
Album: Solaris / The Mirror / Stalker - Music From The Motion Pictures
(1972/75/79, re-recorded 1999)
Genre: Ambient / Electronic / OST
Country: Russia

This is a compilation album featuring re-recorded tracks from three of Andrei Tarkovsky's cult sci-fi/dystopian movies, and consists of electronic music which is very daring, meditative and mysterious, much like the movies themselves.

It's actually quite a mixed bag; sometimes it can be reminiscent of Tangerine Dream and the Berlin School, at other times similar to the dark ambient/drone of acts like Robert Rich. (Who, in fact, recorded an album inspired by Stalker in collaboration with Lustmord) Being a soundtrack though, the music is not too obtrusive, rather serving to create atomsphere and evoke feelings. I myself found the album to be rather gentle and dreamlike at times, and rather dark and menacing at others. However, the album does flow really well.

My favourite track is the only song taken from The Mirror (1975), which has a very rough around the edges feel similar to industrial music. Years ahead of its time?
The final song is a close second, a dedication to Andrei Tarkovsky, serving as a wonderful summary of the beautiful yet moody mood of this album.

I would whole heartedly recommend this to anyone regardless of whether they have seen a single minute of the source movies or not. It is certainly a strong enough album to stand up on its own merits.

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Retrospection and Inure

Artist: Inure
Album Name/Year Released: Inure (2004)
Genre: Black Metal/Death Metal/Hardcore Punk
Country: The United States of America

Bring your mind back a couple of Fridays ago to the morning of the 23rd of October. Depending on where you live, you could have been doing anything- You might have been sleeping, prepping for work, or on a commute to college. I found myself embarking on a long trek on foot across my Northern Minnesotan city.

But for the mechanical bustle of morning traffic, the streets were largely devoid of any sort of life, the skies were overcast with a pallor of opressive gray clouds all too commonly cast upon the firmament here in late fall.
I was kept warm only by my thin WitTR shirt, some khaki pants, and a pair of headphones I was using as an improvised set of earmuffs- through which was playing whatever I'd hastily thrown on my tiny 1gb iPod the previous evening before heading out to hang out with my friends. I hadn't slept a wink since then, but a mixture of the gripping cold, and the loud music I was listening to kept me quite alert. Uncommonly alert.

I continued winding on foot through the veritable maze of largely unnecessary pre-winter road-construction (your tax dollars at work, go stimulus!), eventually dropping in and out of a library to warm myself. I passed leaf-shorn trees dotting the corners of sidewalks, people with glazed eyes, long cast in the molds of weary working lives. Kindness made tedium.

Strange waves of lucid introspection.
Extrospection.
The music I was listening to wasn't distracting me from the world, it was allowing me to focus on it. On myself. Away from the grey, meaninglessness of these concrete labyrinths, away from this substantially inert city. This constant slog. This generality.
Not worth attention. Not worth concern...

Dropped into a local organic foods shop, grabbed an application. Worth a shot, even if I'm tired of shooting. Gotta get off the cycle somehow.

Crossing the mainstreet, I found myself walking about with a sense of purpose, so uncommon for me these days.

As I began traversing the bridge connecting downtown Bemidji to the pseudo-suburb of Nymore, my home, and stared out into the brooding, angry, royal blue of Lake Bemidji, the music I was listening to started truly grabbing me, started making me think even more. The album that was by a band from Baltimore, MD. Likely no-one in a hundred mile radius in relation to where I stood had heard of them. And there I was, connecting with their material at the most sincere level. Pounding drumwork offset by mellow acoustics, standout basswork, and multi-person harsh vocals.
Coming to the next song, I instantly recognized the soul-sheering voice of Mis, who after recording with Inure would branch off to front sludge doomsters Moonshine and lend her abilities to the great Wake Up On Fire. There was her characteristic high alto clean voice too...

I was passing the construction sight of the new Bemidji Event's Center to my left, the great hulking skeleton of the thing cutting a huge swath of imposing iron framework into the sky and across the landscape. A monument to fatheaded human impetuousness and indolent, corporate greed. It was an eyesore.

And yet, staring at the glaring visage of the thing I laughed, heartily, and as I did, I was caught by one of the most gorgeous tremelo melodies I'd heard in ages (see the end of "Dos"). I moved on. Pushing forward, through the cold air and empty walkways, accompanied by somber, sober, acoustics, striking vocals, and gripping, layered riffwork; wondering at how odd an occurrence it was that I am so drawn to music like this, how easily I can connect to it, and why it gets through to me.

Enter punkish rhythms, more gorgeous tremelos.

"There's something about underground music, underground extreme music in particular, like this that I just can't help but like. I find it in my tiny local scene too- a mix of artistic integrity, talent, and sincerity. The Baltimore scene has quite apparently had a bigger chance to flourish, and mature, and I see it in the material of bands like these. I love it, and I hope the Bemidji scene someday gets the chance to to progress as much. We're working on setting up the framework. I'll do what I can to make sure it pans out."

Enter more extended acoustics and alto vocals, quick change to furious tremelos...

I was finally passing the last winding stretch of houses before I would reach my own.

A last incredible tremelo, strong riffwork, more vicious vocals...

I found myself within sight of my doorstep. Just as I walked up to it, the album ended. I laughed a last time and walked in, wishing only for the warmth of that house of respite to chase the feeling back into my limbs.

Mediafire

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.

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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

Infester (Swe) - Demo I (1991)

Genre:Old School Death Metal
Artist:Infester(SWE)
Album:DEMOI
Released:1991

Skull crushing old school death metal from where else other than Sweden.

Talking of Swedish OSDM instantly reminds me of Nirvana 2002 who left us with some quality Death Metal, but wait this isn't Death Metal with the muddy production which we all love.

Surprisingly this Demo has a rather clean production but this doesn't take away anything away from Infester, awesome riffs and solos which reminds me of Trey Azagthoth for some reason, not to take away anything from the bass and drumming which are damn tight and makes this an enjoyable listen.

This album is definitely a grower, been loving it more with every listen i give to it, totally worth your time, so get it.

- Ghost of Satvrn

Leech

Inpestae - Cold and Dead (Psykothic Violence)(EP 2008)

Genre:Raw Black Metal

Country:France

Raw Black Metal.You either hate it or you love it.Of late even this genre,like many others,are spawning out tons of bands that end up sounding generic and surprisingly,even these generic bands make it big,In the bargain some bands that make an effort to sound different lose out in the rat race.Very often,these so called 'raw black metal bands' are nothing but 'badly produced' stuff.

What we have here is Inpestae.A band which knows the difference between raw black metal and badly produced black metal.
Production wise,Inpestae is raw as hell but not lo-fi.Rather it has a very powerful atmosphere.By atmosphere I do not mean synth wankery but rather the riffing,drumming and bass.
The riffs on the album are catchy and pretty minimal,but they are effective.Noise is a main element in this album.It can get pretty annoying if good headphones are not used.Multiple listens will be required to judge the album.It's more like a wall of noisy distorted riffs done to such perfection that it compels the listener to sit and listen to the entire album.At times it tends to sound a bit industrial too,but in a good way ofcourse.The vocals are typical black metal vocals.Sinister.
The album is short and does not drag on in anyway.
One of the main things that makes this album really enjoyable for me is the fact that the riffs are not tremolo picking based.They are thrashy.
Overall the album is pretty brutal though it does vary in tempo from midpaced to very fast.
The drumming blends in really well with the music. 
Fans of raw black metal should definitely get their hands on this one.
You'll probably hate the album at first,but in all honesty,the album's a real grower.

Load it down

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