Wednesday, December 23, 2009

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

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Adversarial - Thralls (2008)


Just a demo today, folks, but this is some prime shit. Adversarial are a band I hadn't even heard of until a friend of mine on RYM recommended their first, and only demo, "Thralls." This hit me like a sack of bricks, as it deftly combines practically every awesome element of modern and old school death metal into a three track block of excellency. Tempos shift from groovy midpaced riffs into frantic (but controlled) blasts of semi-melodic frenzy, and then into a fierce whirlwind of dissonance reminiscant of The Chasm or Immolation, two of the most prominant influences here, yet others shine through (evidenced in an homage to Suffocation's "Torn Into Enthrallment" on the second track.). Even the production shines, being incredibly above average for a demo. About the only flaw I see here is that there isn't more from this band, so drink up what you can now.

Monday, December 21, 2009

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!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

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!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Midnight - Complete and Total Fucking Midnight (2005)


Here you go motherfuckers, the best goddamn shit you’ll ever hear. I know I’ve introduced a few select members of this group to Midnight, but here’s an open invitation to the rest of you. Unholiness from Cleveland. Simple fucking riffs. Songs about sluts, graves, and other badass shit. One could call this blackened speed metal with some thrashing on the side. What other band has gotten shut down because the singer had his guitar on fire while playing?
Endless sluts and hot graves


ALL HAIL HELL



post courtesy of Drew Wenston-Ball.

Naked City - Leng Tch'e (1992)

Genre - LENG TCH'E

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_slicing

if drone doom Boris had a lovechild with John Zorn and the offspring was as fucking horrifying of a monster as you could imagine (in a very, very wonderful way).

Super mega essential

its in FLAC because it deserves to be

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!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

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

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

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Gräfenstein – Death Born

Genre – Black Metal

Country – Germany


Just about when I thought that “Well I had enough of Black Metal” as nothing seemed to click with me from the past few weeks, I gave this band a random try to rejuvenate my love and fondness for this genre which had always amazed me and surprisingly it clicked.

Yes, Gräfenstein is one of those bands who play a rather modern style of Black Metal with a bit of Thrash influences here and there without clinging away from the roots. A bit generic and monotonous (but that’s where my interest in Black Metal lies) so it was never a problem with me.

So what do we expect from Gräfenstein ? These guys play No Nonsense Black Metal and this an out and out 46 minutes of Non-stop Black Metal onslaught, yes the riffs are there and they are right in your face one after another leaving you wanting for more, Very Very Impressive. Talk about the drumming, again very good. I always had this insta-connection with German black metal bands right from mighty Katharsis to Zarathustra, Gräfenstein is the latest addition, so get it here.


Ps. I find it a bit similar to Witchmaster, i don't know how though. =\