What is 15 minutes long, sludgy, frantically paced and devoid of staleness? If you said your sex life, congratulations, you're a fucking idiot liar. Get your head out of your ass and into some Zozobra, because they have released Savage Monsters! Full of slimy sewer sludge and post-hardcore beat down, this short and furious album is mixed in a rather upfront "what you hear is what you get" type way, not a lot of trickery going on. Sure it's tiny in length (like your penis), but it packs a fucking punch (unlike your penis).
If Murmurs had a spirit animal, it would be a rabid wolverine. A wolverine that was birthed in a pool of toxic sludge giving it a hideously mutated body… forever neglected and cast aside by the wild. Murmurs is definitely neglected, releasing 4 demos in the span of three years until a year later they unleashed their debut Fædd Úr Eldi, to which you never really hear about.
The album rages on through its entirety with no scruples or halt, blistering black metal that explores ample vocal techniques, all of which are pretty fucking bleak and harrowing! The snare, toms and kick need to have just a little bit more oomph to them, it almost becomes lost in the mix, even though I dig the cavernous chaos it beholds.
II, is an EP offering from the dudes in Hordes… It is my first gateway into their sound and holy fuck does it make a good first impression. I suppose when I say "their sound" you'll want to know what I mean? It sounds like feral beasts eating each other alive, a visceral depiction of a desperate struggle to survive can be sought out in its crepuscular blend of sludge and black metal. It is primal to the bone and downright harrowing in its attack plan; tormented vocals perforate through the muck and mire amongst the raw tone of whirring guitars and bass. The drums like hammers, pounding and walloping in succession, sounding masterfully mixed in within the accompanying chasm of noise.
This EP is the miasma to your whimsy, ridden with bad vibes bearing qualities to rain down shit on your parade. Good music affects you, and this album rubs me the wrong way in all the best fucking ways possible – Think of bands like; The Body, Lunar Aurora, Guidelines, GGUW, Yellow Eyes, Leucosis, to name a few. You'd be wrong if you try to compare and reference the aforementioned bands direct sound to Hordes, but it makes sense when attributing evocative qualities shared.
This is not music you want to listen to when colouring in your Fraggle Rock colouring book, there would be no hues, just black… maybe a grey every now and then. I could provide you with a (lacking in quality) Zippyshare download, but why would I do that when the band offers it on their bandcamp for a name your price option? I received a free download, listened to it, then proceeded to the bandcamp page to toss them a few bucks. I can only hope you support them whatever way you see fit. I'm going to go wallow in a sea of shit and despair now.
I've been digging into UNRU's demo quite a bit since I got my mucky hands on it - My first thought was 'This shit is the shit!', my second thought was 'I'll definitely offer this up to the SHOM scum'… unfortunately my third thought must've been 'First I'll eat a full bag of Doritos watch No Country For Old Men and put off posting this for a couple weeks'. Now if you were smart, you would be following Forever Cursed (which is infinitely better than my blog anyway), and you could have had this sucker a week ago among a bunch of other releases I think are really good but never got around to posting.
Amidst the furious pummeling of curdled d-beat and raw black metal Demo MMXIII is caked in a glorious crust with plenty of bell rides, ambient interludes, buried howls, cave stench and some radical riffs that at times remind me of Yellow Eyes.
(Below you will find descriptive words intended to entice you into listening and supporting this fucking stellar demo up for 'name your price' on Bandcamp.)
Raw black metal from The Netherlands, I mean really raw, may as well be the sushi of black metal. 99.7% of the world's population would deem this noise and they wouldn't be too far off… A swirling chasm of blasting drums, floating guitars and anguished howls that just barely pierce through the ensuing maelstrom.
At times it reminds me of GGUW's 'Gegen Gravitation und Willensfreiheit', if not for it's archaic nature then for its untamed plod. Unequivocally not the same, as Gethsemane boasts a much more minimal stance to GGUW's antediluvian dynamism. I won't/can't praise this like I would GGUW (I fucking love that EP), but this demo is certainly worth your time.
I know I have used snarling ravenous wolves as a metaphor before, and I'm not about to again as I have cleverly thought of a different one… I got to see Full of Hell a couple months ago when they played here in Toronto with Gaza and Code Orange Kids, and what a fucking show that was; All three of those bands killed it, loud and incredibly angry (in sound, nice dudes, all of em). Full of Hell was first at bat, once the singer was done battling it out with the sound guy (who apparently was struggling hard with upping the reverb to over 11), the set started in a fit of ferocity, the singer jerked and flailed maniacally while he snarled into the microphone, it probably sounded like a threesome between honey badgers, or a family meal shared by wolverines. Either way, it sounded like shit was being ripped apart wildly. It really was memorable, I have an audio clip I took from the show that I may decide to up on here later because it's a good listen. (This video isn't capable of doing their set justice!)
Full of Hell had a t-shirt of Chris Farley dead with the words Full of Hell adorning the sad image… I should of bought it, but I sided with the roadkill shirt.
Oh and Code Orange Kids and Gaza nailed it as well, but this post isn't about them.
Full of Hell will forthcoming album is titled 'Rudiments of Mutilation' and is set to release May 31. Wait on it. It may even replace all the overplaying you have been doing with Nails' 'Abandon All Life'.
Jess And The Ancient Ones are fucking it man, I love this band, I loved their S/T release last year, and I sure as hell overplayed the shit out of the track Sulfur Giants from it… They are back with an EP, and their infectious blend of shamanistic psychedelic rock that hearkens back to the days of ether soaked bandanas surrounded in a haze of incense smoke reigns!
A throwback in sound to the days when computers didn't shit out everything, it drives that analogue vibe with a warm and fuzzy soul. Carrying an obvious and rather honest predilection for the occult they have this way of dragging you into a time or place that feels foreign yet familiar at the same time. I don't know what the fuck that means exactly, but it's how I feel and if you don't like it too bad so sad you idiot dummy.
Canadian death metal rules… So does death metal from New Zealand though. Well, death metal from all over rules - But what I think I really mean is Canadian death metal has a deluge of bands that are pushing the often vapid genre into some unique directions.
Among them, Weapon, who last year unveiled their 3rd full-length 'Embers and Revelations'! Which sees itself separate from its more bestial and abyssal Canadian brothers with a production that isn't smothered in murk and filth. Well no fuck right, it's not like Weapon is treading the same soils that bands like Revenge or Antediluvian are.
Shawn Hache of Mitochondrion (more Canadian name dropping) actually turned me onto Weapon through an email, which is righteous enough, but what this really means is… You should listen to Weapon.
I've only fully listened through this album twice, so maybe my opinion is as useless as condoms to a priest but fuck it man, I just wanted to get this on here. Mainly because I think White Glove Test is an interesting release, which is a hearty accolade for a two-piece power violence/grind act, isn't it?
Maybe I pulled the wool over your eyes when I used the word "interesting", what I really meant was this album will beat you down for the better half of 23 minutes, pick you up, and then beat you back down again with a 23 minute bonus track… Containing an amalgamation of odd sounds, the kind of sounds that would give you night terrors if you suddenly woke up to it playing loudly in your dark, monsters under the bed filled room. Grow up.
Noisy, fast, unpredictable, dizzying and raucous. Oh, and I think maybe something to do with an industrial tinge. Probably not at all.
Download? (Zippyshare) ((Somebody let me know if this version has the bonus tracks, I think it does)) BUY! (Bandcamp) (("DON'T BE SWINDLED BY INFERIOR BLOG DOWNLOAD VERSIONS!!"))
Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, a name as serious as they come. I'm sure it means something. Describing a black metal album is a task that becomes as banal and moth-eaten as the watery placeholder terms and adjectives used to delineate them. Fuck it.
I usually relish the opportunity to spew hyperbole and smart-ass remarks, but tonight I'm about as interested in that as I am entering myself into a Bolivian fisting competition… I'm not that Interested in such things.
For real though dudes, this albums is a black motherfucker that bathes in moonlight and the blood of goats… And the blood of Jesus Christ, and the semen of Satan, and the tears of Mormons, and the hideous act of munging. In the name of the mother, moon, the unholy spirit, amen.
