Jungbluth - Lovecult (2015)

I've sat on this one for far too long as I was unaware of existence, though I'm 100% sure my scummy subconscious mind was aware Lovecult came out months prior because I have spent a lot of October and November listening back on old Alpinist albums. This is significant because Jungbluth is the work of ex-members from Alpinist and they've picked up where they have left off… Emotionally charged hardcore with legs and arms furiously pumping out abrasive hardcore that isn't entirely unlike old screamo from the days of yore.


I understand seeing anything slapped with the term 'screamo' has some of you emotionless robots flinching from your computer monitor like its throwing a jab at you… It's not,  you're just a emotionless neanderthal.

I'm sorry, you're not a troglodyte, now go puff out your chest and cross your arms and listen to the new Xibalba album… But after that, go buy the new Jungbluth album too, because life's too short to go around wearing balaclavas and chucking your ham fists around all the time.

Jungbluth - Lovecult; bandcamp; (name your price) or (free download)

• • • 

The new Xibalba album does reign down with furious anger and savagery.

Leather Slave - II (2015)

These salacious deviants are back with a release for 2015 in the form of drenched-out noise punk with both hands fully scooping from the pot of deviance, much like their first offering half a year back. If Ed Gein and Richard Ramirez were to get together and create scummy noise-punk, it might sound something like this… And the drums would be made from the limbs of dismembered cadavers and the snare and floor tom skins would be made from freshly flayed human flesh, as you would come to expect. Such charmers.

I went it to more detail when I posted their self-titled release last year, read here… or don't.

Leather Slave II (Bandcamp)

Sangus - Pedicabo Mundi (2015)

Found this buried in the murky depths of my email inbox; A crudely conceived slab of death metal with a crusted over heart and feral soul. If Morbid Insulter played their EP Antichrist Blasphemies with the same bestial timber as Teitanblood's Purging Tongues EP it might sound something like Sangus' Pedicabo Mundi… I would consider this comparison a flattering albeit slightly accurate description. I would keep my ear to the ground with Sangus.



Sangus - Pedicabo Mundi (Bandcamp)

PS; Canadian death metal slimeballs Revenge release their full-length LP  Behold.Total.Rejection on November 13th.

Abyssal - Antikatastaseis (2015)

Album covers like this make me smile. Not because it's bad, because it looks like the type of picture us "eclectically inclined bloggers" would try to paint when describing the sound of an album like Antikatastaseis, busting into as many adjectives as accurately possible within our "honed" lexicon. A dank and swarthy cavern where lords of the underbelly gather to recite cryptic incantations that can only be heard and deciphered by the ears of other members of the swarthy society. Hail.

Abyssal have tightened their already rigamortis like grip on death metal, with resolute chokeholds on incorporating the plodding and hammer-fist pace of doom with the begrimed and repulsive disposition of bestial in nature death metal. Black metal too is no stranger within the foundations of Abyssal's song structure, weaving in frigid riffs and uncompromising blast-beats akin to the harsh realities of a cold and cruel winter.

Listen for yourself, and then obtain it; 


Abyssal Bandcamp

Profound Lore Records Bandcamp

The Bats Pajamas - No Hello (2015)

Anytime a good band from Toronto (a city's pits I live in) comes to my attention, I wonder how it is I haven't even unintentionally caught one of their shows within the city, only to discover them in the wild undergrowth of the internet.

The Bats Pajamas is one example of a band from Toronto that have slipped under my scuzzy-punk smelling nostrils undetected for too long. Some time last year I was finally made aware of these dudes when I found the EP 'Just Ripe' on one of the many thankless blogs I frequent. I quickly rectified this problem by visiting the bands bandcamp page and downloaded the entire discography for free. Which is like pawning off your blood, sweat, tears, semen and time for nothing!

The Bats Pajamas have undergone changes in their sound throughout their releases, which can be looked at as either progression or regression depending on what side of the fence you'd rather stand on. I cut myself in half so I could stand on both sides of the fence because I like the old and the new. They definitely have traded some of their clean grooves for a more scuzzy, noise drenched garage rock/punk. Differences aside, everything they put out, crust and groove, is well executed and never betraying the DIY work-ethic and sound.

Fans of filthy garage rock/punk should check out everything. If you are in Toronto, check out their shows. If you are feeling particularly heavy in the wallet, spread some love and buy the new cassette on Fleeting Youth Records.

† † †

 
…

The Bats Pajamas (Bandcamp)

Tome // Nomadic Rituals (2015) [split]

I'm glad I have Haxan from Forever Cursed in my virtual life so he can wade through the myriad of shit and banality of the musical realm so that I can then steal links from his site to post here. SHOM is a firm believer of follow the path of least resistance, think like water friends.

Tome of Ireland and Nomadic Rituals of the UK bring forth a mess of sludgy doom, meant to play loud and with incense burning while reading 'Butchering The Human Carcass For Human Consumption'. Be sure to check out Nomadic Rituals 2013 full-length release 'Holy Giants'.

Up for the 'name your price' option on bandcamp, which is the best thing to happen to digital music since that Muddy Waters 'After The Rain' vinyl rip

* Eating human flesh can lead to a plethora of psychological and anatomical complications.

Tome // Nomadic Rituals (bandcamp)

Words and musings with Adalsteinn of AMFJ (PART I)

 * This is long overdue, as this interview took place a couple weeks back… It's not an interview really, more of a conversation, a virtual chat between a couple virtual world and real world buds. It was a good opportunity for us to bond over our shared fondness for Pig Destroyer and discuss things like sodomy, genital evisceration and colostomy bags. Not really, just music stuff. 

• • •

C; Let's skip the foreplay, how do we know each-other and why are we comrades?

A; We met on Halloween of 2012 in Reykjavík, when you were covering Iceland Airwaves as a part of The Reykjavík Grapevine reviewers team. We downed many drinks throughout that week and you came to my house and had my wife's chilli.

Later that month we met again in Toronto, when you came to a show an obscure show I was playing in a well hidden alley-way in Chinatown, I think. I know you as a nice guy who's making it work to do what he loves… While I'm a guy who likes what he's doing but loves his hobby.

C; And I know you as a nice guy that makes scary sounding music. But, do you think the overall image of your tunes are scary in sound, or at least unsettling and maybe even weird?

A; Yeah I've heard that a lot. People usually refer to the music as scary and I see what they're saying– there are a lot of macabre sounds and unsettling choice of samples… But I think there has only been one song that I meant to be a "scary" or "unsettling" tune. I never have a set idea of what I'm aiming for while writing. I just fiddle around with some beats and samples until I hear something forming that I like and then take it from there. Weird, maybe. I do try to make something new. Sometimes that comes out weird… At first, at least.

C; So which song did you write with the intention of being scary? And do you think music of this ilk, where the devil is in the details and emphasis is on a plodding build-up to require more patience from the listener than say, your typically more common genre?

A;  It was Útburður Umskiptingur. I wrote it for a Halloween themed show I played. Wanted to go for something primal and unsettling. So I went with a crying baby sample. Nothing is as unsettling as a baby crying.

Yeah, probably. Even if it's not a slow build-up, this type of music is always very nuanced, while other genres want to get straight to it. I think each genre has it's purpose. I don't wanna theorize about the purpose or intention of other genres, but they way I see it, noise music is about creating an atmosphere so it needs time to breath through the details.

C;  Well said. Alright so The Misfits or The Smiths?

A; That's a difficult one because I was never into either of them. I know more songs by The Smiths so I'd have to say The Misfits… mainly because they're not The Smiths.

C; (This caused me to shoot chocolate milk through my nose) Well shit man, fine. Based on the assumption that you are familiar with these bands, would you rather play a show with the grease-balls in Pig Destroyer or with the too popular for their own good Death Grips?

A;  Ahh another difficult one, and don't worry I know both bands very well. These are both bands that I admire and respect. For the longest time I had Pig destroyer listed as one of my influences on my facebook page. I absoloutely love that band. And I got goosbumbs when I heard the first Death Grips video. Everything they do is somehow a fresh idea or at least a fresh take on something already done.

So, of course I'd open for both of them if that were an option, but since this is an either or question I'd have to go with Pig Destroyer because I think that would be a better over all show… ya know from a curator/promoters point of view.

While Death Grips are along a more similar strain as my music I think the audience would think that AMFJ is a cheaper version of Death Grips while a crowd coming to see Pig Destroyer would appreciate some other kind of weird fury before they start. (I just put on Phantom Limb after answering this)

C; Hahaha this is why we are friends, I put on Phantom Limb when I asked you the question. I love every detail in this album.

A; Yeah it's my favorite one of theirs but there have been times in my life where I will play Machete Twins on repeat for a whole day straight.

C; Have you seen that video when (singer) J.R. Hayes mic breaks during a set and he continues to scream over the music like a banshee out of hell? It was one of the most feral things I've ever seen, truly.

A; YES I HAVE SEEN THAT ONE. It's a video I think about every time I'm getting ready for a show. My friends who know me closely, tell me after my shows if I reached that similar level of Pig Destroyer intensity. It's the basis of their influence on AMFJ's music, I think.

 † END PART I †

Ilsa - Felon's Claw (2015)

Ilsa might be the best example of a band that has figured out the way of sonically conveying the sounds of a fetid and murky tone colouring. Intoxicantations met every requirement necessary to be the musical equivalent of a meth den situated in a seedy, rat-infested sewage drain. It sounded like decay and filth, and has one of my favorite intros to a song, creating the ideal segway into the following tracks of squalid THC-soaked sludge and crust hardcore. Albums that are almost devoid of anything negative are hard to follow up on…

Felon's Claw may not have the intro that it's younger brother Intoxicantations had, electing to cut the foreplay and go straight for the throat with a disturbed howl and crunchy tone beaten to death by a sickly plod of the drums. The production is still texturally murky and calcified in mold, to the point of decomposition, yet the foundation of the songs are weighted and robust instead of hollow. Full points to Ilsa, A389 Recordings, Kevin Bernstein for the recording and Brad Boatright for mastering it.

Ilsa are speaking loudly these days and you'd be fucking up if you ignored their dank bellowing from the sewers of crusted hardcore and doomed sludge.

Felon's Claw (Bandcamp)

The Haunting Presence - The Haunting Presence [EP] (2015)

Let's get down to the brass tacks (which is a term I think means to get down to the cold hard facts), Hells Headbangers is the most consistent label to be putting out albums abundant in savagery, filth and sleaze. These sounds take form prominently in the genres of death, black, doom and heavy metal. So far this year, Hells Headbangers has something close to twenty releases as of this posting (April 08, 2015), all of them persistently good, all of them keeping the din of the metal underground brightly lit and all of them repulsive in their own right.

•  •  •

The Haunting Presence has taken my auditory-meatus hostage, submitting the canals of my eardrums to the hymns of barbarity and decay and its intrusion is a welcomed presence. I'm going to forgo all the buzz words in my lexicon to describe this EP, in fact, I'm going to forgo all the words in my lexicon to describe this release, instead I'll leave an embedded link to the album right here:

The Haunting Presence (listen/download/buy)

Misþyrming - Söngvar elds og óreiðu (2015)

Iceland just might be the most consistent hotbed for churning out bestial sounding black metal. The same way New Zealand and Canada have been without a doubt the birthplace of some of the most venerable and savage sounding bestial death metal, a la; Revenge, Diocletian, Antediluvian, Mitochondrion, Vassafor, Witchrist, Blasphemy, Heresiarch, etc. etc…

Iceland, with a population that is said to be less than the sheep residing there, has been at the top of this gnarled and barbaric totem pole. The proverbial totem pole of bestial black metal. As of late, the island of hard to pronounce volcanoes and delicious hotdogs has seen recent releases from Carpe Noctem, Svartidauði, Wormlust, Sinmara, Mannveira and now the debut by Misþyrming… Which infallibly will be seen in many year-end lists us dweebs like to make, including my own.

All facets of 'Söngvar elds og óreiðu' point to a tumultuous listen; blistering riffs that morph from eviscerating to mesmerizing all the way to riffs that show some panache! Take the song "Söngur uppljómunar"for example, it starts off with a wonky riff reminiscent to something Negative Plane or Peste Noire might do and then unravels into unabashed viking riffing akin to something Kampfar would write. See for yourself.


This album is up for 'Name your price' on Bandcamp (which is by far my favorite way of purchasing music these days), it gives you the chance to pay what you feel is worth it, and if you can't even afford a dollar, type in 0$ for a free download.

Misþyrming (bandcamp/download)

Dead Ghosts - Summer With Phil (video)

Today I saw a man walking down the street with a blue beard, this can only me one thing; Summer is around the corner you shitters.

Ghost Bath - Moonlover (2015) preview

A black metal purist would rather be baptized than slap Ghost Bath with the label 'black metal', in part due to fear of being strung up by his heels and tarred and feathered by droves of furious black metal traditionalists… They are also as fiercely loyal as they are obtusely ignorant when it comes to protecting the genres aphotic purity. This is fine by me.

With that being said, Ghost Bath's upcoming release 'Moonlover' seems to nestle in more accurately with the Black Gaze movement, a term that gets some crowds all rankled and riled up.

I have listened to the song Golden Number in full as I am posting this, being the first song I have heard of Ghost Bath as I wasn't familiar with their 2014 release Funeral. I was neither wooed nor disappointed, but I must admit that riff at 01:47 into the song nullified the evil atmosphere that was building up, for minutes after that riff the guitars and drumming are brazenly poppy in sound, sonically akin to a more post-punk ethos, which I guess is par for the course.

In lieu of total transparency, I'd rather just listen to Lunar Aurora, whom were untouchable when it came to making ambient driven black metal with a potent ability to construct genuinely eerie songs that never strayed too far from its roots. I don't mean to compare Lunar Aurora with Ghost Bath as I don't think Ghost Bath is really trying to mimic them, but those heavily drowned out vocal shrieks on 'Moonlover' really make me just want to listen to Lunar Aurora's 'Andacht' instead.

* Enough of what I think, how egocentric of me, I am more curious as to what you guys think of 'Moonlover'? Do we like it? Do we hate it? Do we not really give a shit?

One thing cannot be argued; That album cover is incredibly bleak and I give full points for that. At least they got a leg up on those stubborn black metal dudes with no visual art sense at all. Maybe.

Ghost Bath (bandcamp)

Meth Drinker - Oil (2014)

 •  •  •

If you are unfamiliar with Meth Drinker then please let me acquaint you. Dearest reader, this is Meth Drinker, Meth Drinker this is dearest reader, be gentle with them. Isn't the name quaint? It's kinda like Bongripper, with a bit more fuck you to the upper class cadre. These New Zealanders join the venerable echelon of country mates; Witchrist, Diocletian, Heresiarch, Vassafor, Ulcerate and that dude that directed one of my favorite sci-fi horror movies ever, Bad Taste.

Meth Drinker will fill your day up with palpable dread and they will shit directly into your soul and rape the youthful effervescence you thought you had retained.

The droning crunch of guitars give way to a few riffs reminiscent to early Autopsy, only played at an even slower paced tempo. The drums are mixed in with a peculiar fragility to the toms and it seems the bell cymbal overpowers it, which works well to give it that calcified in rot vibe I like my sewer doom to have. 

Based on the two songs I have heard, I like it a lot. And maybe when the variance between the American to Canadian dollar conversion ceases to fuck my Paypal purchases I will actually buy the album in full and relish in the cankering charm of 'Oil'.

Meth Drinker (bandcamp)

Le Grand Guignol - The Great Maddening (2007)

Ever wash down a few LSD tabs with a couple pints of raw ether and then saunter over to the town carnival like the town drunk? Nah, me either, but I would like to think it's something Hunter S. Thompson would have done. After all, the man was once quoted saying "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

The going sure gets weird on "The Great Maddening", more accurately, hysterically demented and soaking in a vat of mescaline, marinating the mania all the more. It's difficult to describe this album without using as much hyperbole as a tween would use when describing his first hand-job to an assemblage of prepubescent seventh-graders keen on hearing the exact recount of the sexual tale, all the while trying to realistically wade through all the bullshit… In all likelihood, the hand-job took place behind a shed, and it lasted a total of 13 seconds while some unfortunate female was fumbling around his Affliction boxers trying to locate his "enormous" erection, which had already been pulsating from seamen-free ejaculation. You see, sometimes you need hyperbole otherwise the true story straddles the line of cringe-worthy like a cowgirl with Cerebral Palsy.

Moving on. Le Grand Guignol were once known by the name of Vindsval back when the band members lived in Luxembourg, playing the same type of absinthe binged avant-garde metal with their heels firmly planted in the grounds of demented and horrific sounding, albeit with a sound less meticulous and well crafted as they were on "The Great Maddening".

I rarely post anything of this ilk on SHOM these days, let alone purposefully listen to it (probably because of all the low grade garage punk I've been stuffing in my ears), but when a song from this album came on while briefly playing my music library on shuffle I was taken to it, it floated my proverbial boat, and I remembered that it's okay if metal isn't always deadpan with frostbitten grimness… Look at early black metal and black metal purists of today's day and age, talk about cringe-worthy.

This album warrants some praise for its well articulated use of eclectic instruments like the xylophone, cello, violin, flutes, harpischords and various other keys, which fully attribute to the obscure atmosphere. 

 
Le Grand Guignol (bandcamp)

* Leave an email in the comments if you'd like a download link

Caveman Cult - Rituals of Savagery [EP] (2014)

Found this sucker buried in my email inbox. Filthy death metal married with feral black metal flowing through the same abscessed vein as Teitanblood, Proclamation, Weregoat, Heresiarch, Archgoat, Wrathprayer, etc.

It is a suitable soundtrack to listen to whilst charging through the gates of Babylon in search for Persian scalps or while you're sitting on the shitter reading your subscription to "Satanist's Quarterly".

•  •  •

I was given the link to the EP by thee dank dudes at WORHT Records, check them out and throw 'em some cash if you are touched by their venerable collection of filthy tunes.

Caveman Cult (Bandcamp)

Dark Times - Give (2014)

Really good female-fronted punk from Oslo, Norway. I am not going to dip into the well of platitudes with this one because my hangover requires hydration but I will say this; Dark Times aren't your run of the mill, stripped down punk band… Stripped down yes, but they have a sound to call their own and an eclectic delivery to their sound that frees them from the clutches of "heard this before". It was produced by Pål Bredrup, who also produced Okkultokrati and Haust with that same basement grime charm I've been into lately. This album will fit in with your crusty lifestyle.

Bandcamp (buy)
Zippyshare (listen)