Asbestoscape - Self-Titled

by Cosmo Lee

It's rare that a voice comes along on MySpace that's truly unique. Precedents exist for the UK's Asbestoscape - the cinematic sweep of Mogwai, the hoover synths of drum 'n' bass, the glitchy drums of electronic music five years ago (Tipper comes to mind). But this one-man act is identifiable within seconds after each track starts. Most artists don't have this quality. Something in the melodies, their simplicity and sadness. Something in the drums, their solidity yet tetchiness. Here is someone who's synthesized the last 10 years of music into an intensely personal whole. These are seven mini-soundtracks, fully-formed yet potentially endless. "Return" is dark, gleaming, patient, as if Ulver remixed Damnation-era Opeth. "Arctic" plods through Weezer-esque drums, building layers upon layers of Cure and Cocteau Twins guitars. Six-strings hum and glow as a massive edifice - only to fade away. Sweet dreams are made of this. Jesu who?

Return
Arctic

Buy:
CD Baby

Humanfly - II

This week is 20 Buck Spin week at Invisible Oranges. The Olympia-via-Bay Area label/distro is Dave Adelson, who has curated an impressive discography starting with SPIN001 in 2005, a reissue of Black Boned Angel's debut EP, on up to the crushing new record from Coffins (SPIN020). From doom to black metal to flat-out weirdness, 20 Buck Spin stands for handpicked quality. This week, we'll cover the label's latest offerings, as well as talk to the man himself.

by Cosmo Lee

The UK's Humanfly are really a '70s psych/prog band who got trapped in the '00s and decided to make the most of it. Thus, they update psychedelic tones and spacy synths with heavy riffs and beautifully robust production. Lazy comparisons will lump them in with the NeurIsis sound, but while the band embodies elements of that aesthetic, "slow and melodic" is the extent of it. The main fault of NeurIsis bands today is that they confuse balancing light and dark with mining a mediocre middle. All too often such bands muck about between pretty and heavy, not really exploring either.

Nenhuns Deuses Nenhuns Mestres

Humanfly aren't so. Their light and dark extend upwards and downwards; the high end sparkles with spiraling melodies, and the low end doesn't skimp on heaviness, though it's more hardcore-gone-sludge than metal. Such use of the full frequency spectrum recalls the mighty Year of No Light, though Humanfly are more expansive. Unlike many other bands, when they wax psychedelic, Humanfly aren't merely biding time until the next loud part. They let synths whoosh and build skyward with wide-eyed innocence; when they threaten to float into oblivion - only then do they drop the hammer. Unlike calculatingly loud-soft-loud NeurIsis clones, Humanfly still turn corners to see where they'll lead.

Buy:
20 Buck Spin
Humanfly MySpace

Metal dance remixes

by Cosmo Lee

The music at my gym is mostly horrible Hi-NRG dance fare. I have made multiple complaints, to little avail. As a result, I have probably been subjected to more dance versions of pop songs than any other human alive, including "Total Eclipse of the Heart," Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire," Skee-Lo's "I Wish," Extreme's "More Than Words," and Celine Dion's song from The Titanic. Screw waterboarding and Deicide - as torture, this stuff would be infinitely more effective.

Poison (Alice Cooper)
Poison (Groove Coverage)

Nothing, however, could have prepared me for the most surreal remix of all (by a German group called Groove Coverage (a name which doesn't even make sense - it sounds like a football defensive scheme)). The moment is firmly etched in my mind. I was on the stair machine. Second one from the left. Doing the stairs. Doing the stairs. Over the speakers I hear, "Your cruel...device...your blood...like ice..." NOOOOOOOOOOOO. No effing way. Alice Cooper got a dance remix??? I nearly fell off the stair machine.

Even worse is the dance version of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train," by Gyr-8 Productions (yet another terrible name). Whenever I hear those arpeggiated synths at 0:19, a small part of me dies. Incredibly, this remix gets even worse. First come some "Macarena" synths. Then it goes into two different Italo house piano themes, dragging Randy Rhoads' riff along like a vestigial appendage. It's truly repulsive - which is why I can't stop listening to it. Goddamn, does it make me laugh. I can't see anyone ever dancing to it or even listening to it seriously. Maybe it's showed up in an aerobics class or two.

Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne)
Crazy Train (Gyr-8 Productions)

Moss - Sub Templum

Few bands can transmit the occult like Moss. They douse their albums with thick, dark themes that ooze into bottomless pits of doom. Unlike their last full-length Cthonic Rites, Sub Templum tingles the nose unfamiliarly. This album doesn’t only bring genuine occult to life, it also smells more realistic. A cryptic cover of a coffin, burning sun, and barren temple introduces the darker nuances of the northern European holiday Walpurgis. Sub Templum highlights the time of year when forces between worlds waste away and life and death convene. Moss brings the nonexistent to life, capturing the horror within films like City of the Dead and Curse of the Claw. Moss wants to seduce, not just tell fictional stories. H.P. Lovecraft is on hiatus; occultist Aleister Crowley now takes the stand. This 2008 Rise Above Records release shows Moss transcending into a new supernatural dominion.

Gate III (excerpt)
Ritus (excerpt)

Moss matures with Sub Templum, introducing an approach that’s richer than on their previous releases. Olly Pearson exposes his voice, stripping away his sour scream at times to seep into harsh whispers and chants. In “Ritus,” a soft organ hums along with Pearson’s speaking voice, setting the mood for the following 68 minutes. The denouement arrives with “Gate III - The Devils of Outside Darkness.” As a continuation of “Gate” from Cthonic Rites, the last track launches ritualistic echoes and leaching, low-end rumbles. Aside from themes of the macabre and occult, Moss refines the ultimate doom explosion. Although the formula isn’t varying, Moss breeds it with skill. A snarling chord strikes, dangling in rumbling fog. The bass drum begins to pound, sounding like dead hands furiously beating the ceiling of a coffin. As one, a new chord descends, drums unleash aggressively, and a piercing, gut-wrenching scream magnifies the detonation. This would destroy live.

- Jess Blumensheid

Buy:
Rise Above

No U-Turn - Torque

The connection between drum 'n' bass and metal is somewhat well-documented. Simon Reynolds and Ian Christe have both pointed out that the preeminent dnb label is named Metalheadz. In Sound of the Beast, Christe likened the No U-Turn label to Death, Voivod, and Celtic Frost (he also astutely observed that the cover of the 1997 compilation Torque was like a cyborg version of Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance). I personally wouldn't make such comparisons (Voivod's futurism is/was much quirkier than dnb's), but spiritual connections definitely exist. Metal favors midrange, while dnb favors bass - and distortion brings them together.

Trace & Nico - Squadron (excerpt)
Trace & Nico - Damn Son (excerpt)

"Darkside" drum 'n' bass existed before No U-Turn, but Torque was its point of no return. Sampling stabs from old techno records, overlaying dissonant strings, and, most importantly, running synth basslines through distortion pedals, No U-Turn put aggression ahead of the dancefloor. Like other dnb, their tunes had chopped-up Amen breaks. But they were lumbering and malevolent, often dropping in without warning. Before Torque, the label experimented with these elements, often with a dub reggae/gangsta rap vibe. However, Torque crystallized the sound into a hard, gleaming whole. Its vinyl pressing was steely and loud, turning dancefloors into war zones.

Amazingly, one guy was responsible for this sound. Nico Sykes engineered most, if not all, the seminal No U-Turn records, with a rotating cast of collaborators. (For what little press exists on the label, see here). In the No U-Turn stable, DJ Trace earned his reputation for singularly monolithic basslines. Ragged stabs strafe "Squadron," as its low end erupts from the bowels of hell; it's one of the most evil sounds I've ever heard. "Damn Son" samples Raekwon ("Damn son, you bleedin' son, bad son") over a massive, menacing rumble. Dnb went on to rather overt metal homages (e.g., Nightbreed's "Pack of Wolves" and Kemal & Rob Data's remix of Pantera's "Fucking Hostile"), but their dark genesis lay in Torque.

Torque is available for download at beatport.com.

Black Cobra, Corpus Christii, Vader, and more

Up at Decibel, I have reviews of Blotted Science (new project of Ron Jarzombek), Devian (new project of Legion, ex-Marduk), and Rigor Sardonicous (slower-than-slow dooooom), as well as a feature on Portuguese black metallers Corpus Christii, whose recent record Rising is sick-sick-sick. The print version (#41, At the Gates cover) also has my live review of Neurosis/Earth/Saviours on NYE.

Black Cobra - Red Tide
Corpus Christii - Stabbed

At Metal Injection, I have reviews of The Great Deceiver (Tomas Lindberg's almost-nu-metal project), Polish behemoths Vader, mighty SF duo Black Cobra, Hot Topic pinups Bullet for My Valentine, and Strapping Young Lad clone The Arcane Order.

The latter's album is noteworthy, as it is a digital-only release in the US - from Metal Blade. CD's are available in Europe, but not in America. Metal Blade must have done a cost-benefit analysis and decided that CD's generally weren't worth manufacturing. Instead, the label has outsourced distribution to iTunes, Napster, et al., not even selling MP3's on its own site (yet). Metal Blade is the first major metal label I've seen do this - but I'm sure it won't be the only one.

Members of Carcass, in order of beauty

Found, on the MySpace blog of Emily, 27, from Knoxville, TN.

The members of Carcass in order of beauty, from most beautiful to most gnarly:

1. Steer. <3<3<3<3<3
2. Ken Owen. Lookin' good, dude! Even after being in a coma for a year, or whatever.
3. Michael Amott (bonus for most graceful aging).
4. Walker (I love you but I don't love your face. I have always liked your hair, if it is any consolation.)

Napalm Death - Fear, Emptiness, Despair

I highly recommend the recent film adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist. It's a monster movie, but its real monsters are humans. The film explores human psychology - specifically, the response in a confined space to an unknown threat. Interestingly, director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) made the ending darker than King's original - not the usual Hollywood trajectory. The ending is a Twilight Zone-type shocker, causing Thomas Jane's protagonist to emit an intense primal scream. It immediately reminded me of Barney Greenway's guttural growl at the beginning of "Twist the Knife (Slowly)," which leads off Napalm Death's Fear, Emptiness, Despair (Earache/Columbia, 1994).

Twist the Knife (Slowly)
Hung

Fear, Emptiness, Despair is by far my favorite Napalm Death record. Ironically, it's probably the one most unlike their legacy as grindcore pioneers, as it's mostly straight-up death metal. Some have called it "experimental," but that term better suits the follow-up Diatribes, which flirts with clean tones and hip hop. Sure, this was the band's major label record - but they put that money to good use. The sound is cold, clinical, and the biggest Napalm Death ever had.

The recording process was fraught with tension, and it shows. FED churns with roiling, mid-paced riffs alternating with upper-register tremolo picking (a Napalm Death signature from this point on). Danny Herrera's drumming is bulletproof; while Mick Harris deservedly gets props as inventor of the blastbeat, Herrera kicked the band up a notch. Industrial harmonics in "Armageddon x 7"; sheets of jangly dissonance in "Fasting on Deception"; wild machine gun melodies in "Primed Time" - all cruel and thrilling. "Hung" begins like an outtake from Sepultura's Chaos A.D., then shifts into a neck-snapping hail of blastbeats and thrash beats. Absolutely essential.

Atavist - II: Ruined

Manchester's Atavist recorded II: Ruined at Geoff Barrow's studio. Yes, that Geoff Barrow, the mastermind behind Portishead. Evidently, he's into sounds even heavier and more depressing than his day job. His label Invada put out Atavist's two previous records, including an exquisite ambient collaboration this year with Nadja. Invada is handling II: Ruined in the UK/Europe, with Profound Lore releasing it in North America.

V (excerpt)

Ruined is interesting, as its temperament is variable. Doom metal is often unidirectional, destroying inwards (Khanate) or outwards (Esoteric). Ruined starts as the former but morphs to the latter and back again, fittingly ending with a cover of Grief's "I Hate the Human Race" (a bonus track on the North American release).

This record requires patience; a recent Decibel review was humorously snarky but missed the point. Ruined is essentially one long song (with Roman numeraled parts as tracks) that dilates, say, twenty minutes into an hour. That's not the same as stretching things thin. It's more like 45 rpm at 33, so everything's slower, more bottom-heavy. Thus, an intro becomes three minutes of rumbling (which admittedly could have been cut). The second track, too, starts with two and half minutes of futzing around on bass. Thus, the record begins with basically five and a half minutes of nothing.

But then it drops, hard, into Khanate mode - lurching, wounded doom, no steady pulse, only intermittent crashings and skinned-alive screams. This recedes and resumes a number of times, passing through a gorgeous acoustic guitar interlude, to which Justin Greaves (Crippled Black Phoenix, ex-Electric Wizard) adds piano tinklings. The record builds and peaks in the fifth track with straight-up sludge metal. At this point, its energy is outwards, slinging swinging riffs with eerie jangles on top. Then it retreats back to Khanate-esque pain before the boot-to-the-ass Grief finish.

I've heard Manchester is a shit town; this record only reinforces that notion. Singer Toby Bradshaw turns in a sumptuous digipak design full of decaying industrial imagery. According to the liner notes, "Atavist records exclusively on comedowns & hangovers." I don't advocate drug use, but...

II: Ruined is available in the UK at Invada, and in the US and the rest of the world at Profound Lore.

TenHornedBeast - The Sacred Truth

TenHornedBeast is the UK's Christopher Walton, who reshapes an interest in doom metal into something much less formatted. Evidently, earlier work leaned towards guitar, bass, and drums. Now, however, TenHornedBeast exemplifies a world where black metal, doom metal, drone, and noise aren't loci but merely reference points shading into each other.

Our Lady of the Lightning Bolt (excerpt)
In the Teeth of the Wolf (excerpt)

"Dark ambient" best describes The Sacred Truth (Cold Spring, 2007). The term is inadequate, though, as the record is full of shade, if not necessarily light. It's a rich collage of sounds and sources - harnessed feedback, screaming synthetic winds, found sounds, electrical ambience. Flange-esque throbbing arcs throughout. "Oppression Sacrament" mixes religious chants into its miasma; "Strength Through Fear" saws out trenchant, cello-esque lines.

At 22 and a half minutes, "In the Teeth of the Wolf" is the record's linchpin. It's Godflesh inverted - guitars imploded so their atmosphere faces out, militant percussion marching in the background, cymbals hissing in a sea of roiling drones. The mix is seamless; the effect is cinematic. Ridley Scott would kill to have this for a soundtrack. Imagine exploring a massive, abandoned spaceship that mysteriously crackles with electrical life - or death.

This is art as it should be - fierce, nuanced, with room for interpretation. It comes in a beautiful digipak with matte finish and laminated accents, and is available in Europe from Conspiracy, in the US from Malignant and Ominous Drone, and in the UK and the rest of the world from Cold Spring.

Pulsefear - Perichoresis

I often listen to dark ambient before I go to sleep. Sure, most dark ambient isn't exactly relaxing, but usually anything sustained and drumless sends me off to never, neverland. However, the first time I heard Pulsefear's Perichoresis (Profound Lore, 2007), I lay there not only awake, but stressed out, my heart racing, my body in a cold sweat - an apt response, given the artist's name.

Gauze (excerpt)
Lighthouse pt. 1 (excerpt)

Pulsefear is the dark ambient project of Michael Blenkarn and Brooke Johnson, who are part of English industrial black metal outfit The Axis of Perdition. AoP has strong dark ambient tendencies, so this project isn't such a large leap (Blut Aus Nord is similarly binary in ethic, though not in sound). But while Axis snarls forth some of the most hostile ambient I've ever heard, Pulsefear is more subliminal.

The bio's namecheck of the Silent Hill video game is spot-on; indefinite atmospheres swirl around sans arcs over time, waxing and waning at will. The resulting soundscapes are off-kilter and unpredictable. Imagine musty, decaying dungeons crossed with Bladerunner (the smoky futurism, not the soundtrack) - the vibe is vaguely and distantly foreboding, but with an edge born of technology and sound design. Oddly, old drum 'n' bass comes to mind, like early Technical Itch or Modus Operandi-era Photek.

Evidently, "Perichoresis" is "the existence of multiple divine persons in one another, such as the Holy Trinity of Christianity." The term is fitting, of course, for a side project. But such multiplicity also applies to the sound - it's quite alive, with detail and movement, yet on a macroscopic level, it's a portrait of extremely slow death. Some of the best sci-fi combines the retro and the futuristic (e.g., City of Lost Children); this would make an appropriate soundtrack.

Perichoresis is available for not much from Profound Lore and The End. Those who invest in the digipak artifact will be rewarded with exquisite photographs of abandoned buildings by Melanie Rhys.

The Red Chord, Darkest Hour, Halford, etc.

The Red Chord

I'm moving from Berlin to San Francisco at the end of this month. This, combined with excessive travel (five trans-Atlantic crossings in six weeks, with five destination airports and way too much sleeping while sitting), has severely hampered my recent productivity.

The Red Chord - Tread on the Necks of Kings
Halford - Made in Hell
Year of No Light - Traversée

However, I've published a bit since my last update - dual reviews of Azalea City Penis Club/Robin Allender and Caina/Godheadscope at Stylus, as well as a review of Immolation and an interview with Year of No Light. At Metal Injection, I've reviewed The Red Chord, Darkest Hour, Halford, Mortuus, and Ion Dissonance, as well as a DVD of the Metalmania 2006 festival and a fine book by Keith Kahn-Harris.

Jesu - Silver (Original Beats)

Oddly, Adult Swim has posted a Jesu track in a free, downloadable mixtape called Warm & Scratchy. The track is the "Original Beats" version of "Silver" (originally available on the Silver EP's Japanese release), which is a little hard to believe. With mid-'90s beats and messy keyboards and basslines that don't gel with its melodies, it feels like a remix. At any rate, it makes an interesting comparison with the final version, which has much more heft and focus. Similarly, Jesu's MySpace has the "Original Mix" of "Wolves."

Silver (Original Beats)
Silver

Has anyone heard the Jesu split with Eluvium out on vinyl on Temporary Residence? The Jesu blog says "Hydra Head version to be announced soon..." Does that mean a CD release?

D.A.M. - Inside Out

D.A.M.N.! G.O.T.T.A. L.O.V.E. T.H.R.A.S.H. A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.S.! "D.A.M." stood for "Destruction and Mayhem," which would make quite a musical combination. These British thrashers went two albums and out in the late '80s/early '90s. Although their debut, Human Wreckage, has more old-school appeal (acronym song titles, Andreas Marschall artwork), Inside Out (Noise, 1991) is a better record, with tighter playing and stronger songs.

House of Cards
Appointment with Fear

The addition of guitarist Dave Pugh (who later went on to Skyclad) made a huge difference on this album, as the solos absolutely rule. They're melodic, memorable, and reference the riffs in interesting ways. Inside Out is long out-of-print, but fans of melodic thrash should track it down for some of the genre's finest leads.

65daysofstatic - The Destruction of Small Ideas

Sometimes it's nice when humans shut up and let their fingers do the talking. Vocals do sneak in on the last track of The Destruction of Small Ideas (Monotreme, 2007), but by then it's thankfully too late. Perhaps the "small ideas" refer to genres; this album could fit under "post-rock," "prog rock," "atmospheric metal," and any number of other meaningless terms. Rock instruments, un-rock structures, some electronics - mix and blend, welcome to now.

When We Were Younger & Better
Don't Go Down to Sorrow

This is a work-in-progress, which means imperfection. The album is too long, with some filler. Guitars are occasionally out of tune, with a hit-or-miss rhythm section (Pelican-itis?). But the album glows with moments where pianos and guitars intertwine in loving embrace, and where bass and drums groove with space and smarts. Thus, this is an exciting work-in-progress. These British lads could make the best album in the world. Until then, this slab will do nicely.

65daysofstatic tours North America with The Cure this fall. Tour dates are here. Non-Cure dates are at the band's MySpace. This album is available at Interpunk.

Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes to Midnight

Evidently, the new American ambassador to Iraq is a heavy metal fan. One of his prized possessions is a poster of Iron Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight" single (EMI, 1984). Pretty hip for a diplomat, though of course the song and cover has geopolitical significance, which a Maiden fansite explains in detail here.

Mission from 'Arry

The single had two interesting B-sides, both of which appeared on the 1995 reissue of Powerslave. "Rainbow's Gold" was a cover of obscure prog rock band Beckett, with an "Immigrant Song"-esque drum intro. "Misson from 'Arry," however, was one of the strangest pieces of audio ever pressed to vinyl. It was a recording of a spirited argument between Steve Harris ("'Arry") and Nicko McBrain.

What happened was, Harris had some technical difficulties live while Nicko was doing a drum solo. Harris sent someone to tell Nicko to extend his solo. However, Nicko didn't understand the messenger and screwed up his solo. So after the show, Nicko punched out the guy. Bruce Dickinson walked in and recorded the resulting row.

English people fighting = funny.

Scythian - Suffering to the Conquered

This is easily the best demo I've received to date for review. London's Scythian rolls out thrashy death metal with Swedish grit and touches of black metal atmosphere. The six songs on Suffering to the Conquered burst with nasty, memorable riffs and lots of little runs and switch-ups. The solos have an awesomely old-school, thin and distant vibe. There's even a vicious cover of Bathory's "Holocaust" that gives the original a run for its money.

Shattered Idols
Suffering to the Conquered

The production is natural and balanced, the performances are ripping, and the minimal artwork looks sharp. Judging from the layout of its MySpace (from which this demo is available for purchase) and overall presentation, this band knows exactly what it's going for and how to get there. If I had a label, I'd sign these guys in a heartbeat. This is some of the best death metal I've heard in years. Labels, get on it!

Neurosis, Watain, Pig Destroyer, and more

Neurosis, upstairs @ GAMH, SF Photo by Brendan Tobin

It's been a while since my last reviews update. There's so much good stuff now, it's almost overwhelming! At Stylus, I've reviewed Cephalic Carnage, Neurosis, Pelican, and Pig Destroyer. At Metal Injection, I've reviewed Akercocke, Toxic Bonkers, N.I.L., Deadlock, Merciless Death, Thought Chamber, and Watain.

Neurosis - Water Is Not Enough
Watain - Sworn to the Dark
Akercocke - The Dark Inside
Pig Destroyer - Heathen Temple
Cephalic Carnage - Divination & Volition

The Neurosis album will make my year-end top three. Watain might get up there, too. Akercocke would have stood a chance if not for the horrible hack mastering job. Check out "The Dark Inside" for the drum 'n' bass part that drops into the song - random but cool.

Martin Grech - Unholy

The art of Stephen Kasner is one of the best things that's ever happened to me. Although I'm now familiar with his style, it still d/haunts me. It's a "take a deep breath and leap into the unknown" proposition, which I prize but find so rarely. I'm honored to have spoken with him; his interview and artwork are up today in my ongoing metal artists feature this week at Stylus.

Guiltless

Kasner did the cover for Martin Grech's Unholy (Island, 2005). It's the inverse of a Rothko take on a cross - not religious, but dirty, gauzy, fading. The image fits the the album, which pairs Grech's Jeff Buckley/Thom Yorke/male Bjork vocals with ambient alt-rock and occasional metal a la Tool or NIN. Like an M. Night Shyamalan movie, the result doesn't always work, but it's atmospheric as hell. "Guiltless," one of the album's singles, is a lush, slow burn.

Below are some outtakes from my interview with Kasner.

Do you think there's misanthropy in your work?

I think in terms of the darker side of nature, the darker side of man, buried thoughts, nightmares, regret, things that we as humans often try to bury - things that psychiatrists make a lot of money on.

In your album artwork, you often focus on a central element instead of playing with the edges of the frame.

In my paintings in general, I usually have a central focus or various groups of focus, and there's also areas that are not focused. They're unrefined, and I don't mean that in a negative way. It's almost like pinhole photography, where you have a focus, coupled with areas of distorted image.

I've always been fascinated by early photography. Some of the most powerful images I've ever seen have been in early photography or portraiture, where things are as refined as they can be, but the tools and techniques they employed at the time had a natural distortion to it. There's something about that to me that's so melancholy and so beautiful. Not to read too much into the edges of my paintings, but I think it's part homage to these photographic images.

Are you one of those people that prefer vinyl to CD's?

I most certainly do. But CD's and MP3's become very handy in the studio. If I'm working in the studio, I'm working for many, many hours. My work is pretty dirty. It's pretty hefty work. I don't paint in a very controlled environment. A lot of times I'm throwing huge buckets of paint and washes on my work. It's very tactile and messy. So it'd become inconvenient to always be flipping vinyl. But I do have a vinyl collection that I appreciate very much when I'm at home.

Pure Reason Revolution - The Dark Third

I haven't followed prog metal/rock since the '90s, and only recently reconnected with that world through the German label InsideOut. Some of its stuff is obviously prog (baroque songs and agile chops), while other "prog" now seems more like sophisticated pop music.

Bullitts Dominae
Apprentice of the Universe

Thus, I'm still figuring out that landscape. But in quality and quantity, InsideOut almost never disappoints (OSI, Devin Townsend, and Steve Hackett are but a few luminaries on its roster). Only some albums are metallic enough for me to review, but nearly every one has interesting songwriting and impeccable musicianship.

Despite the Stryper-esque artwork, I've been giving Pure Reason Revolution heavy rotation. This UK band feels intimate, which I usually don't get from prog. Technical fireworks usually makes prog feel unreal and distant to me. But while The Dark Third has perfect production and performances, it feels warm and velvety, with lush male/female vocals and clean tones that recall Pink Floyd.

This is a stunningly elegant and masterful debut; you can find it at InsideOut's US and German webstores.

Akercocke on BBC TV, black metal "Pimp My Ride"

Akercocke

Two recent and bizarre bits of black metal in the popular media (clips below) - the first is Akercocke on Irish BBC TV, in a somewhat hyped "debate" with Christian types. The band isn't that articulate (hitting the bottle on live TV hardly advances one's cause), but then again, the whole show is a disorganized, Jerry Springer-esque mess. I thought these kinds of censorship flaps were relics of '80s America? By the principle of "any publicity is good publicity" (Earache uploaded this), Akercocke wins by simply showing up.

The second is the now-popular clip of Christian black metallers Admonish on MTV's "Pimp My Ride International." Not much metal about this, really, though there is an absurd amount of goat-throwing and Lil' Jon puts the "black" in black metal. Bonus points for brief snippets of Slayer and Method Man. But why does this Swedish band have a Norwegian flag in its rehearsal room? Was the suicide door an ironic black metal joke? And now that that speakers take up the back seat, how will the rest of the band get to gigs?

Akercocke on Irish BBC TV



Admonish on MTV's "Pimp My Ride"

Eyehategod, Left Hand Path #007, Dark Tranquillity, and more

This recent quote from Frank Urbancic, coordinator of counterterrorism for the US State Department, got me thinking.

"This is not the kind of war where you can measure success with conventional numbers. We cannot aspire to a single decisive battle that will break the enemy's back, nor can we hope for a signed peace accord to mark victory."

It reminded me of Orwell's 1984, in which the world is perpetually at war. Here is an excerpt from the outlawed book within the book by Emmanuel Goldstein, the manufactured enemy of Big Brother.

"War, however, is no longer the desperate, annihilating struggle that it was in the early decades of the twentieth centary. It is a warfare of limited aims between combatants who are unable to destroy one another, have no material cause for fighting and are not divided by any genuine ideological difference... To understand the nature of the present war -- for in spite of the regrouping which occurs every few years, it is always the same war -- one must realize in the first place that it is impossible for it to be decisive."

That, in turn, reminded me of Eyehategod's "Peace Thru War (Thru Peace and War)," of which Lair of the Minotaur does a blistering cover on the For the Sick compilation, which I've reviewed for Stylus.


Lair of the Minotaur - Peace Thru War (Thru Peace and War)
The Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound - Occult Roots
Dark Tranquillity - The Lesser Faith


#007 of Stylus' Left Hand Path is up, featuring reviews of Akimbo, The Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, The Funeral Pyre, Gospel of the Horns, Mortuus, Necros Christos, Tyrant Throne, and Watain, among others. In the column, Stew Voegtlin interviews Israel-based black metal band Tangorodrim.

At Metal Injection, I've reviewed Chaotica by Behemoth, as well as new albums by Dark Tranquillity and Extinction of Mankind.

Nachtmystium has signed to Century Media?!

Sound of the Beast author Ian Christe has a new blog called Bang! Bang!. He's posting old demo tapes, and those of you who read his old Demo-Lition blog will remember how awesome that was.

Man, Polish metal week nearly polished me off. Remind me not to review 14 albums in a week (plus two more and a DVD for other sites) ever again. But I learned about a ton of cool Polish bands, including some I didn't write about. I hope you found some you liked, too.

Funeral Throne signs to Satanas Rex

Satanas Rex, the black metal offshoot of UK-based industrial/black ambient label Cold Spring, has signed Funeral Throne and will release the band’s first album, Nihil Sine Diabolus, in the spring of 2007. The band has posted two tracks from the album at its MySpace. A track from the Nun Fucking Black Metal demo follows below.

Funeral Throne - Lord of the Black Moon

Ozzy Osbourne - Tribute

Suicide Solution (with guitar solo)
Dee (Randy Rhoads studio out-takes)

Epic
1987


Today marks the 25th anniversary of Randy Rhoads' passing. Five years afterwards, Ozzy Osbourne released Tribute, featuring live cuts recorded while on tour for Blizzard of Ozz. They're good, not great. The band isn't tight, and Tommy Aldridge turns in an amazingly boring drum solo. Amusingly, Ozzy keeps telling the crowd to stand up. But, of course, the focus of the album is Randy Rhoads.

His short discography (two albums each with Quiet Riot and Ozzy) documented an incredibly meteoric rise. In 1977, the first Quiet Riot album came out, a pleasant collection of glam rock. One could tell Rhoads was good, but he was just playing for the songs. His playing was slightly more colorful on the more accomplished, yet more jaded Quiet Riot II. Two years later was Blizzard of Ozz, an immense step up. Rhoads' classical influences were coming out, and his playing felt much more "serious." Working with Ozzy instead of Kevin DuBrow must have helped in that regard. Then came the mindblowing Diary of a Madman. That solo in "Over the Mountain" - jeezus!

Rhoads' style was a lot like Eddie Van Halen's. In fact, they had similar backgrounds. They were both classically trained, switching to electric guitar from other instruments, and they were the only guitarists in their bands, which gave them room for noises and embellishments. Their legacy was firebreathing guitarists who played rhythm, lead, and everything in between (e.g., Dimebag Darrell). Van Halen was bluesier, though, and if Rhoads had remained alive, he would have continued further on his classical path. There's a great picture in a slideshow by Rudy Sarzo that shows Randy looking up classical guitar teachers in the Yellow Pages. While on tour, he would take lessons from local teachers - imagine getting that phone call!

The Rhoads-related bits on Tribute actually aren't his best moments. His unaccompanied solo in "Suicide Solution" is rather short (for some reason, the song was edited so Ozzy gave the same intro twice). I haven't heard the "Laughing Gas" solo from Quiet Riot's The Randy Rhoads Years, but I've read that it's longer, yet substantially similar. As a child, I saw a transcription of the "Laughing Gas" solo and was in awe of how physical it was, with hammer-ons, pull-offs, two-handed tapping, and bending at the headstock (I think). The studio outtakes of "Dee" are kind of painful. You hear Rhoads screw up for four minutes, with tons of reverb. However, you also hear him talk, which is a treat. The guy was human, yet he somehow made polka-dotted guitars seem cool. RIP Randall William Rhoads (December 6, 1956 - March 19, 1982).

Crush My Soul, Make Me Feel

Still from "Happiness in Slavery"

"Crush my soul, make me feel" definitely applied to Bob Flanagan. He was a BDSM performance artist; Wikipedia says BDSM stands for "bondage & discipline," "dominination & submission," and "sadism & masochism." I know virtually nothing about these things, and what little I've seen of Flanagan's work makes me wince. Horror movies and death metal are nothing next to actual human pain.

However, Flanagan wasn't subjecting himself to unbelievable punishment (e.g., hammering a nail through his penis) just for kicks. He had cystic fibrosis, which causes lung infections, gastrointestinal diseases, and other things no human deserves. Flanagan used BDSM to "fight pain with pain" - in other words, to control his suffering.

Evidently, it worked; when he died at age 43 in 1996, he was one of the longest documented survivors of cystic fibrosis. Frankly, I cannot imagine pain so great that it compels one to seek out other pain to distract from/conquer it. You can learn more about Flanagan's life at the site Sheree Rose, his partner and artist collaborator, maintains.

Flanagan appeared in the video to Godflesh's "Crush My Soul," directed by Andres Serrano (of "Piss Christ" fame/infamy). Rose is the handler who hoists him upside down, an inverted Christ. Evidently, Kirk Hammett's viewing of this video led to Metallica using Serrano's art for Load and ReLoad.

This video has two sections interspersed with "band" footage. The first is a cockfight; the second is a church service. Serrano draws parallels between them. In the beginning, he focuses on the cross worn by the guy in the red hoodie. Near the end, he cuts in footage of chickens. In both situations, Serrano calls attention to people pitching in money. Perhaps they're complicit in something?

WARNING: THESE VIDEOS CONTAIN EXTREMELY GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING IMAGES. DO NOT WATCH THEM AT WORK.

Godflesh - Crush My Soul



Flanagan also appeared in the video to Nine Inch Nails' "Happiness in Slavery." I'm surprised I could find it uncensored on YouTube, as it's one of the edgiest videos I've ever seen. The video was part of the "Broken Movie," which was never officially released. That "grinding into grist" part reminds me of Pink Floyd's film for The Wall.

Nine Inch Nails - Happiness in Slavery



It's all too easy to dismiss Flanagan's activities as "insanity" or "perversion." He approached them with dignity, humor, and courage that few of us have. Here's a video with a voiceover of him reading his poem "Why." In it, he explains why he does what he does.

Bob Flanagan - Why

Jesu - Conqueror

Conqueror

Hydra Head
2007



I can't believe this is happening. I'm listening to an album by Justin Broadrick, and I can't wait for it to end. This has never happened before. Even Hymns, arguably the weakest Godflesh album, had some brilliant peaks. But Conqueror - it bores me.

By normal standards, it's a good album. The songs are pleasant, and the mix is fine, if lacking in heaviness. Drums sound nicely natural, and some cool distorted synths pan around the stereo spectrum. This is a serviceable shoegazer album.

But by Broadrick's standards (or, more accurately, my standards of his work, as he's probably happy with the record), it's immensely disappointing. The reason? It's lightweight. And not just because seven of the eight songs are in major keys. The previous two Jesu records had some great major key work.

Godflesh succeeded because it plumbed the lower depths of emotion. Jesu also explored those depths, but pushed up through them until it emerged bruised and mud-caked, blinking in the sunlight.

This record, though - it stays in the sun. It just lies there. It's Ride or My Bloody Valentine tuned down, minus the mystery. The title track is OK, but an album's worth of it ain't. There are some "negative lyrics over positive music" that critics might praise. Fuck that.

You crushed me with sound, Justin; you made me feel. Now I am crushed because I feel nothing.

KLF vs. ENT

KLF is gonna rock you

I won't go into the history of The KLF, as many others have already done so. Suffice it to say that Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty were two strange guys with a brilliant knack for publicity. Their stunts included burning a million pounds (true) and allegedly doing sonic weapons research on cows (false).

But their crowning moment was their final performance, at the 1992 Brit Awards, the UK equivalent of the Grammys. The KLF had won "Best British group" and were to play a live version of their house anthem "3 A.M. Eternal." Wearing a kilt, leaning on a crutch, and firing machine gun blanks at the audience, Drummond showed up with Extreme Noise Terror in tow and bashed out a chaotic (and rather crappy) metal version of the tune. Later, the band delivered a sheep carcass to an industry afterparty. How black metal of them.

Below is a video of that performance, which holds more historical than aesthetic value. But first, the original (and perhaps more absurd) video for comparison:

The KLF - 3 A.M. Eternal



Extreme Noise Terror - 3 A.M. Eternal

V/A - Swarm

Occasionally, I will post about music that's not metal, but that metalheads might like. That includes things like noise, dark ambient, industrial, techstep, and so on. Basically, if it's dark and nasty enough, it stands a chance. This compilation from Cold Spring definitely fits the bill.

Cold Spring is a UK label that's been around since the late '80s. Its output is incredibly diverse; in its own words, it specializes "in all forms of extreme media, but particularly: black/dark Ambient, Neo-classical/Neo-folk, Orchestral, Power Electronics/Noise, Japanese Noise, Minimal, Death Industrial, Dark Soundtracks, Experimental, obscure electronics from Russia, China, Japan, Poland etc." Recently, Cold Spring spawned a black metal sublabel, Satanas Rex, whose first release was Jotunspor's Gleipnirs Smeder.

The two discs of Swarm feature 22 exclusive tracks recorded for it by Cold Spring artists. For a track list, see here. You might recognize names like Merzbow, Von Thronstahl, or Deadwood, who's working with Maniac from Mayhem on an album due out later this year. The range of sounds is amazingly wide, touching on many of the genres listed above. I never thought I'd enjoy industrial symphonic marches next to gothic folk songs and Scanner-esque field recordings, but the quality is high throughout. It would be too much to talk about every track, much as I'd like to, so I'll post some highlights.

Clear Stream Temple - Division (City of Mosques)

Hands down my favorite track is the chilling "Division (City of Mosques)" by Clear Stream Temple, a one-woman project. It consists of manipulated soundbites of the Iraq war over ambience that's alternately harsh and haunting. An endeavor like this could get preachy real fast, but the music speaks as much as the words, with red-lined hammering noises suggesting the sounds of bombs. It's amazing what a little looping and effects can do to the human voice.

Shinjuku Thief - Sacred Fury (live)

Shinjuku Thief explores industrial symphonic territory here, as do Kreuzweg Ost and Kriesgfall-U. I haven't heard this vibe since Laibach back in the day, and for some reason it intrigues me much more now that I'm older. Perhaps that's because these artists have politically charged aesthetics and manifestos. Normally, I hate the sound of marches. What's pomp and circumstance on one shore usually means death and destruction on another. But these aren't the usual Sousa fanfares. There's menace here, and I wonder whether these artists satirize or glorify martial sounds. Must investigate further.

John Watermann - Whispering Walls (Si_COMM Remix)

John Watermann was an experimental artist in the true sense of the word. He worked with sound, film, and photography, compiling a large discography on various media using various methods. He passed away in 2002 in Brisbane, Australia. Si_COMM has remixed his "Whispering Walls" into something that could have been on the first Clicks & Cuts compilation, if not for its extremely creepy vibe. Turn up the volume, turn out the lights, and see how long you last.

I can't recommend this compilation highly enough. If you're into the dark ambient bits of the latest albums by Blut Aus Nord or Spektr, you'll love this. The compilation comes in a beautiful gatefold digipak, with artwork by "O. Lomer," on whom I could find no information. It's available for a low price from the label, and it's free if you order three other Cold Spring releases. Dig in.

Hells Bells It's Christmas

Speaking of Anaal Nathrakh, Mick Kenney and Dave Hunt are also in filth grind outfit Mistress. Kenney and Mistress bassist Dirty Von Donovan are in rocka rolla band Exploder. Napalm Death's Shane Embury played on the last Anaal Nathrakh album. Embury and Kenney run Feto Records, who put out Exploder's debut. Kenney does artwork for all these bands. The idea of a cabal maximizing output and profits under myriad guises is a brilliant one.

Exploder has released a special holiday single, "Hells Bells It's Christmas." It's catchier than the clap, and would be a radio hit if the world had any justice. Really, it warms me cockles.

Exploder - Hells Bells It's Christmas



For more holiday metal mayhem, check out my Stylus feature A Heavy Metal Christmas. Enjoy!

Anaal Nathrakh - Eschaton

Over time, Anaal Nathrakh's sound hasn't changed that much. The template now is much the same as before - relentless industrial black metal with occasional electronics, wall-of-sound production, ridiculous song titles, and an obsession with the apocalypse ("eschaton" means "end times" or "last things").

However, this album (on Season of Mist) brings out melodic elements its predecessors only hinted at. The two main developments are clean singing and more memorable riffs. The clean singing seems to have polarized people, and it took me a while to adjust to it, too. But clean vocals are hardly anything new in black metal, and while these aren't particularly thrilling nor abysmal, they do make the songs catchier. The atmosphere is still apocalyptic, and the production is still Ministry-esque. But for the first time, I can pick out individual songs all the way through an AN album. Those turned off by the relentlessness of before might find some ways into this record.

Anaal Nathrakh - The Yellow King
Anaal Nathrakh - When the Lion Devours Both Dragon and Child

Mick Kenney turns in atypically boring artwork (tomato and carrot juice reds and oranges, no lyrics, played out fractals), but overall I find this album loud and obnoxious in a good way. You can get it at Moribund Cult or Very.

Napalm Death - Smear Campaign

Another Napalm Death album??? These guys have been ridiculously productive since they left Earache after 1999's Words from the Exit Wound. Since then, they've had a release of some sort each year, including four albums, two Leaders Not Followers covers collections, and the awesome Noise for Music's Sake compilation. This is almost oversaturation, but Smear Campaign (on Century Media) shows that the band is still at the top of its game.

In recent years, Napalm Death have reverted towards their original grindcore sound and away from the death metal they flirted with in the '90s. But they aren't just churning out the 30-second micro-songs of yore. If the band has learned anything from its long and varied career, it's how to switch up feels. These songs smoothly rotate through blastbeats, chugging riffs, thrash grooves, and even hardcore-based two-stepping. In fact, "When All Is Said and Done" is pretty much a straight-up two-step, with some half-speed transitions that remind me of Biohazard (in a good way).

Danny Herrera is much to credit for this. He plays with amazing energy and has a knack for varying beats to spice up what are often simple riffs. He's often overlooked amongst his more "glamorous" bandmates, but he's really the engine powering the machine. Everyone else pulls his weight, though. Shane Embury fires off nicely rumbling riffs, Barney Greenway sounds as pissed off as ever, and he and Mitch Harris have a great "Papa bear, little bear" vocal interaction in the grand grindcore tradition.

Napalm Death - When All Is Said and Done
Napalm Death - In Deference

One of the selling points of this album is the guest appearance by Anneke van Giersbergen (of The Gathering) on "In Deference." It's interesting, though not earth-shattering. She adds some gothic atmosphere, and that's about it. It's good, though, that the band is still willing to experiment. Much more compelling is the beautifully textured artwork by Mick Kenney (of Mistress and Anaal Nathrakh notoriety). This package is quality through and through - pick it up

@ CM Distro
@ Interpunk
@ Very