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7000 DYING RATS - "Forced Boat" 7" $6.25
The Forced Boat 7" is a kind of hodgepodge of 7000 Dying Rats insanity, a collage of brutal grinding blurr, funereal violins, tape montages, with the EP's centerpieces consisting of a manic, drunken cover of 'Any Way You Want It', and a meth'd up rendition of Sabbath's 'Paranoid', the first half of which is delivered with distorted megaphone vocals and crunchy guitars, but then the second half is played on acoustic guitars and banjos. This is a very weird, very goofy EP that's not necessarily the best introduction to the Rats delirious assault, but if you're already into these guys, the 10 minutes or so of ridiculousness on this platter is pretty zonked. Released in a limited edition pressing of 440 copies on clear pink colored vinyl, in a full color sleeve with do-it-yourself 7"" center labels sporting the faces of Don Knotts and Steven Segal and an insert sheet describing the full saga of the EP's release.
1349 - "s/t" CD $7
Misanthropic soul-crushing Norwegian Black Metal, in the old school early 90s way, in the ghastly tradition of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Extremely fast violent black metal. Features Frost from Satyricon laying down some serious drum torture. Includes a cover of "The Usurper" by Celtic Frost.
ACRIMONY / CHURCH OF MISERY - "split" CD $9
ACRIMONY's five tracks (never before released, and recorded in 1999) are awesome, melodic, insanely catchy stonerized post-Sabbath psychedelic riffchug anthems, with ultracool vocals from singer Dor and punishing, resin coated, slow as hell doom rock, with grooving asphalt riffs that easily challenge the likes of GOATSNAKE and ELECTRIC WIZARD for sludgy superiority. Awesome. Seriously awesome. CHURCH OF MISERY follow with four unreleased slammers, two of which ("Race With The Devil"- a GUN cover, and "Chilly Grave") were written/recorded for an EP that ended up never being released, and two other crushers ("Cloud Bed" and "Kingdom Scum"), all of which were recorded in 1996. Monstrous, wah-wah abusing stoner-Doom from these guys, who never fail to flatten us with their fuzz soaked riffage and city-levelling tempos. Again, essential for fans of ultra heavy stoner Doom and gooey sludge metal.
ACTS OF SEDITION / SADVILLE - "split" 7" $5.50
Sadville delivers a brand new song in three parts which showcases these Tennessee ragers' southern influenced stoner crust metal. Oakland, CA's Acts Of Sedition combine the dark crust sounds of bands like Born/Dead and Tragedy with the early '90s political NYHC of Citizens Arrest and Nausea. Hand-numbered on WHITE vinyl, limited to 400 copies.
ACTS OF SEDITION / SURRENDER - "split" 7" $5.50
Two tracks from Oakland's SURRENDER, who are a total throwback to 80's English peace punk with a slight hint of riot grrrl. and one track from ACTS OF SEDITION, who borrow punk and hardcore sounds from Black Flag as well as modern heavyweights such as Artimus Pyle and Hot Cross with overtly political lyrics. Screened covers with vellum band.
ADRENALIN O.D. - "The Wacky Hi-Jinks of... " $11 2XCD
Man, does this rock. For starters, Adrenalin O.D. were lightning fast (like, D.R.I./Gang Green fast), and heavy. And I do mean heavy; on this, a re-issue of A.O.D.’s classic LP from ’84, there’s plenty of NYHC-style chugga-chugga riffs and breakdowns in-between all the thrash parts. But what separated A.O.D. from just about all the other hardcore bands back then was their wicked sense of humor and their sharp melodic sense. Being fast as hell was one of A.O.D.’s trademarks, but their songs were really catchy, too. The excellent mastering job makes this CD loud as hell, capturing the full power and fury that was Adrenalin O.D. Don’t worry, this isn’t some lame-sounding re-issue of poorly-recorded early 80’s American hardcore, the kind with the paper-thin drums and tin-can guitar. I mean, this CD is full-blown loud. Plus, there’s also a 33-track bonus CD that includes the “Let’s Barbecue” EP. You’ll be getting your money’s worth here, without question, along with all the inside jokes and references to New Jersey “culture” as well, including the 12 page booklet of lyrics, rare photos and flyers, plus photos of the Tick Tock Diner, Uncle Floyd, and the turnpike being shown as the “Jersey parking lot”— yup, people who’ve never been to New Jersey don’t know what they’re missing…
ADRENALIN O.D. - "Phat N' Old - Live on WFMU" CD $9
The 23 track CD recorded live at the legendary WFMU studios by Pat Duncan and Charles Maggio.
A FASHIONABLE DISEASE - "s/t" 7" $5.50
Totally ass kicking and weirdly fucked brutality fills this little 7" from Santa Cruz's own, A Fashionable Disease! Another one of those what the fuck, seemingly impossible combinations of influences, synthesized in such a unique and successful way, that makes us kind of scratch our heads and lament that we haven't been turned on sooner. How do you describe this? Maybe filthyfreejazzcrustyfiedsatanicdamagedgrindpunkavantskronk? Or maybe just Crass meets Ayler meets Pig Destroyer meets Sun Ra meets Schoenberg meets Anal Cunt meets Mahavishnu. We don't fucking know, but it rules! Super demented, ultra damaged grind-jazz, complete with horn section! Putrid angular metallic guitar discordance, feculent terrorist manifesto screeched vocals, growling horns, blasting drums. The first cut, "Veal Medallions" starts with a blast of feedback before hurling into a psychotically chromatic guitar and piano line, ending up in a blasting tumult of throat tearing vocals and frenetically crazed drumming! Some of the lyrics from this number kind of sum up what these fellas are about... "skulls converge ruins/ rainbows ejaculate onto your face/ quiet in the piss-stained evening/ spring wind blows perfume of 1,000 rotting carcasses...". Fuck yes. The rest of the 7" is just as killer. Totally fucked and totally great! For fans of Zorn, Bathtub Shitter, Rudimentary Peni, Crass, Coltrane, Dystopia, Cecil Taylor, or anything filthy, proggy, grindy, avant-jazzy, and totally shredding! Recommended!
AFTER THE LAST SKY - "And This Is Progress?" LP $9
The blackcore revolution is here! This UK band bring totally black metal inspired grind with epic doom and sludge parts! Genuinely raging music!
AGATHOCLES / THE VANISHING ACT - "split" CD $9
Mince Core legends Agathocles (Belgium) destroy with 11 new tunes on this split with grindcore freaks The Vanishing Act (Canada) who follow a split 7" w/ Unholy Grave (Japan) with some killer new material including a cover of IMPETIGO's "dis-organ-ized"!
ALARM - "s/t" 7" $5
Tucson, AZ's Alarm present six tracks of violent mayhem to this debut 7", with a style that brings to mind bands like Gehenna, Pig Destroyer, Fall Silent, Backstabbers Inc. and Napalm Death. On GREEN vinyl.
ALTAR SHADOWS - "Speckledy Falcons" CD $9
From Lithuania, once largest country in Europe, emerges Altar Shadows! Folk/Pagan Metal blending electric and acoustic music, ambient soundscapes, original lyrics and classical Lithuanian poetry, male and female vocals to create a memorable work that summons the ancient spirit from the shadows of false temples. In the vein of bands such as DRUDKH, EMPYRIUM, ANUBI, early OBTEST and should be sought out by fans of Kroda, Burzum, Arkona, Nokturnal Mortum, Temnozor, Velimor, et al. for the combination of folk, pagan and black metal. Always remaining an original and visionary brand of metal, Altar Shadows is the dark aesthetic rising from endless yearning. Yearning the values, that now seem rejected and considered to be humdrum, "unpopular" i.e. sensibility, tenderness, contemplation, love for one's homeland, it's nature, and particularly it's past. The roots of this aesthetic are found in the shadows of foreign altars, where the old Baltic culture wasn't crushed by the power of interloper religion.
A.M. - "Orla" CD $9
In my eternal quest for total heaviness, I'm frequently brought back to the realm of the drone, that realm where tones and sounds are stretched out into infinity (or as close to infinity as an LP, CD, or cassette will permit...) and are transmuted into pure sound. And there surfaces some sublime sonic heaviness with those who craft the drone, from Phil Niblock's thick washes of minimalist throb all the way to the metallic sub-harmonic drift of Sunn O))), Black Boned Angel, and early Earth. It's in between these reference points that I often stumble across some of the coolest drone music out there, like as with this recent album from New Zealand's Anthony Milton. Some of you might know Milton from his Mrytu! project, which has released a couple of rad, ritualistic black-drone-sludge titles. But Anthony Milton is probably more widely known for his exquisite drone compositions, which is the setting that we find him in with Orla. The story behind this album is this: Milton was given an Orla reed organ from a friend who picked it up at a garage sale, and after receiving some influence from Charlamagne Palestine's concepts of the religious quality of drone music, took it upon himself to experiment with the Orla organ as the predominant sound source. The result is this amazing album, and it features five tracks of beautiful, entrancing drones that are accompanied only by the occasional recording of rain or other field recording. Each piece ranges from the sublime to the crushing - "As the Rain Comes Down" opens the disc with a radiant series of spiralling chord drones before moving into the subsonic tectonic rumbling and Sunroof-ish overtones of "Sky Voltage" and "Ribscraper", while the final track "Chamber Lull" features only a calm, drifting hum over which Milton plucks and bows away at the spring pegs of the organ keys. At it's loudest and heaviest, Orla achieves the ecstatic buzz of some of Sunn O))) and Earth's most abstract drifts, but actually comes closer to the blown out minimalist fuzzslabs of Growing and Growing side-project Total Life. A beautiful, mind erasing drone album, lavishly packaged in an 8-panel gatefold digipack printed in gold, black, and grey inks, with mysterious images of the organ's interior workings.
ANAPHYLACTIC SHOCK - "Two Thousand Years" CD $9
Hailing from the city of Tilburg, ANAPHYLACTIC SHOCK is one of the most interesting and harsh bands we've heard in a long time. Influenced by legendary bands like Entombed and Tragedy, the Shock adds some very interesting black metal elements to their already crushing sound; taking the genre to a new level, perfecting the loud, the fast and the dirgey. Comprised of members that have been active in the European punk/hardcore and rock underground for a long time, sharing time in bands such as Restless Youth, No Turning Back, The Spades and Union Town it may not come as a big surprise that this band knows what they’re doing. Expect a devastating mix of raw d-beat music, crushing vocals and doom-laden riffing. The vocals chronicle the evils of the world in a way that never patronizes, nor detracts from the unbridled musical rage of his bandmates. The guitar work unites the raw d-beat style of bands like Disfear and Tragedy, with the doom-laden offering of classic bands like Pentagram or Black Sabbath, and contemporaries like Entombed or High on Fire. The rhythm section has clear roots in their aggressive hardcore past, showing zero concessions, taking on a new life and pushing the beast onward more urgently than ever. The outcome is simply gargantuan.
ANDY ORTMANN / JOHN WIESE - "Recorder Out Of Tune" CD $9
The monstrous electronic fug of this collaborative release is initally hinted at by the low-contrast, grey and black layout of the CD package, with a grimm looking photo of the perps on the front cover and illustrations of some sort of Lovecraftian organic horror on the interior booklet. Anyone familiar with John Wiese's work, both with Bastard Noise and solo, or through his collaborations with Sunn O))) and Cattle Decapitation, recognizes that this guy is a master sculptor of total earshred electronics, constructing some of the most brutal tone collages this side of the Pacific. On Recorder Out Of Tune, Wiese teams up with his buddy and Panicsville visionary Andy Ortmann for a 22 minute blast of heavy unease culled from creepy electronic tones and brief, brutal blasts of overmodulated feedback that are collaged together with field recordings, studio weirdness, fractal vomit vocals, partially glimpsed snippets of death metal transmissions, improv clatter, and dark, droning soundscapes. It's definitely a soundtrack for bad dreams and night sweats, like Nurse With Wound and Lustmord scraping metal chairs across your ceiling at 2am in the morning and spinning the dial through a range of AM radio frequencies being beamed out of Hell. A different sort of take on surreal horror electronics. Recommended.
ANOTHER KIND OF DEATH / ADRIFT / MOKSHA / MOHO - "Waterloo" CD $9
This brutally heavy release showcases material from four veteran bands. "Waterloo" compiles eleven tracks spanning 55 minutes total. Featured: Adrift (think of Iron Monkey, Keelhaul, Neurosis, Tool), Another Kind Of Death (reminiscent of Converge, Dillinger Escape Plan), Moksha (influenced by Down, Entombed, Isis, Zao) and the mighty Moho (Sludge Doom a la Corrupted, EHG, etc.)
ANTILLES / TRIFLE TOWER - "split" 7″ $6
A match-up of 2 old-school screamo bands in the vein of such greats as Pg. 99 and City of Caterpillar. Antilles have a jagged and damaged sound with aggressive drumming, jangly guitar playing, and vicious vocals with an almost jazzy vibe at times. On side B, Trifle Tower assault the listener using layered melodies and strong dynamics, giving off the impression of an almost black metal approach to songwriting. Limited to a total of 500 copies, presented in jackets made of 100% post-consumer recycled paper stock and hand-silkscreened with brown ink.
ANUS PRESLEY - "Music to Listen to When You're Dead" CD $9
The bizarre power electronics cut-up collage noise project of Danish controversial film maker and OG comix artist Sverre H.Kristensen, who died only a few months after compiling this 'Best-of' collage taken from obscure Anus Presley cassettes from the 1980s. The title was chosen by Sverre before he died. Cover put together with the kind co-operation of JR Bruun, one of Sverre's closest friends. At the moment this is only available document of Sverre's music. Jewelcase cover. 500 copies.
ARGENTINUM ASTRUM - "S/T" CD $9
Super heavy blackened sludge from Knoxville, Tennessee with some wild noise fuckery that elevates this above the rest of the extreme doom rabble. This 26+ minute disc has just one long untitled song from this young band, and Argentinum Astrum display an enthusiasm for messing around with expectations of what doom metal is supposed to sound like, which ultimately turns this debut into something more than just doom metal. The track starts off with a cloud of black, buzzing feedback, then lurches into a slow, Khanate-like riff, but instead of moving forward with the riff, the music gets all warped and chewed up and dropping out completely, like you're listening to the band on a cassette and the tape is being eaten by the tape deck, the slurred sludgey guitars become a mangled blurt of analogue squelch, starting and stopping, winding down into silence and then revving back up again, until the riff finally disappears completely and is replaced by a single strummed guitar and spacious, laid back drum beat surrounded by tendrils of feedback and amp buzz. It gets heavy again soon enough, building back into a crushing minimalist riff chugging in slow motion, weird pterodactyl shrieks soaring over the desolate doomscape, and those vocals sound totally fucked, wrecked and wretched. The track moves onward, shifting between lumbering, monotonous sludge and slightly faster riffs that have a vague southern feel, then into brief blasts of epic, damaged black metal where the drums seem to float in and out of focus, or simply disappear together for a second. From there it's back to the slow sludge, a different riff this time, then the drums exit the scene again and we're left with nothing but guitars, black and roiling as ultra slow motion riffs unfurl over a caustic ocean of low-end grind, super abstract and droning, with those weird fucked-up reptile screams rising up out of the background. This monolithic metallic dronescape is spread out for more than ten minutes, then drums gradually re-enter the picture and once again the band shifts gears, lurching this time into a drunken bluesy sludge jam a la Weedeater or Eyehategod that closes the track out. These guys have an eclectic style that sounds like a couple of different bands stuck together with the unifying factor being the insane echo-chamber shrieking, a blackened sludgemutant built from scraps of Black Boned Angel, Fleurety, and Eyehategod, bashing out their primitive, noise-damaged sludge on busted amplifiers and broken guitars, electronic noise detritus dripping from their instruments, swampy low-frequency buzz infesting their blasted boogie.
ARSON ANTHEM - "s/t" CD $9
Vicious 80’s style Hardcore Punk in the same vein as Poison Idea, Void, Negative Approach from a supergroup including Mike Williams (EYEHATEGOD), Phil Anselmo (Pantera, Down) and Hank III (Assjack, Superjoint Ritual). It’s dirty, violent, brutal and utterly cathartic, like the classic raw punk and hardcore records it draws influence from. However, Arson Anthem puts a spin on the old Agnostic Front formula, and they inject a healthy dose of extreme metal. The riffs on ‘Doomed Morale’ and ‘Wrecked Like Clockwork’ come faster than a barrage of prizefight punches, while Williams’ vocals channel Satan himself during ‘Sri Lankan Medication’. One track, ‘Cops Shoot Coke”, says it all, with a grimy gutter riff and drum combination. It’s a beating well worth taking.
THE ASHAMED - "s/t" CD $9
Aggressive, in your face, Punk/Thrashabilly from Richland, Washington. This is a weird fucking album- it's like speed-metal with a touch of thrash and a touch of rockabilly. Cool artwork. Weird lyrics too. The music sounds like new SLAYER mixed with DEAD KENNEDYS. It totally seems like they'd be a fun band to see live.
ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS - "Four More Raga Moods" CD $9
English artist Phil Todd has been an underground presence for well over a decade, engaging in countless groups and collaborations, signing on as an occasional member of Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunroof!, and releasing numerous documents through his Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers and Memoirs of an Aesthete labels. Todd’s major achievement, though, is his ongoing solo project Ashtray Navigations. Releasing a baffling amount of cassettes, LPs, CDs and CD-Rs, Todd has refined a singular take on modern drone construction that references the dynamics of rock, the emotional evisceration of blues, and the white-light intensity of noise. This new follow-up to Ashtray Naviagtion's crucial Four Raga Moods is another heavy dose of transportational drone rock/feedback bliss from guitarist Phil Todd and company, who on this disc include Alex Neilson, Ben Reynolds, Mel Delaney, Chris Hladowski, Matt Cairns, Andy Jarvis and Pete Nolan of MAGIK MARKERS. On Four More Raga Moods, glacial amp trances slowly unfold around epic guitar drip, gauzy folk figures, and rotating casio)drones.This is a baked haze of bleached guitar drones and woozy consumer electronics, as cassette tape detritus accumulates around epiphanic guitar leads, occasionally evoking Keiji Haino in miniature. An exquisite broadcast from an interstellar shortwave radio station, with his blasted guitar submerged under frazzled layers of distortion. Excellent, dreamy trash drone, definitely advisible to fans of Sunroof! and Vibracathedral Orchestra (both of which are bands that Phil Todd has worked with in one form or another), as well as the mid-90's psychedelic SKULLFLOWER output and the New Zealand drone sound. Packaged in a killer fold-out, full-colour four-panel digipak.
ASTRAL DIVISION - "Spadyum" CD $9
From Turkey, ASTRAL DIVISION deliver a destructive mixture of Black Metal and Thrash Metal leading its sound, along with some industrial elements. Limited to 500 copies.
ATHRENODY - "Crazed Development" CD $9
Existing only for a short time in the early 90s, ATHRENODY, along with bands like IMMORTAL FATE, EXHUMED, GORYMELANOMA and COLOSTOMY created a foundation for the emerging Bay Area grind scene. Back then, rumors were floating around about a band from the South Bay that played a brutal style of grind/death metal not-on-like Harmony Corruption era NAPALM DEATH and/or TERRORIZER - turned out this band was ATHRENODY. They played a few shows, and before they split-up, they managed to get into House of Faith studios to record this full length. Unfortunately vocals were not added, until that is, Matt Harvey from EXHUMED stepped up to the plate in 2005. The result is this CD.
AUSTERITY PROGRAM - "Terra Nova" CDEP $5
Screeching, clanging guitars, over machinelike rhythms, with half shouted/half sung vocals adding slight melody to the caustic, abrasive noisescapes. Besides the two members, Justin Foley (guitar/vocals) and Thad Calabrese (bass) especially the drum machine is in the foreground of the action. The more than nine minute opener brings us bulky machine beats, screaming guitars and partly hysteric screaming that freezes the marrow in your bones. You could roughly put the brew of the two Americans somewhere into the corner of GODFLESH, DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN and EYEHATEGOD. Repetitive rhythms and mean feedbacks play with the nerves of the listener. Monotony can be so beautiful and oppressive.
THE AX - "Our Queen of Dirt" CD $9
Twenty years ago, this would surely have been called grunge, but that’s basically just a lazy description for something that contains some or all of these elements in varying degrees: punk, metal, garage rock, noise. Check, check, check and check. All present and accounted for. And apologies to the Ax for invoking this rather obvious comparison, but what the White Stripes (and, yeah, a few others) have demonstrated is that a guitar/drums duo can kick out the muthafuckin’ jams just fine as long as they have the riffs to back it up. And the Ax do. Not just guitar riffs either—the lazy-boy vocal hooks and happy-hands drumming are crucial to every one of these 14 songs doing a dirty dance all over the hi-fi. It’s the Mudhoney blues, Sonic Youth gnarl and bong-breath stink of Fu Manchu compressed into fuzzy, primal three-minute jags.
BLACK CRUCIFIXION - "Faustian Dream" CD $9
BLACK CRUCIFIXION sounds like TIAMAT, SAMAEL, SENTENCED and PARADISE LOST just formed some sort of super-group. The vocals of Fornicator sound like a mix of John Edlund (TIAMAT) and Nick Holmes (PARADISE LOST) along with some Manfred Klahre (JACK FROST) thrown in for some good measure. The music itself is slow, guitar driven, pounding Doom/Goth Metal. The massive production makes everything just sound right and in place. The drums are quieter but make their mark, I also love the bass sound on this album and it’s fully audible and massive. Fornicator’s voice is just so suiting for this style of music, he sounds in pain, he sounds like the agony on this album comes directly from him. Crafting beautiful songs and enrapturing melodies, BLACK CRUCIFIXION has made one hell of an album for sure. Fans of PARADISE LOST, JACK FROST, SISTERS OF MERCY and TIAMAT rejoice!
BLACK ELK -"s/t" CD $9
The eponymous debut from Portland, Oregon's BLACK ELK is a raging destructo rock eruption, heavy, catchy, and flattening. This ten song album contains a creeped out conglom of carnivorous charred hardcore punk, the sludgy power of primo Pacific Northwest tarpit rawk (think KARP, MELVINS, and early SOUNDGARDEN as reference points), twitchy Midwestern noise rage somewhere between Am Rep Records (circa-1991) and a more rabid DIE KREUZEN, and a goatheaded psychedelic backwoods black mass/dance party risen to a freakin' fever pitch. Total crush. Produced by Mike Lastra at Smegma Studios (EARTH, THRONES, JACKIE O MOTHERFUCKER).
BLARKE BAYER / BONE SHERIFF - "split" CD $9
Blarke Bayer is the solo project of Ben Andrews who also plays guitar in Magnetics, Agents Of Abhorrence and My Disco. This release finds him exploring a wall of drone subtle drifts and waves of noise. Bone Sheriff is the drunken ramblings of Simon Taylor (Whitehorse / EOH / Malakat) and Rob Mayson (Grey Daturas / EOH / It's Is / Whitehorse etc). Fueled by a cocktail of ginger wine and sparkling ale BS shudder to life rattling bones and burning souls. An awesome follow up release to "Moonee Ponds".
BONGZILLA - "Nuggets" CD $9
Bongzilla are one of the best stoner sludge bands around. In fact, they manage to take the sound of EYEHATEGOD and all that sort of nihilistic NOLA stoner doom, groovy hip shaking stoner pop, and all manner of drug metal, and mix it with a big old dose of acid drenched space doom a la Hawkwind or Monster Magnet. A crushing dirgelike stoner riff sort repeates over and over eventually sort of splintering apart into slow floating slabs of fuzz guitar, drifting all hazy and mesemerizng, a blown out outer space psych jam of monumental proportions. If Bongzilla were called Krakow or Ultrablackbuzzhole or Fuckcrush or Strangle Flanger or something appropriately brutal and perplexing, if they were Japanese, if they had songs about serial killers instead of smoking pot, if they had super spiffy retro graphic design, or released super limited picture discs and multiple versions of every record and managed to sell as many records on eBay as they did in stores, but sounded EXACTLY the same, you can bet the rest of the stoner / sludge / doom / drone elite (Corrupted, EYEHATEGOD, Green Machine, Boris, Church Of Misery, Yob, etc.) would be cowering in terror (or at least, watching their backs), and all those crazy stoner-doom-drone collector freaks would be slobbering up a storm! "Nuggets" is a collection of singles, splits (with Cavity, Meatjack, Hellchild) and comp tracks from 1995 to the present. Awesome stuff.
BORIS WITH MERZBOW - "Sun Baked Snow Cave" CD $9
Outside of being Japanese, and VERY VERY loud, one wouldn't necessarily think Boris and Merzbow had a whole lot to offer each other sonically. But as we know, that is most certainly not the case. So here we are with the awesomely titled Sun Baked Snow Cave, which finds Merzbow and Boris together again, and returning to a sound much like Megatone, but with a definite nod to Flood as well (our favorite Boris record btw). In fact we might go out on a limb and claim that this is the best (non-rock) Boris record since Flood! Gorgeous ghostly guitars, simply strummed or delicately picked, each note and chord set adrift in a vast expanse of barely there sound, spare, drifting and languid. After about ten or twelve minutes the guitars are suddenly darkened by a slow building cloud of distant rumble and reverberant thunder, with lightning flashes of electronic grit, hiss and flicker. Then, about twenty minutes in, the bottom drops out (or IN) and the sky falls when a MASSIVE slab of super distorted downtuned guitar is laid out, a constant buzzing roar, over which Merzbow drapes all manner of glitch and stutter and crunch and crackle. A dizzyingly dense swirl of free noise drone, thick and slowly shifting, noisy, but in a muted controlled way. Eventually the storm passes, and the last twenty minutes of the record is one extended stretch of dreamy drift, surrounded by Merzbow at his most subtle, little smears of sonic haze, sort of like the audio equivalent of the afterimages you see when you stare at the sun. A haunting coda that gradually dissipates and fades to grey, and then black. Packaged in an exquisite Japanese style mini gatefold, with lovely black, white and blue metallic artwork by Stephen O'Malley.
BORN/DEAD - "Our Darkest Fears Now Haunt Us" CD $9
BORN/DEAD deliver charged political hardcore shrouded in the brooding style of East Bay hardcore, carrying forth the lineage of bands like CHRIST ON PARADE, Pain of Mind-era NEUROSIS, ECONOCHRIST, TALK IS POISON,etc. A straight-forward yet inventive attack, devastatingly caustic vocal trade-offs, intricate bass lines and dark riffs at peak drum speed topped with dark political lyrics - dire music for dire times. This is the debut CD for Oakland's BORN/DEAD, who have gigged mercilessly in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past few years, and have gained a dedicated following from their self released debut 7", which sold out in record time. The CD includes their debut 7" tracks.
BORD/DEAD - "Endless War: Repetition" CD $9
"Endless War: Repetition" features 11 re-mastered tracks from BORN/DEAD's European only split LP with Seattle's Consume, the ULTRA-limited 2005 tour-only 12" and recent "Repetition/Fear" EP on one CD, PLUS three videos filmed at Gilman Street and Burnt Ramen and a 12-page booklet. These tracks are some of the band's burliest of their dual vocalled anarcho-punk, including a NECROS cover and have been the core of the band's live set for the past two years including their recent West Coast tour supporting UK punk legends THE SUBHUMANS.
BUCKSHOT FACELIFT - "Universal Goat Tilt" CD $9
This is insanely fast as fuck thrash metallic brutal hc/grind from LI with disgusting vox. If you dig stuff like Graf Orlock, you should check this out. 17 songs in just about 19 minutes!
BURMESE / CADAVER EYES - "split" CD $9
Like demented twins in crime, Burmese & Cadaver Eyes rephrase Doom, Grindcore and Power Electronics by using an agonizing mechanism of plain brutal aesthetics, ascending this release to a higher level of cognitive surge. This split CD is difficult and pungent, a warm spew in the face and an endless buzz in the eardrum that fiercely occupies the brain and treats the grey cells as if they were an ashtray. BURMESE offer up 11 new blasts of brutal, speaker shredding ultraviolence. A mix of Whitehouse style abstract noise, pummeling grind, damaged metal, freaked out power violence. They may be down to one drummer, but they still have two bass players, and now THREE vocalists. Offering up sprawling electronic dronescapes, sometimes, frantic flurries of lightning fast grind, sometimes convoluted lurching metallic crunch, and often all of the above at the same time. Hypnotic and heavy and seriously fucked up. CADAVER EYES give us spastic spurts of strangled grind, long stretches of speaker shredding electronic buzz and skree, long drawn out abstract dronescapes of howling vox and pounding drum plods spaced WAY out, culminating in the nearly eight minute closer, beginning with the strangely titled "Ba Yom Yom" and finishing off with an absolutely unrecognizable cover of "Sweet Home Alabama", a convoluted blow out of maniacally howling vocals, sputtering percussive crunch, LOTS of feedback, and thick walls of rumbling crumbling distortion. Awesome. And about as UN-easy listening as we can imagine.
BURN YOUR BRIDGES - "S/T" CD $9
Twenty-three tracks from this two-piece collaboration between Chris Dodge of Slap A Ham / Spazz and Bob of Deep Six / Lack Of Interest. The tracks are fast and furious with an angry spirit; musically sorta comparable to early D.R.I. or Condemned to Death. Raw, aggressive, angry hardcore. This is good powerviolence at it's best.
THE CARBONAS - "S/T" LP/CD $9
HOT ATLANTA PUNK! From the scene that spawned Black Lips, Deerhunter, Beat Beat Beat, Lids, Coathangers, and more! The Carbonas clearly know the ins and outs of the short, loud, and fast power-chord driven late-'70s sound of groups like the Ramones. There's an omnipresent buzzy drone to the guitars, the tempos are almost uniformly fast without approaching the speed of hardcore, and the whole sound's suffused with a lean 'n' meanness as they showcase their knowledge through a solid 20 minutes on their self-titled, third full-length. Even the recording produces a crisply aural front of guitar chords with snotty lead vocals pushed below the mix a bit to mostly capture that vintage sound. But many of the titles, à la "Hate You," "Trapped in Hell," "Frustrate Me," and "I'm a Schizo," give you a pretty good idea that the group's not exactly happy with the status quo.
CAVITY - "Laid Insignificant" CD $9
Perhaps because they hailed from Florida rather than the sludgecore movement's primary stomping grounds of Louisiana (home to Crowbar, Eyehategod, Acid Bath, etc.), Miami's Cavity didn't always benefit from the same amount of media coverage as their consistently inventive body work rightfully deserved. The fact that this prolific oeuvre was spread across a confusing number of full length and EP releases, indie record labels (several of which have since gone titsup), and subject to significant musician turnover, certainly didn't help matters; but the subsequent stream of Cavity reissues undertaken by Hydra Head Industries is a testament to the music's enduring influence and quality. Laid Insignificant, then, is one of those salvage jobs: unearthing, remastering, and repackaging Cavity's original sixsong minialbum, ten years after its initial 1998 release via famed artist Pushead's Bacteria Sour label, and adding a couple of missing tracks from the same sessions for what most observers will likely agree is a definitive version. At the time of its recording (April 1997), Cavity were unknowingly wrapping up the first phase of their career marked by the bewildering volume of minireleases mentioned above, and a resulting widespread anonymity outside the sludgecore underground and verging on the second, which found them temporarily parting ways with vocalist Rene Barge and signing with Man's Ruin for what would become their most successful and accessible album ever, 1999's Supercollider. In many ways, Laid Insignificant bridged the aesthetic gorge between these two phases: the first represented by roughhewn, hardcoreinfluenced material ranging from frantic blasts like "Marginal Man" (a re-recording of Drowning's less forceful "Marginal Man Blues") and the Black Flag-inspired "Spine I" and "II," to the ragged grind of "A Bitter Cold Spell," and combinations of the two such as the title track (ironically left off that first pressing) and "9 Fingers on the Spider"; the second, characterized by a slightly less savage, more disciplined metallic approach foreshadowed here by the admirably nuanced pairing of "The Woods" and "I May Go." Both phases, it should be noted, clearly had a huge effect on the many postmetal groups typically signed by Laid Insignificant's reissue label, Hydra Head, and those groups' enduring relevance offer another good reason for fans of great heavy music to pick up Laid Insignificant.
CHARNEL VALLEY - "The Igneous Race" CD $9
The new album from Charnel Valley maintains the bands brand of primitive Black Metal, and also incorporates a slight trace of early Finnish Death Metal, reminding one of early Belial or early Amorphis. Still recorded in the same spontaneous manner, as the bands debut, 2005s The Dark Archives, The Igneous Race features a fuller production, yet totally genuine to the concept of Black Metal.
CHINESE - "The Conquest of Tomorrow Today" CD $9
A two-piece instrumental riff-heavy noise rock band from Seattle, Washington. "The Conquest of Tomorrow Today" contains 13 molten tracks of pure, unadulterated noisy spazmutations scientifically tested and dare we say it, mother approved.
COCK E.S.P. / COSTES / LASSE MARHAUG / K.K. NULL / RICHARD RAMIREZ / SMELL & QUIM - "We Would Be Happy, A Noise Opera" CD $9
A unique project featuring the talents of five top international noise acts, collaborating by mail round-robin style, with vocals and lyrics contributed by noted French tickler Jean-Louis Costes as well as Cock E.S.P.'s own Elyse Perez. Operatic tales of love, tragedy, donuts, rape and castration with a soundtrack of top-quality noise. The Cock E.S.P. contribution includes special guest appearances by Sam Lohman (Nimrod, 36, Steve Mackay) and Richard Remington (Right Arm Severed).
THE COMMUNION / COMPOUND TERROR - "split" 7" $6.50
Canadian West Coast grind meets United States East Coast grind. COMPOUND TERROR are from Victoria, BC, feature a member of ISKRA and play somewhat DISCORDANCE AXIS-style grind. THE COMMUNION are from Bethpage, NY and toss various styles of grind, savage black metal and urgent hardcore into each song. Limited to 100 copies on blue/purple HEAVY vinyl.
CONTROL - "The Cleansing" CD $9
A storm of crushing dead electronics & seething hatred from the mind of Thomas Garrison (Misanthrope Studios, Exsanguinate). One of the leaders of the US power electronics scene, Control has released albums on influential European labels Freak Animal, L.White Records, and Eibon, as well as toured throughout Japan, Europe and the East Coast USA. The Cleansing is a re-release of his highly sought after cdr of the same name (Frozen Empire Media) plus bonus tracks culled from releases on LSDO, Hospital Productions, and others.
CORE OF THE EARTH - "Curtains" CD $8
Core of the Earth’s second album, “Curtains”, can best be described as dwelling in the same area that you might find (the) MELVINS. “Curtains” contains an alloy of both elements of stoner metal and sludge, producing a thick, slow, rhythmic assault on the ears. Also clearly present is slight, but obvious, nods to drone metal.
CORPUS DEI - "s/t" 10" $9
This brutal hardcore band has been tearing shit up in Buffalo for the past few years now with ex-members of THEY LIVE. Pretty cool stuff- definitely harsh, chaotic metallic hardcore with some nods to BORN AGAINST, CATHARSIS, and sludge merchants too, as in 16, CAVITY, etc. Some hyped-up hardcore moments followed by painful, churning sludge with genuinely upset vocals that will create an outlet for you own anger! Good stuff with a cool silk-screened cover.
COWER - "HATRED SONGS" 7" $6.25
Cower resides somewhere in the audible crusty punk house between IRON LUNG and TRAGEDY. Pounding at times, driving at others. It’s always heavy, and it’s always intense. Amidst the legions of copycats and style-prisoners, Cower take healthy helping of various sub-sub-genres such as power violence, d-beat, noise, and melodic crust to formulate a sound that seems naturally punishing. They are a promising detonation of unforgiving, unwavering noise.
CWAF / NOOSEBOMB - "split" CD $9
How can angst, anger, and rage be captured so brilliantly on tape? This Noosebomb/ CWAF split is packed with energy and balls!. CWAF is American made grind/sludge that combines thick, heavy riffs with a powerful driving rhythm section topped off with authoritative vocals narrating fury and despair. They feature an all-star lineup—most notably John Gillis (drums) who played with legends like Today is the Day and Anal Cunt. His performance once again proves that he may be one of the best metal drummers in New England. Noosebomb, who leans more towards sludge/thrash metal, also features a well known lineup with Jeff Hayward (Grief, Disrupt) on guitar, Randy Odierno (Disrupt) on bass and Mike Butkiewicz (Bane of Existence) on drums. This confirms that any band with Hayward and his suburban critique channeled though enraged vocals is bound to make an impression. The final track, “What is the World Coming To,” is a doom- inspired masterpiece, which is just a small example of the tremendous power of Noosebomb.
DAGGERS MID FLIGHT – “self-titled” CD $9
An ensemble formed by members of Spider Goat Canyon and some of their buddies in fellow Melbourne bands Computer Dying and Hotel Wrecking City Traders, as an outlet for the friends to hook up and sink their collective fangs into almost stupefyingly stretched-out jams of ultra druggy space-sludge-metal. Like much of Spider Goat Canyon's recordings, this is all improvised, and the disc features two half-hour tracks of massive, crunchy sludge riffs that sound like they were pilfered off of Houdini that are turned into heaving, repetitious distorto trances plowing through sheets of cosmic fx and feedback, swirling guitar textures and low, rumbling amplifier ambience. The drumming goes from syrupy slow dirge beats to frenzies of percussive free-jazz thunder, the drummer smashing his kit in a blizzard of cymbal hiss and octopoidal chaos, then surging into hypnotic motorik beats. Imagine a stoned eternal jam session between MELVINS, GREY DATURAS and HAWKWIND - sounds pretty great, right? This is pretty great. Each of the two tracks ("Less Like Concrete" and "Dust Settling In Lungs", respectively) start off with a simple, crushing riff that is played over and over again as they nail it into the ground, and as the band begins to fully kick in and the guitar fx begin to swirl around, the drumming locks into a heavy, propulsive groove and the music morphs into a metallic krautrock monster, hypnotic and grinding, surrounded by killer feedback solos and dissonant chiming rhythm guitars that actually kind of start to sound like SONIC YOUTH a little. Great stuff, another improv-sludge crusher from the kickass Melbourne underground.
DAWN - "s/t" CD $9
Black metal tinged, crusted out, doom punk mixed with 80's style thrash from this band hailing from Nashville, TN. Packaging includes a cool screen-printed digipack. The release is seething with anger, yet has a cool DIY feel.
DATACLAST / EARWIGS - "split" CD $9
Synapse-shredding splatter electronics!! Hyperspeed eGrind glitch violence vs. crushing cosmic electronic chaos! New Jersey duo DATACLAST forge an explosive amalgamation of hyperkinetic breaks and blastbeats organically fused to spastic glitch electronica and bestial vocals with their 29 tracks, bringing post-human grind screaming into the 21st Century. DISCORDANCE AXIS hand picked these guys to open their final show, if that tells you anything. For a point of reference, imagine the surgical grindcore of prime CARCASS brutally molested by KID 606, MERZBOW, and AUTECHRE! And shadowy Northwest decibel merchants EARWIGS follow up a decade long career of twisted electronic noise abstraction with 6 tracks of new material that tanges from evocative shards of crystalline debris to Mecha-inspired blastquakes of apocalyptic throb.
DAUGHTERS - "Hell Songs" CD $9
The gothic metalcore/grind of Daughter's second release is a welcome new direction from the band, infusing their spastic upper-register mathblast with a heavy dose of sweaty Birthday Party n' Jesus Lizard style post punk lost in the throes of demonic metallic possession. I actually like Hell Songs alot more than Canada Songs, as we have actual songs here rather than minute long blasts of controlled chaos, and the whole lurid vibe of this disc makes it a pretty engaging listen. Daughters actually have more in common with fellow Hydra Headers Oxbow and the art-damaged hardcore of Racebannon now, while retaining the upper-fretboard gymnastics, inventive riffing, high pitched guitar squeals, and hyperspeed blastbeats that had everybody flipping out over their EP and first CD. Definitely recommended, one of the coolest non-grind grindcore albums around!
DD/MM/YYYY - "Blue Screen of Death" CD $9
When a band can redeem titles like "Cancer Boy On Hash" and "Welcome To The Fortress of the Fluffy Love Cloud" you know you're onto something special. But when the group effortlessly runs through 25 tunes that recall Modest Mouse, Devo, Mr. Bungle and Zappa all at the same time, it only reinforces the old adage about judging a book by its cover. Blue Screen, then, has a little of everything: guitar skronk with plaintive vocals, carnivalesque keyboard goof-offs, wonky jazzbo interludes and enough ambient noise sketches to make Brian Eno blush.
DD/MM/YYYY - "Are They Masks?" CD $9
The follow up album to 2005’s Blue Screen of Death, Are They Masks documents the continued evolution of the band, with twenty one new songs. Ranging from subdued atmospherics to tempo-tantrum art punk, the album retains the experimental learning of the band, while poking fun at familiar pop formats. Taking influence from the works of Frank Zappa, Melt Banana, DADA art and video games.
DEAD ELEPHANT - Sing The Separation CD $9
Loud sonic assault from this Italian power trio. Dead Elephant have a range of influences that pass through Noise, Hardcore, and Experimental to define their own meaning of heavy music. Fans of Neurosis, Unsane, & the Cherubs will find this release satisfying.
DEATHPILE - "Ne Plus Ultra" CD $9
Released in a limited edition of 500 copies, Deathpile's 1997 entry in the infamous PURE Series is a piercing, psychedelic assault of power electronic death. Headed by Jonathan Canady (also of Blunt Force Trauma), the nine tracks of Ne Plus Ultra are dense, crushing walls of electronic distortion swarming with detailed noise and layers upon layers of harsh swirling feedback, volcanic surges of buzz, garbled shortwave static, and horrific distorted vocals and high pitched whistles. Packaged in the trademark RRR/PURE style wallet sleeve with xerox-damaged collage artwork.
DEEDED TO ITSELF - "v/a" CDR $7
Deeded to Itself is an attempt to document the bloody grit and kudzu-scuzz from or around the Athens, Georgia noise/experimental/drone scene with hopes of expansion and inspiration. Showcasing exclusive material from Altruizine, Telenovela, Chartreuse, Garbage Island, Long Legged Woman, Orthopedics, Killick, better people and Sailor Winters. Book-like jacket with altered public domain artwork. Edition of 200.
DEMONCY - "Joined in Darkness" CD $9
Demoncy is a long-running American black metal band, and "Joined In Darkness" is their third offering to the Cloven-Hoofed One. Demoncy creates one hell of a raw black metal album, and has a very filthy and Satanic sound. The guitar sound is very dark and powerful, carrying the excellent dark black metal riffing. A good deal of the material is fast-paced, and it all exudes the same eerie atmosphere which is tantamount in a wonderful black metal release. The vocals are so dark and reptilian that they conjure images of the most twisted inhabitants of Hell’s lower planes proselytizing the glory of Satan. Surely, this is the soundtrack to the nuclear winter which will annihilate the human race. Ixithra is the sole performer on this ripping disc, and he proves that he is at the forefront of truly Satanic black metal in the American and world scenes. Great artwork, by Michael Riddick, completes the atmosphere with images of human remains, decay, and dusty ruins.
DENTIST / CORTISOL - "Only Meat Israel" CD $9
Further proving our staunch belief that French Canadians are consistently producing some of the most whacked out metal on the planet at the moment, comes this split CD entitled "Only Meat Israel" featuring Montreal grindcore trio Dentist back to back with terminal art-doom weirdos Cortisol. Wait a sec...Dentist? Complete with umlauts over the "i"? Had to hope that all of their songs were going to be conceptually based around that most dreaded of professions, but it's hard to tell what the hell they're actually about, with songs titled "Suicide Sheeps", "March Of The MILF", and "No Pain, No Sandwich". Dentist's music is weird, crushing grind, a mashup of Infest and extreme sludgecore, goofball Meatmen style hardcore, bizarre samples, and weird rhythmic breakdowns. Kinda have the same vibe as fellow Canadians FUCK THE FACTS, tho Dentist are way sillier. Hell yeah, their 9 songs freaking crush! This split album turns even more confusional when we realize that the members of Dentist are also the members of Cortisol, making the former an alter-ego of the latter. When the Cortisol tracks kick in with their 3 long tracks though, things turn deadly serious, starting with the morose crust-doom blast of "Hog Tied 2k6". They continue to carve out an abstract, angular form of extreme doom metal, super slooow and complex, with almost math-rock-type riffs frozen to a dead crawl, their grinding glacial riffs littered with odd electronic noises and ghoulish screeching vocals, like a rotted out hybrid of KHANATE and HARVEY MILK. "Mobile Myth" devolves a crushing angular dirge into a mist of finely ground glass, and the closer "Evening Wrench Map" goes out on a somewhat melodic monster of a riff riding on a bashing drum assault. So you get two faces of the same band, one an absurdist ultragrind outfit and the other one of the heaviest, most abstracted math-sludge bands on the planet, combined for one serious dose of fucked up heaviness!
DESTRUCTO SWARMBOTS - "Clear Light" CD $9
Destructo Swarmbots has carved a unique niche for themselves over the past 4 years. Their live shows consist of chaotic walls of white noise, improvised textures and battered instruments. Their recordings are delicate, at times meditative, washes of ambience constructed from countless piles of tortured sounds. Influenced heavily by 200+ needle-dropped, out of print psyche records, "Clear Light" is their strongest effort yet and the next step on their journey to artistic isolation.
DISKREPANT - "Ex Machina Libertas " CD $9
Diskrepant is a Swedish unit who seem to like the darker, organic side of deep drones and musique Konkret. Using, subtle environmental field recordings Diskrepant dives into a Hadean vision of a world where people are half-natural/half-robot, a world where nature is slowly being squeezed by metal and glass. It sounds like something that would be very much in tow with Muslimgauze, Daniel Menche or even Steve Roach at times. There is a very haunting other-world feeling to all the recordings. If you like the creepier side of Schloss Tegal then you're going for the right direction. Cold Spring, Soleilmoon or Malignant records fans will find this amazing and magical in the layers of field recordings and minimal builds. Though it never become a full-on noise release there are very noiseish moments. If the dead can talk to the living this is the soundtrack they would communicate with. Packaged in a jewelcase with a 6-page foldout booklet with foil stamping.
THE DRILLS - "Skull Death 2" 7" $6
Recorded in 1981, "Skull Death 2" is one of those very special records that any shred of talent would completely ruin. This shit is the sound of a million dust bunnies getting yelled at by the tweekiest tweeker in all of Washington State while wielding a vacuum. Shitty recording, horrible songwriting, yet somehow PURE GENIUS. The guitars just sound like noise (although the riffs are discernable) and there is an amazing out-of-nowhere, what-the-fuck, twice-as-loud-as-the-rest-of-the-levels over-dub dropped in at the end of track one. Like "No Rule" by LEATHER NUN, if they were more hardcore.
DREAMS OF WHAT LIFE COULD HAVE BEEN CD $9
A compilation of extreme nihilistic sludge and black doom that will shred your nerves and leave you a pitiful, drooling mess. Featuring FISTULA, GRIEF, MOSS, RAMESSES, NEGATIVE REACTION, SOULPREACHER, THEE PLAGUE OF GENTLEMEN.
DREAR / GREAT AMERICAN DESERT - "Warring Against The Sun / Solipsis" CD $9
Desolate, Luciferian, God-Crushing Blackened Doom Metal. Born in the Osage Plains at the foot of the Eastern Hills; transplanted into the grey, rain-drenched landscape of the Northwest... Great American Desert is the essence of desolation, the sonic representation of Lucifer on Earth, and the emanation of the Demonic philosophy of its mastermind. A vehicle for hatred, disgust and majestic mindscape. Drear play raw blackened Doom, snatching glimpses at the futility of Man and the failure of the universe.
DUSTER 69 - "Angel King" CD $9
This German band traffics in a quirky brand of stoner sludge rock that at times reminds me of Kyuss quite a bit (like on the song "Upcoming", which sounds like it coulda been a rough jam from Blues For The Red Sun, but then there are parts where the singer's suddenly turns into a dramatic husky croon and it starts to sound like Danzig fronting Queens Of The Stone Age. Sorta. Duster 69 certainly keeps things varied and interesting on Angel King, switching the songs up between driving, punkier numbers, slow grooving sludge riffs, and a heavy dose of 90's style alt-metal. This might be one of the most accessible releases we carry over here, actually - I could easily imagine fans of everything from stoner rock, doom rock, Life Of Agony, and Danzig grooving on this, even if it is a little rough around the edges with some of the vocals at times. Holy sh*t, the song "Personal Navigator" just came on and this sounds like a dead ringer for Danzig! Yeah, I still think that the easiest reference point for this album is a loose, slightly buzzed meeting of Danzig and Kyuss and with lots of hard rocking pop-metal hooks and some moments of sludgy heaviness. Best song on here is "Nighttrain". And it's not just because I really like trains at night - nope, it's because this jams is the best execution of that weird Kyuss/Danzig pod-fusion that these guys are doing, with one of the more polished vocal performances, an understated hook that I find excruciatingly catchy, and some meaty desert-rock riffing that breaks down into a punishing sludge riff at the end of the track.
THE EASTERN SEABOARD - "Relapse" LP $9
Recorded straight to analog and only released in a vinyl format, Relapse is the realest studio recording of the Eastern Seaboard (Brent Bagwell, tenor saxophone; Seth Nanaa, drums; and Jordon Schranz, double bass) to reach the surface. With all the energy of the live performance, the tunes are twilit and forbidding – tough as nails. Nothing is held back. They take each of the 13 tracks to task: pushing things up and out with the fire of Coltrane's Meditations, the drive of the Chicago math-rock sound of the 90's, and the sneer of early Sonic Youth.
EL BUZZARD - "tranquilizante del elefante" CD $9
The latest rumblings felt in California, crushing homes and sending school children under their desks is not another West Coast earthquake. Its the devestation coming from the amps of EL BUZZARD! Featuring ex members of Californian legends MOHINDER and DUSTER, EL BUZZARD blare out monsterous riffs and a "fuck this shit" attitude, building some of the most cataclysmic and lumbering sounds heard since the hay day of the MELVINS. This six song release, with the befitting title of Tranquilizante Del Elefante (elephant tranquilizer) is a follow up to the bands self released, self titled CD which recieved praise from publications such as Alternative Press magazine. EL BUZZARD pound their instruments into submission, every once in a while allowing them to spew out a contorted JESUS LIZARD or ORANGE GOBLIN inspired sound, layered in impurity. One listen and you will be done. The CD version contains a video for the song "Pilar of Fire".
EMERGENCY HAND PUPPET - "Please To Enjoy" CD $7
Emergency Hand Puppet is a new solo project of Greg F. (Fear of Dolls) made up of sound collage and other noise experiments, created mostly from applying damage and torture to obscure vinyl records.
END THE AGONY - "From The Lungs" 7" $5
A cathartic, bleak, draining noise-rock duo from Brighton, these Cat On Form dudes bring some pained, negative vibes in a NOOTHGRUSH / CORRUPTED style!
THE ENDLESS BLOCKADE – “Primitive” CD $9
The Endless Blockade is a band from Toronto that plays Powerviolence. Taking the foundations of the genre’s forebears (Crossed Out, No Comment, MITB, etc) and streamlining it for today’s harsh realities, The Endless Blockade is furious hardcore meets crawling sludge. “Primitive” follows several EPs and split LPs with Iron Lung, Warzone Womyn and Hatred Surge. “Primitive” is the band’s most fully realized work thus far, with great care taken in tying the album together musically, visually and lyrically. Scott Hull's mix is both clear and raw while Glyn Smyth’s artwork visually represents the doomsday cults, fanatics and radicals that provide the backdrop for the album’s deranged pace and surgically precise twists and turns. The Blockade’s affinity for the diseased power-electronics and noise genres (think Slogun, Whitehouse) also plays a more significant role on “Primitive”.
ESB / THE FANTASTIK HOLE - "split" CD $9
A vicious double-shot of French avant-grind! We were already fans of The Fantastikol Hole, a drummachine-powered outfit that mashes insanely complex and jagged grindcore with equally confounding digital rhythms, massive blastbeat action, and a fractured IDM vibe that is somewhat comparable to the kind of fucked-up electronica beats that Genghis Tron employed on Dead Mountain Mouth. If you're a fan of weird, schizophrenic, futuristic-sounding grindcore, you seriously need to check this one out. So here we are with this new split album which features a whopping 17 tracks from the 'Hole, all of them new and exclusive, and just as awesome sounding as their album. Blistering neo-grind metal, with angular meaty riffing and bestial shrieks/distorto roars trading off, is torn apart and stapled back together with glitchy fractured beats, passages of almost total silence suddenly welling up out of a blasting math grind tornado, abrasive electronic textures, breakbeats, weird dissonant rock riffing, bits of French cafe music, samples of mysterious wind instruments, and weird unidentifiable percussive noises. Seriously weird and megaheavy and surreal, like Genghis Tron, Pig Destroyer, and Antigama mashed together with random transmissions of French pop and IDM and old hip hop 12"s into a super heavy and ultra damaged cyclone of electro blastcore violence. How were ESB going to match up to the bizarreness and brutality of The Fantastikol Hole? Not too shabby, actually. Hadn't heard these guys before this split, but we definitely dug their freaked out version of chaotic grindcore, which manages to sound like they take influence from both 90's powerviolence and epic French post-hardcore. Yeah, that might seem weird, but their 12 songs manage to pack in an interesting combination of brutal HC damage a la Infest and Crossed Out with majestic, melodic parts that remind us of bands like Gantz, Amanda Woodward, Cortez, and Envy. Cortez sort of did the same thing, blending brutal grindy HC with epic, brooding heaviness, but ESB are way more ragged and thrashy and savage sounding, while throwing in the odd electronic noise track, sudden departures into French pop, and alien sounding electronic textures into the mix to keep things interesting.
EVERYTHING MUST GO - "Sonic Pornography" CD $9
EVERYTHING MUST GO has been playing their own breed of punk rock 'n' roll since the year 2000. With members of NEUROSIS, CHRIST ON PARADE and STRYCHNINE, they're widely renown for the hi-intensity of their live shows, outrageous lyrics, clever song writing and killer guitar tone! Their second album, "Sonic Pornography" is a feat of DIY madness, completely recorded and produced by the band and includes hits like "I Hate Music", "I Scream When I Cum", "King of the Emergency Room", and many more! THINK DEAD BOYS, GG ALLIN, FEAR, MOTORHEAD, THE DWARVES!
EXTINCTION - "Down Below the Fog" CD $9
Re-release of the cult demo recorded in the diabolical Summer of 2001, originally limited to 50 tapes. This CD reissue captures a new, highest quality version of the recording and can now be played at apocalyptic levels. Each track was re-mixed and re-mastered during winter 2005 through early 2006. Down Below the Fog is the Black Metal essence of Extinction. Eight tracks of unrestrained, discordant, obscure, sometimes improvised Black Metal. A thick, heavy production creates a strong atmosphere that clings to every facet, drawing it down. Guitars whip up violent hypnotic vortexes of noise that expand endlessly, and Vuel’s distinctive bestial vocals complete a truly Occult experience. Down Below the Fog is finally available - fully realized - five years after recording.
FACEDOWNINSHIT - "Shit Bloody Shit" CD $9
This record kills. These guys mix hateful crust-grind in the vein of DYSTOPIA and HIS HERO IS GONE and serve it up with the epic moving power of NEUROSIS and then finish off the mix with some pounding, CAVITY-esque riff driven sludge that is also rooted in SABBATH and even SKYNYRD. Man, incredible stuff for sure. This album is a discography of sorts featuring tracks from the band's split 10" record with COLD ELECTRIC FIRE, "Concrete World" album, and "Ain't a Fucking Demo" tape.
FISTFUCK - "Felicitation Pour Votre Beau Programme" CD $9
Latest release from these insane grindcore bastards from Canada! A must for fans of Dahmer, ThinkShit, Warsore, Nasum, etc!
THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS - "Retrospektiw IV" CD $9
The eleventh full-length Flying Luttenbachers release! 74 minutes of all new studio recordings. Picking up roughly where Retrospektiw III left off, this CD includes 11 previously unreleased studio and live tracks as well as 5 rare and remastered compilation cuts by both the Revenge band and the Colligan/Johnson/Lonberg-Holm/Walter free music cabal. Special guest appearances by Azita (The Scissor Girls), Adris Hoyos (Harry Pussy) and Julie Pomerleau (Bobby Conn). The color fold out booklet comes jam-packed with color photos and extensive liner notes by Weasel Walter.
FOOT VILLAGE - "Fuck the Future" CD $9
A primal shit-kicker, if ever there was one. Foot Village is furious percussion purity and self-amplified blasphemous tongues, wielded by four of the raddest people around. Has a mess ever been so bloody without using a single shred of heathen electricity? Foot Village shares it's members with Rainbow Blanket, Rose for Bohdan, A++, Men Who Can't Love, and several others. This disc compiles the tribe's reports from the World Fantasy 10" (Not Not Fun), 7" (Deathbomb), and self-released 3" cdr.
FROGSKIN / TAUNT - "split" 7" $7
Finally this nasty, alcohol imbued and drug-abusing cluster bomb has arrived! Each band one song. While both playing the same style of dirty, grooving sludge, they still emphasize their own approach and blend. Taunt with a monumental, 1 riff-based but very varied song that crumbles every piece of dope. Foaming with rage, Frogskin on the other hand blow out a rumbling blast of a song, spitting acid in nearly 8 minutes. While Taunt are self-destructive and desperate, Frogskin concentrate on suffering, pain and anger. Imported from Germany. Limited to 500 copies.
FT (THE SHADOW GOVERNMENT) - "Guns of August" CD $9
Guns of August is a call to arms that incorporates all styles of music in its attempt to break down genres and topple governments. FT the SG's lineup reads like a list of old war veterans, with members of Ten Grand, Forstella Ford, Tornavalanche, and Head of Femur. Also enlisted for this recording were members of Call Me Lightning and Shedding. Guns of August is an album that allows fans of both BLACK FLAG and BLACK DICE to join together and share in a protest song or two.
FUNERAL SHOCK 7" $6
Debut EP from west bay California punk junkers. This is dirty vintage American waster hardcore, sounds simular to Negative FX or Bad Posture. Pissed off. Contains ex members of Spazz and Capitalist Casualties.
GATHIENS - "Nesh" CD $9
Heavy, psychedelic, instrumental rock music. Strong guitar playing with big chords and memorable melodies is paired with a backbone of sweetly technical drumming, with a delicate layer of cinematic ambience over the top. The whole album has a strong sense of dynamics, having an almost classical feel to it. Compared to bands such as Isis, Boris, Pelican, Tool, and even Pink Floyd; Gathiens possess a delicacy and intricacy that many post-metal bands lack.
GHADDAR / PANACEJA - "split" 7" $5
International split, GHADDAR from Allentown, PA and PANACEJA from Rijeka, Croatia. Brutal as hell powerviolence-influenced hardcore.
GHOST AQUARIUM - "Light Cannot Escape" b/w "Spiritual Cramp" 7" $6
Early Dinosaur Jr. meets "Only Theater of Pain" Christian Death!! Limited to 300 copies on marbled vinyl!!!
GREY DATURAS - "Dead In The Woods" CD $9
A re-issue of the out-of-print 2004 monsterpiece from the Melbourne, Australian trio Grey Daturas. Originally released through the band's own Crashing Jets imprint, Dead In The Woods is a massive exhortation of lumbering metallic sludge rock, freely improvised amplifier noise and crushing riff splatter, and massive, sky-streaking psychedelic corrosion. The Crucial Blast re-issue of Dead In The Woods features a full remastering by Scott Hull at Visceral Sound, and will also come with a brand new packaging design via a 4-panel case printed by Stumptown Printers.
GRIEF- "Alive" CD $9
Grief are purveyors of sludgy doom metal, and this live set finds them doing what they do best. Blending the plodding riffs of Black Sabbath with the crushing intensity and screaming vocals of contemporary death metal, Grief are heavy enough for hardcore fans but make themselves unique by slowing it all down to a narcoleptic bad trip. Songs like "Polluted" and "I Hate the Human Race" underscore the band's bleak, nihilistic stance, while their crushing, lumbering attack gives fans plenty of downbeat on which to bang their heads. Limited edition of 2000 numbered copies.
HABSYLL - "Habsyll" CD $9
Unbelievably heavy and slow amplifier overload from France! Two long tracks of uber-doom which is seemingly devoid of any coherant structure and exists only to open up a black void in your stereo speakers through which to suck out your very soul. Habsyll sound to me like a less happy-go-lucky Khanate, or Monarch without the hipster irony. Totally morbid! Lovely 8-panel digipaks with black-on-black printing.
HARD VENOM / ADALRUNA - "The Broken Swords of Despotic Villainy" CD $8
Two UK black metal bands come together for 74 minutes of black metal fury! Hard Venom seems to draw a lot of influence from all genres of metal: Thrash, Speed, Power, Black, Progressive, etc. There is even a little punkish influence as well. In a genre that has so many copycat conformitive clones, Hard Venom have managed to find a way to add a little variety into the otherwise stagnate world of black metal. Adalruna is for anyone who digs stripped down, raw black metal. Adalruna have a unique sound, but they keep true to the essence of BLACK METAL!!! Limited to 100 copies.
HELLBOY 106 - "Some People Make Better Looking Corpses Than Others" CDR $7
Hellboy 106 is an one man band, started up on 2006.There's no high-technology equipment on this project, just analogue sounds, a bunch of analogue effects and some recordings of machines, humans and animals.The whole concept behind Hellboy 106 is to transform/translate visual arts into sounds. Like Merzbow jamming with Marcel Duchamp or Nurse With Wound collaborating with Jackson Pollack. Packaged in a 7" sleeve with a sticker. Imported from Greece. Limited to 80 hand numbered copies.
HEX MACHINE - "Omen Mas" CD $9
Omen Mas timewarps to an era when grunge and metal were still lounging around in bed post-coitus, the early-90s heyday of Melvins and Today Is the Day and Cows, when Amphetamine Reptile could do no wrong and production clarity was for assholes. Every deranged riff is dipped in electric tempura batter and fried 'til crispy, every one of Trevor T's honest-to-Satan melodies is corroded in feedback. Heavier tracks like "Nurse Me Back to Hell" and "Godheads Full of Candy" crawl in the dirt and puke up mud. The more rockin' numbers drag the filth out into the light -- Hex Machine sound like elephants in tutus on "Black Skeleton" and "Vivisection," their bulging, gritty guitar tone stuffed into awfully well-formed songs. Hex Machine's metallic allegiances keep 'em punching guts, and their grungey tendencies keep 'em frying eardrums. Like Black Elk, Bellini and other graduates of the 90s noise rock academy, there's chaos nearly bursting out of the grimy pores of Omen Mas.
HIGHGATE - "untitled" CD $9
This album presents a single 54 minute track that is an examination of manmade armageddon, warfare and nuclear horror as told through Highgate's noxious fusion of minimalist deathdoom, electronic noise, and raw black metal. Highgate's song-long epic doesn't even have a title, but the anonymity of the song adds to the fearful atmosphere that Highgate create...it's a real bad trip as the band winds through a dreary battlefield littered with corpses, moving from crushing detuned doom metal with sickening anguished screams, to plaintive guitar over whirring black static and into the pure dead void of delayed undead howls and shortwave drone that appears twelve minute in to the album. When the band eventually crashes back in from that eerie dronescape, a new riff rears it's head, slightly brighter and bluesier, a bit more catchy, but still devestatingly heavy, swimming in effects and feedback. Every five to ten minutes they move onto another riff as Highgate's World War III narrative unfolds, each one as heavy and grim as the last, shifting in speed from midtempo trudge to super slow creep, always surrounded by background noise and drones, evolving into a kind of triumphant doomy black metal dirge at the end with some awesome mangled guitar playing that really pushes the wah pedal into yer skull. Finally, this gives way to an incredibly catchy final ten minutes that become a kind of ultraheavy, doomed gloompop dirge, like a freaked out, blackened and crusty Katatonia track, clean guitar and post-punk bassline ala Joy Division wrapped around gnarly sludge riffing, finally decomposing into a loop of crushing distortion noise that ends the album. Highgate's debut is a killer slab of negatory, nihilistic doom that moves through a range of moods, all of 'em dark. Their mix of noise and doom and black metal is deftly handled, coming somewhere near a mix of THERGOTHON, FISTULA, KATATONIA, and BURZUM; definitely recommended to fans of extreme black doom.
HIRETSUKAN - "Invasive/Exotic" CD $8
In their debut recording for G7, Hiretsukan have combined meticulously-crafted lyrics with non-stop brazen hardcore energy. Reminiscent of Born Against and early-90's emo (when "emo" was actually indicative of true passion and energy, as opposed to being a fucking mumbling cry-baby.) All totalled, this amounts to fucking great, over-the-top, emotionally-driven, lyrically arresting, melodic political hardcore. Includes an insane cover of Metallica's "Creeping Death". From Brooklyn no less. Recorded at Cyclone Sound with Don Fury.
HOLOKAUST - "Into the Void of Oblivion" CD $9
Here's the long awaited full length from southern California's HOLOKAUST. Ten songs of genuine, hard-hitting d-beat punk in the spirit of classic DISCHARGE, ANTI-CIMEX, VARUKERS, HELLKRUSHER, etc. HOLOKAUST have previously release one EP on their own, plus three split EP's with the likes of ISKRA, DISSYSTEMA, and WARHORSE. The CD version contains all eight of the EP tracks as a bonus!
HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM - "Gold From The Sea" CD $8
French doom metal in the vein of OBSESSED, CANDLEMASS and GOBLIN. Includes a cover of "Hiding Mask" by the Obsessed.
HOTEL WRECKING TRADERS - "Black Yolk" CD $9
Across the album the ghosts of Torche, Karma To Burn, Mogwai, Capricorns, Goliath Bird Eater, Circle, and of course, Zeppelin and Sabbath, rise from the tracks like hypnotic, post-metal leviathans. Hailing from Australia, the band have that fuzzed up sound perfected, with deranged slices of noise heaven that pummel you into a grinning pool of pulped flesh. The other thing that finally strikes you about the album is that it is an instrumental, something that takes a while to sink in; the riffs so powerful and fluid that you don’t even notice the lack of words within the songs. It is an album that occupies some kind of middle ground between rock, post-rock and metal, demonstrating an evolved interplay between musical styles that has produced an album of not only sheer volume and seismic riffs, but of shapes, textures, space, and density.
HOUSE OF LOW CULTURE - "Edward's Lament" CD $9
Edward's Lament is the second full-length from House Of Low Culture--the laboratory concoction of Aaron Turner (Isis, Old Man Gloom, Lotus Eaters). Within its vast bandwidth, Turner marries warm cinematic tones with sub-nautical sound effects to produce a sensatory encounter like no other. Guitar strings reverberate circuitously within the close confines of amplifier housings and unidentifiable noises percolate from the murky recesses of the hearing threshold. Cavernous atmospheres find their foil in digitized blips as the low hum of inevitability drones mercilessly in the background. The effect is both vaguely disorienting and starkly captivating.
HUMAN HOST - "Exploding Demon" CD $9
The ten tracks on this disc form an apocalyptic science-fiction space opera of sorts, complete with futuristic synth doodling, strange sounds from various gadgets, and lots of singing / shouting of lyrics. A couple of songs were recorded live, but sound perfectly at home among the studio-induced madness. Cryptic, even bizarre ideas about song structure and sound keep things interesting. If you like your perverse electronica weird and obsessed with science-fiction themes, you'll want to check this out.
HUNDRED DOLLAR BAND - "Waves And Particles" CD $9
The Hundred Dollar Band is the new collective led by Alastair Galbraith, a New Zealand legend who has released scores of loner psychedelia over the years. Joining Galbraith on vocals, violin and guitar are his wife Maxine Funke on cello, guitar and transceivers, and Mike Dooley (The Enemy, Toy Love) on drums, spoons and fireworks. Waves and Particles contains live recordings and home recordings, captured on a four-track, half-inch tape machine in all its hazy glory. The album abruptly takes off with swirling drones and falling drums, a sea of metal strings weaving in and out of the mix. The second song is an updated version of Plagal Grind's 1989 "Midnight Blue," that swings out the core of the original melody to a shuffling and expanded workout. The record settles down toward the end, where a group ritual and meditation in "Chronicle Fireworks" creates a Jack Nitzsche score to a Manson murder scene. The drummer is killed off, husband and wife kick on a buzzing rhythm machine and feast on the gore with the closing "Engine Song," reducing the gristle and bone to a distorted glaze.
IN DISGUST / SIDETRACKED - "split" 7" $5
This record is AWESOME! Santa Cruz grind/violence troop IN DISGUST boast members of bands like UZI SUICIDE, OUTRAGED and HOSTILE TAKEOVER to create a heavy, metallic sound that combines the high-speed assault of bands like PHOBIA with the rawness of bands like CROSSED OUT. SIDETRACKED play pissed Tacoma INFEST-styled stop and go hardcore, and manage to fire off 9 songs in 2 minutes! Limited to 500 copies.
INFIDEL?/CASTRO! - "Bioentropic Damage Fractal" 2 x CD (DOUBLE CD) $12
Undefineable, uncatagorizeable, INFIDEL? / CASTRO! return with Bioentropic Damage Fractal,a 14-part, 2-disc epic of electro-acoustic experimental electronics harsh noise / ambient metal / avant post-rock that travels the extremes of density and sparsity, speed and sluggishness, length and brevity, beauty and ugliness. Hyper-complex and hyper-epic, the band weaves an engrossing tapestry of spastic electronic carnage, sweeping melodic bliss, futuristic heaviness, and swirling, hypnotic walls of sound. Concepts of degradation and the inherent instability of the organic are thoroughly explored in this cohesive and focused double CD. Features Colin Marston of DYSRHYTHMIA and BEHOLD...THE ARCTOPUS.
IN FORMATION: A TRIBUTE TO THROBBING GRISTLE CD $9
Star-studded tribute to Throbbing Gristle which features the Melvins, Deerhoof, NON, MSBR, Noisegate, The Spacewurm, Lesser, Concentrick, Radiosonde, Lockweld, 5/5/2000, Zipper Spy, Abdomen, Erik Core, Wizards Of War, Psywarfare and 3 Bloody Monkeys.
INVISIBLE FROG - "Space Makes Noise" CD $9
This Belgian duo used a stripped down lineup of drums and guitar to craft ten lengthy tracks of sci-fi obsessed shred/prog/grind devestation, each track exploding into intricate mini-cyclones of progged out math blast, like Orthrelm taking a bunch of Botch riffs and stretching them out into five minute jams. Spastic, dissonant riffs race over tornado drumming that goes from grindcore speed to angular breakdowns, and the songs are wrapped up in super complex structures that get pretty mind-boggling. Alot of this might even be improvised for all I know, and when the band really get going into full on mach 20 mode, the effect is like hearing Flying Luttenbachers channeling Morbid Angel style atonal deathshred. Fucking dizzying shit. The artwork for Space Makes Noise is totally fucking insane, too.
IRE - "I Discern an Overtone of Tragedy in Your Voice" CD $9
This strikes with the subtlety of a sledge hammer powering down on your noggin. IRE combine slow to mid-tempo with a heavy force that pushes force with strength. They bring to mind HIS HERO IS GONE, in the way they create this massive wall of noize that has a crushing weight, almost an auditor (sic) destructive force. Dark, brooding, and abrasive. Then there's a part of this band that reminds me of the punishing aspects of GRIEF. Methodic at moments with corrosive vocals. IRE play the kind of music you listen to alone in the dark late late late at night. Or early in the morning, depending on where you stand.
JAPANISCHE KAMPFHORSPIELE / ARE YOU GOD? - "split" 3-inch CD $5
JAPANISCHE KAMPFHORSPIELE means "Japanese combat radio play" auf Deutsch and they are absolutely raging with their admirably busy grindcore which also has a varied attack and isn’t afraid to explore tempos not usually found within the genre. They dive into punk, death-grind and jazz and flirt with flashed of electro. But what should sound cluttered and clumsy kicks like a mule in fuck-you cleats. ARE YOU GOD from Brazil follow up with some dashing grindcore rock! Fans of grind that have lost some faith in the genre, definitely need to get this album.
THE JUDAS ISCARIOT / SEEIN' RED - "split" LP $9.50
The Netherlands' Seein' Red are back at it again with twelve more lightning fast hardcore songs complete with revolutionary political messages. New York's Judas Iscariot offer up eight songs on their side. They also play great hardcore with a political message, but they bring in a sort of emotive experimental flavor. Great Shit.
KADAVER - "Molested Into Form" CD $9
Taking up where SUTCLIFF JUGEND and SICKNESS left off, “Molested into Form” is the soundtrack to accompany our species’ inevitable (and, some would say, welcome) demise. This is the sound of human cancer, the sound of the last hopeless spasm of existence. The searing, painful, blasting electronics that make up the ten tracks on offer resemble the static of a human culture scrambled, all of its digital outpourings irreversibly damaged but still spewing forth in grand crescendo. Through the streams of machine-built chaos are disorientating samples, layers of interference and sonic booms designed to harm body and mind. "Black Death Return to Me" and the two "Project Suicide" tracks are where the assault peaks, with electronic white noise blasts sounding like nothing so much as barbed wire being pulled through your brain, or an over-sharp dentist’s drill going way too deep into pristine enamel. Modulations in the screeching sound offer a surprising amount of structure, but it’s still an absolute relief when the sound drops out and the tracks end. You don't really get projects with this much pent up anger anymore. Also included is a tribute to Jörg Buttgereit’s classic underground film “Nekromantik”!!! Packaged in a jewelcase with a 6-page foldout booklet.
KAITEN - "Turning of the Heavens" CD $9
TURNING OF THE HEAVENS is the debut album from KAITEN, the collaborative project featuring Erik Jarl (IRM, JARL) and Lirim Cajani (INSTITUT, OPERATIV PERMANENT). As would be expected from an alliance of these two Swedish artists, KAITEN is a foray into dark, dense, and superb harsh electronics. Taking their name from the infamous Japanese manned torpedoes, a submarine counterpart of the Kamikaze planes of WWII, KAITEN submerges the listener in a world of claustrophobic, shuddering tension.Distorted echoes of mayhem resonate against the hull of a steel coffin speeding toward certain destruction. Grating, shouted vocals, radio intercepts, and bombastic rhythms are crushed together to represent an inevitable fiery death and a hero's grave in the cold, crushing depths of the Pacific Ocean, all in the name of imperious glory.
KAKISTOCRACY / NUX VOMICA split 7" $5
KAKISTOCRACY cannot be labeled as just another anarcho crust hardcore band. They perform crushing live shows and are a long standing part of North Carolina history, having been a band ever since I can remember. This record is their first output since their debut LP on Profane Existence four years ago. As far as the music is concerned, they play crucial NC mountain crust and continue to throw in super heavy parts that transition seamlessly into melodic breakaways. On the flip side, NUX VOMICA throws together some more metallicaly driven but still equally melodic crust. Having members from WAKE UP ON FIRE from Baltimore, the band has made a pilgrimage from the east coast to Portland to ruin eardrums and minds everywhere conceivable. This record single-handedly bridges the coastal gap.
KATASTROFIALUE - "Tuskatakuu 1994-1998" CD $9
A 36 song semi-discography CD featuring unreleased and out-of-print material from this cult Finnish crustcore band. A must for fans of violent crust, raw-punk, and noisy blown-out thrash! Formed in 1992, the devastating Finnish ensemble KATASTROFIALUE (roughly translated as "Disaster Area") delivered some of the most pulverizing scum-encrusted thrash of the past decade. The band combined an unrelenting early DISCHARGE and SORE THROAT influence with minimalistic (yet BRUTAL) metal stylings, headcrushing speed,and excruciating inhuman vocals. The band excelled at incendiary songwriting and memorable,gritty (yet sometimes beautiful?) atonal riffs laced with acidic vocals that employed their native tongue....expressing nihilistic,transcendentially intelligent and morbid ruminations on life through the lyrics. Awesome,brutal crustcore. This full length semi-discography CD features an unreleased studio album, their tracks from the NOT WITHOUT A FIGHT double CD compilation on CRUCIAL BLAST, more unreleased studio tracks, and their material from the 1994 split 7" with FREAK SHOW."Tuskatakuu '94-'98" comes packaged in a DVD style shrinkwrapped plastic case and features a glossy booklet with lyrics, Finnish-to-English translations, liner notes, and more.
KHLYST - "CHAOS LIVE" DVD $13
The first, and highly likely, the only live date from the James Plotkin (Khanate / Phantomsmasher)/ Runhild Gammelsæter (Thorr’s Hammer / Sunn0))) / Tim Wyskida (Khanate / Blind Idiot God) trio. Multicamera live footage from 2006 hydrahead CMJ showcase in NYC. Edited and prepped for consumption by Mr Plotkin. Comes housed in a ½ fold heavy matte stock cover adorned with paintings from Stephen Kasner’s reckless mind dropped into a 10mil. custom sized PVC outer sleeve. All text on outer and inner covers silkscreen in metallic silver by broken presses. Mirror faced pit art DVD comes slipped inside a hand stamped black sleeve. Pressing of 500 copies.
KORPERSCHWACHE - "Sordid Revelations From The Cult Of The Nazaren" CD $9
Extended buzzsaw feedback necrodrone blasts that resemble the slow shrieking and crushing destruction inflicted by heavy machinery. Existing somewhere between pure noise/drone/ambient and the grisliest depths of avant-garde/mutant Black Metal (minus any semblance of percussion, mind you), this is the sound of a small orchestra of fried out amplifiers performing extreme exercises in dissonant annihilation, with occasional vocal proclamations by Elektra Sturmschnell. But believe it or not, there are some DAMN CATCHY moments here. Using tape loops, gadgets, distorted samples, effects pedals, and blown-amp guitars and bass, Korperschwache creates an extremely loud form of isolationism. LIMITED EDITION OF 150.
LHD - "Curtains" CD $9
John Wiese and Phil Blankenship make five tracks and 19 minutes worth of relentless harsh noise. Expect a shitload of abrasive distortion that rests more in the midrange to high-end, lots of swirling panning effects and crisp, biting feedback, and then some. On rare occasion some really twisted ambience will appear within the midst of the distortion, as well as a few quick cutups, which at times can make it hard to notice when things changeover from one track to the next, but none of the songs have titles so it's not like that's important. The recording is really good, it's right on the line between having a rugged sense of warmth and density and being overly clear, so it's aptly aggressive and forceful but also has a clarity to it that lets a good amount of detail shine through. The disc comes in a nice matte black and white slipcase with minimal artwork and text, no track titles, etc. I think it looks nice and slick though, and the minimalism works in its favor. Good stuff. I definitely enjoy the fact that with this CD the duo recognizes the impact of kicking your ass and then calling it quits, rather than beating you over the head for an hour, so the thing's over in a flash and that's that. Limited to 500 copies, so don't wait around too terribly long if you're interested. Those who like it harsh won't be disappointed.
LIBYAN HIT SQUAD - "Fiji" LP $9
Their debut LP! Awesome experimental punk! Think of early MEAT PUPPETS meets MINUTEMEN (with DK and THE SONICS thrown in). This Floridian trio mixes the aggression of BLACK FLAG, the insane musicianship of THE MINUTEMEN, the passion of LOVE and the rip-roarin' of THE SONICS into a unified idea and makes it work. Three instrumentals on the album further accentuate the talent of the band, simultaneously recalling the chromatic noodling of BLACK FLAG's The Process of Weeding Out and dark inner space of LOVE's "Emotions" ending with a grand finale sounding something like a psychedelic BUTTHOLE SURFERS. Limited to 300 copies only!
LOCRIAN- "Drenched Lands" CD $9
First full-length studio album from one of the most consistently good bands around today, Chicago's Locrian. Drenched Lands is a beautifully thought-out piece of music, from a gentle guitar strum/synth opening (not a million miles away from culver/Earth "Pentastar"-era territory) which cuts out abruptly just as you're becoming entirely engrossed, only to give way to an epic cavernous drone. The whole thing brings to mind some sort of disused industrial factory or barren post-apocalyptic landscape. Dark tones, noise, keys and the odd well-placed guitar strum combine brilliantly to evoke feeling of desolation, loss, a submission of will....it's almost like the logical conclusion of Neil Young's Dead Man soundtrack; almost tangiential in sound to Earth's recent(ish) "Hex" record. Since their inception in late 2005, Locrian have been honing their sound; working and re-working material; finding the right blend of noise, power electronics, dark ambient, and black metal to work into their sound. Drenched Lands is Locrian’s first full-length studio recording of all new material, and unfolds with an almost narrative structure. It starts with a slow descent into a dark abyss, moving torturedly, gradually rediscovering the light, then leaving you where everything began - completely transformed. The hour-long disc is rounded out by an extended bonus track previously unavailable in any digital format. The black-on-black disc packaged in an arigato pack with a 4-panel insert. Edition of 1000 copies.
LOUT SOCIETY KURSE - "Waiting For The Apocalypse" LP $9
New LP from this French crustpunk metal band. Very good and brutal sound with a gatefold sleeve!
MAHAKALA - "S/T" CD $9
The debut album of this sludgecore road roller from Greece. 5 tracks with influences of Bongzilla, Buzzoven, High On Fire, Iron Monkey, Cavity, Sleep, Alabama Thunderpussy and Eyehategod. Limited to 1000 copies. Not a release to miss out on!
MANIAC BUTCHER - "Barbarians" CD $9
The first full length from Czech Horde Maniac Butcher originally released over 10 years ago in 1995. Now re-released with a bonus track. Fierce raw aggressive black metal that doesn't fuck around with keyboards or female vocals. For fans of Immortal, Darkthrone, old Mayhem.
MANIAC BUTCHER - "Cerna Krev" CD $9
Real fucking Black Metal, not for pussies!!! "Cerna Krev" is the fourth full length masterpiece from Maniac Butcher. Expect nothing but fast, raw, brutal black metal with relentless blasting and chainsaw like guitar onslaught and a violent wave of harsh vocals. The songs are simply cold, harsh, will completely annihilate. "Cerna Krev" is a big "Fuck You" to all unorthodox black metal bands.
MARAH-MAR - "S/T" CD $9
Delicate cello lines gain momentum until they burst apart at the seams, textural noises are pealed away exposing an underlying song, guitars collide in a wide stereo field to cascade and weave together. These are amongst the most apt descriptions of Marah-Mar's self titled debut album, a collection of songs as memorable for their mood and atmosphere as they are for their melodic counterpoints. Elements gleaned from electronic music, instrumental groups such as Dirty Three, Tortoise, Explosions in the Sky, and GSYBE!, as well as a vast body of psych rock, jazz, and chamber music all contribute to an aesthetic that dazzles the ears and entices the imagination. Marah-Mar recorded in the capable hands of Tucker Burns, a talented engineer whose studio built in an abandoned church provided the perfect atmosphere to capture the group's expansive sound. This is music that rewards the listener who can lost themselves in the epic sounds and the cinematic imagery that Marah-Mar skillfully creates.
MARAX - "Feel Free To Fuck Me" CD-R $6.50
Limited cd-r pressing of the Feel Free conceptual cassette released in an absurdly limited edition wooden crate in the late 90's by Southern extreme noise and abyssal drone artist Eric Crowe (MARAX). Painfully intense power electronic love. These tracks are blistering high-frequency wipeouts with a nervous sense of humor...much different but no less adventurous than the cavernous blackened droneworks of his more recent material. 12 tracks of sweetness. Comes packaged in a full color glossy sleeve thats in an airsealed mylar bag. LIMITED and #d OUT OF 100.
MARKS OF THE MASOCHIST / ENECARE - "split" CD $9
Marks of the Masochist capture a dark melancholic atmosphere with shrieking vocals and cold raw riffing. Enecare brings deranged, blown out and fucked up Irish black metal. This album is nothing short of pure audio destruction from two highly original black metal bands today.
MARZURAAN - "Five Years Of Fuck All" CD $9
Latest release from one of our favorite proponents of drone/doom/dirge, alongside folks like SUNNO))), Corrupted, Earth, Khanate, Boris, Eyehategod, etc. But unlike many of those other bands, UK's Marzuraan always seemed to approach their sound with one eye on the sludge, the other on the pop. Imbuing even the heaviest and murkiest of dirges with crystalline shimmer, or subtle muted melody, or even buried hooks, without sacrificing any of their sheer power or skull caving heaviness. This collection comprises demos, live stuff, rarities and rehersals from the UK's most consistantly interesting, forward-thinking, and just plain fucking great band of the last decade. Starting off from now and moving backwards through time to the early bedroom demo days, this CD shows Marzuraan's evolution from simplistic droning minimalism of the two bass lineup to the full-on rock beast of today. So track by track, the sound becomes more and more simple, moving away from the progressive drone pop and blown out shoegaze drone of recent recordings to something much more primitive and noisy. All in all, Marzuraan do it better than anyone else going right now; be it bleak minimal droning walls of sound, controlled experiments into feedback or balls-out "post" rock, without the scene points. They sound like the late, twisted Black Flag stuff on a mid-period Voivod album, with Swervedriver on in the background. Played by Helios Creed. Totally great packaging by the guys at Thumbprint Press; three-panel chipboard sleeve, double-sided print, with stark black letterpress and clear varnish. You may know these guys' work from the Sunn0))) live album or one of the many Bastard Noise family releases. Also, a full Marzuraan discography is featured inside.
MASON JONES - "Midnight In The Twilight Factory" CD $9
Guitarist Mason Jones (SUBARACHNOID SPACE / TRANCE) has been active in the avant-garde and experimental guitar music scenes for over a decade. "Midnight at the Twilight Factory" demonstrates a feel for texture which lies somewhere between ambient and noisy. Two of the tracks are purely solo guitar, recorded direct to DAT and then processed further during the mastering process. These are long, flowing pieces of psych-drone audio cinema. The other two pieces are recordings of live collaborations. One, recorded at the 1997 Monterey Rock Festival, is a duo with bassist Jason Stein. The other, recorded in San Francisco, features experimental guitarist Bill Horist and electric cellist Kevin Goldsmith. Very little of these recordings resembles what a listener will expect from an electric guitar, and that's precisely the point.
MASS MOVEMENT OF THE MOTH / THE CATALYST - "200666" CD $9
An eleven song collaborative split of apocalyptic proportions from two of DC/VA's most fierce and twisted young bands. Mass Movement Of The Moth returns with blast after contagious blast of synth-driven, psychedelic post-hardcore, while The Catalyst sludge through their latest offering of kerosene-soaked, in-your-face noise-punk/grunge. Song order switches from band to band allowing no side A or side B to keep the collective rock apart. For fans of Born Against, Pg.99, claymation, Camera Obscura, Melt Banana, and the movie Labyrinth (especially the scenes with Ludo).
MAURIZIO BIANCHI & CLAUDIO ROCCEHTTI - "Alienation" CD $9
Estranging sounds complex in five unusual recordings, edited and assembled over a period of two years. Fantastic collaborative work; file under: experimental, concrete music, deep dark noise ambient. Limited to 700 copies only. Maurizio Bianchi: tapes, radio waves, electronics, samples. Claudio Rocchetti: dusty analog devices. Mastered by Valerio Tricoli.
MERZBOW - "Merzzow" CD $9
MERZZOW combines animal concepts and deconstructions of 20th century music, ambient drones and a deep grinding groove, synth tones and harsh bursts of liquid electricity in a varied and dynamic 11 tacks in 70 minutes that is sure to please all you fans. It is even accessible enough that it makes a perfect introduction for your friends who have never heard Merzbow music before.
METH AND GOATS - "Attack From Meth And Goats Mountain" CD $9
Meth And Goats prove that punk rock doesn't have to be overproduced and glossy on "Attack From Meth And Goats Mountain". They rip through 42 minutes worth of post-hardcore dirt-rock comparable to bands like Transistor Transistor, At The Drive In, and The Blood Brothers, but with an originality all of its own. Meth And Goats marry an art damaged punk sound with an absurd amount of spaced out jams, numbing feedback, and distorted screams that reeks of beer and body odor. Raw, rough around the edges, and catchy as sin.
MILLS OF GOD - "Call of the Eastern Moon" CD $9
’70s-flavored instrumental psychedelic doom metal from Germany. Consisting of three nearly equal length songs over 63 minutes, the music on here is a blend of Traditional Doom, Funeral Doom, Sludge and Post Metal. Some of the riffs carry a swaggering, yet slow, groove while others are like an aural tsunami washing over everything in its path. Some of it reminds me, musically, of Ahab, some of it of early Cathedral and some of it of stuff like Earth and Ufomammut. Mastered by Bob Weston of Shellac, with artwork by Tom Denney.
MOLECULES - "No-Fi" CD $9
Oakland, California's The Molecules were always sort of the American version of Japan's hyper-prog gods RUINS, at least in spirit, as Molecules mastermind Ron Anderson dealt in a similiar brand of frenzied, ridiculously complex Dadaist improv/noise/prog. On this, their hard-to-find 4th album from 1996, Ron and co. (including new Japanese bassist Ryo) continue to traffic in antagonistic noise, Tex Avery cartoon soundtracks, and thoroughly unfriendly song structures, but also diversify into some potent Boredoms-style convulsions, flourishes of torturous Japanese noise / Merzbow inspired sadism, as well as the Molecules standard recipe of No Wave, punk/funk, and thrashing improv skronk. Witchy cello skree from Fred Lonberg Holm accentuates some seizure inducing pianofucking. Guest vocal appearances from Molecules buddy Yasuko Uki (Melt Banana). Goes great with Flying Luttenbachers, Arab On Radar, Happy New Year. Brutal no wave jams from the master!
MOS GENERATOR - "Jam Room Demos Vol. 2" 7" COLORED VINYL $6
Two tracks from the vaults on a limited edition (500 only) black n' yellow splattered 7" vinyl. 'Step Up' kicks off with a Sabbath-esque riff, before it turns into a catchy MOS GENERATOR song, with its powerful, yet relaxed groove. Once again the band is in best shape, so that 'Step Up' is definitely more than just a second-rate tune. On the B-side the band pays tribute to riffmaster Tony Iommi, aptly named 'Godhand Iommi'. This is a clever combination of well-known riffs, but the band integrated them into their very own catchy arrangement. Fans of Colour Haze, Los Natas, King Crimson, Deep Purple or anything remotely 70's influenced will be a fan. Pull out the bong for this ‘un.
MR. BLANDING'S DREAMHOUSE - "Ninety-Nine Aprils" CD $9
Mr. Blanding's Dreamhouse plays late 90's indie rock. Female fronted vocals, backed by powerful yet sweet guitar lines, and held together with a solid building rythm section. MBD is midwest indie rock at its finest. Fans of Rainer Maria, Superchunk, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Mineral take note.
NAPALMED - "Never Mind the MSBR, Here's the..." CD $9
Packaged in a full-color gatefold sleeve, Napalmed delivers two tracks of seemingly unending anguish. Power electronics ala the glory days of Masonna and Merzbow mixed in with the organic and bombastic feel of cut-up greats like Illusion of Safety and Chop Shop. Two tracks, 15:10 and 56:44 respectively, create an avalanche of outsider noise from this Czech quartet, fueled by metal junk clatter, terrorizing electronic noise, prepared and homemade acoustic guitars, treated vocals, and an arsenal of effects pedals and microphones. Think NO NECK BLUES BAND filtered through a brutal metallic attack. Friggin' fierce.
NAPALMED - "III" CD $9
From the Czech Republic comes this pro-pressed, full-length CD, packaged in a really unusual pro-printed, hand-made cover and bound in copper wire. NO MUSIC, NO SILENCE, NOTHING MORE THAN 'PURE HARSH INDUSTRY IMPRO NOISE' IN NAPALMED WAY! 80 minutes long. Limited to 500 copies.
NEW YORK AGAINST THE BELZEBU / EMPTY GRAVE / PURE NOISE - "split" CD $9
Take a look at the back of the jewel case for this CD, and where there would normally be a track listing or some other similar indicator of the content within, there are only the words “172 Songs” beneath the nearly incomprehensible logos of the three bands that make up this 3-way split CD. This absurd statement should hopefully prepare you for the ridiculously wicked blitz of freeform Brazilian grindnoise on order here from NEW YORK AGAINST THE BELZEBU, EMPTY GRAVE, and PURE NOISE. While virtually extinct in other regions of the globe, it would seem that the ANAL CUNT / FEAR OF GOD / SORE THROAT noisecore legacy lives strong in Brazil. NEW YORK AGAINST THE BELZEBU, who are virtually legends in this “scene”, open this up with 28 blasts of nonsensical blastbeat mayhem, brainmelting Casio melodies, entire riffs lifted from VAN HALEN and RUSH, and mongoloid thrash breakdowns mashed together into a blur of lo-fi speed chaos. Imagine early BOREDOMS action as filtered through the noxious grind of ANAL CUNT. EMPTY GRAVE are a tough-looking drums’n’guitar duo whose 69 songs flirt a little more with old school death and speed metal, busting out some pretty vicious lo-fi speedcore riffs and monstrous breakdowns, but the frequent forays into nursery rhymes, 5-second "songs", and roaring walls of distortion that barely obscure the frenetic, sloppy blastbeating relentlessly going on in the background keep this firmly entrenched in the noisecore/blurr orbit. The production here is slightly improved over NEW YORK AGAINST THE BELZEBU’s vaccum-cleaner eruptions, but it’s still no picnic. Mostly it’s multi-second riffblast on par with early CRIPPLE BASTARDS and FEAR OF GOD accented with moments of brootal mid-tempo crustcore, evil monk chants, old time spirituals, and fucked structures like a retarded NAKED CITY, complete with dual cave troll/rabid warthog/electrocuted housewife vocals. PURE NOISE wrap it up with what would appear to be 75 individual compositions, but since a CD can only have 99 labeled track ID’s, all of the PURE NOISE material has been squashed together as one continuous stream of improv blast violence on track 99. None of this really matters…what does matter is that PURE NOISE sounds like Scum-era NAPALM DEATH channeling old school Japanese harsh noise through their shitty practice amps and attempting to lock into some flesh destroying free-jazz thoughtwaves. Obviously, this feast of blast is only recommended to serious noise heads, old school grind freaks, and fans of truly adventurous/fried brutal improv. This disc is packaged in blown color Xerox graphics which make this appear more like black market Brazilian snuff vid product than it has any right to.
NIGHTSTICK JUSTICE - "Claustrophobic E.P." 7" $5
On their second E.P. (and third vinyl output) California's NIGHTSTICK JUSTICE bring you five more discordant cuts of raw and explosive hardcore! If you were lucky enough to grab either their demo 7" or the MINDLESS VIOLENCE E.P. on WAY BACK WHEN / EVEN WORSE you have an idea of what to expect: fast and biting hardcore that combines a range of influences and elements from early Boston and California HC to Japanese hardcore. With this new E.P., NIGHTSTICK JUSTICE have honed their sound even tighter and cranked up the power and intensity times ten, pummeling you with a nonstop barrage of sonic insanity.
NJIQAHDDA - "Njimajikal Arts" cassette $6
With a name like Njiqahdda, and a record title like Njimajikal Arts, all the text written in some unreadable Eastern script, and cover art consisting of lush green foliage and nothing else, with the promise that this was some mysterious alchemical psychedelic naturalist atmospheric doomed black metal, you know we were seriously intrigued. But at the same time, we really had no idea what to expect. It is actually guys from Flaskavsae and Drommer, who together have whipped up one of the weirdest and most gorgeously fucked up (un)black records of the year. Where to start? Looooong tracks, weirdly washed out buzzing post rock, with lots of clean guitars and haunting atmospherics, all tangled up with thick blasts of dense black buzz, and with super freaked out production and lots of unlikely and not very metal sounds and arrangements. The opening track, "Blister Within The Hive" is based around a super Slinty' guitar riff, looped and repeated, the drums weirdly staggered and mathy, the vocals a muted mumbly howl, super distorted and demonic, but not like black metal, more like noise rock. The main riff shifts and gets more and more dramtic and lush, while the vocals become more distorted and more unhinged, transforming into swirling clouds of harsh hiss and blurred white noise. With the repeated almost looped riff, it's like an un-black metal Circle, relelntless and mesmerizing, and totally hypnotic. The guitars and drums slowly fade out leaving a twisted, slithery buzzing low end drone, super minimal, as it crawls through a field of glitch and shimmer. The second track, "A Tale Of Ancient Tergue" is more traditional black metal, but it's all relative. A loping Burzumic midtempo buzz, with those same freaked out alien vocals, the drums and cymbals super hot and way up in the mix, threatening to overload everything, the main riff and melody surprisingly melancholy and catchy, again locking into a continuous loop, until the main riff drops out, and suddenly a haunting chorus of voices takes over the main melody, hummin g and crooning over the still poundin and crashing drums, creepy and so beautiful. All hovering in a thick cloud of swirling FX and spaced out shimmer. The tape finishes off with the nearly half hour long "Blue Wintry Days", a doomy surge through fields of hissing white noise buzz, the guitars soaring, the drums again sizzling white hot all over the place, mournful and melancholy, but so weirdly washed out at times it sounds like Tim Hecker vs. Burzum vs. Merzbow. About halfway through the various elements become less and less distinct, and the song transforms into an almost static blur, before shifting back into a dark doomy plod, but still always, a bit more mathy and post rock and spaced out that any black record has a right to be. And we love it. Definitely one of the coolest, darkest, weirdest, doomiest, dreamiest (un)black metal records of the year.
NOCTURNAL BREED - "The Tools of the Trade" CD $9
Third album from these kvlt Norwegian black-thrashers with guest vocal appearances from Maniac (Mayhem). "The new album sounds like burning metal, and flames" -Fenriz of Darkthrone.
NO IDOLS - S/T 7" E.P. $5
Five song debut EP from Syracuse's NO IDOLS. Featuring ex members of THE FUNERAL and THE DISASTER, NO IDOLS churn out five chaotic blasts of powerful and noisy hardcore, quite similar to later era UNBROKEN mixed with the sheer intensity of BLACK FLAG.
NOT WITHOUT A FIGHT - compilation 2xCD $14
This 1999 double CD compilation NOT WITHOUT A FIGHT is Crucial Blast's homage to the scuzz-caked grindcore/noise/sludge/speedpunk underground of the mid/late 1990's embodied in cheap cassette compilations and xerox-sleeved split 7" EPs. One of Crucial Blast's first ever releases, it contains exclusive outbursts from an array of subterranean sonic abusers, including BASTARD NOISE, AGATHOCLES, DAHMER, CRIPPLE BASTARDS, MACRONYMPHA, UNHOLY GRAVE, and loads of other purveyors of damaged, anti-social grind and noisecore, free noise and power electronics, spoken word, brutal fastcore, blazing D-beat driven crustcore, and lysergic psych-sludge. NOT WITHOUT A FIGHT is packaged in a DVD style plastic double-disc case that holds both CDs and a mega-thick, 64 page fanzine-style newsprint booklet loaded with band info, art, stories and rants. ARTIST LISTING: Mark Bruback, Cruel Face, Strong Intention, Bastard Noise, RPOD, SoIHadToShootHim, Katastrofialue, Unfound, Dark Skies Fallen, Retribution, Global Holocaust, Flammable Child, Depressor, John Bender, Aural Torture Mechanism, The Last Day No Human Voice, Agathocles, Daybreak, Puncture Wound, None Of Your Fucking Business, Dahmer, Samus, Mizuko, Cripple Bastards, Miseries AD, A Death Between Seasons, Macronymhpha, Unholy Grave, Falsies, Final Exit, JDog, Bloodstains & Bulletholes.
NUIT NOIRE - "Lunar Deflagration" CD $9
Debut album from Nuit Noire!! Now Tenebras alone. High melodic guitars, energetic drums, Howled and shrieked vocals! A true Night creation. Faerical Blasting Punk!
OAKS - "Bravo!" CD $8
Oaks is Justin Olsen's, from Tight Bro's from Way Back When, new band. In the tradition of sludge-slingers Karp and Big Business, OAKS have come to provide the soundtrack to your next bongload. Oaks are next in a line of bands that extends back to old school smart asses Killdozer, the hick noise metal of Mule, Pac Rim big shots Mudhoney and the terrifyingly awesome Karp. Misfit rock music that is loud as all hell, features yelled, unfriendly vocals and offers zero timeline as far as what the band is up to. Bravo! has moments of the Melvins' "Houdini" and Kyuss' "Blues for the Red Sun" in it but this is not slow moving stoner metal by any stretch, or even psychedelic, "Bravo!" rages past like a thunderstorm. Toshi Kasai, the Melvins' sound engineer for the past six years, and newly official Big Business guitar player moved around the nobs for this excellent debut.
OLD BOMBS - "Audios" CD $9
The fifth release and first "official" CD from manipulative sound scientists Old Bombs--members of Monotract, Fukktron, and Grass Jeans. A genre-defying mix of mutilated, layered, and re-sampled sounds that has earned the group comparisons to John Cage, Merzbow, Organum, V/VM, Pita, Christian Marclay, and Keith Rowe's work with radio. Group member Carlos Giffoni is known to occasionally collaborate with Nels Cline, Chris Corsano, Thurston Moore, and Lee Ranaldo among others.
ONE MASTER - "Forsaking A Dead World" CD $9
Like a blast of fetid black wind over a ruined landscape littered with bone shrines and post apocalyptic wreckage, One Master's Forsaking A Dead World sets loose six tracks of stripped down, harsh black metal that posesses one of the nastiest guitar tones I've ever had rip through my canals. The New England outfit unleashes some raw black metal hiss, no joke, with droning, repetitive riffs and that super brittle, razor-sharp distortion tone that adds an additional level of unfriendliness to the songs. The riffs are excellent, minimal and GRIM and hypnotic as they are woven over and over again around the combination of pulsating mid-tempo drumming and ragged blastbeats. Valder's vocals are just as blown-out and soaked in distortion, a hideous, processed croak; and instead of rehashing the Satanic imagery that has been beaten to death, One Master strangely enough reference the Dragonlance fantasy novels from the 80's, which I'm sure fellow D&D nerds will appreciate as much as I. And yet under all of the brittle fuzz and cyclonic drumming and esoteric imagery are some really amazing, eerie melodies that stand out against the harsh, buzzing atmosphere. Crude, bleak as fuck, yet surprisingly captivating USBM that wields shredded-speaker distortion like a rusty razorblade in a manner reminsicent of early Norwegian black metal legends Immortal, Ulver, Darkthrone.
OPEN CITY - "Birth of Cruel" CD $9
"The Birth of Cruel" is Open City's follow-up to the 2002 LP "L.A. We Revise Your Neglect". The trio still consists of two electric guitarists (Peter Kolovos and Doug Russell) and a drummer (Andrew Maxwell). This album presents two main differences. First, the pieces are longer. Second, silence plays a more prominent role in the music. That is, the improvisations leave a lot of room for breathing and show minutiae in the spatial-temporal placement of sound gestures. If it sounds arid stated that way, in fact it makes for very dynamic, although fragmented music. Each of the three pieces bears at least four different titles in sequence, hinting at a "suite" form, but identifying a clear transitional points between these "sections" is virtually impossible. Beginning with the "Assembly Language" suite, the piece coming closest in terms of density to the material found on "L.A. We Revise Your Neglect". Maxwell is particularly busy laying down a rough percussive terrain (Paul Lytton comes to mind, but a Lytton who would have spent a couple of summers with Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo). The shortest piece at seven minutes, the "Fetch and Squabble" suite presents two handfuls of ideas and climates flashing by in front of the listener's ears, like the stings from a swarm of bees, each prick more precise than the previous ones. The album finished with the 20-minute "epic" (the word goes well with "suite"; it feels like a progressive rock album) "A Valley Forge," one of Open City's finest moments. The trio manages to sustain the momentum despite several angle shifts. The last five minutes or so see the two guitarists conversing in a noisy but very articulate way, before joining forces for a quiet drone.
ORN - "Teeth/Knowing" CD $9
Orn are a new three piece doom metal band from Toronto, one drummer, two guitarists and a wall of amplifiers. Orn's doom is heaving and raw, the drone is delivered in snarling unapologetic straight shots. The intensity is built up and torn down with minimal structures with guttural screams, sustaining guitars and punishing insistent rhythms that force their way into your mind. With extended listen the music becomes impossibly heavy and hypnotic hitting you with wave after wave of hard charging, supremely gratifying, destroyed noise. Welcome the arrival of a new player in the noise world: Orn. FOR FANS OF OCEAN, BURNING WITCH AND GRAVES AT SEA. Limited to 1000 CDs.
OVER VERT - "Gagging + Swallowing" CD $9
Great BLACK FLAG influenced band from Reno, recorded at Steve Albini's studio. Churning, bass-driven art-rock with a singer from the SCRATCH ACID / JESUS LIZARD school of ironic detachment and saliva going all over the place. Got it? That's pretty much what OVER VERT has going on. Plus they do a cover of "What We're Made Of" by VAE VICTIS (pre-IRON LUNG).
PANTHER SKULL - "Slothwave" CD $9
Panther Skull is the invention of Justin C. Meyers, whose other activites include involvement with Tone Filth, Devillock and others. Under this new pseudonym, however, Meyers comes up with a more foreboding approach. Here he uses tapes, organ and electronics to produce a quartet of sinister sounding moanings that echo and reverberate in some dark, dripping sonic cave of his own design. Sloth Wave has distinct elements of Mirror drifting through it, as supernatural gusts of electronic fog roll in and out of the mix and traces of feedback suddenly rise up like tiny voices trying to be heard through the ensuing gloom of Meyer’s bleak blanket of electronic murk. 446 copies made.
PEACEMAKER / IRON MOLAR - "split" CD $9
Peacemaker is a transformational harsh noise project founded by Richard Hoak, drummer of grindcore primitives BRUTAL TRUTH and TOTAL FUCKING DESTRUCTION. Iron Molar is Italy's most extreme power electronics/piercing circus. Fucking Clinica, the most brutal of labels in the new Italian extreme noise scene, has released all new studio recordings by Peacemaker and Iron Molar together as a full length split cd. The cd comes with 8 page booklet/special packaging and 3 stickers and is limited to 300 copies. Peacemaker's cover of 'I Not Pose' by Japanese noisemonger Boss Poppinski features totally fucking sick guest vocals by legendary philadelphia rapper Dirty Dave.
PEDESTRIAN DEPOSIT - "Fatale" CD $9
Dark collage compositions of high velocity and fierce electronic noise, dismal piano passages, acoustic metals mantras, and ambient electronic turbulence cut with explosions of emotional violence and urban noir. Masterfully woven while still festering a raw and chaotic edge. This is the PD masterpiece follow up to the influential "Volatile" album.
PIG EXAM - "Contort Thine Cells" CD $9
On Contort Thine Cells, New Zealand native Loren Clements (aka Pig Exam) lets fly with the SHOCK VOLTS - heavy electric razor wire blastage kicking and screaming from your shreded-out speaker cones. Nothing dark, dreary, or mysterious here, just the unadorned sounds of getting shot in the face by a police taser from short range. Twice. Lorent has been creating the sharp painful noise for over ten years in both solo and group settings under various monikers: Downfeed, Zorac5, EggSpecies, Blisstuff, Balance & the Blossum, Mommy Won't Wake Up, Degenerate & Enable, and of course, Pig Exam.
PJ GLAUBERZON - "Cubicle Puppets" CD $9
"Cubicle Puppets" is an odd affair, a meticulously crafted pop gem, written and recorded by one PJ Glauberzon. It references an era when artist's made albums as miniature worlds, a place you could visit for the better part of an hour, or as long as two sides of vinyl would allow. The songs fit together like scenes in a movie with Glauberzon adopting the voice of a narrator, wherein he spins tales of paranoia, heartbreak and the mundanity of life's struggle. Glauberzon isn't your typical songwriter. Although he works within the framework of traditional forms, his songs never sound familiar. He is both a talented multi-instrumentalist and clever songsmith. His musical tastes vary from upbeat skiffle tunes and vaudevillian pop to calypso music and bar room piano ballads, while his lyrics read like absurdist adventure stories riddled with shady characters. Conceptually, he is situated somewhere between Warren Zevon and Steely Dan, as he is fond of both irony and comedy in song, as well as musicianship and studio wizardry. His arrangements, although seemingly elaborate, never feel dense or crowded. Like a good composer, he knows how to build on themes but more importantly, when to leave things out.
PONY PANTS - "Fives" CD $7
Pony Pants is a three piece DIY dance-punk outfit from Philadelphia, who play complex, driving guitar riffs over smart, sweaty drum machine tracks with songs about sex, politics, friendship and the intersections of these things. On "Fives" they offer up 4 new songs and 2 remixes by GENGHIS TRON and VYTEAR.
POOSTEW - "Misericordia" CD $7
Can't say that I've ever heard of a concept cd quite like this before: a grind/melodic death metal band attempting their longest (10 minutes, 53 seconds) and shortest (18 seconds) songs in one tidy EP package. The title track is the behemoth here- four chapters of time changes, incessant growling and mile-a-millisecond riffs. And "Silence Is As Golden As Piss"? Well, its the finest Pig Destroyer slaughter I've scoped in a minute.
PROJECT HOUSING - "V/A" cassette $6
Assembled one dick-spitting summer -- completely in the red zone, 'no tomorrow' style. Imagine a BOREDOMS and IRON LUNG collaboration. Imagine FLIPPER or THE SWANS on crack, speed and DMT. Features trash dog, public bummer, cell block, snakebite, rawar, pukers, jewish uprising, total abuse, deep jew (final recording), chameleoness, and marine rape. Essential L.A. scum / crew document -- more real and raw than any of the media darling / art world bands here. Edition of 150, glossy covers and labels.
QUEEN ELEPHANTINE - "Surya" CD $9
Best described as a sprawling psychedelic space jam, "Surya" is the full-length debut of Queen Elephantine and a crushingly impressive follow-up to recent split-albums with Sons of Otis and Elder. Surya's five tracks stretch out to over an hour, as the band lives up to its name and presents a perfect soundtrack to the unwieldy march of a mystical elephant caravan across the celestial plains. They melt down the sounds of Black Sabbath, Sleep, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, early Monster Magnet, and a variety of other influences into a cosmic swamp all their own, populated by droning numbers like the self-titled lead off track and lumbering epics such as the 16-and-a-half-minute "Ramesses II," which rumbles along almost religiously with its chanted lyrics and smoky atmosphere. "Surya" presents a dense fog of soothing distortion and repetitive progression, lysergic delight and a slow sludge of spiritual warmth. These are the bastard children of the Grateful Dead that listen to Swans and Earth and Velvet Underground and OM.
QUIVERS - "Once There Were Some" CD $8
Once There Were Some, is a midnight séance conjuring the spirit of the avant-improv scene of Brooklyn's underground. Unfurling the combined forces of double-bassist Jordon Schranz (the eASTERN sEABOARD, ex-La Otracina), guitarist Ninni Morgia (S.X APPEAL, ex-White Tornado, ex-La Otracina), and drummer Adam Kriney (Owl Sounds Exploding Galaxy, La Otracina) with vocal sound artist Marie Evelyn, QUIVERS bring together fast and furious with outer space massiveness. Reeling in the heady mixture of 60's psychedelia, 70's prog-rock, and 80's hard-core, this record cuts out its own piece of the Sonic History. A blend of Sonny Sharrock/Boredoms/Black Flag-influenced frenzied guitar and acoustic sounds of every color, it can be menacing one moment, and blissfully spacious the next.
RASPATUL - "Devils In Renewed Birth" CD $9
RASPATUL unleashes "Devils In Renewed Birth", an entire collection of their thrashing Death Metal assault from their best active years of 2000-2004. "Devils In Renewed Birth" is an album for the old school Metalheads and with a distinct Blackened Thrash flavour to it; fans of early Kreator, Slayer, and Possessed should enjoy this release. Mastered by legendary guitarist James Murphy (Death, Obituary, Testament, Disincarnate) at the Safehouse Productions (USA) and also features a brand new artwork and layout by Swedish graphic designer Tomas Andersson (Freevil / ex-Denata).
RATIONAL ANIMALS - "Perception Becomes Reality" 7" $5
Killer hardcore punk from this Rochester, NY band. These guys have the little Greg Ginn riffs down pat, making them sound a lot like ANNIHILATION TIME or B'LAST, though Rational Animals have a bit more straightforward hardcore in their sound than those bands. If you're addicted to that BLACK FLAG riffage than this is is a must.
RAW HATRED / MISANTHROPY - "split" CD $9
Some of the most raw and punishing black metal from both ends of this split. 5 new tracks from Raw Hatred and 4 from Misanthropy. Combined they features members from other USBM bands such as MORD, SATANIC FUNERAL and MARKS OF THE MASOCHIST. This is the holocaust of the Black Flame! Limited to 500 copies.
RAW POWER - "Screams from the Gutter / After Your Brain" CD $9
Classic Italian proto-Thrash and HC holocaust from 1984! You are not allowed to call yourself a punk without this CD! Originally recorded in Indianapolis, Indiana, by ZERO BOY Paul Mahern and Italy's RAW POWER! This "2 Albums on 1 Disc" CD is 30 Songs, 54:14 minutes of pissed-off Anarchy in the vein of GBH, CONFLICT, and MOTORHEAD!
RAW POWER - "Live DVD & Reptile House" CD + DVD $13
DOUBLE-DISC SET featuring "Reptile House" CD (audio, 17 Songs), and "Live" DVD with tour documentary plus lots of extras! Old-School Italian Thrash / HC anarchy! In 1998 RAW POWER had several new songs ready for release and began shopping for a label in the U.S. to release them. The end result was "Reptile House", their greatest album yet! Three American tours in support of the album followed. This CD has been remastered and now includes a bonus DVD with the hour-long 1998 "Big Ass" Tour documentary, plus extras that include live at the Olympic Auditorium in 1984, live in Phoenix 1986 (when they opened for Slayer/Venom), live and in the studio Italy 1983-85, and live in 2000 in Nogales, Mexico and Gilman Street, Berkeley. Over an 2 hours of RAW POWER footage you wont want to miss!
RED SPAROWES / GREGOR SAMSA - "Split" CD $9
RED SPAROWES return with another amazing record, this time being joined by GREGOR SAMSA for this split CD release. Richmond, VA's GREGOR SAMSA shine bright here with two tracks of serene and dark ambient/rock music. Haunting and beautifully sung male and female vocals intertwine with atmospheric guitars, keys and string arrangements. Los Angeles, CA's RED SPAROWES deliver two phenomenal tracks of their moving and intense instrumental creations. One exclusive new track is joined by a phenomenal demo version of a song found on their "At The Soundless Dawn" debut... and with members of ISIS and NEUROSIS behind this ship, RED SPAROWES continue to steer into amazing directions. In fact, both bands harken back to the glory days of shoegazing's past without compromising their modern spin on powerful and innovative independent music.
RED SPAROWES / MADE OUT OF BABIES / BATTLE OF MICE - "Triad" CD $9
TRIAD features new and live material from three of NR's newest bands: instrumental innovators Red Sparowes (contains members of NEUROSIS and ISIS); the crushingly unnerving Made Out of Babies; and (featuring members of Red Sparowes, Neurosis and Made Out of Babies) horizon-expanding sounds from Battle of Mice. Artwork by Seldon Hunt.
THE RIGHT MOVES - "The End of the Empire" CD $9
Second album for the Brooklyn trio led by guitarist Ninni Morgia (ex White Tornado, ex La Otracina), in this recording with Stuart Popejoy (Bassoon) on bass and Kevin Shea (ex Storm and Stress, Talibam!) on drums. The eight tracks open up to psychedelic and ambient music besides free jazz, marked by Ninni Morgia’s visionary guitar, Stuart Popejoy’s pulsating industrial bass and Kevin Shea’s pyrotechnic drums that haven’t sounded so inspired ever since his Storm and Stress era. Fans of John Coltrane, Faust, Throbbing Gristle and US Maple among others will love this album.
RUINS - "Baptized In Hell" CD $9
Not to be confused with Japanese prog duo Ruins, these guys are from Germany, and traffic in classic old school thrashing blackness, channeling the greats like Bathory and Sodom and even Darkthrone. The riffs of course destroy, buzzy and crushing, the production massive and in-the-red, the vocals are insane, a glass gargling bile spewing demonic rasp that pretty much seals the deal. Tons of distortion and reverb, the songs simple and stripped down, raw and relentless, it takes all our self control to reign in fits of spontaneous head banging when this disc is playing. The crazy thing is Ruins is a one man band. We're used to one man bedroom black metal, but listening to this we envision three long haired guys all holding up chains and upside down crosses, scowling at the camera, bullet belts massive spikes, leather jackets, in a graveyard or some forest or something, pretty insane that something this furious and blown out and thrashy is just one guy, but hell, kudos to him. This rules, total punked up greasy, filthy thrashy blackened metal genius. Includes Ruins' first two demos, from 2006 and 2007, as well as a bunch of previously unreleased bonus tracks.
RUST IONICS - "Moving/Pictures" 12" LP $9
Following a stream of craftily packaged CD-R releases from his various other free/psych/improv projects (La Otracina, Owl Sounds Exploding Galaxy, Blizzards, etc), Colour Sounds operator and freak-out drummer extraordinaire Adam Kriney opts to get LOUD with this killer LP from the free-improv/grind/jazz brut ensemble that has Kriney pillaging his drumkit alongside Dual members Ed Chang (alto sax) and Doug Theriault (guitars). Totally blinding power-improv workouts with Chang's extended sax eruptions spitting out a volley of white-hot squeaks and squeals like machine sparks over a din of crashing, blastbeating drumming and textured guitar noise. The trio frequent puts on the brakes and wraps themselves around some mesmerizing free-jazz, but most of Moving/Pictures is intense, insane primal skronk conjured from the same fires that birthed the likes of Last Exit, Painkiller, Ruins, Borbetomagus, and Peter Brotzmann's heavier material, and meant to be played LOUD. Presented on transparent blue vinyl in a clear plastic sleeve with a plastic sticker inscribed with the band logo and minimal album credits, in a limited edition of 311 copies.
SADVILLE - "Make Ready The Cross" LP $9
"Make Ready The Cross" is 8 songs from this Tennessee five-piece that play stoned out political hardcore/metal. His Hero Is Gone, Zann, Eyehategod and Catharsis are all starting points to describe the sound of this very unique LP. Recorded by Jay Masterson at the Jamroom in South Carolina. Limited edition pressing of 500 copies!
SHALLNOTKILL - "2001-2004" 2xCD $12
This double disc set collects all of the recorded studio work from French hardcore/indie/noise group SHALLNOTKILL, along with an entire disc of "deconstructions" of the bands songs. From what little we have been able to SHALLNOTKILL seem to have been a part of French emo/hardcore scene, but their odd, fucked up brand of genre-mashing is definitely right up our alley. The fourteen studio tracks recorded during their brief 3 year existence that are presented on the first disc in this set are a strange conglom of seasick metalcore, jumbled mathy chaos, hoarse screaming and strangley warbly background vocals, Dinosaur Jr.-brand indie-noise blown-bass thunder rumble and accompanying melodic sense flowing into sloppy blastbeats and queasy stoner jamz, delicate post-rock arpeggios, brutal cookie beast grindcore melting into rainy guitar jangle, ISIS/CULT OF LUNA meets SONIC YOUTH armageddon dirge, and crushing death metal flatlines/freakouts that sound like Entombed collectively being shoved down a flight of stairs mid-song. The second disc collects fifteen tracks from a variety of avant-electronic artists, where they take fragments of SHALLNOTKILL songs, sometimes nothing more than a bleat of feedback or a measure from a verse, and create a completely new and original piece of music, similiar in execution to the reconfigurations found on the ISIS Remixes double disc set from a few months back. All of this material is terrific, imaginative and alchemical reimaginings of the source material, but personal favorites include PRESSURE vs. Tin RP's hissing disembodied amp buzz that reminds us of FULCI, SHIZUKA's cosmic/orchestral darkhop, the awesome glitchy dub meets epic EARTH style amp drone of EXTERMINATINGANGELS, and the MONSTROUS city-squashing dirge of AURAL SUISSE "ps grv/50 gfy". Other tracks range from apocalyptic 8-bit meltdowns, harsh noise, glitchy minimalist IDM with ogre vocals, fucked up noisy techno, dark ambient and sublime dronescapes,and lovely chopped-up trip-hop. Neat stuff. Limited to 500 copies.
SICKNESS / SLOGUN - "The Scars of Happiness/Always Numb" CD $9
HARSH ELECTRONIC PURITY. Sickness crafts his own brand of technical harsh, detail oriented blasts that cut and shatter. Movement, complexity, intensity; the defining elements of the Sickness sound. Includes a cover of the classic Slogun track "Kill to Forget". From the gutters of New York City, Slogun is a punch in the gut, a kick in the face to the power electronics community. Singularly obsessed, Slogun IS true crime, violent and dirty. Constant abuse, shouted vocals, searing sound. This release rescues all of the material from the limited double 3" cdr set released for their 2003 Japan tour. Packaged in PACrec-style cd wallet with four panel insert.
SILENCE & STRENGTH - "Opus Paracelsum" CD $9
Second full-length esoteric dark ambient/alchemical experimental opus full of weird sounds composed by Silence & Strength. The album is inspired by life and works of Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, medieval Swiss physician, chemist, alchemist, one of the fathers of modern medicine and rebellious thinker, developed his own system of medicine and philosophy. All music by Stephan Friedman.
SILENCIO - "Dead Kings" CD $9
Instrumental. Silencio (from Columbus, OH) combines many different styles including harcore, noise, metal, jazz and others to craft very precise and explosive songs. Silencio shares some common ground with the Flying Luttenbachers (longer, more composition oriented racket), Naked City (genre switching, mind boggling, manic intensity), and late Iceburn (unbelievably good musicianship used to make totally innovative music). Silencio are truly forging new ground in music.
SIMBIOSE - "Evolution?" CD $9
DARK BRUTAL CRUSTY HARDCORE THRASH ATTACK from PORTUGAL!!! The brand new album by Portuguese DIY crust veterans SIMBIOSE! Totally late 80's style metallish crust thrash with heavy down tuned guitars, brutal vocals! This is a must for all nowaday's hellish Swedish hardcore fans and DOOM/ENT style UK crust/hardcore fans! With guest appearances from Dean Jones (Extreme Noise Terror) and João “Gordo” (Ratos De Porão)!
SINAH - "Sparkling Scars of Intuitivism" CD $9
"Sinah" means "hate" in Ancient Sumerian. Hailing from the misted land of Ukraine, Sinah strikes the whole dead world with straightforward, cold storming raw Black Metal. This monument of solitude features 2 demo materials of 2003-04 and 1 additional track. A deserted portrait for empty minds.
SIXTY WATT SHAMAN - "Ultra Electric" CD $9
Finally back in print! The full-length from Baltimore's adrenaline-laced, 70's-influenced, Blues-based, whiskey-drenched, Southern-fried Stoner Groove band, Sixty Watt Shaman. Imagine CLUTCH crossed with KYUSS after a night out with SKYNYRD. Eventually signed to Spitfire, their debut was subject to rave reviews in Metal Maniacs and Kerrang!
SPLINTERED - "Noumena" CD $9
We've unearthed yet another obscure find from the UK drone rock/heavy noise/dirge rock underbelly, and are we stoked! Splintered's Noumena was released in 1995, and falls somewhere between the feedback and howling guitar sheets of early 90's Skullflower, the apocalyptic/hypnotic dirges of Swans and Godflesh, and the epic unfolding might of Neurosis. Sounds pretty rad, right? It is. Formed in 1989, this UK outfit maintained a relatively low profile during their existence in the late 1980's/early 1990's, releasing a healthy series of limited singles, four albums (to the best of our knowledge), and recording two Peel Sessions. The seven tracks on this full length blend relentless rhythmic structures and improvised guitar noise / feedback worship into monstrous squalls of ominous dirge rock, replete with thundercloud summoning drones and loops, crushing analogue synth buzz, bamboo flute, splattered samples, metal percussion, and vocals that sound like Gregorian chants recorded at the bottom of a submerged cavern, all coming together into lengthy, repetitive, droning hypno jams with titles like "Black Dwarf"! As dark and desolate as wasted urban landscapes and decaying skylines. Seriously hypnotic and heavy and eerily melodic, and definitely highly recommended to fans of punishing drone rock / dirge metal, particularly anyone into old Skullflower and Cosmonauts Hail Satan and other old school UK guitar abusers/feedback worshippers.
STALKER - "s/t" CD $9
Stalker from Italy present a mature version of modern atmo-core, similar in sound to Isis, Neurosis, Cult of Luna or Minsk. 5 tracks, 4 of them over 7 minutes and remaining one being close to 7 minutes, featuring their slow, heavy and dark sounds.
STA$D400 / ELEKTROKILL - "split" CD $9
Ever wonder what grindcore drummers do in their spare time? STA$D400 (Sven from grind/death band, WORLD DOWNFALL) churn out Commodore 64- channeling cuts and ELEKTROKILL (Christ, from grind-punkers JAPANISCHE KAMPFHORSPIELE) veer between slightly twisted downtempo tracks and Venetian Snares-like experimentalism. Definitely a must-listen for anyone that's into heady electronic music.
SUPER TIMOR - "Cauchemar D'Esque" CD $9
Smashing debut from this French sludegore-doom killing machine with sixteen songs of incredibly low tuned sludge metal and talk about GRIM! Influences are Eyehategod, Sleep, Bongzilla and Electric Wizard. This release also features their original demo recordings, as well as their full length release. Brutal artwork by Tom Denney (Southern Lord, Lair Of The Minotaur, Kylesa, Rwake, Mugwart, Buried At Sea, etc).
SUPPRESSION - "Amputated Brain Stem 1993-2000 Discography" CD $9
Noisecore. Well, grindcore with a ton of samples and a bunch of noise tracks thrown in. One of those bands that successfully mixes noisy raw grindcore and FULL ON noise. These guys have been around forever and this CD collects a ton of 7", split 7" and comp tracks, 64 tracks in all, including the splits with GRIEF, DESPISE YOU, CRIPPLE BASTARDS and collaborations with FACIALMESS and CRANK STURGEON.
TALIBAM! / WASTELAND JAZZ UNIT - "Ecstatic Jazz Duos" LP $9
In the first installment of the Ecstatic Jazz Duos series, there is no room for subtlety. On the Talibam! side, the 18-minute “The Geometric Mophometrics of P.P.P.P.P. McNasticals” (what?!) is a multi-part epic unlike anything else in the New York City duo’s recorded output. Matt Motel (synthesizer) and Kevin Shea (drums) run through the cacophonous noise-jazz most of us know them for, but also seamlessly engage in righteously proggy pursuits taking hits off King Crimson and Keith Emerson. On the B-side, Wasteland Jazz Unit gurgles shrapnel on two rippers of Borbetomagus-size reed-distortion for amplified saxophone (Jon Lorenz) and clarinet (John Rich). Cincinnati’s premier Art Damage skater-jazz crew have recorded with the likes of C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core) and Ryan Jewell (Pink Reason, Psychedelic Horseshit), and here deliver an aural abuse that just ruins your day. Edition of 500.
TEAM ROBESPIERRE / BREVATOR - "split" 10" $9
Brooklyn's no-wave Screamers-inspired electro punk band, Team Robespierre, join forces with Albany's psych-doom merchants, Brevator, who sound like the Butthole Surfers jamming with Khanate. The best in speed, the best in sludge. Get it while you can. Limited to 500 copies.
THEE ELECTRIC BASTARDS - "Live! At Club Awesome" CD $7
Featuring members of CLOUDS, OCTAVE MUSEUM, and PET GENIUS, and produced by Stephen Brodsky of CAVE IN and NEW IDEA SOCIETY, "Live! At Club Awesome" is a 11-song STUDIO recording of the band playing live at their rehearsal space. Boston's Thee Electric Bastards, whose expansive psych-pop falls somewhere in among Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd, the Zeppelin end of the White Stripes catalogue (but only if it was scored by an Elephant Six band), and Yoshimi-type Flaming Lips. And if that seems like an awful lot of territory, well, they cover a hell of a lot of it. With songs about futuristic life (Robots Do Not Rock) blatant machismo (The Peepin' Song, Play The Fool), alcoholism and mental health (Millennium Blues, Black Jets), The Bastards have allowed the listener a peek into their sordid little world, where society's ills and fears are celebrated. All of The Bastards songs are well crafted slices of weirdness, with compelling breaks in the music that are sometimes jarring in effect. It harkens back to the days when rock music was more experimental, and less formulaic. RIYL: PIXIES, SYD BARRETT, FLAMING LIPS
TO BLACKEN THE PAGES - "The Urgency " CD $9
The Urgency presents 1 massive track clocking in at 47 minutes. Beginning with luscious, gently lulling guitars, it becomes saturated with a droning holler of feedback. The Urgency is a testament to failed hopes and dreams, residing somewhere between Earth's Thrones & Dominions and Skullflower. Foldout cardboard sleeve, hand numbered in an edition of 100.
TO BLACKEN THE PAGES - "Semblance Of Something Appertaining To Destruction" CD $9
Following on from their third CD, 'NONE', released in February 2008, this release forms a sister record of sorts to 'NONE', and follows on from sessions begun in late 2007. 'A semblance…' continues their exploration into sonically drenched guitar work. From the sublime to the extreme, this release sees TBTP incorporate substantial drum work and sampled voices into the music, and sees them approaching a more refined sound through a repetition of simple motifs and structures. 'A semblance…' continues their expansion into the exploration of reverb, echo and delay, while being underpinned by a ruthless simplicity.
TO BLACKEN THE PAGES - "North" CD $9
The third part in an ongoing series of blackened drone guitar missives from Irish one man slow and low wrecking crew To Blacken The Pages. Fans of the first two TBTP records are already well versed in the bleak abstract soundworld this guy can conjure, fusing the low end explorations of groups like SUNNO))), Expo '70, Bohren, Slomo and the like, with something a bit more psychedelic and space-y. Sure, TBTP is capable of unfurling some planet crushing black hole heaviness, but also of tossing handfulls of notes into crystalline expanses of murky reverb, letting the various notes flutter and fall, before tossing out another handful. The first two tracks on North are perfect examples, "Crossing" and "I Am Screes On Her Escarpments", the first begins as a swirling almost static field of slow shifting reverb and delay, peppered with percussive thumps and creaks, sent careening into the ether, while shards of clean guitar, sounding a bit like super mellow Keiji Haino, unfurl like clouds of grey smoke, while underneath, a guitar rumbles and whirs, gradually becoming more and more riff-like, ringing out a bit chaotic and noisy, before slipping into the second which begins with the same sort of reverbed stretch of echoey thumps and creaks, before the guitar thickens into a crumbling corrosive wall of swirling chordal hum and keening feedback, a roiling blackened bit of guitar ambience, infused with melody and moodiness and shot through with strange high end streaks and swoops that are probably effected guitars, but almost sound like children's voices here and there. Quite haunting. The next few tracks take TBTP's sound in a different direction, the root again being shimmering guitars, but this time the focus is on the voice, a lazy drawled croon nestled down in the mix, that drifts along side the increasingly caustic guitar buzz resulting in a sound not unlike some strange Dead C / Roy Montgomery hybrid, a sort of sun baked noise drenched dronedirge slowcore. Dark and woozy and melancholy and way druggy and drowsy sounding. Later, "To Be Dead" introduces actual drums, and gets all propulsive, a lurching noise rock take on spaced out krautrock, but with the guitars in full on overdrive, a constantly swirling squall of feedback and psychrock freakout. And then the last two tracks are massive billowing clouds of coruscating buzz and skree, blurred into gorgeous multi hued smears of blown out guitar and a gorgeous hazy shoegazey drift, in fact the nearly 15 minute "Night Drive" might be one of the prettiest heavy guitar tracks we've heard in ages, anyone into Nadja or Jesu, will love it, it's like the slow motion metalgaze of those two outfits but stripped of drums and allowed to just sort of hover. So nice. Needless to say, the drone and dirge and doom obsessed out there definitely NEED this too, and folks not necessarily into metal, but who still dig on dark drifty hazy heaviness might be pretty into To Blacken The Pages, North in particular...
TOMB OF... - "...Those Dismal Moments" cassette $6
A Greek ambient doom one man band with a baffling mix of Windham Hill like piano, and harsh hateful demonic growls. As if George Winston were possessed by the spirit of Satan. Simultaneously soothing and dreamy, ominous and so very black. The combination of piano and vocals was so simple, yet so intense and emotional, a bastardized take on the singer songwriter, a lonely soul expressing sadness and misery through music, but placing it in a black ambient context. With huge expanses of sweeping synths, delicate crystalline chimes, huge swells of rumbling low end, very epic and dramatic, with an almost loped hypnotic quality, it's like the super dramatic denouement of some horror movie, but looped into some slowly evolving mantra, the whole thing wreathed in dense swirls of reverb and echo, the vocals, sometimes a deathly growl, other times a strange alien grumble, way down in the mix, guitars wail and scream, but they too are buried beneath the thick tendrils of warm whirring chords and buzzy blown out ambience. It's almost like entering some crumbling old church in a dream, everything foggy and indistinct, the sky is visible through the roof, the windows are all broken, you can see hills and trees outside, lost and wandering in a dreamlike daze, slowly taking in all of the destruction, the mystery and the misery. It doesn't even have to be a church, just some old ruined building, as long as it has history, and is imbued with the life force of lost spirits and lonely souls. ...Those Dismal Moments is actually quite true to its title. And we're not sure whether it's intentional or not, but there is so much distortion and tape hiss, so much fuzz and buzz, it almost sounds like a Tomb Of... record recorded by Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker, all blown out and blurry, indistinct and shot through with warm streaks of dusty sunlight... So completely amazing!! Limited to 500 copies.
TORSO / GACK - split cdr $7
The Torso/Gack split is two sides of the same apocalyptic coin. The Torso portion's P.E. styled synth destruction walks you through your own torturous death. Then Gack's more atmoshperic blackened noise takes you on a slow journey through purgatory and leaves you stranded in hell. Edition of 103.
UNCONDITIONAL LOATHING - "Cornholecopia" CD $9
For several years spanning the late 90's and early 00's, Unconditional Loathing were the kings of the Minneapolis "noise" scene. With line-ups of up to a dozen members, and a million incestuous side-projects, they alternately showcased high-concept performance art and the lowest in scummy absurdity. Beginning in 2001, the core members one by one relocated to various cities on the west coast, leaving many of us to believe the UL magic was lost forever - but this CD proves they're back on top, where they belong. So whats on tap? Nasty improvised static drones and psychic noise and experimental surrealist electronics are interspaced with damaged freak-rock, nuked breakbeats, field recordings, diseased outsider ballads, blasts of fried disembodied AM Radio pop, all glued together by a twisted and thoroughly hardcore psychedelic attack. This stuff RULES. There are also live recordings of the band getting unplugged by local noise promoters. Fun stuff!
UNPERSONS - "III" CD $9
Unpersons are bringing something unique to the table with this release. They use crust as a foundation for their insane sound, but maintain a very loose song writing style over the course of this 11 song monster, that shows there are really no limits as to what they are ready to unleash on your unsuspecting ears. Mellow, almost jazzy sections of psychedelia turn into out of control bursts of hatred without a moment's notice. The band even get downright sludgy from time to time with a few very well placed doom riffs that are a bit punked up in the vein of late greats, Cavity and Buzzov*en. Add to this some extremely fucked up vocals and you are in for a trip that you won't soon forget!! It is an intense, musical journey that is nothing short of insane and even epic at times. This is an amazing album. For fans of Cavity, Buzzov*en, Black Flag, Damad, Dystopia, Kylesa.
UNSEEN FORCE - "In Search of the Truth" CD $9
You won't find any post-hardcore mid 80's progressive art rock garbage here; we assure you that this cd contains nothing but, fast, chaotic unadulterated 80's hardcore punk rock. We've unearthed one hell of a hardcore gem with this one. Finally available once again after 22 long years is the official reissue of UNSEEN FORCE'S devastating LP from 1986 "IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH." Comprised of members of WHITE CROSS, HONOR ROLE, and 2000 MANIACS (and eventually FOUR WALLS FALLING and GWAR) ... UNSEEN FORCE made a name for themselves in their brief two year existence, playing countless shows both locally and nationwide, and releasing their 11 song monster of an LP. This reissue contains 35 songs total ... their long out of print IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH full length (originally a one time, self-released press of 500 copies) in it's entirety, a live soundboard set from their 1986 tour which features several unreleased tracks, and all of the tracks from the 2000 Maniacs (pre-UF band) 1984 demo. The LP songs were taken directly from the master reels, and all of the material was then remastered by Dan Randall at Mammoth Sound (who has mastered records for 86 MENTALITY, DIRECT CONTROL, GOVERNMENT WARNING, WASTED TIME, and tons more). Coupled with the original lyric sheet insert and a ton of rare flyers and pictures from the band members' personal collections, this release has been given the proper re-issue treatment it deserved.
UW OWL - "Thorn Elemental" LP $9.50
This LP features ten songs chosen from a mass of recordings between 2003 and 2004. Electrical currents, desolate sound scapes, dark tunnels, late night jams and structured waste recorded on a broken, dust-filled concrete basement floor in Bushwick, NY. 140g Vinyl. Packaged in a self assembled dye-cut and letterpressed jacket with insert. Edition of 333.
THE VALLEY - "Purple Octopus" 10" COLORED VINYL $10
The Valley takes cues from past rock-n-roll luminaries with big visions and a big muff pedal. You'll find hints of Scratch Acid, Mudhoney and Dinosaur Jr. here. Very cool purple/black splatter vinyl. Limited to 500.
VILLAINS - "Drenched In The Poisons" CD $9
Filthy, low-fi, sleaze metal from Villains! "Drenched In The Poisons" conjures up the danger and proud unholy spirit of early metal and acid punk. Eschewing decency, production values, hygiene and good taste this music is played by drunk heshers for drunk heshers. Like the best Nordic black metal - where inspiration in found in the nature of the Motherland - Villains draw their influences from the streets of New York City. Recorded in one evening of aggressive whiskey-drenched intoxication, "Drenched In Poisons" is 28 minutes of brutal shredding that makes you want to get wasted. Features current and ex-members of Spaceboy, Hemlock, Ceremonium, The Champs and Unearthly Trance.
VIVA LA RXEVOLUTION - "v/a" CD $6
15 band STONER/DOOM/ROCK compilation CD featuring With A Bullet, Hellrancho, The Valley, Mendozza, Mos Generator, Kaskadia, Backwoods Payback, Golden Pig Electric Blues Band, Oaks, Lozen, Sower of Dischord, War With Saturn, 3D Witch Hunt, Stone Axe, Bacchus.
VOMIT - "Kate Moss" 7" $6
Disjointed and spastic fast hardcore out of SoCal. Eight songs on one side, so you know what you're getting yourself into: a couple sludgy ones and a whole bunch of super fast, super short, priceless gems of unsightliness. Near clean guitar, distorted bass, dry drum sounds work great for their classic sounding tone. Great artwork. Dig it!
VOODOO SHOCK / IRONKIND - "split" 7" $6
This split pairs the Swiss/German trio of Voodoo Shock with Colorado's Iron Kind. Voodoo Shock do melodic Doom Metal with a strong Obsessed influence, while Ironkind play Rocky Mountain Sludge Doom with homage paid to Pentagram. Limited edition of 1000 copies.
VULGAR PIGEONS - "Burning Episode" CD $9
The brand new album from the under lords of crust grind enthrallment. Seven new songs of intense and utter abomination that will coax your mind into a fitting frenzy. Comments the band, "the new material starts where 'Imperialism' left off but throws a lot of new twists and dimensions on top of that." Recorded at House Of Faith Studios in Oakland, CA the effort was mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East (Pelican, Cave In, Keelhaul).
WARBOYS - "Too Drunk to Skate" 7" $5
Forming in late 2006 from the ashes of a few other side projects involving everything from crust punk to grindcore, the Leeds based 3 piece known as Warboys have finally conjured up their first vinyl release. What can only be described essentially as 11 tracks of ultra fast grind mixed with manic, 625 styled fastcore/power violence. The band tend to adopt one motto - "No messing about style" and thats exactly what you get, a brutally intense fusion of powerviolence and discordant grind. The record is limited to 500 and the sleeve itself is available in 3 different colours. Warboys draw their influences from INFEST, CHARLES BRONSON, THE ENDLESS BLOCKADE and pretty much any other band that sound like a bomb flattening a city.
WEAVING THE DEATHBAG - "s/t" 7" $5
Raging and galloping intense hardcore, midwest style. Combining the full throttled speed with melodic guitar lines and a full energetic adrenaline. Short and fast songs with good lyrics-including one about not bringing dogs to shows. Quick tempo changes deliver incredible hooks and a relentless energy that makes this both really catchy and memorable. This record comes with one of those old school huge lyric sheets with a poster on one side and the lyrics and the band pictures on the other.
WEEDEATER - "Sixteen Tons" CD $9
A masterwork of southern fried sludgecore. The soundtrack to your next zombie beach party. Sixteen Tons churns out a black hole of thunderous, snarling Swamp Doom from acclaimed rebel rockers WEEDEATER (featuring Dixie Dave of confederate metal legends BUZZOVEN). With monstrous production courtesy of Billy Anderson (MELVINS, SWANS, CATHEDRAL), these ten whiskey soaked anthems are heavier than a mastodon trapped in a tarpit. Crusty, wasted, and buried.
WHAT ARE THE MUSEUMS DOING? CD $5
A weird folk/experimental compilation featuring Death By A Thousand Cuts, The Black Swans, CNTR, Boo Hiss, Whitman, The Great Lakes, Carbonic, Red Weather Tigers, The Great Onanist Swindle, Derek Joe Brockett, Everything Is Fine, Cake On Cake, Manipulator, Holly and the Dead Saints, Theath.
WHAT IF GODS LIE - "Third World" CD $9
Ex HOG members from Mexico City playing angry political crustpunk (lyrics in both Spanish and English). Musically they are heavy, down-tuned crust with growled vocals - pretty closely capturing the classic sounds of late 80's crust/punk crossover bands like DOOM and ENT. There is also a hint of the more modern, tuneful influences of TRAGEDY and friends which, coupled with a excellent recording quality, really makes for an exciting and not entirely predicatble release. This is their first full length, hot on the heels of their great split CD with ALL SYSTEMS FAIL.
WHISPER ROOM - "Birch White" CD $9
Whisper Room is a trio based in Toronto, Canada and Berlin, Germany featuring Aidan Baker of NADJA on guitar/affects, Neil Wiernik of NAW on bass/laptop and Jakob Thiesen of STUDENTS on drums/electronics. These three creative minds had moved in similar musical circles in Toronto and Montreal for years sporadically sharing stages but did not actively come together to play as a trio until Dec 2006. Since then they have worked as a improvisational unit and combined their disparate musical backgrounds to create music which explores the conjunction of electronic rhythms and textures with the pulsations and psychedelics and shoegaze and krautrock music. After the initial meeting and first set of shows it was clear that the collaboration between the three had a rare dynamism that took the music to another level. Thus was born Whisper Room.
WHITE EYES - "A Demonstration of..." CD $6
A mix of grind, noise, light jazz and electronic music. Fans of AN ALBATROSS will definitely dig the synth shrapnel and Squarepusher-schooled IDM beats that are sprayed across the screeching of the vocalist. The title "A Demonstration of" certainly lives up to its title as the band shows what it can do and what you can expect more of soon. Definitely for fans of experimental grind!
WILDILDLIFE - "Six" CD $9
Heavy, crunchy riffage rolls over celestial FX freakout and gang choral voices: part gluey pop hallucination, part psychedelic blast furnace, part metalloid skullcrush. Super melodic and catchy but vaguely menacing and dark at the same time: this is WILDILDLIFE. Their debut full length Six follows up a fistful of CD-R and vinyl documents and summons a wicked whirlpool of dense distorto crunch and freaky singing, raging metallic percussive pummel, tribal rhythms and crushing effects-soaked guitars, subdued floatational drones and ecstatically gorgeous melodies, all let loose in a series of psychedelic slowcore eruptions and swirling cosmic sludge. Going back and referencing a review that Terrascope Magazine printed about one of the band's earlier CD-R releases, this sounds vaguely like Black Sabbath and Butthole Surfers jamming together with ancient forest mystics, an experience both brutal and beautiful, and which proves that Wildildlife have already established themselves as serious purveyors of blown-out mindmelt heaviness.
WINTERS IN OSAKA - "Red Tooth, Red Claw" CD $9
Two new tracks from Chicago based noise band Winters in Osaka. It is the last recording to feature Erik Stanis, who died earlier in 2008. The first track is a collaboration with Norway's Zweizz (ex-Dodheimsgard) and Japanese writer-Kenji Siratori, Entitled "Satyr's Birth", the ten minute track is WIO's harshest and most intense. In contrast, the second track is a the bands' quietest and most slow moving song to date. No surprise, as it is a collaboration with drone legend-Mykel Boyd. Will appeal to fans of extreme sound art.
WOLFSSCHREI - "Torture Of A Human Soul" CD $9
New release from Germany's WOLFSSCHREI!! Recorded Jan/Feb 2006 by Taaken (ODAL, BARASTIR, ERHABENHEIT). Mixtures of Satanic Warmaster and Darkthrone. Excellent CD!! Weathered artwork on textured paper, includes all lyrics.
YUKON - "Medallion" CD $8
Regardless of what you prefer to call it — prog, math rock, or otherwise — Yukon are a band that push the technical limits of a traditional guitar rock combo to its logical extremes. Yukon play some sort of post-hardcore Touch & Go / Skingraft memorial rock with a slightly jazzy edge. The guitar, bass and drums all occupy their usual sonic space, and retain a texture and timbre you’re accustomed to, but the players arrange them into inventive structures and intricate polyrhythms that never fall into neatly predictable patterns.
ZAMMUTO - "Willscher" CD $9
With a number of post-rock starting points (multiple bass harmonics, motorik pulse hypnosis, lust for 70s German electronics), Zammuto constructs a rhythmically bubbling sound by broadcasting these sounds through a construction of PVC pipes, and sampled the results for hard-disc editing. As if Fridge's percussive grooves and Noto's slow constructions of sine wave oscillation had a meeting of minds.
ZANDOSIS - "George W. Bush Go Straight To Fucking Hell" CD $8
Love them or hate them, Zandosis unleash their debut full length cd, “George W Bush Go Straight To Fucking Hell”. Zandosis unleashes a shotgun blast of mayhem. Sounding like Mike Patton fronting a guitarless Melt Banana on crack complete with such hits as “Dick Cheney Bleeding to Death on the Streets of Detroit”, “Donald Rumsfeld Buried Up to His Neck in Dogshit with Lawnmower on Top”, “John Ashcroft Flattened Under the Weight of a 5,200 Pound Replica of the Ten Commandments”, “Tony Blair Trampled By French Poodles”, “Pat Robertson Plagued by Locusts”, “Karl Rove Forced to Roam the Earth Forever as One of the Living Dead Feeding on Raw Sewage” including the soon to be MTV hit “George W. Bush Go Straight To Fucking Hell”. Zandosis were way ahead of their time with most of these hits having been written six years ago.
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