CRUCIAL BLAST WEBSTORE: NEW ARRIVALS FOR SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28th 2010
Emperor frontman Ihsahn has been exploring the proggier side of his metallic tendencies across the last couple of solo albums released under his own name, but his latest, After, is easily the black metal legend's most unique and brain-melting album since the dissolution of Emperor; melding intricate prog-thrash, melodic elements, free jazz horns and art-rock strategies, After is both surprisingly accessible and pretty far-out sonically. It blew me away when I first got it in last week, and is a shoe-in for this week's featured releases.
The new Audiofilm II 3" CD from Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer/Agoraphobic Nosebleed) is also available at long last...I've had to deal with an insane amount of manufacturing issues with this release, but it's finally out after a long delay, and it came out beautifully...Seldon Hunt once again created the eerie imagery for the miniature jacket, and the recording is one of Scott's most crunchy noise pieces thus far...
Here's some of the other new titles and restocks that have come in:
a super-limited 12" record from the mighty MELVINS...
an excellent new disc of dark doomjazz/soundtrack music/ambience from GUAPO side project RASHOMON...
an utterly fucked up and mutant album from Japan's MONEYI$GOD, like a cross between Swans, Zeni Geva and, uh, ska???
the crushing noise/sludge rock experiments of MIR, featuring members of Swiss jazz-core legends 16-17...
messed up psychedelic black metal skum from GOAT HORNS...
warped occultic hardcore punk from DAZD...
the aggressive French sludgecore of AGUIRRE's Calvaire...
restocks of ARCTURUS's space-prog-metal opus Sideshow Symphonies, THOU's Tyrant CD and CYNIC's Traced In Air...
the crushing new split album featuring Bastard Noise (with bass!) and The Endless Blockade, brutal noise/powerviolence from both!
a new album of sinister ambient deathdrone from IRM mainman Martin Bladh...
three of the early hardcore/thrash/noise centric albums from Japanese weirdos BOREDOMS...
a massive two disc set of early material from black metallers Catholicon...
the new album from Japanese math metallers CYBERNE...
the brand new album number three from UK sludge/doom/crust/blackgrind terrorizer DERELICT SERMON...
a new cdr/chapbook set featuring new dark chamber/folk recordings from GODHEADSCOPE...
two recent BASTARD NOISE collaboration albums on Housepig, one with GOLEM GROSS, the other with CHRISTIAN RENOU...
the latest disc of blackened cosmic sludge ambience from HJARNIDAUDI...
an amazing new disc of prog/space/sludge from ONE STARVING DAY...
former FEAR OF GOD frontman Dave Phillips returns with a fearsome new album of electro-acoustic terror and nauseous frequencies...
a new Lp from black metal abstractionist WYQM...
and two discs from the supremely whacked-out French duo ZEBARGES, who sound like a brain-damaged Big Black covering Venom...
Of course, there's much more mutant heavy music to be had...keep reading below to check out all of the amazing new music that we have in this week's new arrivals list!
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FEATURED RELEASE
IHSAHN After (Deluxe Version) CD + DVD (Candlelight) 14.98
The latest solo album from Emperor front man Ihsahn is by far his most cohesive and ambitious, and while I enjoyed his previous forays into progressive post-blackness (especially the angL album), this new one is the best stuff that I've heard from the black metal legend since the last Emperor album. But this is anything but another black metal album; there's plenty of cruel, blackened metal on After, enough that even the less adventurous BM fans will find plenty to incite whiplash to, but this album is closer to prog rock than anything. The other two solo albums that make up this trilogy are heavy on the dramatic, orchestral black metal fused with older metal sounds and lots of prog, but here it's PROG first and foremost, as if the prominent use of saxophone doesn't tip you off!
Yeah, there's free jazz blowing ALL OVER this album, courtesy of Shining saxophonist Jorgen Munkeby (whose new album Blackjazz is a straight mindblower that I'll be featuring here at Crucial Blast soon enough!), and the near constant presence of Munkleby's ecstatic blowing adds a dark, majestic jazzy vibe to the album that I can't get enough of. But that's only part of the equation here - Ihsahn also brings in a handful of other sounds for After, gothy pop, art rock, super-intricate thrash metal, jazz fusion, and of course, lots of progressive rock. It's weird hearing parts of this album veer into Tool territory, but Ihsahn makes it work with strong songs and some really amazing atmosphere that puts this somewhere close to Enslaved's recent output.
"The Barren Lands" opens the album with lurching angular metalcore crush, soaring guitars and harsh choked roars, pounding double bass, the song arranged into a pummeling mathy groove, with Ihsahn's clean soulful vocals coming in later in the song later on. "A Grave Inversed" starts with furious blackened thrash riffing and hyperspeed blastbeats, hints of Ihsahn's black metal past shining through, but the sound is still super proggy, all of a sudden scorched by some awesome frenetic free-jazz sax that blasts streams of skronk over the dizzying blackthrash...then the track slows down towards the end, massive chugging guitars and evil chromatic soloing melding with the blurts of free jazz blowing, some killer bluesy rock soloing too, almost Yakuza-like but way more rocking and progged-out before returning into another furious thrash assault with circular horns swooping across the galloping thrash metal, like some carnivale Coltrane-meets-Enslaved mayhem. Awesome !!!
The title track follows, a slower, brooding dirge with layered guitars, clean harmonized singing, sounding a lot like Opeth, with a stunning chorus hook and lots of Floydian atmospherics, clean guitars strummed over crunchy doomy riffage buried in the background, all psychedelic and dramatic, with demented dissonant guitar work woven into the melodic riffs. "Frozen Lakes On Mars" is a ripping prog-thrash number with awesome soaring leads and weird effects; and the ten minute "Undercurrent" is all gorgeous dark jazziness, with fusiony fretless bass and dark crooning vocals guiding the song into another lurching prog dirge streaked with screaming noir-esque saxophones that builds into angular thrash. "Austere" is a weird sort of dark prog-pop, jazzy and heavy, with Hammond organs and fluid jazzy bass guitar; "Heaven's Black Sea" returns to the blackness with a warped carnival crush, drums locked into a magnificent martial pummel that shifts between pounding mid paced thrash and grim industrial grooves, and the final track is the jazziest on the album, moving from interwoven horn parts, galloping metal riffs, and lush harmonized vocals, even reminding me of a darker, heavier Queen at times (!).
Fans of Ihsahn's other solo albums are sure to love this, and even those that thought that the previous two tread too far into melodrama will probably find After a far more focused record; I've been playing this for all of my friends that are into Ulver, Yakuza, Hammers Of Misfortune, Ludicra, Enslaved, The Mass, Ephel Duath, and so far everyone has LOVED this album. Definitely one of the best prog/metal albums to come out som far this year.
This limited edition version of After also includes a supplementary DVD that features a lengthy making-of studio documentary on the recording process of After, an in-depth six minute interview with Ihsahn about the themes on the album, and a full live set from Oslo, Norway from March 2009 when Ihsahn and band opened for Opeth. Comes in a printed slipsleeve. Track Samples: Sample : After Sample : A Grave Inversed Sample : Heaven's Black Sea
Alfarmania the self-described "post-mortem power electronic" project from workaholic Kristian Olsson, who also records with projects like Survival Unit, Blood Ov Thee Christ, Shock Tilt, and Styggelse; like those outfits, Alfarmania is dark, heavy industrial, but this is a much more blackened and sinister sound than anything else that I've heard from Olsson. The sound is dark, creepy industrial with a seriously blackened streak running through it; I hear hints of Abruptum, the early Broken Flag output, and SPK in the grinding slow-motion clang and murk of Nojjan, all of which signifies that this is exactly the kind of industrial sound that I'm addicted to, and this tape (the first ever American release from Alfarmania, and released by the excellent Cathartic Process label) is definitely on the heavier side of the noise/industrial spectrum. Each side of the sixty minute tape has two long tracks, lengthy sprawling fields of blown out murky drones, demonic howling, harsh distorted shrieks, electronic FX, pounding percussion buried underneath the layers of noise, streaks of high pitched feedback, indiscernible samples from old low budget horror films, scraped metal and surges of blown-out scrap metal chaos, and heavy doom-laden riffs that seem to be coming from distorted guitars (or at least seriously distorted synths, it's hard to tell exactly). The atmosphere on these tracks is positively apocalyptic and steeped in dread and despair, the sounds densely layered, shifting between corrosive noise and a blackened power electronics assault. Overdriven synths roar, blasting heavy metallic drones and deep rumbling electronics, deep distorted vocals echoing through the clang and buzz, at certain parts the sound is invaded by the whining skree of what sound like dentist drills; at other points, squealing gears and clanking metal rise to a deafening din. When it really launches into it's heaviest, the sounds on Nojjan sound almost like classic power electronics infused with doomdrone-strength heaviness. This is excellent apocalyptic abysmal industrial. The cassette is packaged inside of an oversized zip bag that also contains a full color folder with disturbing, hellish-looking collage art.
ATOMTRAKT Nuklearchetyp CD (Mercenary Musik) 11.98
Grim, Wagnerian bombast from this side-project from Christoph Ziegler, the guy behind the dark ambient/black metal project Vinterriket. As Atomtrakt, Ziegler forges a combination of bleak neo-classical ambience, symphonic elements, pounding industrial rhythms, and samples from WWII propaganda films, a sound that I'm well familiar with, following as it does in the footsteps of various Cold Meat Industries outfits, early In Slaughter Natives, Puissance, Toroidh, Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, early Von Thronstahl, H.E.R.R. and Der Blutharsch. Where Atomtrakt slightly differs is in the distorted vokills, which come out as harsh and blackened rasps, very black metal-esque, and which give the tracks that they appear on an ugly, feral feel. It's an evil brand of martial industrial, the soundtrack for approaching nuclear blast waves, global plagues and incinerated cities. Nuklearchetyp is the second album from Atomtrakt, and only half of the tracks feature those blackened blown-out shrieks; the other half of the album is entirely ambient, long tracks of soundtrack-style strings and brass, dark orchestral synths, woodwinds, distorted spoken-word samples, droning organs, and groaning cellos over a battalion of pounding, martial tympani drums. Majestic blackened Teutonic industrial that follows a recurring minor-key motif that reappears throughout the album, and drifting on a black tide of swirling, drifting keys that are unsurprisingly very similar to the bleak wintry synth-ambience of Vinterriket. You can practically feel the ash drifting off of this music. Nuklearchetyp is limited to 1000 copies and includes an enhanced portion of the disc that has a video for the track "Eisenkerker". Track Samples: Sample : einoede Sample : eisenkerker
BONE AWL Meaningless Leaning Mess (REPRESS) LP (Nuclear War Now! Productions) 15.98
After infesting us with a swarm of limited-run cassettes, splits, and 7" EP's, Bone Awl has finally arrived with their first full length album,
Meaningless Leaning Mess, a shredded collection of 17 songs in the vein of the Not for Our Feet and Up To Something cassette
tapes. Part of our (and many others) infatuation with this enigmatic California duo is the way that they have stripped down black metal to a molten,
minimalist punk core, a blasting atmospheric noize assault matched with strange existential lyrics utterly unlike anything else in black metal; drummer and
guitarist He Who Gnashes Teeth and He Who Crushes Teeth rip through crude, rusted-out husks of simplistic blackened thrash, every song built from only one or
two basic crusty riffs and screeching distorted vocals, but bashed out over and over with a focused repetitive force over a primitive and furious midtempo
drumming that sets in like a trance. The instruments, hell, the entire production is swamped in white noise hiss, the recording pushed into the red,
super distorted and noisy, giving this an extremely gritty, skuzzy vibe closer to bands like Rusted Shut and Brainbombs than anything typical to black metal,
like a blasted, blazed noise rock mutation of Venom and Discharge. The statement on the inside of the record's enormous poster sleeve is great, giving a
clear idea of where this music is coming from: "BONE AWL would like to thank the world that bends and creaks, it's swaying spines, it's unlimited
precariousness, and it's little winks, letting us always know the joke is on us." Awesome. The aforementioned poster sleeve is amazing looking, a stark,
creepy looking collage of pasted-together cathedrals teetering at insane angles like something out of a Lovecraft story, alongside faceless scarecrows and
puppets, bizarre word play, and strange quotes. Kinda reminds me of Rudimentary Peni's artwork but it's far more esoteric and mysterious looking. Another amazing, haunting blast from the Awl. This is the newer repress of the LP, pressed on heavywieght black vinyl and housed in a printed inner sleeve and chipboard jacket instead of the 6-panel foldout poster that made up the original packaging.
BURIAL HEX Four Tone Poems Of Orlog 2x CASSETTE (Cathartic Process) 15.98
More gnarly "oppressive necro electronics" from Burial Hex, that blackened industrial outfit headed up by the extremely busy Clay Ruby who also gives us the doom-laden psychedelic rock of Jex Thoth, the bizarre ramshackle blackened metal of Wormsblood, Hintergedanken's lethargic drug dirge, and the oddball psych-folk of Davenport. As Burial Hex, though, Clay's psychedelic tendencies disappear straight into a black gaping maw of grimy nightmare ambience. This limited edition double-cassette set serves up four sides of horrific dronedrift and blackened industrial sound, about eighty minutes of music total, and it stands out from the rest of the Burial Hex catalog mainly for the strange almost symphonic sounds that drift through these lengthy tracks. There are seriously eerie strains of what sounds like looped, muted orchestral strings, and deep rumbling tones that resemble the sound of woodwinds and brass that have been washed out and pitch shifted, sounding like a decomposing classical piece from out of a nightmare, buried under layers of rust and filth and decay and stretched out and warped beneath thick clouds of reverb and catacomb echo. Random scrapes and crashes echo through long lightless underground passageways, and simple creepy chordal drones drifting trough the subterranean blackness.
As you continue through each side, you descend into even deeper chambers of sound. Deep resonant bowed metal tones and soft smears of keening feedback are accompanied by ghostly wails in the distance and monstrous inhuman roars. Droning, buzzing cello-like sounds and deep pulsing low-end hum form into swells of vast deep-earth thunder. Harsh icy winds blast through cramped crumbling crypts, and bits of ominous piano and clanking metal pipes trail off into stretches of almost total silence. Delicate little fragments of melody drift through shadows, the sound is constantly decaying, decomposing, floating disembodied through Burial Hex's eerie underworld, ending in smears of kosmiche keys that fade away at the very end of the last tape. Deep blackened ambience and abstract creep come together into a form of ghoulish ritual dronemusic, sometimes reminding me of a cross between early Lustmord and the otherworldly black ambience of Moevot. Fans of the Aural Hypnox label and the abstract necrotic clatter of Uno Actu would dig this set. The tapes come in a heavy duty molded vinyl case that also includes a black and white sticker.
High contrast images of depravity, eschatological Rorschachs and severe mutation...just about everything that I want to see in an underground art rag. That and more is present in the inaugural issue of Cabal, a new publication from the industrial label Cathartic Process that's hopefully going to be coming out on a regular basis. The first issue is packed with forty-four perfect-bound pages full of gruesome photo collages, nihilistic visions, images of cycloptic children, sexual depravity, bondage, psychedelic violence, deformity, all delivered in a stark, high-contrast hand-assembled style that reminds me of both the early SPK record sleeves and the bizarre collage art of Mike Williams (Eyehategod). These hallucinatory works are from Ben Brucato (Clew Of Theseus), Shool K., Nnerves, and Pasi Markulla (of Finnish harsh noise project Bizarre Uproar), and there is also a short interview with Bizarre Uproar.
The zine is also packaged with a thirty-minute cassette tape from an anonymous artist, the only thing that's printed on the tape is the pyramid/eye image that appears on the zine and the stickers; whoever is behind this, they serve up a crushing black slab of hellish industrial noise, a mass of scraping squealing abrasion and amp abuse, massive low end droning heaviness like metallic rumbling doomdrone guitars, rhythmic bass throb, shrieking feedback, overdriven percussion, the shuddering grind of machinery breaking down. Definitely harsh, heavy industrial noise, similar to Ramleh, Con-Dom, etc.
And the set is assembled in a really cool package that consists of a black zip bag with the Cabal eye on the front, with the 5" x 7" zine, cassette, and Cabal stickers enclosed inside.
DREAD Buried In Narcissism CD-R (Menace To Sobriety) 5.98
Disgustingly slow and hateful death sludge from this Boston outfit that features former members of the mighty satanic punk/doom/metal band Upsidedown Cross; it was that connection that initially led me to check this out, I've been a big fan of Upsidedown Cross for years, but even without knowing that Dread had former members of the infamous Boston satanic sludge metallers, Dread's debut still completely crushes, serving up ten tracks of old school, primitive, sludgy death metal damage that crawls along at a pulverizing tempo, the riffs super distorted and bass-heavy, the shrieking tortured vocals dusted in distortion and hard narcotics, lyrics filled to the brim with misanthropic hatred...it's like hearing sludge core legends Grief glazed over with a thick sheen of Merzbowian skuzz. This band KILLS. Dread's riffs are heavy and bludgeoning enough, but it's those misery-wracked vocals that really push Dread's sound into a whole 'nuther level of Hell, the screaming and shrieking pushed through extreme levels of gruesome distortion, and it ends up sounding a lot like the kind of vocal delivery you hear from power electronics groups. The songs tend to focus on a single pounding monochromatic riff, but sometimes the music slips into a drunken, Sabbath-like swaggering groove, and occasionally the guitarist will rip into a wailing bluesy guitar solo that comes out of nowhere, or the guitars wobble in and out of tune, adding to their sickly, and dope sick vibe. Not that you're gonna confuse anything that these guys do for feel-good music - with song titles like "Ringworm Migration", "Depths Of Your Flaws", "Repugnant", and "Contemplating Suicide Or Murder", there's no doubt that the members of Dread are totally immersed in nihilism, debasement, and ugliness. Sure sounds great to me. The best reference point that I can think of for this disc would be somewhere in between the noxious negative sludge of early Fistula, Noothgrush, and Toadliquor, and the gruesome lumbering death of Autopsy, Cianide and early Grave infused with the same don't-give-a-fuck, hate-everyone vibe as their buddies in Kilslug and Anal Cunt. Gnarly! Track Samples: Sample : Contemplating Suicide Or Murder Sample : Premeditated Cruelty
FERMENTAE Diasporia 3 INCH CD-R (Black Goat) 5.98
Fermentae is an experimental electronic project from Cali artist Kevin Yuen, who utilizes controlled feedback, blackened guitar riffs and distorted drones to craft vast suffocating soundscapes filled with light-devouring dread and intense low-end menace. The limited edition 3" CDR Diasporia comes to us from the label Black Goat, and it fits right in with the label's apocalyptic black noise aesthetic, delivering a single epic nineteen minute slab of terrifying blackened industrial drone. It starts off subdued and ominous, deep rumbling subterranean tones flowing into abyssal washes of keening feedback and warped strings that are drowning under thick cloudbanks of corrosive distortion, gradually revealing these irradiated fluttering electronic noises that flutter down into the void. As the track unfolds, Yuen employs some interesting stereo panning techniques that shoot bits of pulsing noise and insectile electronic chitter back and forth across the sound field and add to the increasingly tense, skin-crawling ambience, and massive over modulated bass-pulses start to detonate in the distance about eight minutes in. The processed percussive sounds are joined by immensely distorted guitar that surges in like a wave of black buzz, the droning roar distorted to the point of overload, a black droning mass of crumbling swarming chordal fury that coalesces into a menacing two-chord riff that slowly oozes and unravels across the stygian blackness. As the track plays out, more layers of sound appear and disappear, blasts of howling tortured feedback and thick sludgy low-end noise, field recordings and crushing blown-out bass, dissonant drones, melting into a murky, super-heavy miasma of decaying sound. AT it's heaviest, Diasporia reminds me of a Black Mayonnaise track pitch shifted and time-stretched waaaaaaaaaaay out into an abstract black blur, or like Wolf Eyes gone black industrial. It inhabits a similar rotted, corrupted realm of blackened drone/noise as Wilt, actually, and fans of Wilt's more recent work should look into Fermentae, as well as those into the bleak, sinister abstract ambience of KTL, Tenhornedbeast and Æthenor. Comes in a gorgeous chunky hand-assembled eight-panel digisleeve. Track Samples: Sample : Diaspora
INTEGRITY In Contrast Of Sin 7 INCH VINYL (Organized Crime) 6.98
The first part of what looks to be an extensive reissue campaign for the early Integrity catalog, In Contrast Of Sin has been reissued on vinyl for the first time in years, just in time for the twentieth anniversary of this iconic EP. When In Contrast Of Sin came out in 1990, Integrity was still several years away from achieving the mind-blowing apocalyptic visions of Humanity Is The Devil, but these Cleveland demons were already unlike anything else in the hardcore scene at the time. A quick glance at the photos of the band on the record sleeve might have you believe that this would sound like another Youth Of Today clone playing the same old tired youth crew stuff, but as you go through the rest of the 7" sleeve, there's also the bizarre, nightmarish Pushead-style artwork, the iconic Integ skull, and the murderous left-hand-path lyrics that suggest something quite different than the straightedge hardcore that was all the rage at the time. As soon as you throw this record on, the uniquely violent metallic hardcore of Integrity revealed itself fully, assaulting the listener with the opening track "Live It Down" with it's evil, Slayer-influenced hardcore cloaked in menacing reverb that works it's way to a punishing breakdown. The title track follows with a combination of youth crew tropes (massive sing-along chorus, speedy three-chord hardcore riffs) and dark crushing metal, with the vocals tripped out on loads of delay. "Bringing It Back", one of Integ's classic songs, follows a similar mix of anthemic hardcore and maniacal thrash, as does "Dead Wrong", but closer "Harder They Fall" foreshadows the more metallic, doom-laden sound that the band would evolve into, with massive dubby drums and eerie riffing opening the song, hinting at Integrity's post-punk influences, then lurches into one of the band's most devastating dirges. This EP established the style that Integrity would pioneer through the rest of the decade, a punishing fusion of late 80's hardcore, the ominous metal of Slayer and Celtic Frost, and more esoteric influences like the violent Japanese punk of GISM, the Process Church Of Final Judgment, Septic Death's insane metallic hardcore, Joy Divisions doom and gloom, and the confrontational aesthetics of Boyd Rice (NON). Crucial. The record includes a digital download code for the EP.
KRIMINAALISET METSANHALTIJAT Koskemattomuus CD (Bloodlust!) 12.98
Recorded in 2001 but only now being released, this full length from the Finnish industrial group Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat comes to us via Bloodluust! who also put out the band's Anarkkia, Kaaos, Maailmanloppu! EP that I listed in the shop a few months ago (and which introduced me to the band's clanking industrial fury). It's more of the grinding, raw industrial sounds that this group is known for, a series of anti-war nightmares delivered through a battery of distorted synths, turntable noise, clanking drum machines and furious, distorted vocals. The most obvious reference points for Kriminaaliset's sound are SPK, NON, and Throbbing Gristle, but their approach is much heavier and more violent, injecting the influence of hardcore punk and the more extreme edges of Japanese noise into these nihilistic noise dirges. Super heavy blown out percussion and cymbals grind beneath wheezing organ drones, these drones almost sounding as if they're coming from an enormous pipe organ, buzzing beneath the cavernous percussive racket, snarled flurries of freeform drumming, samples from Finnish war films, distorted buzzing synth bleeps, and primitive electronic rhythms. The drumming is a big factor in what makes this band sound so heavy - the drums are shot through a dense wall of reverb and echo to the point where it becomes a solid mass of pummeling sound, like old school industrial possessed with a free-jazz energy lurking beneath the thick layers of hiss and rumble, the droning electronic/organ sounds building in strength across the album, becoming more and more ominous. The vocals are pretty intense as well, based in the classic distorted power electronics style but even more hellishly distorted, sometimes delivered as snarling blackened shrieks, much of the time not even recognizable as vocals, and instead becoming a murky wash of infernal hiss. Then there's two tracks that aren't industrial at all, and instead are old recordings of Finnish folks songs ("Aanisen Aallot I" and "Elama Juoksuhaudoissa I") from the WWII era, all wistful accordions and violins. These Finns are creating some of the darkest contempo industrial right now, and this disc is just as pummeling and ferocious as the previous EP. Recommended. Track Samples: Sample : Elama Juoksuhaudoissa II Sample : Perkele
LORD GREEN / MALTROSS split CASSETTE (Rusty Axe) 4.98
Rusty Axe is best known for releasing all kinds of extreme low-fi and bizarre discs from the deepest recesses of the black metal underground, but here we've got an excursion into grimy, raw sludge and crustcore from the label with this split cassette that features two bands from Illinois. Both of these outfits are geared towards slow n' pounding stoned heaviness, with Lord Green injecting some bulldozing speed into their three jams, and Maltross going for a looser and more garagey approach.
Lord Green serve up three tracks of raging crustcore-meets-drugdoom fury, starting their side off with the sound of stoners coughing up a lung a la Sabbath before ripping into the furious galloping D-beat hardcore power of "Higher Than God", proudly proclaiming their allegiance to copious bongcrushing via a blazing Scandi-core influenced assault and po'd vocals that are so distorted, it sounds like your speakers are being ripped apart. They carry the high-octane Dis-thrash over into "Dropping Out", but then shortly into the song, shift gears abruptly into a ponderous, acid-laced doom jam, spacey guitars and fx swirling around a crushing low-end dirge, like hearing a Skitsystem song suddenly transform into something off of Electric Wizard's Come My Fanatics. The last track returns to a speedier mode with the short blown-out crustcore of "Hook Line And Sinker", Brutal, distortion-splattered stonercrust that reminds me of a Black Tusk and The Fucking Wrath.
On the other side, Maltross open up with the curious spaced-out Sabbath-on-DXM-overload of "Sectumsempra", all plodding low-fi sludgemarch at first with groovy Sabbathoid riffing, open chords drifting around room, pounding drums, but then it starts to speed up, blowing into an furious garage punk freak-out, a little Blue Cheer appearing in the fuzzed-out rave up. The other track "Summon the Elders" is pure murky basement psychsludge, another instrumental slo-mo boogie, down tuned Sab-oid crunch and greasy wah-pedal workout that morphs into a pummeling Melvins-esque stomp towards the end. Limited to 100 copies.
MELVINS + JELLO BIAFRA Never Breathe What You Can't See CD (Alternative Tentacles) 13.98
Back in stock! OK, I've never been the biggest fan of Jello Biafra's bands, I can take or leave most of his output (including his work with the Dead Kennedys - gasp!), but both of his collaboration albums with the Melvins are top notch, and Biafra hasn't had a band this tough back him up in years. With Jello's voice front and center, these albums are unmistakably punk rock affairs, and the Melvins do an amazing channeling of the Dead Kennedys brand of Reagan-era hardcore via their sludgy pummeling crunch (see the totally ripping "Plethysmograph" and "The Lighter Side of Global Terrorism"). Their steamrolling metallic heaviness might be a little subdued here, but it's still present, and some tracks ("McGruff The Crime Dog" and "Dawn Of The Locusts") are as heavy as anything they've released lately, especially the crushing closer "Locusts". Biafra addresses all kinds of post-Y2K issues with his signature acerbic style and cynical lyrics, hitting on post-9/11 paranoia, environmentalism, and terrorism (as in the quirkier track "Islamic Bomb"), and he still knows how to knock out an anthemic chorus that'll have hardcore punks and DK fans bouncing off the walls, like on "Enchanted Thoughtfist", which in my opinion is the best song that the Melvins/Biafra team-up produced. Both this and Sieg Howdy! have become my favorite Jello-fronted albums, and if yer looking for a fix of the Melvins at their speediest and most "punk", this is the album to go to. Track Samples: Sample : Caped Crusader Sample : Dawn of the Locusts Sample : Enchanted Thoughtfist
MONASTAT 2600 Haunted Lullabies And Nursery Rhymesc CD (Menace To Sobriety) 10.98
Some of you may recall a band called Monastat 7 from Cheyenne, Wyoming back in the 90’s that appeared on the Relapse Records compilation Death ...Is Just The Beginning III with a song called "Lunch Warz” and a 7" for the Relapse Underground Series called Now Available Without A Prescription. Their Relapse output, while small, generated a healthy buzz among those of us with a taste for the more gonzo extremes of grindcore; the band played a freaky form of grind that bounced between genres and launched into ear-wrecking blast beat meltdowns like some PCP fueled cross between Spazztic Blur, Mr. Bungle and Exit-13. The band seemed to disappear after that 7" though, and I never heard anything more about them until years later, when they apparently re-grouped under the new name Monastat 2600. Featuring members with names like Dr. Splat, Mr. Pacman, Professor 7, and Jenn Cheddar, the newly revamped band has just come out with their first album, and it's actually way weirder and more out-there than I would have expected, with only a fraction of the disc actually able to be described as "grindcore".
If you were a fan of Monastat 7's tweaked sense of humor though, Haunted Lullabies is what you've been waiting for. The album is seriously fucked,
like sockeye meets Naked City, crossed with 90's junglist mayhem, Old Lady Drivers, Mr. Bungle, and cracked-out drum machine deathgrind. The ten tracks are all over the place, with a really prominent accordion (!) showing up in most of the songs, virtually the lead instrument it seems, wheezing over blasts of absurdist grindcore, samples from Terry Gilliam films, goofy electronic rhythms, heavy distorted bass and synths whirling in a warped carnival daze, the vocals sometimes shifting into silly sing-song chants, the experimental cut-and-paste weirdness suddenly changing into cartoon metal music with kazoos and chirpy chipmunk voices, or brutal speedcore drum machine blasts, or Theremin-led demonic cartoon marches.
It goes from weird to weirder: off-time drum machines pound and clank, twitchy drum n' bass workouts morph into chaotic noisy death/grind, and the band wanders into weird hybrids of French cabaret style music and techno, pounding industrial rhythms, brain-damaged hip hop flow, low-fi industrial metal, deep dubby bass flutter, creepy old folk songs with Japanese flutes, old school go-go, and loads of ridiculous sound bites from weird 80's commercials dealing with meat and bathroom safety and idiotic children’s TV shows. And the female vocalist on the album make all of this seem even stranger as she croons in a mix of French chanson styles and ethereal singing. Nope, not at all what I was expecting from these guys, but fantastically bizarre regardless. Comes in a full color digipack with cool demonic teddy bear artwork from Marshall Binkley. Track Samples: Sample : Graveyard Sample : If I Was The Planet Mars Sample : Sleestacks Invade NY
PRURIENT The History Of Aids LP (Hospital Productions) 19.98
First time ever available on vinyl, Prurient's excellent 2002 album The History Of Aids is now available via Hospital Records.
Five seconds into this album, we can hear our neighbors growling through the wall, snarl-curled lips aimed at us through twelve inches of plaster, as the opening salvo of septic,sub-gut electro burble, crackle of overloaded distortion, and fucking malefic sinewave of "Precious Love" erupts out of the C-Blast boombox. PRURIENT's A History Of AIDS is such a blood-boiling exercise in "negative meditation" (coined by PRURIENT guy Dominick Fernow himself), listening to it congeals a week's worth of bad thoughts and antisocial behavior into a ball of knotted contempt square in our collective breadbasket. This disc fucking THROBS, a malevolent, mutated pulse massaging my temporal lobe and coaxing sharp objects into reaching distance via telekinesis. 3 of the tracks here feature recitation of excerpts from 13th century Persian poet Rumi. The juxtaposition of these ancient love poems and Fernow's ferociously ultra-distorted|processed snarl is nightmarish. This stuff is a bit darker than last year's Fossil album, though it is not as all-out brutal as that CD's hi-frequency feedback onslaught was. This is harsh, yeah, but it's a seething crunchiness layered with charred electronic textures and feedback screams. Excellent. Prurient is one of our fave feedback extremists and one of the most imaginative "noise" artists around currently, and we can't wait to hear more.
SLEEP Sleep's Holy Mountain CD (Earache) 13.98
Back in stock! Sleep's second album Sleep's Holy Mountain from 1993 is a hallmark in the stoner/doom/sludge/psych metal field, a gargantuan riff-feast set to trance inducing tempo that took Black Sabbath's slow motion acid rock and turned it into what would pretty much become the template for the drug doom sound that bands like Electric Wizard and Bongzilla would later explore. By now, metal fans know the storied history of Sleep, the major label woes, the hour-long one song album Jerusalem, the band's disintigration and the members going on to form High On Fire (in the case of Matt Pike) and Om (which featured the Sleep rhythm section of Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius). But after all of these years, this album still has a heavy magic about it, and every time I throw it on the turntable it continues to blow my third eye open with it's energized psych-rock freakouts that merge into massive droning doom metal, Cisneros' narcotized chanting, the drug-trip science fantasy lyrics that read like they came out of a beat up, dogeared 70's print of Edgar Rice Burrough's Chessmen Of Mars or John Norman's Tarnsman Of Gor, all space-faring dfargonriders and insect caravans and intergalactic pilgrims in search of the ultimate weed. Sleep's riffs are still some of the heaviest ever, influenced by Iommi's playing in Sabbath but dipped in liquid lead, massive and grooving. "The Druid", instrumental "Some Grass", "Dragonaut", "From Beyond", all classic and crucial blasts of ultra fried, ultra heavy psychedelic doom. We've got this doom classic back in stock in a limited-edition digipack that includes their cover of Black Sabbath's "Snowblind" that originally appeared on the Earache Sabbath tribute compilation Masters Of Misery as well as the music video for the song "Dragonaut"! An essential album for anyone into doom metal, psych metal, and sludge. Track Samples: Sample : Aquarian Sample : Dragonaut
SOLDNERGEIST Terror CD (RRRecords) 8.98
This old 1997 album from German PE/death industrialists Soldnergeist just popped up on one of my supplier's lists, finally allowing me to fill a hole that I've had for years in my collection of PURE discs. Originally released on the European label Art Konkret but later reissued in a simple Xeroxed package on RRRecords through their infamous PURE series, Terror was the third disc from Markus Kropfreiter's (also of Drape Excrement and Advokat Ihrer Hoheit) hellish industrial project, and it still holds up as a terrifying blast of harsh, apocalyptic terror-industrial that will certainly appeal to fans of the Cold Meat Industries and Slaughter Productions aesthetic. Two of the epic tracks on Terror are more than twenty minutes apiece, but even the shorter tracks explore some seriously grim territory at length, moving through various passages of creepy electronic ambience, throbbing blackened industrial, and hallucinatory collages of sampled voice and processed sounds that seem to be pulled from the raw material of nightmares. As Kropfreiter combines the stark snap of marching snares, monstrous pitch shifted growls looped over and over, surging black noize, ominous vocal samples, massive distorted two-chord synth riffs, caustic distortion frequencies and demonic backwards sound, we're continuously immersed in a chaotic, deeply layered mass of sound, the pulsing blown-out rhythmic loops and Tuetonic vocals sometimes coming together like some deformed subterranean techno crossed with Throbbing Gristle. Massive rumbling drones become fused with crushing low-end noise loops, fried-out sonar signals echo alongside deep raspy whispers across skeletal splatter-movie synths, and demonic FX-warped vocals growl and sneer above stark martial rhythms, all infused with strange occult/warfare concepts. Bleak and heavy, Soldnergeist's dark murky industrial noise is in the same ominous realm as Sutcliffe Jugend, Steel Hook Prostheses, Ex.Order and Brighter Death Now, and fans of any of these artists will likewise dig Kropfreiter's malevolent gothic soundscapes. The PURE release of Terror also has live recordings and two studio tracks that didn't appear on the original European release.
SUBARACHNOID SPACE Eight Bells LP (Strange Attractors) 18.98
Finally available on vinyl after a number of delays, Eight Bells has been presented on 180 gram black wax in a full color gatefold package by the psych-heads over at Strange Attractors, and includes a download code for an MP3 version of the album. Eight Bells is the first new release from Subarachnoid Space in four years (following 2005's The Red Veil on Strange Attractors). Featuring the recording lineup of Daniel Barone, Melynda Jackson, Lauren K. Newman, Daniel Osborne and Steven Wray Lobdell, the music of Eight Bells continues in the heavy lysergic vein as their last couple of post-Release albums, fusing wicked metallic crunch with ethereal fx-laden guitar freakouts and some of the band's most narcotized jamming yet.
Their last couple of records pointed towards a heavier direction for the band, and this new material continues on that trajectory, combining blazing luminous axe-howl over hypnotic heavy acid riffage and dense squalls of fx-stacked sound.
The album comes in at just under 40 minutes, and is packaged in another one of Crucial Blast's high quality visual presentations with stunning new artwork from Stephen Kasner. We've been big fans of Subarachnoid Space here at Crucial Blast since back when the band was releasing albums on Release/Relapse and Charnel Music, and they have continued to be one of our favorite bands working within the heavy neo-psych spectrum.
Since their formation in 1995, Subarachnoid Space has evolved into one of the preeminent navigators within the realms of psychotropic underground rock and have firmly established themselves alongside the brightest stars in the constellation of contemporary acid rock.
Playing a form of lysergic and almost entirely instrumental rock that draws its DNA from the sounds of classic Krautrock, prog, long-form improvisation and metallic heaviness, the band has attracted a fervent and dedicated following over the past decade around albums on established independant labels such as Relapse Records and Strange Attractors Audio House. Subarachnoid Space have also continued to bring their ominous, ethereal riffage, soaring fx-laden guitars and pulsating rhythmic propulsion on the road with numerous tours and festival appearances, including multiple stints across the U.S., three appearances at the legendary psych-rock festival Terrastock, and a tour of Japan, and has performed alongside such a variety of artists as Sonic Youth, Acid Mothers Temple, Khanate, Wolf Eyes, YOB, Sunn O))), Danava, Red Sparowes,Boris, Lightning Bolt, These Arms Are Snakes, Master Musicians Of Bukkake, and Ludicra.
Thoughout the band's existence, the one constant has been visionary guitarist and bandleader Melynda Jackson. A native of rural Texas, Jackson grew up an only child, and never considered that the isolated grasslands and windswept landscapes of her youth would eventually inspire her to evoke equally mysterious terrain through experimental, exploratory guitar and wordless vocalizations in Subarachnoid Space. Jackson moved to San Francisco at the age of twenty-six and within a year had become part of the fledgling version of Subarachnoid Space, which had been formed by experimental guitarist Mason Jones, already known within the post-industrial/psych underground from his long-running Trance project. After the release of the band's debut 7" Char-Broiled Wonderland in 1996, Subarachnoid Space went on to fine-tune their sprawling improvisations and began to tour frequently. This led to the band scoring a record deal with Relapse Records soon thereafter.
After three albums on Relapse Records, the band went on to release material on a number of smaller labels like Elsie And Jack, September Gurls, and Strange Attractors Audio House, and continued to perform regularly, touring both the USA and Japan with Acid Mothers Temple and performing alongside Sonic Youth at the 2002 Terrastock V festival. After the release of 2003's Also Rising, Mason Jones retired from the band, leaving Jackson to assume control of the band and reshape Subarachnoid Space into something heavier and more song-oriented. This new phase of Subarachnoid Space saw Jackson bringing a darker and more metallic edge to the band's sound while still retaining the elements of fiery improvisation and rich textural guitar that the group was known for. Both 2003's Also Rising and 2005's The Red Veil further introduced the band to a new audience of left-field metal and heavy rock fans.
Now, Jackson and Subarachnoid Space have returned with Eight Bells, the band's first new release since 2005's The Red Veil on Strange Attractors, and the newest chapter in Jackson's continually evolving vision of music as ecstatic ritual.
The recording features a new lineup of Daniel Barone, Melynda Jackson, Lauren K. Newman and Daniel Osborne, and was produced by Steven Wray Lobdell who also performs on the album. The music of Eight Bells continues in a similar heavy lysergic vein as their last couple of post-Relapse albums, fusing wicked metallic crunch with celebratory sky-streaking guitar freakouts and some of the band's most narcotized jamming yet. Their last couple of records all increasingly pointed towards a heavier direction for the band, and this new material continues on that trajectory as it combines blazing luminous axe-howl over hypnotic acid riffage and dense squalls of fx-stacked sound. Eight Bells features five songs ("Lilith", "Akathesia", "Hunter seeker", "Haruspex", "Bird Signs"), and features stunning new artwork from Stephen Kasner. Track Samples: Sample : Track 1 Sample : Track 2 Sample : Track 3 Sample : Track 4 Sample : Track 5
VON Chalice (MEDIUM) SHIRT (Nuclear War Now! Productions) 15.98
Available in size Medium.
I was able to pick up a small amount of the limited Von Chalice shirt design from Nuclear War Now!, one of the only shirt designs that I've ever seen for this cult Bay Area black metal outfit. I love the strange sci-fi style artwork that accompanies Von's releases, and this design oozes that bizarre trans-dimensional demonic vibe that I associate with their monochromatic trance-inducing black metal.
Nuclear War Now! released this Von shirt design on Gildan 100% cotton black shirts printed in discharge red and white inks, with bizarre robotic/Voivod-ian artwork and the Von logo on the front, and an upsidedown cross formed from skulls on the back. These are really high quality shirts, and the discharge printing process gives them a comfortable, "worn" feel. I was only able to acquire a limited quantity of each of the available sizes, so move quick if you want to grab one of these.
VON Chalice (LARGE) SHIRT (Nuclear War Now! Productions) 15.98
Available in size Large.
I was able to pick up a small amount of the limited Von Chalice shirt design from Nuclear War Now!, one of the only shirt designs that I've ever seen for this cult Bay Area black metal outfit. I love the strange sci-fi style artwork that accompanies Von's releases, and this design oozes that bizarre trans-dimensional demonic vibe that I associate with their monochromatic trance-inducing black metal.
Nuclear War Now! released this Von shirt design on Gildan 100% cotton black shirts printed in discharge red and white inks, with bizarre robotic/Voivod-ian artwork and the Von logo on the front, and an upsidedown cross formed from skulls on the back. These are really high quality shirts, and the discharge printing process gives them a comfortable, "worn" feel. I was only able to acquire a limited quantity of each of the available sizes, so move quick if you want to grab one of these.
VON Chalice (EXTRA LARGE) SHIRT (Nuclear War Now! Productions) 15.98
Available in size Extra Large.
I was able to pick up a small amount of the limited Von Chalice shirt design from Nuclear War Now!, one of the only shirt designs that I've ever seen for this cult Bay Area black metal outfit. I love the strange sci-fi style artwork that accompanies Von's releases, and this design oozes that bizarre trans-dimensional demonic vibe that I associate with their monochromatic trance-inducing black metal.
Nuclear War Now! released this Von shirt design on Gildan 100% cotton black shirts printed in discharge red and white inks, with bizarre robotic/Voivod-ian artwork and the Von logo on the front, and an upsidedown cross formed from skulls on the back. These are really high quality shirts, and the discharge printing process gives them a comfortable, "worn" feel. I was only able to acquire a limited quantity of each of the available sizes, so move quick if you want to grab one of these.
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