Cordyceps Zombie Swarm

Lantlôs .neon (2010)

2011-10-02T02:36:00.000-07:00

genre:smoky post rock/ black metal with a late night jazz feel at times(haha no really) for you with Neige from Alcest/Amesoeurs joining the ranks.

Black metal/ post rock hybrids are popping up all around the world. Considering the variety within both genres (Tortoise is as different from Godspeed You! Black Emperor as Darkthrone is from Emperor) it is exciting to see the wide array of fusions that are emerging. Thus far, Lantlôs have reached the greatest heights in this young subgenre. Lantlôs fuse post rock/ metal in the vein of The Red Sparrowes and early Pelican with a heavy dose of jazz, a touch of shivering tremolo and sharp, screeched vocals. The elements fuse together with complete and utter ease. One never stops to say, “Oh, here is a black metal passage! Now here comes a post rock part”. The elements hold together as if they were never apart in the first place.

For “.Neon”, Lantlôs’s second release, the band is composed of Herbst, who plays all instruments, and Neige (of Alcest fame) contributing vocals. Herbst is obviously an extremely talented musician and probably has been professionally trained in jazz. His drumming is just gorgeous, grounding the music in a series of lavish jazz patterns, only breaking into pulsating blast beats during the more intense moments of the album. The guitars, bass and piano are all full and lush, giving body to the intense emotions of the songs. For the most part, the riffs are post rock/ metal but the main riffs of songs like “These Nights Were Ours” and “Neige de Mars” clearly have their origin in black metal.

Neige’s vocals really put the album over the top. His impassioned screeches are much less muted on “.Neon” than they were on the previous Alcest album, “Écailles de Lune”. Neige also contributes clean vocals to the song “Pulse/ Surreal” and I must say this is the best clean vocal performance of his career. His voice is robust and sullen, hitting each note to perfection and capturing the somber spirit of the lyrics.

Thematically, the album tackles issues of alienation and dehumanization in modern society. The music, vocals and lyrics come together to capture this modern dilemma and to a small degree, overcome it. Each song reveals the perspective of an observant human recognizing the degeneracy and absurdity of modern society. In recognizing this degeneracy and absurdity one transcends it, insofar as he or she no longer sees it as an inherent and irreducible dimension of who he or she is. However, this is not overly romantic music in which the human spirit tears off the chains of a crippled society and flies to great heights. “.Neon” expresses a much more controlled, restrained and realistic epiphanies.

The first song, “Minusmensch” (“Minus Man”) captures this style perfectly. The lyrics describe a drug infested, industrial city full of dispirited faces. The music shifts back and forth between reflective, jazzy passages and swelling moments of post-black metal. When the music finally breaks out into a sweeping post-rock crescendo, it is notably restrained. A single layer of guitar, bass and drums play out the peak—there are no layers of wailing guitars, blazing horns or wild fanfare. “Minusmensch” ends with a restrained, and thus a believably profound moment.

It is obvious from first listen that Lantlôs have created an exceptional fusion of post rock and black metal. However, I think the conceptual theme of “.Neon” is where the fusion reaches its highest point. Black metal and post-rock have both fought against the normative view of the human being. Post rock has embraced intense, neo-romantic emotions that run against the grain of the modern ideal of the controled and reserved human being. Black metal is attacks Judeo-Christian notion of the human being by embracing the darker, more primal dimensions of humanity. “.Neon” captures this shared thirst for a richer human experience and explores moments of overcoming the limited, modern notion of humanity through simultaneously dark and ecstatic waves of emotion. While many other bands have fused the sounds of black metal and post rock, Lantlôs has done so at both a musically and conceptually higher level.

-review by CrimsonFloyd, Encyclopaedia Metallum

Lantlôs-.neon, mediafire download

Verwüstung-Beyond the watercolor sunset, We feel new life(2011)

2011-10-02T02:15:00.000-07:00

Genre:shoegazy, post rock, "black metal"

Here's a free download 28 album which is one long track. There is about 5 formats which you can download it in, including Flac, Mp3 320, ALAC, and AAC. This link is bandcamp so you can listen first.

Verwustüng-Beyond......bandcamp link

Graveyard-Graveyard (2007)

2011-09-29T06:20:00.000-07:00

genre:one of the better 70's bluesy retro hard rock with a hint of trad. doom

members of:Norrsken, Witchcraft, Albatros

The album is surely going to impress anyone with a hunger for a throwback to classic bands such as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin and many more. Joakim Nilson (guitar, vocals) returns with band members Jonatan Ramm (guitar, vocals), Rikard Edlund (bass), and Alex Sjoberg (drums) to deliver a psychedelic, hard-rock hell of a ride.

-metal riot

I know the whole retro thing is getting out of hand lately with tons of shitty bands trying their hand at it.This is well worth the listen. Actually sounds like it is recorded in the seventies and the vocals are done better than any of these other blacklight bozos can pull of.

Dig it.

I had the newest album uploaded, but Nuclear Blast(surprise to me they picked this band up) has an iron fist in shutting down the links every few hours.Oh well, maybe they will focus on the new piece of shit Sepultura album instead soon.

Graveyard-graveyard, mediafiredownload

blood ceremony-living with the ancients(march 2011)

2011-04-22T18:26:00.000-07:00

genere:occult bluesy classic acid rock/doomy hard rock with flute, organ and clean female vocals.

2nd album from this band out of Toronto i can't get enough of. There are alot of bands that try and pull this nostalgic sound off, but these guys and gals do it best. Get your black light, old horror flicks and joints out.

bloody ceremony-living with the ancients, mediafire download

liturgy-aesthetica (may 2011)

2011-04-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

genre:experimental blackish metal

another band pushing the boundaries of black metal..youll either love it or hate it, depending on how "KVLT" you are.tortured vocals, glorious riffs. a little too muc of mathy feel for me at points.

liturgy-aesthetica, mediafire download

dust-hard attack(1972)

2011-03-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

genre:lizzy, sabbath, heep, power progressive rock.
classic 1972 album from this new york trio....a must have.
also, drummer marc bell went on to play as marky ramone.

Hard Attack by Dust is an improvement over the acceptable performance of the self-titled debut from the year before. The team of producer Kenny Kerner and vocalist/guitarist/producer Richie Wise do just what the title suggests, bringing a harder attack to songs like "Pull Away/So Many Times" and "Ivory," the latter an instrumental with emphasis on guitar riffs and cymbal work. It's an all-out assault from the trio and pretty interesting, though the album as a whole works better when Thog's Fred Singer adds piano and organ. "How Many Horses" benefits from keyboard presence, and brings the group back to the Leslie West/Mountain flavors so obvious on the group's 1971 debut. That song definitely sounds like Dust was intent on remaking the Jack Bruce/Mountain classic "Theme From an Imaginary Western," one of that group's highlights. That the quieter moments, the elegant "Walk in the Soft Rain" and "How Many Horses," work better than the brutally hard "Suicide" hints at the adult contemporary leanings of Kerner and Wise. That they would merge this group with their labelmates in the band Stories for 1973's Traveling Underground is more evidence of what musical style they were more comfortable with. Unlike the commercial happy style of Stories, this album is obsessed with death -- perhaps a marketing tool to the hard rock audience with that theme running through the disc. It's no secret why Stories lead singer Ian Lloyd ended up on Scotti Brothers Records in 1979 and 1980: Producer Wise, the lead singer of Dust, was A&R man at that label. The two Dust albums provide evidence that there were some music business execs who actually had talent. The wonderful Frank Frazetta artwork on the front of the album also shows good taste. Frazetta did many a cover drawing for Creepy and Eerie magazines. It's a well-known fact that Gene Simmons from Kiss came from the world of fanzines and fantasy, and it should be no surprise that Wise and Kerner went on to produce the debut from Kiss in 1974 on Neil Bogart's Casablanca imprint. They also did the follow-up, Hotter Than Hell. You see, Bogart was VP of Kama Sutra's Buddah imprint as far back as 1967, and these Dust albums are truly the prototype to what became Kiss, at least in terms of sound. How could it not be so? The two men who made the first Kiss albums made these two albums a couple of years before Simmons and crew made their debut. All Music Guide writer Greg Prato calls Kiss (their debut album) "one of hard rock's all-time classic studio recordings." It was a product of the people who made Dust. Interesting that Buddah hasn't considered combining the first two Dust and third Stories album on a double CD to show the roots of Kiss; it would certainly be a neat marketing ploy. There's a pretty 19-second bonus 11th song/tenth track entitled "Entrance," which concludes the dark poetry of the Hard Attack album, an album that is one of the forgotten soldiers in rock history. ~ Joe Viglione

dust-hard attack, mediafire download

grayceon-all we destroy(2011)

2011-03-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

genre:progressive, doomish metal with female and male vocals infused with electric cello electric

There's a lot to love about the San Francisco/Bay Area, but if I had to choose one element that tops the list, I'd go with that region's inclination for stubborn open-mindedness that stretches across nearly every facet of day-to-day life, including its enterprising music scene. The adventurous "anything goes" mindset maintained by so many of the musicians at play is readily supported by an equally progressive fan-base and a wealth of available venues for performances, thus resulting in one of our country's most vibrant, diverse scenes that consistently forges projects that obliterate conventional genre boundaries. And while I'd agree it can be tedious continually trying to label and further tag every innovative "sub-genre" that blazes down the chute, it's something I've gotten used to during an age when people mostly rely on hyperlinked tags in blog margins and sites like Last.fm to help point them in the direction of new music worthy of investigation.

That said, welcome to the greatly anticipated third release from San Francisco's post-progressive-sludgy-chamber-whoosa-whatcha-muh-metal power trio, Grayceon: a band that burned into the arena in 2007 with a pioneering debut that hammered more than a few metal fans and critics to the wall and suitably cast the project under oodles of listeners' microscopes. And while just one spin of All We Destroy will likely continue to paint a baffling picture for those who somehow weren't ensorcelled by the band's brand of epic cello/guitar/drum yarn, those of us who've long-since consumed and lovingly digested the debut and its excellent 2008 follow-up will notice quite a number of shifts with record number three.

The single largest deflection this time around, apart from the fact that there's only one tune (among six) that stretches well past the 10-minute mark, has to do with the amount of vocal emphasis placed throughout. While certainly a commendable element on previous works, the amiably textured male/female vocal layering mostly took a backseat when compared to the delicate interplay between Jackie's satiny-smooth cello, Max's finger-picked guitar style and Zack's often manic drumming. And while all those elements are still undoubtedly present in spades once again, All We Destroy ups the ante in terms of unearthing new vocal terrain…for Jackie.

That's another shift for 2011: Max folds in his accompanying voice very sparingly on this record, leaving the rest of the new waters -- of the turbulent variety, mostly -- to be explored solely by Jackie. And really, this adds yet another compelling element to the trio's already innovative sound. Jackie screeches in Ludicran fashion throughout All We Destroy, opening an entirely new angle of rancor that previous records never touched. But as is the case with Grayceon, balance is the key element to the formula, so while Jackie's cord-shredding provokes spots on nearly every tune, there are plenty of stretches where her delicate voice takes the spotlight, also with rewarding results. Her stint with the moody AmberAsylum was enough to show she has a pretty voice, but the lullaby lilt of a tune like "Once A Shadow" is so pretty, soothing and calming, it could soften a crotchety one-eyed wolverine with a face full of porcupine quills into a squirming ball hoping for a belly-scratch within a scant minute.

There are some musical shifts on the record as well, but they're a little less in your face when balanced against the vocal deviations. The album's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" strikes with the suitably epic 17-minute "We Can", which grandstands the band's ability to ebb and flow seamlessly between turbulent measures and stretches of melodious cool-breezing with every bit of the same passion and talent you'd hear from a celebrated orchestra, but there's a new "focus," for lack of a better term, that allows the remaining tunes to achieve nearly the same level of saga in a surprisingly short amount of time, by Grayceon standards. Closer "War's End" is the only tune to spend its entire 7-minutes driving the album home on a pleasantly mellow note, with the rest of the selections doing a fine job of bending the band's hallmark mid-paced sludge within a windstorm that can strike angrily, heavily or surprisingly calmly at any given moment, and at times with each instrument filling a completely different role. On a personal note, I absolutely love it when Max and Jackie play sweetly and serenely while Zack flails like his armpit hair is on fire, and the ol' wish gets granted more than a few times throughout these tunes.

Really, there's not much for me to blubber about, apart from the mix of the record taking Max's grittiness too far into the background here-and-there. I'd say If you've been a fan of the band through their first two records, round #3 will certainly give your stereo and headphones something richly rewarding to obsess over for the foreseeable future. Like a handful of other great power trios of our day, Grayceon has managed to rip up what's conventional, even by progressive music's standards, and they comfortably jet along a path solely on their own. Tag them however you'd like, the bottom line is that Grayceon creates some of the most compelling and rewardingly innovative music of our day, and All We Destroy nails the bullseye once again.
-michael wuensch

grayceon-all we destroy, mediafire download

grayceon-all we destroy, filesonic download

new amebix album, "sonic mass" coming soon and amebix monolith download.

2011-03-24T18:59:00.001-07:00

genre: legendary apocalyptic metal crust

amebix will be releasing their new album, "sonic mass", in early september on alternative tentacles records.

if you don't have it yet, heres a download of their 1987 release, monolith.

amebix-monolith, mediafire download

clandestine blaze-falling monuments(2010)

2011-03-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

genre: finnish black metal

the (somewhat) new album from clandestine blaze. get destroyed.

clandestine blaze, falling monuments-mediafire download

hull-sole lord (2009)

2011-03-24T18:17:00.000-07:00

genre:sludgy post metal

Hullking (sorry) out of Brooklyn onto The End Records' roster of shitkickers, Hull have a post-metal sound that will rope in fans of ISIS and NEUROSIS, as well as those who find the former too ambient and the latter too jumbled. Sole Lord is an exercise in grandiosity that never feels drawn out, and one of the most promising debuts of the year so far.

The distant smattering of chords that opens "Innocence" gives way to something that sounds like music that dinosaurs would face extinction to, a stomping, plodding din that one could expect to hear during the destruction of a planet. Elsewhere, Hull dives into the stoner metal desert on "Deliverance" and "Healer," knocking out double guitar assaults over a paced but unpredictable rhythm section. Sole Lord is pretty in places, with jazz-inspired, sometimes almost flamenco-sounding interludes accentuating the potency of the wordless doom-metal of "Wrath of the Sands" or 7-minute centerpiece "Architect," which sounds like THE MELVINS tacking three Druid hymns together. Sole Lord's mix can be distractingly raw (it might be the only metal album you hear this year that could benefit from more compression,) but the weight, range and balls of the music are always audible.
-metal injection

hull, sole lord-mediafire download

inter arma-sundown

2011-01-31T14:22:00.000-08:00

genre:sludge/blackened/groove

"occupying some space between urban black, like Ludicra, naughty southern EHG sludge and sprawling mindfuckery like Neurosis..Inter Arma's songs are long as fuck but shred pretty hard from start to finish."-Metal Maniacs

album for purchase here

inter arma-sundown, mediafire download

Church of Misery-the second coming (2004)

2010-10-30T16:33:00.000-07:00

genre:bluesy psychedelic brutal doom/bluesy stoner metal with serial killer based lyrics.

This is the bands second full length CD . This Japanese band have produced several split projects and have a double CD early works compilation that is due out any day. Anyway, the 7 songs here are themed around 5 different serial killers. We start off with "Motherfucker" (Ted Bundy). The production is so damn raw and this is more hard driving and not as doomy as previous material I have heard but includes some ripping lead guitars. "Soul Discharge" (Mark Essex) is next and pretty damn brutal as well. The vocals are very tortured but the band build up a cool groove. "Red Ripper Blues" (Andaei Chikatilo) starts with some samples and tasty blues guitar and spaced out synthesizer sounds but don’t be fooled as this band plans to rip your head off every time. Awesome space blues!!!!! "Filth Bitch Boogie" (Aileen Wuoanos) also has some samples to start things off before a pretty cool bluesy hard rock riff takes the song on it’s way. Nothing to do with the old TANK song of the same title. Next, the band take on the classic Cactus song, "One Way or Another", and do a pretty good job with a nice long jam. "Candy Man" (Dean Coall) is a slow heavy, more doomy song and the longest on the CD at 7.5 minutes. Reminds me a bit of Cathedral this one! The CD closes with the slow building doomy, instrumental, "El Topo". I assume titled after the cool film by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

-scott heller

church of misery-the second coming, mediafire download

church of misery-the second coming, crapidshare download

mania-mania (2010)

2010-10-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

genre:chaotic black metal with a cascadian influence.

This release comes out as 100 garefold cdr package for the 2010 tour from Salem, Oregons one man project Mania. Nate Myers is also involved in Leech and Vault Dweller, as well as the eternal warfare distro and label, where you can pick up some of his releases.

mania-mania, megaupload download

Austrasian Goat- Arrheton

2010-10-30T14:47:00.000-07:00

Check out the newest 7" in the post below available now in a limited edition color vinyl pressing.

austrasian goat-witch 7" (2009)

2010-10-30T13:27:00.000-07:00

Genre: one man blackened metal/blackened doom from France

Equal parts biting and resplendent, this one man project from Julien Louvet, also of Yrsel and the man behind 213 records, is sure to impress.

My favorite of the two tracks off the 7" is Celebration. The song starts out with a venomous riffs and razor sharp scathing vocals which effortlessly flows into an interlude, complete with cello, accoustic guitars and spoken female vocals, eventually yielding it's way to a tsunami wall of sound and vocals. The interlude is pulled off perfectly without a hint of the cheese factor.

Track 1 is certainly nothing to be missed as well, Ill leave this one for you to listen to.

The vinyl is released through noxious noize records (links below) in 500 hand numbered colored copies. The first 100 are mailorder only and are either white or black and white they come with a limited patch and a button. The other 400 are laid on orange vinyl and come with a button. All copies of both variations are seated in glossy thick sleeves with heavy duty plastic outer sleeves. Snatch yours up today.

austrasian goat bandsite

noxious noize facebook and myspace

austrasian goat-witch 7" megaupload download

sailors with wax wings (2010)

2010-10-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

genre:ambient, shoegaze, noiserock, atmospheric doom?....supagroup

R. Loren - vocals / textures
J. Leah - vocals
Ted Parsons (Swans, Jesu, Godflesh) - drums
Simon Scott (Slowdive) - electronics
Aidan Baker (Nadja) - guitar
Colin Marston (Krallice) - guitar
Vern Rumsey (Unwound) - bass
Prurient (Dominick Fernow of Hospital Productions, Cold Cave, etc) - noise / electronics
James Blackshaw (Young God Records solo artist, Current 93) - piano
Hildur Gudnadottir (Touch Records) - cello
Aaron Stainthorpe (My Dying Bride) - vocals
Jonas Renkse (Katatonia) - vocals
Marissa Nadler (Kemado Records solo artist, appears on Xasthur’s latest record) - vocals
David Tibet (Current 93) - cover art
Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer) - design, layout, painting, collage
James Plotkin (Khanate) - mastering

The sound that R. Loren and crew create is really good. The album need not hide the source of its sound, because the end result is just so damn enjoyable. Loren has a penchant for creating sounds that wash over the listeners, immersing them completely in the experience. Sailors With Wax Wings is no exception�"in fact, it may solidify the rule. The album has an ethereal, dreamlike quality, and like a dream, while the different parts that make up the whole of the album may be easily discernible, it is much more difficult to imagine any one part separate from the whole. The ghostly vocals, the omnipresent tremolo of dueling guitars, the plodding drums, the echoing chords, the atmospheric cello…every part plays a significant role. Even the separate tracks must be seen as parts of a whole as opposed to complete entities in and of themselves.

Sailors With Wax Wings may appear to be a collection of the talents and ideas of various musicians, but those ideas weren’t just thrown into a blender. R. Loren meticulously crafted the album to ensure that no note was missing and no note was wasted. The album is a complete, cohesive experience, one that envelops the listener and rocks him to sleep with alien lullabies. Sailors With Wax Wings is a prime example of R. Loren doing what he does best: acquiring the means to realize an idea and using them to their full potential.

sailors with wax wings, mediafire download
(thanks to doomed for the link)

skagos-ast(2009)

2010-10-14T15:02:00.001-07:00

genre:cascadian black metal

"Skagos is fueled by humanity's failure. An interminable misanthropy pushes us further and further away from the revolting course of hollow communities and deeper into the vast damp and multifarious reaches of our treasured CAscadian wilderness. If not a revolt of forlorn and woe, Skagos is an outlet of escape and freedom;a seething vat of discontent for immorality. Fantasies are sometimes adopted to prompt metaphor and the infinite strength of contemplation and sometimes the point will be direct and sharp."

skagos-ast, mediafire download

black pyramid-black pyramid(2009)

2010-10-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

genre:pychedelic doom

Black Pyramid play doom with the rumbling down-tuned tones of stoner metal gods like Sleep, Electric Wizard, and High On Fire, but with the epic arrangements of old school metal and doom acts such as Black Sabbath, Pentagram, and The Obsessed. Add to the sonic brew perfectly executed forays into vintage psych and progressive rock, along with the apocalyptic lyrical ravings about war, the occult, and general alienation, and you've got an accurate picture of what the band is all about. Prepare to be crushed by the weight of the Black Pyramid

black pyramid-black pyramid, mediafire download

black pyramid-black pyramid, megaupload download

blog will be discontinued for a few months.

2010-07-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

as youve noticed the posts around here have slowed down a bit.
ill not be posting for a month more or so, as im moving back to new orleans and dont have the time right now.
as soon as i get my shit together, it will be right back up and running.
thanks

thayer cabin-thayer cabin(2008?)

2010-06-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

genre: haunting acoustic folk with eerie male vocals.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

"Thayer Cabin makes me feel festive and vaguely sinister at the same time, as if I was a lusty satyr at a wild bacchanal"

-Aesop of Aggaloch

This release has all the atmosphere of pacific northwest black metal, without any distortion, screams or drums whatsoever. It's really pure folk with some astounding guitar work, some handclapping, crackling wood noises, flamenco flavorings, and some eerie male vocals tastefully laid throughout.

The feeling of some songs are foreboding and dark, while others sound like the drinking music of past ages. Either way, this album is great for both active listening and background music, and also acceptable fare for both metal and folk fans.

get it.

be sure to check out his other project "thayer tavern" on his friends list , good shit, this time with lyrics.

thayerspace

thayer cabin-thayer cabin, megaupload download

harvey milk-a small turn of human kindness(2010)

2010-05-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

genre:doomy noise rock, I guess.
new album by Harvey Milk, if you haven't heard them, then get it, if you have, you will anyways.
Saw them back in Boston a few months ago, it was

here is a nice stolen link from newalbumreleases.net, the king of stealing.
So lazy tonight, I'm not even gonna try to reupload and pass it off as my own.

harvey milk-a small turn of human kindness, hotfile download

also on npr musics:first listen series, streaming full album.(i knew that 3 dollars i pledged would go to the greater good) next thing you know, PBS will be airing lost Venom concerts.

rosetta-a determinism of morality(2010)

2010-05-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

genre:post metal, metal

The newest album from this underrated post metal band that is usually eclipsed by bands like neurosis, Isis, and so on.
also, here is an older post of their two albums that match up when played simultaneously recorded onto one download.
If you are a fan of anything post metal,or even post rock, go for it. This isn't some stagnant totally rehashed shit.

rosetta-a determinism of morality, mediafire download

henryspenncer-the shelter days(2009)

2010-05-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

genre:instrumental,ambient, drone psychedelic, post metal/rock, industrial

Here's a reader/artist submitted album that got lost in my sea of emails until now, glad i found it.
Henryspenncer provokes some amazing mental imagery with this album, ranging from standing on a cliff overlooking a seemingly never-ending desert, to wandering lost in that same desert, knowing that you will die there, to battle frenzy climaxes.
Some great buildups on this album starting with guitar that is reminiscent of steve von till, or possibly some mazzy star tracks. Then it builds up to nice crushing industrial tinged apocalyptic post metal. The juxtaposition of southwesternesqe guitar mixed with crushing riffs is executed perfectly. I definitely suggest giving this one a listen. Here is an excerpt from the email:"I’m a 26 years old French guitarist who plays kind of a personal mix between psych, industrial, western, amb, folk, and metal music under the name of Henryspenncer, with the only aim to embody the imaginary landscapes I have in my mind, to create sounds with nothing but passion that need to exist above all, no matter what…"
Henryspenncer lists some his influences as:Neil Young's Dead Man / Titan / Grails
Six Organs Of Admittance / Metallica
Across Tundras / Kyuss / Barn Owl
Headdress / The Black Angels / Earth......

how could you not give it a listen?
check out the myspace below where you can download as well.

henryspenncer-the shelter days, zshare download

spenncerspace

six dead horses-horn tusk antler(2010)

2010-05-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED UNSIGNED
genre(from the band's myspace):mammoths stampeding through an earthquake fighting ancient bearded warriors on harleys while listening to sabbath and punching babies in the faces.

its been awhile, but thanks to Jarad Haggard, i finally got some more good unsigned material submitted via email. well worth checking out. stay tuned next week for his band, bad actor to be posted. this album is available for purchase here, with custom packaging and, by the looks of their other artwork, it looks as though it will be anything but upsetting.

antlerspace

six dead horses-horn tusk antler, mediafire download

jex thoth-jex thoth(2008)

2010-05-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

genre:psychedelic, alchemical doom, with clean female vocals.

pretty damned good psyched out organ doom with borderline erotic female vocals from the band formerly known as totem, but after lineup changes, thought it best to go with jex thoth.
Be sure to blast this at high volume during your next occult lsd orgy, if your stereo is still working after being soaked in cheap incense smoke!

jex thoth-jex thoth, megaupload download

jexspace

twilight-monument to time end(2010)

2010-04-18T15:09:00.000-07:00

genre:psychedelic black metal..HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

just released

with members of the Atlas Moth, Minsk, Nachtmystium, Krieg,Isis and Leviathan, with vocal contributions from Robert Lowe of Lichens and OM, this album has been on my long awaited release list of early 2010.
tr00 kVlt black metal nancyboys will be sure to hate this,like everything else Blake Judd has done since he washed the panda makeup off his face.Which is precisely when i started liking his work.
basically a superband, this album does not upset in anyways. An entity born out of those psychotropic dark corners in the human psyche dripping with venomous vengeance, ripping apart life itself in its path, piercing the heart of humanity.
get this shit.
twilight-monument to time end,mediafire download

order from southern lord records...also be sure to check out their sexy vinyl subscription offer

acid witch-witchtanic hellucinations(2008)

2010-04-18T14:54:00.000-07:00

genre:ridiculous lsd fueled doom occult sludge death slab from Michigan.

with song titles like "witches tits", "broomstick bitch" and "rabid werewitch"you really can't go wrong.download this cerebral sonic drill.even if its only for the lulz.

from the bands myspace:

"Witchtanic Hellucinations" is 13 terrible tales of dark and heavy as f--k DOOM METAL brewing from the unspeakable hag's psychedelic cauldron of death! A true melting pot of twisted Death Metal riffs swarming with tripped out leads, demonic-death growls from hell, and a cackling corpse-full of catchy song writing that will warp your mind until you pass out from the fumes of cursed Witch-smoke! Behold the swamp spells and the cult of bloodthirsty Witchwolves as they devour your soul! The ACID WITCH is born...let the Death-Trip begin!"

acid witch-witchtanic hellucinations, mediafire download

thanks to into thy woods for the link, my computer is sucking ass yet again today with horrible upload times.

helms alee-night terror(2008)

2010-04-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

genre:indie rock- post metal/hardcore buttfuck.male and female vocals
(indie rock annoys the fuck out of me, this is good shit though)

Hailing from Seattle, Helms Alee are a three-piece consisting of two women and one dude, that masculine entry being a former member of post-hardcore units Harkonen and briefly of These Arms Are Snakes. (The name Helms Alee, for anyone who may care, is a nautical term. I learned that in all my years in the Merchant Marine. Or maybe I just looked it up.) Despite their self-description as simply "rock," Helms Alee isn’t the Motorhead-esque type of band that immediately sprang to my mind—they’re not amphetamine-fueled speed or bluesy classic rock redux. Helms’ particular brand of indie-influenced metallic rock exhibits the artier side of hardcore, that edgy awkwardness of riff coupled here with a healthy dose of shoegaze dreaminess and copious amounts of weighty post-metal atmosphere. At times, Harkonen themselves are an apt comparison, and at other times, particularly during the shoegaze moments, Helms drifts from that band's hardcore stylings. This is dissonant riffing topped by Pixies-ish male/female vocal trade-offs, and both performed at a deliberate pounding pace, even when the music is "rocking."-jeremy witt
helms alee-night terror, mediafire download

helmspace

vintersorg-odemarkens son(1999)

2010-04-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

genre:one man swedish blackened folk metal with clean and dirty male vocals w/occasional female vocals

Ödemarkens Son (Son of the Wilderness), the second full length from the Swedish band Vintersorg is another unique folk metal release.
I’m not a folk metal fan, mainly because I don’t like the happiness of the most of them. I like black, death and doom metal more, so my approach to folk came first with Ulver’s “trilogy”, Empyrium, Isengard, Borknagar, Storm, Kampfar and such. This is far superior to Otyg and most of folk metal (excepting the aforementioned bands which are on my top favourites). Vintersorg gained a place among those bands too, especially after this release.

Generally speaking, this is not the ‘happy dancing’ folk metal like Korpiklaani, Finntroll or the like, this is mournful folk metal, with very poetic and sorrowful lyrics, more on the side of old Ulver, but still is something very different from any released before

Musically, this is what I expect from a really amazing folk metal album. The album is VERY melodic, using a lot of acoustic guitars, most of the time the guitars (acoustic and distorted ones) are doing different things, complementing each other perfectly, also still there is a good amount of catchiness – specially on the choruses – but not the ‘let’s drink another beer’ kind of, more majestic, epic yet woeful ones (even if you don’t know a word of Swedish, you’ll find yourself singing). Also there is an unusual high amount of riffs and rhythm changes on EACH song, not allowing the music fall on tediousness and unnecessary repetitions – my most personal complaining with most of formulaic folk bands.

The drums are programmed and while you can think the sound it’s not the best, it fits the overall sound well. The bass is always audible and sometimes does interesting stuff (at least so much more interesting than most of folk metal around). The keys, provided by Vargher from Naglfar fame are great, neither flashy nor shredding ones. They have an old feeling too, enhancing the overall experience and emphasising some truly majestic parts.

This album is sung 70% with folkish baritone clean vocals (with some female ones here and there) and 30% with ‘grim-almost growl’ vocals. Vintersorg sings with full emotion, even if he doesn’t use those high pitched power metal vocals. His voice has an inner strength, self-confidence and epic feel that captivate the listener instantly, leaving the instrumental section sometimes on the background Sadly this kind of vocal quality is very rare on folk metal nowadays.

About the song themselves… there’s no filler here. Every song is great and highly enjoyable, also different from each other. När Alver Sina Runor Sjungit (When Elves Have Sung Their Runes) start fast, suddenly changing onto acoustic passages, solos, a really catchy clean chorus, then another riff, another solo, etx. Svältvinter is a mid/low paced majestic hymn, very mournful as I said with one of the best Vintersorg vocal performances – not on the high notes reached side, more on the emotion he put on the song instead.

Under Norrskenets Fallande Ljusspel (Under the Falling Light-play of the Northern Lights) is mid/Fast paced with again, a catchy chorus and a lot of different riffs. Månskensmän switches a lot slow and fast, ending with the folkest moment of the album, a sad-folk acoustic guitar and Vintersorg speaking on an almost depressive tone.

The title track is what any (folk) metalhead expects, an energetic number with fast black metal riffs and vocals until the ridiculously catchy chorus, reaching the album its top of epic majesty.

Almost all songs change quite nicely and switch smoothly from folk acoustic passages to fast black metal moments, carrying the listener through the atmosphere and preparing him to the climax moments on every song (not like the failed intents of bands like Opeth and such on this aspect IMO).

Did I say that the songs are very epic? Honestly the music is overwhelming, the vocals are incredible and the lyrics are awesome. If you can find this album, buy it and enjoy it…TOTALLY recommended for fans of Ulver, Empyrium, Borknagar, Kampfar, Agalloch, October Falls and such.

vintersorg-odemarkens son, rapidshare download

vintersorg-odemarkens son, divshare

viscera///-cyclops(2007)

2010-03-24T16:59:00.000-07:00

thanks to mari at sludge swamp for this. check out the description there for more info.or just download.

viscera///-cyclops

ludicra-the tenant(2010)

2010-03-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

genre:progressive black metal w/ female and male vocals

released a few days ago, a highly anticipated album from these bay area innovators.this shit is badass, just get it.im not going to preach to the choir.
here's a prior post as well from their 2002 album "hollow psalms".
they have other albums out too, support this hardworking band.

ludicra-the tenant, hotfile download

ludispace

this and other great bands on profound lore records

the american dollar-the technicolour sleep(2007)

2010-03-18T15:23:00.000-07:00

genre:ambient, neoclassical post rock with badass harder moments and songs that are not dragged out

Using drums, keyboards, guitars, and various other percussion instruments, John Emanuele and Rich Cupolo weave richly textured melodies in between cascades of drums, synths, and sparse organ notes, creating a sound that puts them on par with bands like The Album Leaf or Explosions in the Sky. Whether a track contains a lush, ambient-interlude feel or a sweeping explosion of chords, emotion runs high on this disc. - Jennifer Marston, XLR8R

The American Dollar and The Technicolour Sleep encompass everything and everyone. The band’s music perfectly portrays all of life’s many stages. At the glorious highs, the lowest lows and everything in between, The American Dollar prove how truly powerful (instrumental) music can be. You simply need this band.
- Sound As Language

the american dollar-the technicolour sleep, mediafire download

the american dollar myspace

ancestors-of sound mind(2009)

2010-03-08T14:55:00.000-08:00

genre:stoner, psychedelic, doom, synth w/ clean and dirty male vocals

I hopped on this train late, but I've had this son of a bitch on about three times a day for a week now. A new recommendation for sure....speaking of which, coming in the future, a very small recommended section, carefully picked over, containing only the best album this blog has to offer.

also may i add, the 2xlp is done beautifully and limited to 500 on gray/blue vinyl, buy it cheapskate!tee pee records link under "goods" in sidebar.

It's funny that L.A.’s Ancestors initially formed as a stoner-metal jam band in 2006. The idea sounds so uninspired. Presumably, they wanted to fuse massive Black Sabbath-styled riffs with The Grateful Dead’s loose sense of song structure, a combination that, in concert, would have wandered aimlessly at maximum volume. But with artists like The Melvins, Sleep, and Neurosis already having claimed similar territory, I’m not sure what Justin Maranga (guitar, vocals), Nick Long (bass), and Brandon Pierce (drums) could have added. Thank goodness the trio grew bored with this direction and decided to expand their sound to include organ (Jason Watkins) and keyboard/electronics (Chico Foley). Not only did the resulting quintet incorporate a wider range of instruments and influences -- King Crimson, Karl Stockhausen, Miles Davis -- but they also found new ways to explore familiar terrain. Here’s the irony: the band that began as a trite retread of metal’s recent history spends most of their latest release, Of Sound Mind, asserting themselves as one of the genre’s next pioneers.

Intended as a double LP on vinyl, the new album consists of four long pieces bracketed by shorter instrumental interludes. “Mother Animal,” the first of the longer pieces, begins with a monumental guitar homage to Sabbath, complete with doom-laden lyrics that reference pagan rituals: “Slowly the season brings release/ From the famine of the beast…/ August has come/ Harvest has begun.” The song continues along well-established patterns; low-tuned guitars weave through pastoral passages, while Maranga screams indecipherable phrases. Up to this point, Of Sound Mind sounds like every other psychedelic metal album out there, but then, unexpectedly, the tempo slows and Watkins’ organ moves to the foreground. With this shift, the band confounds all expectations. It’s a radical choice in such a guitar-oriented genre, but having the organ take the lead is undeniably refreshing. Soon after, Maranga abandons the standard metal growl for a cleaner intonation, and what started as an obvious Black Sabbath tribute ends with an elaborate trip into progressive rock territory.

Clearly, Ancestors take devious pleasure in building expectations in one direction, then quickly heading toward another. In a live setting, this approach is fun for both the audience and band members alike. Further, the group also seems to enjoy creating new combinations from unanticipated source materials. “The Trial,” for example, fuses Oceanic-era Isis with the ambient textures of early Autechre to great effect. Indeed, the band knows that it has paired two extremes in mixing metal with ambient electronica, but while referencing Isis’ cerebral version of sludge metal is expected, adding electronics in the vein of Autechre’s bleak soundscapes is not. Sure, Neurosis and Pyramids have flirted with similar ideas, and, yes, Lustmord and Jesu are entirely devoted to exploring the darker side of ambient music. But none of them have rendered this combination so effectively.

Still, it helps to remember that this is a double album, and like many double LPs, there are uneven moments. Sometimes Ancestors’ efforts to create uncanny arrangements fail to impress; these particular selections work as more traditional heavy metal tracks, but they don’t expand any boundaries. And while Watkins’ training as a classical pianist turns the final instrumental piece, “Challenging,” into a highlight, most of the shorter interludes work only as transitional filler. Only two albums in, it’s difficult to declare this as Ancestors’ magnum opus, but as far as mountaintop experiences go, this is close to summiting Everest.

-jay hill

1. From Nothing
2. Mother Animal
3. Not The Last Return
4. Bounty Of Age
5. A Friend
6. The Trial
7. Challenging
8. The Ambrose Law

ancestors-of sound mind,megaupload download

ancestors-of sound mind, mediafire download

overmars-born again(2007)re-released(2009)

2010-03-02T18:33:00.000-08:00

genre:doom/drone/sludge w/ male and female vocals

This single track 40 minute album will promote feelings of despair, suffocation and devastation. Hopefully you can conjure up the mental endurance needed to take the relentless beating of droney doom this french band manages to dish out.
Eerie male and female vocals decimate the tattered, abysmal audio plain.
This one may haunt your sleeping moments, which is precisely why it is so overwhelmingly brilliant.

overmars-born again, mediafire download

u.s. christmas-eat the low dogs(2008)

2010-03-02T17:50:00.000-08:00

flavor:psychedelic, heavy space southern rock/post-metal with strong overtones of constant mindfuck theremin and synth effects w/reverb male vocals
region:north carolina
best served with:lysergic acid diethylamide or psilocybe cubensis
vintage:2008, tastes older

u.s. christmas-eat the low dogs, mediafire download

suffering luna-sea of drugs video

2010-03-02T14:03:00.000-08:00

oh fuck yeah

high on fire-snakes for the divine(2010)

2010-02-19T01:35:00.000-08:00

genre:stoner/sludge metal w/ gruff male vocals

get it while its steamy.
not much needs to be said.

Snakes for the Divine boosts High On Fire's strength and power while blackened lyrical tales of ancient wars, frozen planets and doomed societies emerge from Pike's bellowing barks and throaty war cries. From the moment the leviathan like title track explodes to kick off the album, it is immediately evident that High On Fire is determined to push modern Heavy Metal into new and uncharted realms.
"We went for a more aggressive approach. It's what we do well. We went for a heavier, ballsier, faster-paced sound that still has a lot of cleverness to it ... there are lots of stops and stalls, crazy licks. It's really heavy, a little more aggressive than our last album, a little less psychedelic. For the most part, the songs are amazing."

high on fire-snakes for the divine, rapidshare download

courtesy of angrychairs blog

the angelic process-weighing souls with sand(2007)

2010-02-13T17:47:00.000-08:00

genre:ambient/drone/doom metal w/amazing female and male vocals

why did it take me so long to hear this husband and wife duo from Georgia? I have no fucking clue. Almost ten years later, I finally discovered them.
This is drone /doom/ambient/tribal metal. It is crushingly intense and utterly emotionally engaging, masterfully devastating and massively overwhelming.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
The group is now defunct, as K. Angylus, the male half of the duo, took his own life after injuring his hand beyond repair and not being able to play music anymore. There is most likely more to the story then this, but we will leave that to their private life.
The good news is that his wife is carrying on the bands legacy and making all of their albums and merchandise available again through their myspace, which i included a link below for. I probably won't post the rest of their impressive catalog up, as i want you to buy the rest of it.This is also not the best rip ever. Plus, I'm still trying to digest this haunting, soul stirring masterpiece.
Here's a snippet from their myspace:

Formed in 1999 (with their debut issued in 2001), THE ANGELIC PROCESS have spent the last 8 years creating some of the most exciting and unique music ever heard. Pioneers and figureheads of the Ambient Drone Metal subgenre of extreme music, their influence can be found in numerous bands that have come of age in their wake. With a sound that fuses the layered guitar drone of MY BLOOD VALENTINE, the epic sound and tribal thump of NEUROSIS, the emotional bloodletting of JARBOE/SWANS, and complex, yet fluidly shifting time signatures, THE ANGELIC PROCESS have forged new musical ground and over the course of numerous on labels all over the world, have refined and defined a sound that one person described as "the sound my soul makes".

THE ANGELIC PROCESS live is no less as intense. Blasting noise, complex melodies, droning guitar resonance, rippling bass, tom-heavy tribal drums, and hauntingly emotional vocals collide to create violently ambient songs that have a definite shape and progression, but envelope the audience in warm, bombastic soundscapes.

the angelic process-weighing souls with sand, mediafire download

purchase, purchase, purchase

the angelic process myspace

loss of a child-carry me home(2009) and discography

2010-02-05T08:12:00.000-08:00

genre:neoclassical, instrumental post-rock

from the bands myspace:

We blend pianos and strings alongside heavier guitars, bass and drums to provide songs that will grow each time you listen to them, a sound that bring different instruments to the fore in different listening environments, dynamics that improve the sound of the album when played loud, a wall of sound unlike any other.

We make albums that requires many listens before all becomes apparent. Focusing on one instrument throughout a song will add another layer to a separate instrument and there is much to be heard and discovered, each layer making the song’s focus and harmonies clearer. Hope you all enjoy.

Apologies for any ambition shown.

loss of a child, megaupload download

all albums available from their wordpress site

xexyz-primeval mountain(2006)

2010-02-05T06:21:00.000-08:00

genre:nintendo 8 bit black metal

The guy from Tjogtjar & Enbilulugugal playing black metal over 8 bit NES game tracks. The bands name also comes from a NES game. Pretty bad production and standard 90's black metal fare, except for the 8 bit classic NES tunes from games like Zelda, Rygar's quest and Metroid diddling away in the background. This is truly the best NESBM band in the world.

xexyz-primeval mountain, mediafire download

caspian-tertia(2009)

2010-02-05T05:51:00.000-08:00

genre:mostly instrumental post rock/post metal

I've been listening to this album lately quite a bit. It's nothing entirely groundbreaking, but I like the formula and the band does it quite well with slight variances from the norm, including a nice, thick, haunting synth sound on top of a wall of guitar and ever-present drums.
It takes quite a bit to have me listen to an album with post rock tendencies more than once, even if I enjoy it, because i know there will be another one out tomorrow which I'll like just as much.So I'll call this one a winner. Plus, there is no crappy 8 minute ambient buildups. So I don't have to annoy my friends with chipmunk music coming out of my stereo when I'm fast forwarding to the intense parts.
This is half and half post rock/post metal. A little twinkle with your thunder?

caspian-tertia, mediafire download

caspian tertia, rapidshare download

Nice Wings, Icarus!- self titled(2009)

2010-01-31T14:45:00.000-08:00

genre:instrumental post rock w/ violin

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Nice Wings, Icarus! is a post-rock album that occasionally ventures into the post-metal world. Structurally, the tracks all have clear cut post-rock roots, but the double guitar and bass sometimes drifts into the metal arena with some pretty heavy sections. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this isn't too different from the approach used by Tides of Nebula or Mooncake. What is different, however, is that the band's fifth member is a violinist, and he's not content to sit around and play in the background. Daniil Grudzinsky plays in the style of Cue's Stacy Meshbane - inspired, energetic, and never conceding sonic space to the guitar section. This is particularly impressive for Nice Wings, Icarus!, as the band's sound is much heavier than Cue's, so Grudzinsky has to put all the more effort into making himself heard on top of the mass of red-hot guitars.

Using a violin is not new with post-rock bands, but the vast majority of violinists confine themselves to the background while fulfilling the role of the "mournful string player." Occasional notes are drawn out in the build-up and, of course, they play their part in the climax, but the story is usually one of a support player and not a main player. Some bands have rewritten this rulebook, and Nice Wings, Icarus shows that even though it has lots of interest in being the loudest band out there, its violinist is also coming along for the ride.

The album is bookended with the best tracks. "Morning Glory" is the album in a nutshell: quick, concise, and powerful. It doesn't waste time with a six-minute drone only to get to a two-minute climax. It gets in, introduces itself, and begins rocking out by the two-minute mark. After that the album goes through the normal permutations. "Those, Who Built the Pyramids" and "I've Not Seen Any Angels, Just Emptiness" continue the blistering rock, whereas "Birth" takes a more relaxed approach with the larger nine-minute space it's given. Then "Across the Sea" and "Journey Back Home" give us two more classical numbers before "Eagle," the album's highlight. The track slithers along like a lost Tulsa Drone b-side, slowly gathering steam and leading towards a violin-led climax. Its attitude is remarkably different from the rest of the album, however, and stands out because of it. All tracks are well constructed, technically proficient, and quite entertaining. For a debut post-rock album, we can't ask for much more than what's been delivered here.

-jordan volz

Nice Wings, Icarus!- self titled, rapidshare download

Nice Wings, Icarus!- self titled, megaupload download

icaruspace

bodychoke-cold river songs(1997)rr(2009)

2010-01-24T13:35:00.000-08:00

genre:industrial tinged structured noise rock w/ clean and dirty male vocals

Unnerving, formidable noise rock.A sonic crime scene laid down in 1997 by members of Sutcliffe Jugend and Whitehouse. and reissued by Relapse Records in 2009. When the label says "Criminally underrated and underexposed, Cold River Songs is intense and ground-breaking! " They aren't just spouting off at the blowhole. There still isn't really anything that sounds like this today. Quite a provocative and amazing album.
Possibly comparable to Swans heaviest moments.
This is the dark nature of man in extremis. If you are a fucked up person, you will relish in this.
Put the headphones on, gnaw at your own tongue until it bleeds, then take a trip down to the landfill to be sure the dogs haven't pulled her corpse into sight.

bodychoke-cold river songs, megaupload download

thanks to soundweave , a great music blog, for the above link

bodychoke-cold river songs, mediafire download

yndi halda-enjoy eternal bliss(2007)

2010-01-22T11:08:00.000-08:00

genre:instrumental post rock/neoclassical

The above trio are touchstones for sure, but Yndi Halda’s violin-led approach isn’t at all derivative of a particular predecessor; at times echoes of acts past become apparent, but never do these tiny divergences from everything unique upset the rhythm of Enjoy Eternal Bliss, a four-track EP on paper but an hour-plus album in practice. The record’s length does, initially, prove a stumbling point – maintaining a high level of attention in the presence of most post-rock is a struggle, to say the least – but it takes only a couple of minutes for Yndi Halda’s epic beauty to overpower any niggling doubts born of previous experiences. Already a stunning live act, Enjoy Eternal Bliss confirms this five-piece’s position as Britain’s finest on-record purveyors of modern instrumental rock music. Promulgate from the tallest peaks: Yndi Halda, here, exhibit talent enough to eclipse the post-millennium efforts of any of their peers.

It’s their masterful manipulation of the listener’s emotions that sets Yndi Halda apart: many a technically tight passage can be forgotten come the record’s climax, as the memory remembers only the images these four tracks conjure. A burning red sun rising high over a sparkling sea; endless glaciers picking up pace on a mountainside, threatening to destroy the hamlets below; the curve of the Earth as seen from the lunar surface; crows in Finsbury Park battling over whatever one of the murder pulled from an overflowing waste bin. Flashes in the mind’s eye, both rooted in reality and entirely fantastical, that stick with the first-timer and old-hand alike, long after four of four, ‘Illuminate My Heart, My Darling’, fades from in-ears.

And this is a debut, the band’s first ‘proper’ release following a three-track demo. In short: Enjoy Eternal Bliss is a much-needed shot in the arm for the flagging post-rock scene and sound. Where they go from here, well… the mind hesitates in astonishment, its eye unable to fathom what’s emerging before it.

-mike diver

yndi halda-enjoy eternal bliss-mediafire download

yndi halda-enjoy eternal bliss-megaupload download

njiqahdda-taegnuub: ishnji angma(2009)

2010-01-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

genre:experimental black metal w/male vocals

Each album I listen to by this band is a total morph from the previous. They keep getting better and better, as well.If this keeps up there may just be a discography post soon, which will be a giant undertaking as they have 25, yes 25, different releases in 4 years.
This is album is aggressive, aural pummeling black metal that sounds like chaos in the form of music, played in a wind tunnel on acid, surrounded by a thousand souls screaming for release. From all of the multi-layered instruments and wails, a sound similar to the byzantine chanting of monks can be detected in the background at times. This cacophonous release can be equated with a soundtrack that accompanies a nightmarish, drawn out death. It could also be the score to a deep meditation or the plateaus of human power and transcendence realized.
The pinnacle of awesomeness for this band, definitely recommended.
i still can't believe this shit comes out of the United States, let alone Illinois.

njiqahdda-taegnuub: ishnji angma, megaupload download

njiqahdda-taegnuub: ishnji angma, rapidshare download

njiqahdda-taegnuub: ishnji angma, depositfiles download

njispace

Njiqahdda-Njimajikal Arts(2007)

2010-01-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

Some extremely psychedelic black metal from Illinois.
An interesting note:this band pumped out 10 recordings in a little over a year, but i have not been able to listen to them all yet.
Don't have much time to post today, so I'm gonna cheat this one out.Here is excerpts from encyclopaedia metallum reviews of Njiqahdda-Njimajikal Arts:
When this arrived, I was greeted with the sight of a black box with kind of a pinstripe pattern on it. Within, I found a multi-scented candle, a stick of incense, a feather, some musty-looking netting/webbing and finally the beautiful DVD box with 2 CDs inside. Words can't describe the immense awesomeness and inherent artistic value in this packaging (limited to 50 copies by Dungeons Deep Records, though I'm fairly certain the design was conceived of by Njiqahdda).
The first disc is comprised of three lengthy metal songs, ranging from 9 minutes to almost the 30 minute mark. These pieces ebb and flow like the tide and enshroud the listener in lush soundscapes.
The second disc is two very long, minimalist ambient pieces around 22 minutes in length apiece. Normally built of of a small melody (around three notes), that melody remains constant and is then accompanied by drones or field recordings (one sounds like windchimes). Very relaxing and has almost qualuude-like effects.

and here is a great interview, plus other links and where to purchase one of their numerous releases.

Here is a mediafire link, thanks to the folks over at NOLA 504 and more

Njiqahdda-Njimajikal Arts,mediafire download

Tom Waits-Bawlers(2006)

2010-01-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

genre:county/folk/ rock/ neofolk

My favorite disc out of the three cd, 54 song package that originally started out as a compilation of outtakes, b-sides and alternative versions and found Waits recording new songs for the occasion.
I'm such a sucker for his slow shit, I decided to post this one cd out of the set. If you want the other two discs, and for some fucked up reason that is beyond excuse, don't have them, they are all over the internet. Disc 1 entitled "brawlers" is his more rock-based work. Disc 3, "bastards" is a mix of spoken word with music and just plain oddity tracks from the Waits/Brennan camp.
This disc however is a mix of sentimentalist ballads, bar room anthems, spiritual/religious tunes which teeter on the border between earnest and tongue in cheek and general folk songs where he croons with a voice that only a dust filled, whiskey ravaged throat of a beaten down, but steadfast, desert nomad could emulate.
Not every track on here is great, but the ones that are gems are excellent.Favorite tracks:Down there by the train, Fannin street, Never let go, Long way home, Take care of all of my children

tom waits-bawlers, rapidshare download

Sólstafir-Köld(2009)

2010-01-12T14:24:00.000-08:00

genre:blackened metal w/raspy clean vocals

One of my top ten of 2009
Ive been into this album and their memorable previous album, Masterpiece of Bitterness, since they were released. Playing both at least 2 times a week.
Apparently this crew from Iceland released a slew of other releases, playing viking black metal type music,a style which is as existent as snowflake in hell while listening to this gem.
This album is extremely focused and driven. Densely packed with thundering drums, thick driving guitar and vocals reminiscent of the singer of Against Me,(I don't remember his name and really don't care to take up the brain space),but with less sloppiness, a more mature conviction and a metal tinge to them. That might not sound all too good, but don't let the Against Me reference turn you off.
Although i definitely hear black metal influences here, Its more of a blackened rock sound, but not black n' roll, with post rock influences and a hint of doom.This album would be closer to perfect if they did not drag out the two or three slower parts to a borderline painful duration.
Hmm, I sure am having a hard time describing this. Just download it, you ape. You'll like it if you are into any type of hard music whatsoever. Rawness, desolation and passion at its finest.

Sólstafir-Köld, rapidshare download

Sólstafir-Köld, megaupload download

grayceon-grayceon(2007)

2010-01-12T13:32:00.000-08:00

genre:neoclassical rock/post rock w/male and female vocals

This three piece out of San Francisco includes electric cello, guitar, drums and both male and female vocals.On electric cello/vocals is Jackie Perez Gratz from Amber Asylum/Giant Squid fame, (also featured on Neurosis, Today is the Day, Asunder and Ludicra, the list goes on, albums), and Max Doyle and Zack Fawell from Walken on guitar/vocals and drums, respectively.
While being able to compare them in spirit to alot of bands is easy, comparing them in sound isn't.So I took the liberty of copying a review off Vendlus Records(where you can also buy their new album, "This Grand Show", for a mere 12 bucks):
Fans of Giant Squid and Amber Asylum will recognize the name of cellist Jackie Perez Gratz. Those who don’t will never forget it after hearing the genre smashing anomaly known as Grayceon. Rounded out by Walken members Zack Farwell and Max Doyle, Grayceon has created a sound that comes across as both awe inspiring and boldly unique. Refusing to stand still long enough to be lumped into any particular category, Grayceon plays hopscotch across the boundaries of both style and emotion, and builds a richly textured wall of sound so thick that it’s a shock to know that this is a band with only three members. One moment melancholic, the next maddening, the sonic web woven by the cello/guitar combo is mind-boggling in its innovation and intricacy. Similarly, the harmonized vocals of Gratz and Doyle fuse together with haunting results. The fast paced “Song For You” is Romanian folk music’s answer to thrash metal, while the more measured “Sounds Like Thunder” creates feelings of both doom and enlightenment all in the same series of moments. Clocking in at exactly 20 minutes, the epic “Ride” is a journey that leads down many paths, but definitely worthwhile in the end. Expanding a vast musical universe that gets deeper with each listen, this is your new favorite record.- Ryan Ogle

grayceon-self titled, mediashare

Cobalt's singer Phil Mcsorley on fox news (2010)

2010-01-11T09:16:00.001-08:00

no comment from me on this one, interested in yours though.

Draugadróttinn-Where the sea gives up its dead

2010-01-11T06:08:00.000-08:00

genre:midtempo black metal w/ male vocals

Great album I discovered on Youtube and eventually got ahold of its sole member, Scott Byrnes, in regards to posting it here.
Scott is currently a student at Montana State university.He wrote the music for this album back in his last year of high school.The lyrics are taken from two sources: Snorri Sturluson's "The Prose Edda", written around 1215 CE, a masterpiece serving as both a textbook for Skaldic and Eddic poet apprentices and, in a modern sense, one of the most important sources we have purveying Norse mythology. The second lyrical source is William Falconer's poem "The Shipwreck".
The music provides the perfect accompaniment to these writings and is epic in scope as well.
Well crafted with an impeccable flow, "Where the sea gives up its dead" is a well crafted opus of forward moving midpaced Black metal and "shoegaze" elements with cavernous screams, almost stepping over into whisper territory at times, throughout that are not overpowering or cheesy and infused into the mix perfectly. Another notable aspect are the dreamy guitars, common to the genre, that provide a seamless flow through the entire album.
I can name a bunch of popular bands that play this style of music and don't do it nearly as well as this.
This album recommended for all fans of melancholic black metal and blackened post rock.
Thanks once again to Scott for allowing me to publish this summary and the corresponding download link.Also included are numerous ways to reach him.

Draugadróttinn-Where the sea gives up its dead, mediafire download

Draugadróttinn-He himself inspired the terror of ships, youtube track listen

Draugadróttinn, Myspace

Website, with email info

Eudaimonia-Daughter of the shadows (2009)

2010-01-11T05:34:00.000-08:00

genre:instrumental ambient and atmospheric blackened metal/post rock

A reader submitted, self released, unsigned, demo from Mathias Ruggaard Pedersen of Denmark, who plays all instruments in Eudaimonia.
Mathias sites influences such as Wolves in the Throne Room, Agalloch, Ulver, and Amesoeurs.
Daughter of the shadows contains a dominating theme of beautiful, melancholic key-driven(piano and synth) passages, with sections of galloping, atmospheric blackened metal.
The more somber tracks, which to no fault outnumber the more metal ones, are also loaded with sounds of natural elements, such as wind and rain, which provide a perfect backdrop for the proficient musicianship in Daughter of the Shadows.
Eudaimonia also has two other releases under his belt.
Links below include download and myspace, you can also contact Mathius/Eudaimonia at traver1@gmail.com
Enjoy.

Eudaimonia-Daughter of the shadows, megaupload download

Eudaimonia Myspace

mutyumu-self titled and Ilya(2006 and 2008)

2010-01-09T06:18:00.000-08:00

genre:classical and atmospheric, at times blackened metal w/female operatic vocals and male screams.

Holy fuck, holy fuck.
Definitely gonna have this one on repeat for awhile.I don't know how this ever slipped under my radar.
some of the most amazing, "cinematic" music I've ever heard.
This band hails from Japan and was formed in 2002.
One would be tempted to pass up yet another band with this many influences in their music, but these release are highly recommended, more so than many album s in this blog.
I'm at a total loss for words and really don't know how to do this justice with a description.
Only way I could see someone not being into this is if they hated operatic vocals.
They also have a demo out and a release that was only sold at live shows.I just ordered one of these cds but am having trouble finding the self titled.
I'm including the only "proper"music video of this band i could find as well.

mutyumu-Ilya,mediafire download

mutyumu-mutyumu,mediafire download

grails-doomsdayer's holiday(2008)

2010-01-09T06:11:00.000-08:00

genre:sparse experimental, instrumental post rock

from allmusic:
The Grails have embraced open-ended, free grooving, psychedelic rock, open-toned Eastern modalism, assault-worthy hard rock, spooky dub, and even folk music in this heady, stoned out brew. The basic quartet of Emil Amos, Alex Hall, William Slater, and Zak Riles are still intact; they've augmented this set -- in places -- with Kate O'Brien Clarke on violin, vibist Jordan Hudson, Randall Dunn on analogue synths, and even Erik Nugent on flute. Alan Bishop makes a guest appearance as a vocalist on "Predestination Blues." While playing is one end of the spiritually tripped-out Grails' aesthetic, the other is post-production, with intricate dynamic touches, textural embellishments, dramatic flair, space, silence, and even ambiance as one track segues seemingly endlessly into another -- this is becoming a real trademark in the way they record.

The title track opens the record with the sound of a far off scream that can mistakenly, at first, be taken for wind blowing through an open window. It is quickly followed by thudding tom-toms, waves of muted feedback, and guitars and violins worthy of Black Sabbath's fuzzed-out bass heaviness and the flanged out space guitar in the instrumental bridge of Robin Trower's "Too Rolling Stoned." It's all overblown, slow, and menacing. It's followed by the wailing power of an Eastern European violin with bass thudding, power-amped guitar riffage and wailing snares and cymbals in "Reincarnation Blues." There are dynamic stops and starts, making the listener yearn for that heaviness to continue. And it does, with slide guitars, electric saz's, and all manner of synthed out wonkiness. But then it changes again in the relative bliss of "Natural Man," where acoustic guitars, washed out synths, reverb, and what sounds like a cembalom (but is probably piano strings being plucked), enters in slow 4/4 before being adorned with minor-key flourishes by a strummed acoustic guitar and the pillowy beauty of a sonically treated flute, vibes, melodica, and tape delays. Taken together, these three cuts have already traveled immeasurable distances musically; they stretch the notions of time and space into pure drift. The astonishing thing is that only 12 minutes have transpired. The remaining four tracks are similarly ambitious and seamless: the incantory acid dub effects on "Immediate Mate," the beautiful speaker blowout in "Predestination Blues," the pure experimental soundscape ocean that is "X-Contaminations," culminating in the glorious and majestic psychedelia of "Acid Rain" (reminiscent in scope of "Echoes" on Pink Floyd's Meddle). The end of the album feels like the nadir of a particularly vivid dream that encompasses both true darkness and ecstatic light. The Grails have once more pushed their own sonic terrain, where all that is familiar to them is woven into a gorgeously textured fabric with all that could be envisioned by them at this point in time, with the listener as the true beneficiary.

grails-doomsdayers holiday, mediafire download

blutklinge-reflection of a bleak mind(2007)

2010-01-07T10:43:00.000-08:00

genre:shoegaze/depressive black metal/mostly instrumental with some dirty vocals

For lack of better words, this is shoegaze/depressive(only slightly) black metal at its finest.
Sometimes I want to hear black metal without the vocals to focus on the complexity and mood of the music, without some howling or cackling about nature, Satan, or war.This album is perfect for that, with vocals only coming in once or twice briefly the entire album.Chock full of super intense, soaring instrumental tracks that don't drag out and hold your attention.and only 1 crappy mood track the whole album, which is definitely under par(thank fucking god)as far as black metal is concerned.For sure this is the best band in this genre.If you can show me otherwise, I'd be thrilled.
If you are like me and tend to push your musical tastes on a people a little too much sometimes, but just cant seem to get non black metal fans to appreciate whats on, most of this album would be perfect for that as well(minus the last track.As for the already converted, this delivers its "nostalgic" visions and post rock infused resplendent and sublime message without losing any black metal aesthetic.
VERY highly recommended for all shapes,sizes and the varying desirability's of music fans.

blutklinge-reflection of a bleak mind,mediafire download

There is another EP out by him that I will post when i get my filthy mitts on it.Trust me, you'll be begging for more.All four of you.

steve von till- a grave is a grim horse to ride(2008)

2010-01-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

genre:dark folk/country

ill leave this one up to someone else.

For twenty years and on singing and playing guitar in Neurosis, Steve Von Till has helped lay the groundwork for nearly all modern innovations in metal. His band has long since transformed from talented but nondescript Bay Area crust punk to a primordial, unanswerable force with no real precedent in any scene then existing. By the time of his fourth solo album, “A Grave Is A Grim Horse,” Von Till has no need to prove he's tireless or driven. He proves it again anyway. Von Till is unwilling to let even a behemoth project like Neurosis define his musical identity, and his solo work is full on outlaw folk.

In the conservative sense, “A Grave Is A Grim Horse” can't be called heavy metal. Built out of percussive acoustic strumming, pedal steel, serpentine electric guitar and morose violin, it ignores metal's palette of sounds and techniques almost completely. Overdubs are used, but never to create the impression of a full band. Rather, they work toward a single complex melody, layered between his voice and various instruments. Without having heard Neurosis, no one could tell that Von Till is primarily a metal guitarist. But his folk work shares the apocalyptic presence of his better known band. Although quieter by far, it still intends to both focus and dominate minds.

All eleven songs here orbit around Von Till's drowsy, weather beaten, and half spoken vocals. It's the haggard assurance in his voice that lifts the simple compositions and arrangements above formula. In this bare bones setting, we hear every catch and rasp in his throat. At times his performance echoes Johnny Cash, or Swans' vocalist Michael Gira, or David Eugene Edwards from Woven Hand, but at his best, Von Till escapes the influences of both Neurosis and fellow folk musicians to emerge with a persona all his own, like some faceless and ancient wanderer maybe, on a futile journey across all creation.

Lyrically, Von Till can hold his own as a poet, plainspoken, but focused on precisely placed images. Sticking mostly to a noir spaghetti Western tone, he dwells over rocks, toil, and inevitability. The self-titled opening song is a standout here, as bizarrely creative phrases like “You cut your eyeteeth on a stone” are balanced against epic appeals to personal honor and laden with physical details. Here and elsewhere, even when his words slip into the downright cryptic, his emotional and understated delivery lets them throb with meaning.

This album should appeal to those who like post-metal's spiritually charged soundscapes and obsession with the land, and folk metal's use of stripped down compositions to evoke incredible heaviness. Ironically though, “A Grave Is A Grim Horse” might have gotten far more exposure if Von Till had never been in a classic, trendsetting metal band. Every metal head who comes on this album will know it as a Neurosis side project, but if Neurosis broke up before they re-forged heavy music, Von Till might have achieved as much renown as a folk singer and lyrics.

steve von till-a grave is a grim horse,mediafire download

cloudkicker-the map is not the territory EP(2008)

2010-01-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

genre: instrumental upbeat post rock

this is an album by one man(ben sharp) playing all instruments and sounding like a full band.lots of cool shit going on.not too much ambiance, no overuse of crescendos, nothing over the top and jazzy or avant garde.just good, hard music.all albums are available on his myspace for free, so that will be the only link I'm including.

What was the reasoning behind making your releases free? You say they cost nothing to make - surely there were recording costs?
Ben: "It costs me absolutely nothing to create the music. Zero dollars. I record all the guitars and bass straight into my laptop and program the drums using this one sequencing program, then I mix and master everything myself. The only thing that costs money are guitar strings, but I have a full-time job so it's no big deal."

this is what id say if i was a predictable writer for rolling stone magazine:"if post rock and post metal got in a fight with progressive rocks lovechild, the rumble would sound something like this."

cloudkickers myspace

rosetta-the galilean satellites(2005)

2010-01-05T10:56:00.000-08:00

genre:post metal w/male vocals

This description and download link courtesy of mescaline sunrise(a great blog may i add).
Rosetta is a band that I should've listened to way earlier, given my worship of bands such as Neurosis and Isis (Neurisis lolol) and Rosetta being bang in the middle of them, in terms of their music. The Galilean Satellites has an epic theme: the satellites of Jupiter (as the astronomers among you may have deduced). The interesting thing about this album is that it was released as a 2-disc record, one disc with the crushingly heavy stuff and the other with the much softer, ambient stuff. This is an obvious homage to Neurosis's Times of Grace (and Tribe of Neurot's Grace), one of my favourite albums ever. The link is both the discs put together, as I believe that is how it's meant to be played and you will enjoy it far more.

rosetta-the Galilean satellites, mediafire download

red sparowes-at the soundless dawn(2005)

2010-01-05T09:53:00.000-08:00

genre:post rock/post metal/imstrumental

quick post here with neurot recordings description.
There just might be a certain warped truth to the phrase "guilt by association." As in the case of Red Sparowes, its formal associations with such heavy, propulsive bands as Neurosis, Angel Hair and Pleasure Forever would lead you to expect that the Los Angeles quintet's debut would be a masterfully crafted epic of primal urgency.
It is.
However, Red Sparowes is epic without bombast, heavy without a single barre-chord riff and eviscerating without any clearly audible vocals. The chiming, spindly layers of effect-laden guitars and the swinging, entrancing drums on its Neurot Recordings debut At the Soundless Dawn create textures reminiscent of Goblin, Tones on Tail, Godspeed You Black Emperor and early Sonic Youth. Its attack is syrupy and serpentine; subtle but frighteningly deliberate.
At the Soundless Dawn – an album of seven compositions with titles that fit together as a complete paragraph -- opens with a rapidly strummed single high-string building tension as distant, delay drenched notes saturate an almost dance-beat drum pattern on "Alone and unaware, the landscape was transformed in front of our eyes." Pedal steel notes add a further layer of glissando urgency as ringing guitar notes climb hand-over-fist upon an ascending line. The second track, "Buildings began to stretch wide across the sky and the air filled with a reddish glow" kicks in abruptly, sounding reminiscent of the taut and eerie blasts of Italian horror film soundtrack masters Goblin. Icy, piercing guitars jut out from the speakers as rapid bass arpeggios drive the tune ever nearer. Comparisons to the more lulling and lush tunes from the My Bloody Valentine masterpiece Loveless would not be off the mark for the third track – a beautifully constructed four-and-a-half minute piece of gorgeous, somber guitar work -- although the band would likely be reluctant to accept such a compliment.
Throughout the album, transitions glide and instruments smudge into a warm wash of tones. It's an orchestral wall of sound that is equally as entrancing as it is unnerving. The 12-minute album closer, for instance, gradually builds tension with clever use of smeared, formless guitar notes that create a sense of three-dimensional sound as notes seem to move from background to foreground, flitting around an imaginary room. Sparing tom drum rolls add to the growing claustrophobia, until ever-rebuilding waves of strings cascade into a grand crescendo that finishes as mysteriously as it began.

red sparowes- at the soundless dawn-mediafire download

weakling-dead as dreams(2000)

2010-01-05T07:12:00.000-08:00

genre:black metal
An epic classic that really put US black metal on the map, before a slew of good bands started to come out.My friend Christian who was into mostly punk music introduced this to me about 8 years ago, when after trading two mix tapes, we decided neither one of us liked the other persons taste in music.A week later he handed me a burnt copy of this and said "Well, Ive kind of been into this band, you might like them". I was completely floored that something like this came out of the US.
If you are a black metal fan and haven't heard this, I suggest you get busy.
Ten to twenty minute songs of pure misery and intense suffering. Great buildups and vocals that sound like a man dying.There is a keyboard present in many parts of the album, but it is definitely not in the forefront of the sonic assault, but merely serves as a supplement to set the mood, along with a not so polished recording and producing job, that fits the music perfectly, but does not hinder it.
This is truly a classic.
Members of The Fucking Champs, The Gault,Asunder and Sangre Amado.

weakling-dead as dreams, mediafire download

iron horse-fade to bluegrass:the bluegrass tribute to metallica(2003)

2010-01-04T01:36:00.000-08:00

genre:bluegrass w/male vocals

well i heard the slaughter of the bluegrass cover of the at the gates songs and they just seemed cheesy and not well done enough for me to listen to it outside a novelty setting.This album by Ironhorse though, i can definitely get into.10 tracks of bluegrass metallica,with vocals, not much else to say here.

iron horse-fade to bluegrass:the bluegrass tribute to metallica, megaupload download

dawnbringer-in sickness and in dreams(2007)

2010-01-04T00:54:00.000-08:00

genre: all types of metal

dawnbringers third release.i fall in love with this album every time i pull it out again.
A perfect fusion of black, death, speed, power metal,NWOBHM and rock. Usually when an artist mixes all this together, it comes out like a shit does after you eat a bunch of different kinds of food and alcohol....sounding awful.Not this one.
Even comes complete with sung, gruff dirty vocals, almost spoken sections and falsetto metal screams.Again, they actually pull it off.All this and the album still has a recurring feeling throughout that i cant quite put my finger on.The lyrics are also top notch, and for the most part, understandable.
Clocking in at under 25 minutes, this is a short listen.Give it a try if you are a fan of anything.I can truly say I could play this around all of my very different types of friends at once and not hear any complaints.

dawnbringer-in sickness and in dreams, mediafire download

fall of efrafa-elil(2007)

2010-01-03T08:43:00.000-08:00

genre:post hardcore/post metal/doom w/ gruff male vocals

I don't know what took me so long to get into this band as deep as i am now. Unfortunately, I think I was foolishly turned off by the "metalcore"(and i mean that term in the worse possible way)sounding name. This wont be the first time this has happened to me. Have to start working on that, 'cause I'm sucking this band up now somethin' fierce.
Here's most of my other post for their 2009 release, Inle.These notes can easily be applied to this release.The major difference between these two albums is that Elil's tracks all clock in at 20 plus minutes, while Inle's are mostly 10 plus.Also, Elil is full of samples that I'm a total sucker for, and i think pretty much anyone is too, whether they admit it or not.The samples come from both read parts of Watership Down and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.
The concept band based tightly around the political themes, mood,and mythology of Richard Adams book Watership Down releases its newest and last album in their "warren of snares" trilogy, and it looks like they are now broken up, like they said they would after three albums.
Combining elements of doom, crust, hardcore, post rock, sludge and ambient black metal, this release contains amazing crushing distortion throughout, but accompanied with pleasant melodies at the same time.The lead singer belts out harsh, impassioned, harrowing vocals.
Although the tracks clock in at ten minutes plus each, they don't fail to keep your attention even once through the entire album.
Packed full of cynicism and beauty, This is definitely a recommended release.
you can also download the entire trilogy from the bands website for free, which is the second link below.also included on the site is their bio, photos of live shows, ordering info, lyrics, etc.

I probably wont be including the other album Owsla, since I wasn't into it so much.Maybe ill listen to it more and have a change of heart.

fall of efrafa- Elil,mediafire download

fall of efrafa- Elil,rapidshare download

fall of efrafa-Elil, megaupload download

official website with free trilogy download

Pissed Off Panda Bears pt 1. Velvet Cacoon-Genevieve

2010-01-02T22:51:00.000-08:00

genre:black metal

These two REALLY pissed of the black metal pandas, especially the kind that live their life to the brink of grimness surfing the web.
Months before they even released the album, the Portland, Oregon duo began spreading self perpetuated multiple rumors of their cult status in the black metal scene to hype up their own release of this album.These rumors are as follows:
1.They used a "diesel harp"on the album, which was some sort of diesel gas powered guitar gigantic contraption that was filtered through various sized aquariums filled with salt water through gas lines to create their thick guitar sound.No electricity was used to record the album.

2.That they were ecofascists and carried out various acts of ecoterrorism.This fact alone would never stand out as exemplary in, say, the crust punk scene, where these acts aren't exactly widely practiced, but are certainly not unthinkable by any means.In the black metal scene, however, this was unheard of and widely relied on the recurring nature theme of the genre to harbor interest.

3.Velvet Cacoon suggested they had a large back catalog of rare demos and 7 inches pressed in insanely small quantities as low as 5 each, even going as far as to name specific titles.Posters on black metal message boards and forums would commonly lie, saying they owned one of these original pressings, further substantiating the myth of this legendary cult status band.

4.Their drummer died by falling off a cliff while drunk, and/or committed suicide.

5.The album Genevieve was written and conceived while under the effects of copious amounts of dextromethorphan.

Then Josh, possibly the only band member, admitted to spreading these rumors to the black metal community.Thousands of fanboys who actually believed this hogwash were butthurt that a band they followed this diligently would betray the black metal scene and there was a huge backlash against the band, though at this point it wouldn't matter. They(Josh)? were now the stuff of legends.

Allegations, or maybe just more rumors, still continue, of music on various releases by the band stolen from other artists and bands.
Either way, A gigantic portion of dimwit black metal fans were duped, and are still butthurt to this day about it.

here is a few quotes from josh, otherwise know as "sgl"in the bands prior releases.

"Well, in the words of Whitney, the dieselharp is really a hype machine. It's one of our many stories we used to toy with the black metal scene because we knew it would work. It's just a big inside joke to us all. Anytime we see a glowing review for Velvet Cacoon we just chalk it up to another string on the dieselharp. The dieselharp is like CNN for black metal, it's the newspaper you get up and read each morning. It's the metaphor for our 365 day voyage from "who is VC?" to "Shut the fuck up about VC". It was a marketing ploy to prove we could fist fuck a dead scene full of idiots. It's not that we hate the people, it's that we find the message of black metal to be worse than Christianity and we wanted to mock every ounce of this community. Of course, this only relates to the interviews and shit we did where we gloated about the ecofascist dieselharp playing nonsense. The mood of "Genevieve" and the drug use, I can assure you, was and is very authentic. In a way we were playing characters of ourselves... some of the authentic parts of ourselves, and other parts were pure fabrications."

"My name isn't SGL. My name is Josh. During the day I ride my bicycle through Portland, occasionally stopping at bars for a Fat Tire or to a market to buy some fruit. By night I'm drinking wine, smoking cloves and doing whatever drugs I've come across that day. I'm not blowing up logging trucks and meat packing plants. I'm actually a very nice and peaceful person, the complete opposite of what most people would expect. I have short hair, a big beard, and I love Billie Holiday. Essentially, I'm every image obsessed black metaller's worst nightmare come true... and they already paid me my 15 bucks."

"If people want to talk about dishonest bands, lets talk about the legions of people who proclaim to adhere to the principles of Satanism, meanwhile waste their lives away playing Playstation and working at McDonalds. If people want to talk about bands who are fake, talk about 99.99999% of bands out there who preach about the war on Christianity and don't do shit about it."

If you are into it, two more releases came out in 2009 that you can find all over the interbahn.and there is one or two other albums around I don't care to own, this shit seems like its been done a million times to me and done a million times better before.

Velvet Cacoon-Genevieve,rapidshare download

Velvet Cacoon-Genevieve,mediafire download

Pissed Off Panda Bears pt 2. alcest-Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde(2007)

2010-01-02T19:23:00.000-08:00

genre:clean vocal black metal/post rock combo w/male and female vocals

Neige,member of countless black metal acts and Alcest, former black metallers took the kvlt black metal world by storm with this 2007 release.
Haha...I remember when this album came out and was extremely hyped before it was even released.All the black metal panda faces freaked out at this piece of "shoegazing, disney elevator muzak".They were so crushed that this album would even be related to black metal, that their tears ran over their zit ridden faces and all over my fucking keyboard when i was reading the "worst piece of shit ever reviews". You knew it wasn't gonna be black metal before you listened to it.Please stop crying, your parents don't have flood insurance and that puddle in their basement/your bedroom isn't getting any shallower.
That being said, yes, this album was a bit overrated, but contains well played compositions nevertheless.Yes, it is sheer shoegheyziness, but i don't use that word round these parts.
Its Contains no black metal and is poppy, but not pop music.Pretty innovative if you ask me.
You've probably all heard it.

alcest-Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde, rapidshare download

alcest-Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde,mediafire download

alcest-Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde, megaupload download

nancy sinatra and lee hazlewood-some velvet morning

2010-01-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

I first heard this haunting song at a dive bar i used to work at in New Orleans on the jukebox.Quite the soundtrack for a 2 day drunken bender with blow running through your veins at 7 am.

austere-to lay like old ashes(2009)

2010-01-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

genre:depressing black metal w/ some clean vocals, mostly torturous screams

Two members of the Australian act, pestilential shadows, bring forth this memorable slab of depression and despair turned music.Repeated riffs and tortured vocals a la Weakling,with some clean vocals thrown in here and there.Most people will despise the clean vocals, but i think they fit perfectly.No blasts beats to be found here.For me that's a good thing.Getting a wee bit boring.Mostly mid paced, cymbal heavy drumming that fits the music perfectly and was mic'd and recorded perfectly, something you don't see often black metal.Despite the repetition found in the riffing, one never loses interest, except on the last song, Coma II, a 20 minute mood piece at the end of the album that sucks goatscrot.
Don't let this discourage from downloading or buying the album though, although nothing groundbreaking, these two guys do it well and make for a substantial, quality album of atmospheric, bleak black metal mixed with some traces of doom.

austere-to lay like old ashes,mediafiredownload

mono and worlds end girlfriend-palmless prayer/mass murder refrain(2005)

2010-01-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

genre:classical, instrumental post rock

One of my bestestestest albums ever.Doesn't get much more beautiful than this.
I think the last track made me cry once.Ok, maybe more like three or four times.
Makes the majority of GYBE's albums seem trivial.
I really cant do it justice with a review, so i copied one for you.If you haven't heard this and don't download it, just gtfo.

I was planning at some point to note where exactly it is that “Part Five,” the final track of Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain, metamorphoses from merely a satisfying conclusion into the single most magnificent piece of music I'd heard all year. I knew there was a moment where I felt this; where the drums come in, or the guitars reach a crescendo, or when the two plangent string refrains finally begin to weep in unison. But while re-listening to the piece, two things happened: First I lost count of the moments that made my heart break, and then I lost the ability to count. “Part Five,” and to a lesser but still impressive extent the rest of this album, strips my brain of thought and leaves me unable to form words. I'd say this is one of the finest “imaginary soundtracks” ever released if I could just think of a film that wouldn't seem hideously overpowered by it.
To say that this disc is excessive is both its one weakness and greatest strength; on the one hand most people don't need seventy-four minutes of achingly lovely and glacial orchestral austerity, music that is content to stretch out and take plenty of time to get from the good bits to the really amazing bits. Even some people relatively disposed to this sort of thing might listen a few times, keep the third and fifth parts for the relative highs and ditch the rest. I've tried listening to the “highlights” in isolation and it's not the same; it’s like skipping parts of The Deer Hunter to watch the Russian Roulette scene.
It’s the type of music that demands your full attention to have any kind of effect. And when you give it, you'll find it hurts; be prepared to recall every time you had to watch someone walk away, every dying pet from childhood, every thing you wish you hadn't just said.

mono and worlds end girlfriend-palmless prayer/mass murder refrain,rapidshare

mono and worlds end girlfriend-palmless prayer/mass murder refrain,megaupload

i-between two worlds(2006)

2010-01-01T17:42:00.000-08:00

genre:blackened heavy metal w/ dirty male vocals

Members of immortal, enslaved, and Gorgoroth get together to play some slower, melodic riffs, simplistic drums and groove-ish bass lines.Demonaz delivers similar vocals as he does in immortal, except slowed down, with a Lemmy from Motorhead or even rob miller of Amebix fame twist.
Though the majority of the songs are slower in pace, and more simplistic than other offerings from these band members, the delivery is solid.the lyrics are very "visual"as you can picture the stories being told through the music and lyrics.
I'd consider this album more heavy metal than black metal.
Best track:far beyond the quiet.

i-between two worlds, mediafire download

blackbird raum-swidden(2008 i think)

2009-12-31T13:52:00.001-08:00

genre: folk gypsy punk w/ male and female vocals

I've had the pleasure to see these folk once or twice.usually in a drunken haze, i tend not to listen to bands too well at parties or the bar.but these folk penetrated my inebriation with their screaming harmonies.they do it so pro it hurts.
usually I'm not too into these, "gypsy punk" or "pirate folk" groups, as they are all rehashed bullshit and seem to be the trend.but this band does it well.check em out for sure.
when i find my other unlabeled disc of them in my discombobulated pile of shiny plastic, ill be sure to put it up.for now, I'm in a rush, so I'm just gonna steal some other blogs links, thanks!if you haven't heard of em before, this is a good find.chiggity check it.

blackbird raum-swidden, mediafire download

initial state-abort the soul(1994)

2009-12-30T19:12:00.000-08:00

genre:crust hardcore/punk, political punk w/male and female vox

cutting edge hardcore that was way ahead of its time.this was some new shit to me back when, and now its some new shit again.
An evolution of the band ANTISCHISM, but far more moody and intense—INITIAL STATE combined tribal rhythms and blasting thrash beats, layered with guitar caked in feedback and noise to produce a inimitable hardcore explosion. Trade-offs of male and female vocals offering hope, scowling condemnation and pledging resistance with the political intent and weight of ANTISCHISM even further intensified.
That's the pabst talking.
Well, its really some dimwit who writes for amazon, not half bad if i do say so myself.

initial state-abort the soul, mediafire download

and so i watch you from afar-self titled

2009-12-30T10:33:00.000-08:00

genre:instrumental upbeat post rock without much ambience

This release is for you who cant get into anything that is majoritively upbeat, but want to , this is for you.
This is group from Belfast may get pigeonholed into the post rock category because of the absence of a vocalist and the quasi- political song titles. The fact remains however that they exude a much more raucous and upbeat style than 99 percent of post rock bands on the scene.More groove then you can shake your black denim jeans at.No Crescendos here, bub.
My ears detect more of a later DC hardcore influence than anything
Hmmm i think ill put a post rock label on this, so the toe tappers don't overlook it.
favorite tracks:Don't waste time doing things you hate, I capture castles, Set guitars to kill
2 disc set

and so i watch from afar-s/t, rapidshare download

tombs-winter hours(2009)

2009-12-30T09:54:00.000-08:00

genre:post metal, sludge w/male vox

On Winter Hours, all doubts are cast aside, as mournful melodies are slyly buried underneath a thick morass of sludgy riffs and primal drum beats, the expansive yet punishing mix by Ian Whalen allowing for subtle harmonic touches that reveal themselves upon repeated listens. Most importantly, however, is that the ten songs sound fully fleshed out, the musical shifts as graceful as the maniacal drumming of Justin Ennis is unrelenting.

"Whether you want the crushing weight of Godflesh, the hypnotic intensity of Swans, the piercing coldness of the darkest drone or the atmosphere of the heavier shoegaze, Tombs deliver all that" Terrorizer.

tombs-winter hours, mediafire download

black math horseman-wyltt(2009)

2009-12-30T07:27:00.000-08:00

genre:psychedelic stoner doom with all female vocals

While you can find many influences from bands that have come before, BMH have really captured their own haunting sound on Wyllt. They channel a dark, psychedelic atmosphere that ranges from an eerie beauty to completely oppressive.
The listener will soon become entranced by the beautiful, icy voice Sera Timms. Her vocals provide a chilling sense the something bad is about to happen or maybe already has.
This album was recorded and produced by Scott Reeder of Kyuss.

black math horseman-wyltt, mediafire download

black math horseman-wyltt, rapidshare download

black math horseman-wyltt, megaupload download

altar of plagues-white tomb(2009)

2009-12-29T20:35:00.000-08:00

genre:black and doom metal fusion with strong post-metal overtones-male vocals

Out of Ireland,this band takes apocalyptic to another level.Their lyrics portray mans relentless and unwavering destruction of the planet and the agony and psychic turmoil we inflict on ourselves and each other.A scathing cry of conviction against urbanization and the path which mankind traverses.
The venomous lyrics are spewed out over a massive, well produced wall of sound:Relentless, pummeling barrages of wardrumming, with dense, haunting, visceral guitar riffs.The bass really stands out and sews this all together.
post black atmospheric metal meets doom.

altar of plagues-white tomb,megaupload download

altar of plagues-white tomb,rapidshare download

cobalt-gin (2009)

2009-12-29T20:06:00.000-08:00

genre:black metal w/ male vocals

everyone has probably heard of this by now, but im putting it here anways.heres some excerpts from encyclopaedia mettallum reviews:

From the title, the Ernest Hemmingway cover and guest appearance from Jarboe, to the use of chants, programming, and a tangible Old West vibe,Gin is unpredictable, unconventional but at the same time utterly brilliant as it cuts a swathe not unlike Assassins: Black Meddle pt 1 in its progressive, genre bending path.
Personally, I'm finding that this is a rather difficult album to review, as in it invokes very complex and unique feelings in me. I mean, all albums have their own charm, but some of them have appeal that just goes deeper and seeps with more meaning that the rest. Gin is one of these albums. A stoic and blackened ritualistic venture into warm, infernal, grand and beautiful soundscapes unlike any other. It's August, and I'm already betting that this will be the best metal album of 2009.
Breaking down the album is a tall order (as is most Profound Lore material) and really must be heard to be appreciated rather than conveyed in words.
Amazingly, one of the most memorable songs on the album isn't even by the band. There is a hidden track that Erik Wunder claims is an early 1900's field recording of a Negro spiritual, sung by an African American chain gang. The track is haunting and absolutely astounding. To me, it's worth the price of the album on its own. It takes a gigantic pair to tack something like that on the end of a "metal" album. But that is the genius of Gin.

cobalt-gin,megaupload download

cobalt-gin,deposit files

cobalt-gin,zshare download

three steps to the ocean-until today becomes yesterday(2009)

2009-12-28T23:33:00.000-08:00

genre:instrumental post rock/post metal

best post rock release of 2009, hands down from these newcomers from Italy.
beautiful instrumental tracks with both clean and distorted guitar, with crescendos that will make any post rocker ejaculate.Or any fan of music in general.
This type of music just doesnt get any better.a serious contender to bands in the psot rock and even post metal categories.
get it now.no ifs ands or buts.

three steps to the ocean-until today becomes yesterday,rapidshare download

three steps to the ocean-until today becomes yesterday,mediafire download

fall of efrafa-inle(2009)

2009-12-28T20:41:00.001-08:00

genre:post hardcore/post metal/doom w/ gruff male vocals

The concept band based tightly around the political themes, mood,and mythology of Richard Adams book Watership Down releases its newest and last album in their trilogy, and it looks like they are now broken up, like they said they would after three albums.
Combining elements of doom, crust, hardcore, post rock, sludge and ambient black metal, this release contains amazing crushing distortion throughout, but accompanied with pleasant melodies at the same time.The lead singer belts out harsh, impassioned, harrowing vocals.
Although the tracks clock in at ten minutes plus each, they don't fail to keep your attention even once through the entire album.
Packed full of cynicism and beauty, This is definitely a recommended release.
you can also download the entire trilogy from the bands website for free, which is the second link below.also included on the site is their bio, photos of live shows, ordering info, lyrics, etc.

fall of efrafa-inle, rapidshare download

trilogy download from official site

skaven 7"-flowers of flesh and blood

2009-12-24T14:47:00.000-08:00

genre:apocalyptic crust punk/metal

True apocalyptic crust with samples on the second track from alejandro jodorowsky's Holy mountain.
recommmended listen, recommended viewing.
also out by this band are spilts with dystopia and stormcrow.
the bands name came from a race of horned rats in warhammer.
the 7" and second song title came from a japanese imitiation snuff film.
the lyrics have nothing to do with either of these.

EDIT-HAHA:the films became infamous in the U.S. when in 1991 the actor Charlie Sheen mistook the second film of the series, Flower of Flesh and Blood for a genuine snuff film and contacted the FBI to report it. from wikipedia
ok im getting off topic

skaven-flowers of flesh and blood 7", mediafire download

a storm of light-forgive us our trespasses(2009)

2009-12-23T21:44:00.000-08:00

genre:doom metal, post metal w/ predominately male vocals

i stopped buying neurot recordings releases for a few years because they started to get, well, mediocre.i was getting sucked in by those little descriptions at the top of their cds, then being disappointed when i got home.recently i just started to again, as they have upped the ante with their new releases.i will probably have to remove these links soon, due to my snide remark and neurot recordings constant battle to take down free links,which i will honor from any label or band, so although it is widely available and always will be, if you stumbled upon this, download it now.and don't forget http://www.neurotrecordings.com to order some music(obvious brown-nosing)
Talk about a fucking supergroup that doesn't suck goatscrot.
Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Dale Crover (Melvins), Scott "Wino" Weinrich (Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan) and Al Cisneros (Om, Sleep) also includes vocals by Jarboe(Swans)
added percussion by Vinny Signorelli(Unsane)Spoken word by Lydia Lunch...the list goes on and on.
p.s. the album artwork looks oddly similar to the scionfest artwork.that super mega free concert that i missed in hotlanta.same artist or conspiracy to take over your mind?
"All you really have to do is look around you to see where things are headed," muses guitarist, vocalist and in-house artist Josh Graham, "the album basically charts humankind's journey toward oblivion as the planet awakens and tips the scales back in its own favour. Needless to say, the outlook for humanity in all of this isn't exactly too bright."

a storm of light-forgive us our tresspasses, mediafire download

bloody mannequin orchestra-roadmap to revolution 1984

2009-12-23T20:29:00.000-08:00

genre:experimental art punk w/male and female vocals

Thanks to my friend troy who introduced this to me a long time ago.he had a recording of it that was from a record that got warped on his friends dashboard.i loved the shit out of it and searched for the lp all over the internet(this was way before the days of downloading music were popular on the internet)i finally found it on some obscure website of a guy who bought out music stores old and excess inventory.then my copy got lost or possibly stolen in baltimore.anyways......
This is some quirky sounding art-punk from bethesda, md, with some great highbrow, dark, politically conscious humor added in.this album is an eclectic mix of music, so play yourself and not download because of the label(or my description for that matter).i still consider this fairly obscure, though ive seen it popping up here and there on the interbahn.i heard that some of the ex members went on to form dag nasty.sax, female and male vocals, spoken parts, strange jazzy interludes.

thanks to paynomorethan fir the only download i could find available on the net.
bloody mannequin orchestra-roadmap to revolution, mediafire download

roscoe holcomb-an untamed sense of control

2009-12-23T18:08:00.000-08:00

genre:mountain music

One of the most noted Appalachian old-time musicians, banjo player and singer Roscoe Holcomb spent most of his life in the small town of Daisy, KY, and was one of the most authentic exponents of American mountain folk music. Indeed, he never had any professional ambitions but become a recording artist and participant in the folk revival circuit after being recorded for the first time in the late '50s. Holcomb's style is stark, epitomizing the keening, at times pained vocals associated with Appalachian music, with a repertoire stuffed with traditional songs that had passed among generations, as well as some songs that he likely learned from early country records. Folk musician and archivist John Cohen coined the term "high lonesome sound" to describe Holcomb's music, and the phrase has since passed into common usage to describe bluegrass and Appalachian music as a whole. He cut several albums for Folkways and made some concert appearances on the college/festival scene throughout the 1960s and 1970s, giving his last show in 1978. by richie unterberger

roscoe holcomb -an untamed sense of control,mediafire download

mandatory godspeed you! black emperor post

2009-12-23T17:07:00.000-08:00

genre:neoclassical, chamber insrumental post rock

if you havent heard of this band, you must have been living under a rock for the past 18 or so years.staple in any music collection.the side projects are hit or miss, but are basically infinite.i own every release by this band, and would spend 5 times the amount i did to buy it again.breathtaking.mindblowing.

What Godspeed You Black Emperor! actually presents its listeners are dense, epic instrumental compositions, which tend to start small and stark and build inexorably towards intense climaxes, swaying and bending as they go under the weight of so much accumulated instrumentation. Strings, in varying shapes, sizes, and degrees of distress, are their pieces' most dominant element. These include guitars which rarely sound like guitars -- some bathed in layers of feedback and fuzz, some prepared and painful sounding, almost all broodingly dolorous -- as well as achingly pretty cello, viola, and violin parts which often sound almost as if they'd been plucked from some forgotten backwoods folk tune. Complementing all this stringed noise are brassy waterfalls of French horn, repetitive organ and synth parts, heavily processed machine noise, found sounds, and a lot more. As the pieces build from delicate sound poetry to frenzied eruptions, martial percussion rhythms -- often featuring glockenspiel, chimes, and nontraditional percussive instruments in addition to the drum kit -- emerge, underpinning the rest of the instrumental mix. It all adds up to varying degrees of incredibly nuanced, repetitious hum, the sound of an alien life force, its heartbeat and breathing, expressed through music.

Left out of that description are the snippets of narrative plucked from sources ranging from a street corner prophet's cynical rantings to clips from corporate recorded messages. The group weaves this postmodern found poetry throughout its music, offering oblique hints at what the instrumental anguish is all about: the decay of a bloated capitalist culture, a world's spiritual crisis, a planet in precipitous decline.

This music is by turns harrowing, mordant, violent, indulgent, delicate, and unspeakably beautiful.
Jesse Ashlock

gybe-F♯A♯∞, rapidshare download

gybe-F♯A♯∞, megaupload download

gybe-slow riot for new zero kanada, megaupload download

gybe-Yanqui U.X.O, mediafire download

gybe-Yanqui U.X.O , rapidshare download

tons more out there

Giant Squid - The Ichthyologist (2009)

2009-12-23T16:04:00.001-08:00

genre:indie post rock/post metal w/ male and female vocals

Haven't heard this bands other release('s) and this took me a couple of listens to decide it is quite possibly one of my top ten picks of the year.
A subtle ocean/shore theme weaves its way in and out of the album, providing vivid imagery at times, and other times not noticable until your fourth or fifth listen.the way a theme album should be, not overbearing, but creating a full piece of art, from the opening note, to ending.
melancholy post rock/indie passages build up to more heavier distorted riffing, all the while accompanied by classsical instruments and horns.
A wide range of male vocals and a sultry, sometimes operatic, sometimes just plain soaring female vocalist.
The only thing that gets sand in my crack is that the male singer occasionally sounds like Serj Tankian of System of a Down.not the fast annoying parts of that band, but his normal singing voice.it is something i quickly got over and there really arent many of those parts in this album anyways.By my second listen through i no longer noticed.
Overall, I really cant say enough good things about this band.A must have for all fans of music.
first off ,here is a myspace link giant squidspace, both their album and lp art look fucking amazing, so be sure to buy it if you like it.http://giantsquidlives.com/
p.s. for all you karyn crisis fanboys, here is a youtube vid link with her singing with the band.

download links disabled upon request.BUT, you can preview the album in it entirety here:
giant squid

Duobetic Homunkulus-Části a Mechanismy Strojů(2006, 07?)

2009-12-23T15:39:00.000-08:00

genre:tech experimental death metal w/ dirty male vocals

Crazy tech death metal from the czech republic.death enough for the death metal fans, progressive and clean enough for fans of all things progressive and new.If you know of any other releases by these folks, let me know, I'm way into them.These guys aren't signed as of yet I think, and this is considered a demo.Wow.

Here's part of review i swiped of encyclopaedia mettalum

Duobetic Homunkulus. What it means? I haven't the slightest idea, but it's cool! The album "Části a Mechanismy Strojů" gives us a new breed of Technical/Avant-garde Death Metal that the likes of many have never heard, and, unfortunately, will never hear. It's strikingly original, from the quirky oddity of the record, to the hardcore instrumentation that could make Dream Theater wet their pants.

The musicality at play here is absolutely brilliant, with technicality and time/tempo shifts that are just as terrifying as bands like Meshuggah and Neuraxis. Though there are only two members of the band–both at the time of this recording, and now–that doesn't stop this powerhouse of Czech brutality from delivering the goods! There's insane guitar that's all over the place, and bass work that makes Geddy Lee look like a pussy (and I LOVE Rush). There's a lot of clean guitar work done here–one of the many traits Technical Metal has apart from other genres–and it gives a very, well, clean feel to the album.

I'm not sure who exactly does all the other instruments on this album, but whoever they are, they are DAMN good at them! This wacko duo takes the drums to an extreme, with odd rhythms that sometimes seem to make no make sense. There's even crazy keyboards here that go from sounding like a 60's rock organ comparable to that of Deep Purple or Iron Butterfly (or later Sigh, if you're stuck in the now), to acoustic piano that give the album an even more experimental feel to it, and there's even some string ensemble work done there in the background of a few songs.

And the thing is, even with all of this experimentation and all the sounds and instruments added in to it, it doesn't sound cluttered or overdone. This is a band that does what they want, when they want. Hell, at the end of the song "Dr. Norden", it kicks into some techno/electro-pop thing with both the great Wokis on his monster vocals, and....well, some chick, and it just works!

Duobetic Homunkulus-Části a Mechanismy Strojů megaupload download

cant get these fucking italics off

heres the bands myspace link: Duobetic Homunkuluspace

subarachnoid space-eight bells(2009)and the red veil(2005)

2009-12-22T23:53:00.000-08:00

genre:instrumental space/psychedelic rock

this group formed in 1996 in san francisco.
spaced out and metallic, progressive psychedelic rock w/o vocals.
yet another gem in my cd collection(the older of the two albums)that i discovered while alphabetizing in my weekly ocd manner.
.it would be a stretch to call this band metal, but their music could easily translate to a metal audience.
throbbing and complex rhythms,with shimmering guitar lines that eventually meld together to form melodic distortion.
a true full aural assault.
highly recommended for fans of everything.

subarachnoid space-the red veil,megaupload download

subarachnoid space-the red veil,deposit files download

and

subarachnoid space-eight bells,rapidshare download

subarachnoid space-eight bells,depostfiles download

from monument to masses-on little known frequencies(2009)

2009-12-22T23:04:00.000-08:00

genre:instrumental jam bandish, math/post rock w/ lots of samples

Quite the uptempo, easy listen.
Mathy post rock on the verge of technically proficient jam band, or maybe the other way around.usually i cant get into anything this hippy, but since they spared the noodley guitar solos, i can. i cleaned my house to this album tonight and was into it.yes, a good housecleaning album, if you have a green thumb and a ghetto box, and happen to live where its warm right now (asshole) this would be a good choice as well.despite the sarcasm i like it, or it wouldnt be here.
This album is laced throughout with spoken word samples from revolutionaries from the past and present, but not so over the top political that it is pretentious or takes over the music.
Sounds nice and clean, like my house now smells.

from monument to masses-on little known frequencies , mediafire download

from monument to masses-on little known frequencies, rapidshare download

tarantula hawk-#2(2001)

2009-12-22T22:39:00.000-08:00

genre:synth driven, instrumental post metal

wow, just fucking wow.forgot about this album until i looked through my cd collection tonight.found out about them quite a few years back when i was obsessed with neurot recordings albums and was buying up everything they had to offer.
soul crushing, synth driven, progressive psychedelic something.
a must have for fans of any music, really cant go wrong.
havent heard their first album yet, but ill be sure to check it out soon.you should too.im pretty excited about this band again.here is their website.tarantula hawk official website

tarantula hawk #2, megaupload download

aes dana-La Chasse Sauvage(2001)

2009-12-22T22:14:00.000-08:00

genre:celtic black metal, folk metal w/ male and female vocals

celtic/folk black metal from france, they lay the tin whistle on a little too thick for me at times, but i get a toe-curling dickswell for the bagpipes, so i cant complain.who would have thought one of most exemplary celtic metal bands is from france?

aes dana-la chasse sauvage, mediafire download

wake up on fire-self titled(2005)

2009-12-22T20:34:00.000-08:00

genre:crusty doom/sludge w/male and female vocals

Touting members of Oak,Moonshine, Inure, Nux Vomica and 57 Octaves Below.
These guys and gals are somewhere between Neurosis and Dystopia but with a distinctive style and something that sets them apart from both of these bands.Many turns in mood on this one, blended with proficiency. Extensive use of tribal-ish drumming and the fact that each instrument is allowed to shine in the forefront of the recording without sounding in and out, or badly produced.
This band is now defunct so dont expect any more releases from them specifically(although there is a demo out there), but the whole camp always seems to be involved in some sort of musical venture, I had to the chance to see a few of the other projects play when i lived in baltimore and i have to say:high quality.
R.I.P. Kevin Hannigan
track pick:4 white walls

wake up on fire-s/t, mediafire download

trinacria-travel now, journey infinitely(2008)

2009-12-22T20:03:00.000-08:00

genre:experimental post metal/noise w/ male vocals

This band is made up of Enslaved,Audrey Home, and Fe-mail members.Definately has some black metal elements to it, but not enough for me to add it to the below labels. a challenging listen for sure.the songs are hit or miss and each will appeal to a different audience.
when i bought this album i wasnt disappointed, as there was one song i could really get into.then i came up on the last track.the title track.fucking amazing.if anything download it for this one mind blowing song.quiet hums and sad female vocals start the song off, as the other instruments come into play and build in intensity so do the vocals on both sides.the female vocals build up to a point that they remind me of some tribal female exorcism.the male vocals turn inhuman.one of the more dynamic and intense songs i have heard in quite some time.

trinacria-travel now journey infinitely, rapidshare download

trinacria-travel now, journey infinitely, megaupload download

ludicra-hollow psalms(2002)

2009-12-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

genre:black metal w/dirty female vocals

black metal, minus the panda bear makeup, with maybe a dollop of doom.great aggressive, passionate female vocals, shrieking of fury, without the distortion like arch enemy's Angela Gossow, or some crap like that.Plus they dont whore out their female members.Hailing from the bay area.members of Hammers of Misfortune and Exhumed.

ludicra-hollow psalms, mediafire download

ludicra-hollow psalms, megaupload download

arkona-vo slavu velikim(2005)

2009-12-22T19:10:00.000-08:00

genre:folk metal with male and female vocals

my new favorite folk/pagan metal band from russia.lots of nice exotic instrumentation and female and male vocals.i recently took a long break from this type of music, so i havent heard this groups other recordings, although they have quite a few.

arkona-vo slavu velikim, mediafire download

arkona-vo slavu velikim, megaupload download

neurosis-various albums

2009-12-22T18:28:00.000-08:00

genre:post metal/psychedelic/sludge/doom/tribal

Unbelievable that this band is not known/forgotten by everyone at this point, whether liked or not.
Though their last two albums have failed to deliver, for the most part, in my eyes(I wont be including those links), they are still legendary innovators and one of the best bands of all time.either way, for those of you who haven't heard them yet, here is a few albums. There is a bunch more out there, including there more punk albums, before they progressed, some albums in between and there last two releases. They also have a fuckload of side projects worthy of checking out.

neurosis-souls at zero, megauploaddownload

and

neurosis-through silver in blood, megauploaddownload

and

neurosis-sun that never sets, mediafiredownload

nachtmystium-assasins:black meddle part 1(2008)

2009-12-22T17:45:00.000-08:00

genre:psychedelic black metal

This album carries the energy and vigor of an exciting new debut album, although it isnt one.This band has a handful of other releases out, but seem to really be coming into their own on this one.Super nihilistic and grim, without the cliches and predictability of the majority of black metal.This album will conjure up the feeling when you are on the brink of an acid trip.sometime in between where you swallow that pulpy piece of saliva ridden paper and when you start to get that snake venom jaw and kaleidascope vision.
Well played Floydian undertones, black metal, gang vocals.
i love this album, one of my favorite releases of 2008.
Black metal purists can stick it up their ass.move out of your mothers basement.
favorite tracks:your true enemy, assasins

nachtmystium-assasins, megaupload

nachtmystium-assasins, depositfiles download

if these trees could talk-above the earth below the sky(2009)

2009-12-22T16:48:00.000-08:00

genre:instrumental post rock

possibly one of the best post rock albums of 2009.maybe even the last few years.for fans of mogwai, godspeed y.b.e., caspian, etc.these folk are proficient in balancing the impending doom/fleeting, beautiful moments we have all come to love in this type of music.

if these trees could talk-above the earth below the sky, rapidshare download

if these trees could talk-above the earth below the sky, megaupload download

the devil makes three-do wrong right(2009)

2009-12-22T16:24:00.000-08:00

genre:punk country/bluegrass w/male and female vocals

by Rick Anderson

The Devil Makes Three is kind of a strange band: a drummerless acoustic trio consisting of two guitarists and a string bassist, the group is deeply rooted in the blues and country music, while enthusiastically incorporating elements of bluegrass, ragtime, and jug band traditions as well. But the group also makes no bones about its punk rock influences, and despite the lack of a drummer, it always plays with the needs of dancers in mind: "We play mainly rock venues where it's not seated," says bandleader Pete Bernhard. "It can get pretty crazy, people dancing and drinking and yelling. And that's the way we like it."

devil makes three-do wrong right

igorrr- moisissure(2008) and poisson soluble(2006)

2009-12-22T15:41:00.000-08:00

genre:cybergrindcore

After a bit of research, i found that in depth fans of electronic music might call this breakcore, so i added the tag.I don't know and don't really care to keep up on electronic music subcategories, as i don't even pay much attention in the metal world to them, as you can tell from the mislabeled entries on this blog.
Ive become pretty obsessed with Igorrr lately.An impressive mix of electronically driven grindcorish beats, laced with everything from flapper-era vocals, to opera samples, to animal noises, to jazz bass and drums. Haven't really heard anything quite like it before.My friends are getting pretty sick of me listening to this.This is probably a shitty description.just download it and listen.
Also of interest is whourkr, his other project with one other person, with a much more death metal feel to it.i wont add a download link for this as they have been asking people to take it off, since they are having trouble finding a record label to release it.but here is their myspace.
whourkr myspace their albums are out there, find it yourself, smartypants.

igorrr-moisissure, rapidshare download

igorrr-moisissure, hotfile download

igorrr- poisson soluble, mediafire download

dark castle-flight of the pegasus(2007 demo) and spirited migration(2009)

2009-12-22T15:17:00.000-08:00

genre: psychedelic tinged doom and sludge metal w/ clean and dirty female vocals

St. Augustine, FL's Dark Castle is comprised of vocalist/guitarist Stevie Floyd and vocalist/drummer Rob Shaffer.Psychedelic doom/sludge in the vein of Rwake.hate me all you like but I never liked Rwake. I'm way into this band though.They deliver this brand of music like no other,adding more of a visceral, frenetic feeling to their well thought out compositions than their genre counterparts.be sure to check out the no quarter led zeppelin cover on flight of the Pegasus.

dark castle -flight of the pegasus , mediafire download

dark castle-spirited migration, mediafire download

or

dark castle-flight of the pegasus, megaupload

christdriver-everything burns(1995)

2009-12-22T14:14:00.000-08:00

genre:crusty doom/industrial metal with clean and dirty male vocals

Ex-members of Subvert, but a completely different style. The album opener will dry smash your shitbox, with its misanthropic diatribe(taken from oliver stones talk radio).Quite the thunderous verbal attack, that breaks into the track perfectly, then later finishes up with an echoey, overlayed sample of samuel l jacksons bible quote from pulp fiction.Simply flooring.I guess you could say this is industrial metal, but that genre description always turns me off, due to the generous heap of bands that destroy its name with music not worthy of a garbage can.Don't let this happen to you.Possibly the best sample(out of many)on this entire album is on the track "you destroy".Ive never heard a sample executed so perfectly that it truly gives me chills until I heard this.

released on profane existence.

album covers from the predator movie.

cold and calculated.

Eric Greenwalt(vocals and guitar)was also in an Irish punk band called saint bushmills choir afterwards.He also has a book of poetry out, available through the PE distro.

Then he and Brian Ward(keyboards) formed Black Noise Cannon, which i will be adding at a later time.

christdriver-everything burns, mediafire