DOOM CHART - Top 25 Albums for 02/14/15

Top 25 Albums

#). artist - album title

1. Pombagira - Flesh Throne Press***
2. Kabbalah - Primitve Stone EP
3. Alucarda - Raw Howls
4. Crowned in Earth - Metempsychosis
5. Evil Spirit - Caulron Messiah††
6. Strange Broue - Various EP's
7. Zoltan - Tombs of the Blind Dead EP*
8. Hands of Orlac - Figli Del Crepuscolo†††
9. Occultation - Earthbound EP
10. Goat Wizard - Self-Titled
11. John Carpenter - Lost Themes*
12. Phantomass - Self-Titled
13. Misty Grey - Grey Mist
14. Patrick Bruss - The Gorgon's Gallery
15. Widow & Children - Self-Titled
16. Spectral Haze - I.E.V.: Transmutated Nebula Remains*
17. Galleon - Self-Titled
18. Lord of Doubts - Into the Occult†
19. Burning Saviours - Unholy Tales from the North*
20. Orb - Womb**
21. Doomraiser - Reverse
22. Ooze [ИЛ] - Black Swamp [Чёрная Топь]**
23. Shepherd - Stereolithic Riffalocalypse
24. Obrero - The Infinite Corridors of Time
25. Maze of Roots - Two Chapters**

*Album available on itunes
** Streaming only
*** Pre-order only
† Available on cassette only
†† Available on vinyl and cassette only
††† Available on vinyl only

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ALBUM Spotlight on:

STRANGE BROUE – ‘Kult-Aid’

If you've never listened to the Jonestown death tape, it's arguably the most disturbing recording ever made. It explicitly describes Rev. Jim Jones instructing his followers to kill themselves. The instructions are complete with quick and ready-made hows and whys when some stray followers begin questioning whether they can go through with it. And then he starts talking about the children. All the while the congregation laments, wails and moans in the background, the volume and urgency rising and falling but sounding unmistakably damned. If you're easily disturbed, you don't want to listen to this thing.

Strange Broue's latest two-song offering makes use of it. Matter of fact a clip from it is the first thing you hear on second track "Kult-Aid". When the music does get going, it may be the best song Strange Broue has offered up yet. Then again, it may just be a psychological reaction to the relief you feel when the Jonestown clip ends. I wouldn't put it past the Broue. After all, Jim Jones was notorious for the psychological manipulation of his followers, all cults do this. Strange Broue tortures the ears momentarily with a disturbing clip, then relieves that stress with a nice big heavy riff. It's like a reverse Clockwork Orange technique to get the listener to join the Strange Broue kult. And it's impossible to resist.

Something tells me Strange Broue has been planning this for some time. The very name of the band brings to mind the cyanide-laced purple kool-aid Jones served his followers, now that you mention it. This EP is a recruitment tool, there can no longer be any doubt. Strange Broue remains for the moment a one-man band. I know the band leader's name is Max, but if it turns out that 'Max' is an abbreviated form of the name 'Marshall Applewhite' then I'm out, I mean I'm running and not looking back.

But until such time as that information is revealed I'll continue to monitor the progress of the Strange Broue kult. There are now 10 songs up on bandcamp on six different one and two song releases and they're all excellent. I threw a brief overview of the music in January which you can find at this location. You'll probably want to grab these while you can because there will be a time, it might a year from now, it might be five or 10 years from now, but these early demos will become cherished rarities the way Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats 'Vol. 1' is now.