BAD GUYS - Bad Guynaecology (Album Review)

"There is no meaning and that's the point, there is no point at all"

I was introduced to Bad Guys by Joop Konraad of The Stoner Hive blog. They grabbed me and put me in the back of a van, they stripped me down to my tighty whiteys, tied me up, gagged me and forced me to "Witness a New Low" ... metaphorically. Before you get the impression that this is one of those social justice "call-out" articles, let me say that although part of me was more than a little repulsed and appalled by what the band did to me (...metaphorically), I secretly enjoyed the experience and would have gladly taken seconds ... though I'd never mention so in polite company.

Enter the band's second album, suitably titled "Bad Guynaecology". Bad Guys are here to make you feel uncomfortable, from the traumatizing album cover on down. They're the funky uncles, the politically incorrect raconteurs of hard rock. Like Jesus before them, Bad Guys take the losers of society on board and give them a voice. But before you get the impression that this band is all fun all the time and that their music is inconsequentially light, understand that behind all the madcap storytelling sits a heavy nihilistic spirit. While clowns may grin but weep inside, Bad Guys leer while numb inside.

The opening track, "Crime" is a vivid and memorable tale about shoplifting. It's told in the spoken/sung style reminiscent of Suicidal Tendencies's "Institutionalized" (as an easy example). The story is told from the shoplifter's point of view as he goes through the motions and emotions of the crime. While the shoplifter's motivations may be slight and spoiled, it matters to him and the force of its telling makes it matter to us. The rogue's gallery exhibit continues on the next song, "Prostitutes (Are Making Love In My Garden)", featuring a catalog of Bad Guy observations about the world's oldest profession is exactly the kind of song you'd think twice about playing in front of sweet little old ladies.

What makes Bad Guys good is that they don't shy away from the grimy underside of life, they turn over the rocks in society and observe and record the scurryings. This is science, the study of absurdity. The song "Reaper" says it all, really: "There is no meaning and that's the point, there is no point at all".

Musically, the band is adventurous, but favors a rough stomping ground, offering 8 songs and 40 minutes of hard rockin' good times. There's a good amount of variation here and Bad Guys are coming from a punk-ish place, spiritually, but to me the highlight of the album is the storytelling, which is unusual because I typically tune lyrics out and listen to the vocal melodies.

Rating: «««½ / 5

'Bad Guynaecology' is released on CD and LP by Riot Season Records, you can order a copy at this location.

Bad Guys on facebook
Riot Season Records on facebook



Here's a video to play for sweet little old ladies:

BLACK RAINBOWS - Hawkdope (Album Review)

If you don't know by know, then 'Hawkdope' should cement things for you: Black Rainbows are one of the best rock bands in the world. The consistently high level of artistry of the band's output over the course of eight years, four albums, one E.P. and a highly regarded 4-way split album is staggering. I wrote about them once before, for the 'Holy Moon' E.P. which you can find at this location, but I'm not sure I drove the above point home enough in that one. This is the band's first full-length album since 2011's 'Supermuthafuzzalicious!!' and in that time some things have changed and some have stayed the same. Let's get into it ...

I caught on to Black Rainbows very early on in my discover of the underground stoner rock world. Before facebook, before the Paranoid blog, way back when I was deep down the wormhole of youtube suggested video links. I heard a song off of the band's 2010 album 'Carmina Diabola' and it blew my tiny, insignificant mind. When I finally tracked the album down I wasn't disappointed, it was a masterpiece. It's just a collection of 10 straight forward scorchers with some proggy elements. The same can be said of the above-mentioned follow-up from 2011. I saw 2013's 'Holy Moon' EP as somewhat of a departure. The band was spreading their psychedelic wings to a certain extent, with songs like "Chakra Temple" and the title track, it was an experimental effort. The band has always had a touch of Hawkwind in them, but I don't think anybody could have expected the "sound paintings" sections found on the EP.

'Hawkdope' is classic Black Rainbows, but they've retained more than just a hint of those psychedelic tendencies to stay true to their label name (Heavy Psych Sounds). For the most part, the new album is stuffed full with head-down rockers, but room is made for smoke-blown sections and ripping solos. This is Black Rainbows gone cosmic, but staying within the lines of their established boundaries. The Italian trio subtly deviates from the formula here, musically and structurally and the result is a more dynamic album. Though the pausey rhythms that characterized earlier albums have largely been jettisoned here, the stripped down approach acts as a stage II rocket, propelling the band into the cosmos. Musical boundaries have been eliminated, this is the band's apotheosis. Black Rainbows can go anywhere from this point, the nine-minute title track is proof of that.

'Hawkdope' will be released this Saturday, March 14 by Heavy Psych Sounds, but you can stream the entire album right now over at The Obelisk website.

Rating: «««« / 5

Black Rainbows on facebook
Heavy Psych Sounds on facebook

BRETUS - The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Album Review)

I've been sitting on this potboiler for about three months now, keeping mum about it and it's been killing me. I wanted to hold off on talking about this album until there was a solid timetable for its release. Well, I still haven't seen an exact date for its release from Blood Rock Records, but the band said March, so that's close enough.

Bretus's new album is riffier and probably better than its predecessor, 'In Onirica' which I happened to like a great deal (two years ago this month I posted the review at this location). While the new album has lost some the prog appeal of the last one, it aligns more closely with throwback metal bands like Devil or Demon Eye, whose albums made the top three in my best of lists for 2013 and 2014 respectively, so you know I'm biased towards this kind of sound to begin with. But why wouldn't I be? This is exactly what I'm looking for: it's heavy, riffy, sounds like the kinds of albums I'd heard in my uncle's basement suite in the mid-80's and isn't alienatingly overproduced.

The first bit of info about the album I'll arm you with is that it's a concept album. As your inner Sherlock Holmes can surmise 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' is about the seminal H.P. Lovecraft tale of the same name. The story is broken down here, quite well actually, with each song title breaking down the story in chronological order. Interestingly, I was in the middle of reading this story when the album was sent to me. Still am in fact because as a pure piece of writing, it's not one of Lovecraft's best. But the story resonates. It's about "otherness" and true alien-ness, and perhaps in a bout of self-awareness, Lovecraft turned the tables on himself, to see his xenophobia through the other side of the lens. Or maybe he was just trying to shock. None if which is here nor there really.

'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' is full with riffs the way a mother shark is full with shark babies. The crispest example is third track "Captain Obed Marsh". I put it on a podcast weeks ago and I still haven't gotten over this song. The whole first half of the album is a gallery of riffs, the Italian band puts on a clinic here.

On the second half of the album, the mood darkens considerably, starting with "The Oath of Dagon" as narrator Robert Olmstead runs into increasing danger. The atmosphere grows darker and increasingly frantic and claustrophobic. The listener loses some of "easy-listening" nature of those bright, memorable side one riffs on side two, but by then you're already knee deep in the story of the album and pulled along compulsively. That said, the darker side isn't without its thrills. "The Horrible Hunt" stands alone, musically with its cycle of almost black metal riffing, near thrash tempo and doom metal bridge. It's a tour de force.

If the idea of adapting Lovecraft's famous tale appeals to you, you should check out the 2001 film Dagon from director Stuart Gordon (the best interpreter of Lovecraft's stories). It's a loose adaptation of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" that plays a bit like Night of the Living Dead with horribly deformed fish people in the place of zombies. I recommend it as highly as I do this album.

It was incredibly difficult not to put this album in my top 2014 list, but I wanted to play by the rules, this album being destined for a 2015 release, it didn't belong on a 2014 list. But I can tell you right now, that this album is best of 2015 list bound. Three months after first hearing it, I haven't stopped listening to it and I'm sure that this album will take its place among the two albums mentioned above along with Magister Templi's 'Lucifer Leviathan Logos' as timeless metal albums that will never grow old.

Rating: ««««½ / 5

Bretus on facebook

QUEEN CRESCENT - Self-Titled (Album Review)

This is great stuff.

Queen Crescent is an all woman band from the Bay Area of California who make heavy, dark and punky stoner doom rock with flute. Comparisons will be made to Blood Ceremony and maybe even Jethro Tull, but should be avoided. These ladies do their own thing, and that thing is spectacular. These heavy ladies will also be lumped in with the occult rock label and there's some truth to that if you look at the song "Majic Moonjynuh", but this album is no more occult related than any other rock n roll album to emerge since Bill Haley & the Comets told the world what time it is.

Main vocalist Andrea Genevieve automatically brings to mind Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, especially on the album's best song, "Culture Vulture". But we're only talking tone of voice here, because she's singing from a low register. As far as what's going on musically, Queen Crescent are in a class of their own. It's hard to imagine flute as a blunt object for instance. It's used almost as a percussion instrument in this standout track, but if it can be done flautist / vocalist Melissa Vu will find a way to do it.

Flute is a huge part of what shapes Queen Crescent's sound, it's treated as a lead instrument. This allows the incredibly low-tuned guitars to slide under the radar and hit the listener on an almost subconscious level. This is what gives the music its dark and mysterious overtone. Some might hear it and read the sound as "occult", but what they're hearing is the contrast that springs from the interplay. The light tones of the flute, playing a darkened melody with that basso rumble underneath has a somewhat hypnotic effect. The musical mysticism expressed on this album is more attuned to the true magical experience of psychedelics than the often overblown imagery of the stirring of cauldrons and the riding of broomsticks.

What really matters is the music itself and this 7-song, 33-minute debut is potent stuff. Powerful vocals, solid melodies, heavy riffs and killer flute are all driven along at a solid pace from the back end by drummer Amy Martinez. You get an easy sense of the tongue-in-cheek sensibilities of the band with song titles like the above-mentioned "Majic Moonjynuh" and the short warm-up of "In the Court of the Crescent Queen". Also, any outfit that gives a respectful nod to the iron-fisted musical gymnastics of Mr. Fripp and company are alright in my book.

Rating: ««««½ / 5

You can find out more about this hard-working, up-and-coming band at the following links:

Queen Crescent official website
Queen Crescent on bandcamp
Queen Crescent on facebook
Queen Crescent on twitter
Queen Crescent on instagram

'Queen Crescent' is now available on LP and digitally. Check out the album on the player below

XII BOAR - Pitworthy (Album Review)

Artwork by Beak - Six of One

It's not my first day or nothing, but I'm still new here. When it comes to underground heavy, I'm still green. It's a maxim of mine that it takes 15 years to become truly good or proficient at anything you do, be it something creative, a job or even just listening to a certain type of music. I'm about a fifth of the way there, way down the seniority list. XII Boar is one of those bands that you hear about, over and over. If enough of the right people talk about a band I'll make a mental note to check out the next release. Trying to play catch up and listen to everything is bailing a flood with a thimble. Well the time has finally come and XII Boar has a new release. After a pair of highly regarded EP's the band is releasing their debut album on March 9.

XII Boar is often labelled as sludge or even doom but I call it biker rock. It's an unswerving, unrelenting, fast-driving terror trip of heavy music. This is bicycle-chain-being-whipped-in-your-face-in-a-midnight-park-brawl music. Well, you either shy away from it and turtle, or you use the adrenaline to keep driving and fight on. XII Boar is suited for the latter personality type.

From the wicked throw down of savage opener "Sharp Shooter" to the epic finish of "Quint" this Aldershot power trio shows no mercy. The album title is no lie. The 10 tracks on this 48 minute album keep a quick tempo, but tend to alternate heavy, slower, riffier moments at opportune times. And the album's not without it's melodic moments, see the sublime "The Schaeffer Boogie" for evidence of that. It's a good signature sound and they carry it well.

With XII Boar being from the UK, the style they play immediately brings to mind bands like Orange Goblin and Desert Storm and newer groups that I just happened to hear first like Mage, The Grudge and Beardmore. They also wouldn't fall off the stage on a double bill with Midnight Ghost Train. But even among this excellent lot, XII Boar excels. Bands like XII Boar are to Motörhead what ... Windhand, for example are to Black Sabbath. They are the children of Lemmy and crew, ensuring the sonic lineage while building on it and sending it to seething new places.

Incidentally I was never sure how to say the band name, all this time I've been reading their name as "She-Boar", well it's Twelve Boar. Either way this band spells trouble and 'Pitworthy' will leave scuff marks and bruises. The album is available now!

XII Official website
XII Boar facebook page

EVIL INVADERS - Pulses of Pleasure (Album Review)

Every now and then an album comes out of the blue and surprises you. I wasn't expecting much when I came across the new Evil Invaders album, I wasn't expecting anything really, and it floored me. I tend to focus on stoner rock and doom metal when it comes to new music and Evil Invaders isn't that. They're a throwback band, rooted in the mid-80's era of freewheelin' thrash. It was a time when genre boundaries were being erected, but were small enough to look over to the other side, when metal was just metal, not specific sub-types. It was a time when bands were carving out their own niche and creating their own legend. This Belgian quartet comes from that iconoclastic mold-breaking state of mind.

The first thing you're likely to notice is the rubber burning riffery of the opening measures of "Fast, Loud n Rude" (see video below). The song works like the introductory abstract to a thesis paper. "On this album, this is what you should expect" and the outline is executed to perfection. Evil Invaders are often categorized as Speed Metal, but as I mentioned earlier, it's so much more than that. There is technical excellence and breakneck speeds on display but what remains is the feel, the mood of the album. It's a stiff finger in the face of any self-proclaimed authority that would impose any kind of limitation on the band.

The second thing you're likely to notice about this band are the crazy vocals of axe-wielding frontman Joe. There's nothing understated about this band. Every performance is a tour de force, every act is death-defying and that spirit is embodied in those vocals. They sit on the high end and take flights of fancy nearly every line of every verse. Far from being annoying or showy, Joe is the musical soul brother of those early metal vocalists. The overall throwback style also places Evil Invaders genetically as the faster, more obnoxious (in a great way!) cousins of New York leather-bound metallers Natur and London's Amulet among a host of others. But few if any get that mid-80's metal spirit dead on ... while progressing it, the way Evil Invaders do.

After a self-released a demo appeared in 2009 ('D-emokill') and having recorded a self-titled E.P. for Empire Records back in 2013, this is the band's first full-length album. It will be released by Napalm Records on various dates in different territories over the next couple of days and weeks. Here's your timetable courtesy of the label:

G/A/S/Europe/AUS: 27.02.2015
UK/NO/FR/DK/IT: 02.03.2015
SE/ESP: 04.03.2015
USA/CAN: 10.03.2015

You can pick up the album on CD or vinyl (3 options) at this location.

Rating: «««« / 5

Evil Invaders facebook page

TAKEN BY THE SUN - Self-Titled (Album Review)

Incredible cover artwork by Nick Keller.

It's not everyday you come across a band that describes their music as "Post-Metal / Jazz / Doom / Ambient Sludge", so it's with a high level of awareness that you approach Chicago's Taken By the Sun. You just know you're going to either love the music ... or despise it deeply and passionately.

Taken By the Sun's self-titled debut is progressive in the truest sense, it speaks the language of stoner and doom metal but invents new phrases, crashing the borders of both extreme and post-metal styles along the way. The patchwork monster of sounds and styles isn't entirely unlike what a Neurosis would produce with the "kitchen sink metal" sensibilities of Philip H. Anselmo & the Illegals thrown in. You may hear an odd-time hammer slam of a drum beat with a haunting melody plucked away in the background before the two elements switch places of prominence. You might hear dry throat cries mingling with melodic vocals atop a choppy chaotic sea of noise, before the entire structure solidifies and girders itself with a stoner riff.

But apart from what sounds familiar, there are times you will hear things on this album you've never heard before, like the soaking wet modulating bass tone of the incredible "Red" or the "bone-dance" riffing in parts of "Volatile". The magnum opus of this first outing would have to be the closing track "Ornaflux", which was premiered over at the terrific Sludgelord blog. You can listen to that track at this location. It's a good introduction to the band, it shows what they're all about, a bludgeoning attack buffeted by polyrhythms, around the world melding of styles a head-sploding chaotic chorus and it just so happens to be a great song to boot. It's incredible when you hear it to think that the album was recorded live with minimal overdubs.

This all might sound like direction-less nonsense, but that's my words failing, not the band. The styles in the utility belt may clash, but each is used in its proper place. This band is Batman. The raw elements of sound are then re-combined in novel ways, by finding just the right mixture to create a powerful new beast never before glimpsed by man. This band is Mr. Hyde.

The album goes live on Taken By the Sun's bandcamp page tomorrow, February 24.

Rating: «««« / 5

Taken By The Sun facebook page

Official website

SATURNALIA TEMPLE - To The Other (Album Review)

Cover artwork by Manuel Tinnemans & Michael Idehall.

Saturnalia Temple first caught my attention when I heard the delay-beset title track from their 'Aion of Drakon'. I've been mildly obsessed with the album ever since. It's such a unique sounding song and really the whole record is like that. It's only later you find out the band doesn't play "shows", they play "rituals" and that they take their noggin-exploding quite seriously. It only makes their efforts all the more impressive: it's one thing to stumble upon a unique and awesome sound, it's another to make a conscious effort to reach for the moon and scrape blue cheese dust off your fingertips when you're done.

Saturnalia Temple has returned with their second full-length album. The first thing I noticed is that it's not as experimental as 'Aion ...' which gives 'To The Other' a more streamlined and focused feel. Maybe it's because of the absence of the delay effect on the vocals, which has been a staple of the band. It really makes things disorienting, in a good way, and lends the music the elan of a sleazy drug trip. I didn't notice any vocal effects at all on this record, and it gives things a cleaned-up feel.

If you haven't heard Saturnalia Temple in a while you forget just how heavy they are, this album will remind you. Despite any streamlining, their distinctive blending of expansive space rock adornments with evil vibes and void-black riffs ensures they remain one of the more memorable bands from Stockholm or anywhere else on the planet. The closest to 'Aion ...' the band ventures is album closer "Void", which makes smart use of delay and repeat effects to bring the spookiness to cacophonous levels.

They don't put releases out one after another, this is just the band's second full-length album in nearly 10 years of existence and first in four years, but when they speak I listen. Saturnalia Temple isn't the kind of band to waste even a second of their record or your time, if they do something you better believe it's to achieve a particular effect. They can have such tight control over their output and still sound wild and free ... and that can be a double edged sword.

I'm not sure exactly how the album was recorded, but it doesn't feel like it was recorded live with everybody all jamming in the same room. It just doesn't have the loose, improvisational feel of earlier recordings. Main man Tommie and full-time bassist Peter are aided and abetted on 'To The Other' by American drummer Tim Call of the black metal band The Howling Wind and funeral doom band Aldebaran among others. He's a prolific recording artist in his own right having drummed on well over a half dozen records from different bands in the past couple years. He also played with Saturnalia Temple on their brief American excursion in 2013. One thing is clear, when you compare 'To The Other' to their original 'Ur' demo, you hear immediately how far this band has come.

But, it's hard to say a more polished-sounding Saturnalia Temple is a better Saturnalia Temple, and yet 'To The Other' is still a terrific album.

I'm skeptical of anything released in the first quarter or even half of the year ending up on year end lists because music people have the memory of goldfish. That's not a harsh criticism, art is inherently disposable, it's more ephemeral than clothing for example, and less utilitarian. But I'd still be surprised if this album didn't end up on more than just a couple year end lists.

'To The Other' is available to order right now at the links provided below, and will begin shipping out tomorrow, February 23.

Rating: ««««½ / 5

Saturnalia Temple facebook page

Official website

Order the album:

The Ajna Offensive (North America)
Listenable Records (Europe)

HORRIBLE NIGHTS - Patrick Bruss - The Gorgon's Gallery

American multi-instrumentalist Patrick Bruss is one half of the horror-inspired death / grind metal band Crypticus. Together, he and Norwegian drummer Brynjar Helgetun have released three full-length albums and a host of E.P.'s and other items. Now, death metal isn't my thing but for Crypticus I can say that what I've heard from the band is better than 95% of the genre, this coming from someone who loves riff-based metal with organ so take that for what it's worth to you. 

But Crypticus is only one outlet for Patrick Bruss's dark imagination. This past October he released a solo eight song E.P. of synth-based horror themes called 'The Gorgon's Gallery'. I've talked at length and I'll continue to talk at length about how it's tough to find good synth-based horror music that isn't dance-y, well 'The Gorgon's Gallery' is exactly what I'm looking for. Matter of fact this is one of the best imaginary horror soundtracks I've heard.

The difference here is that Bruss uses live instruments so that the atmosphere maintains its horrific focus. It's hard to maintain an eerie or creepy feeling when your feet feel like dancing. Horror music should make your feet feel like running or at least stay very, very still so as not to attract attention. Bruss achieves that goal here. It's easy to tell that this horror-inspired music is coming from someone with a heavy metal, rather than a dance music background. The sensibility pays off as you can practically feel the blood pulsating and oozing from the throbbing basslines.

Again, this album is caked with castle dungeon atmosphere. It sets the mind off into secret tunnels and cobwebbed lairs of darkness. If that sounds corny to you, then you're probably not a horror lifer. Bruss is, and it takes a certain sensibility to realize and maintain such moods. But as important the feel is to this E.P., there's memorable themes here. Ultimately, the combination of the two, atmosphere and melody is what brings me back constantly.

Three of my other personal favorite horror-inspired musical projects, Blizaro, Slasher Dave and Werewolves in Siberia also come from musicians with heavy metal backgrounds (although Blizaro is more metal with horror music touches), a fourth of those favorites, Zoltan uses live instruments. The organic quality of live instruments and heavy sensibility of the artist comes together to create perfect horror music so that the sense of menace runs rampant. If I were to try to pinpoint this album on the horror music scale of heaviness it would fall between Blizaro and Slasher Dave. No matter where it lies though, this has been one of the best albums of horror music I've heard and I hope Patrick Bruss continues to do this kind of thing. 

He also did the music for a short film called "For the Team" which you can find at this location.

Rating: «««««/ 5

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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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.

MISTY GREY - Grey Mist (Album Review)

This is throwback music best described 

in terms of an evolutionary throwback animal.

Wait a minute! Don't hang up that phone. The voice you hear on the other end is bizarre and confusing. It's hard to incorporate because it's so unconventional, but that doesn't mean it ought to be rejected outright. I'm telling you this for your own good, because that helium-infused voice you hear belongs to a witch and a witch scorned becomes a feast of shit for your life. If you turn your back now to the Misty Grey it will come back to haunt you.

I understand why you want to run in the opposite direction, believe me. I've been there. We've all been to a haunted place like this, a crossroads between worlds. I had the same initial reaction, but trust me it'll go better for you if you don't resist.

Encountering Misty Grey for the first time is to first encounter the opposite sex. It's a frustrating challenge but the sooner you fight through the initial bouts of loathing, the sooner you'll realize that there are tantalizing mysteries behind the surface. To encounter Misty Grey is to encounter "the other", and we know enough now not to reject something out of hand because it is different from the norm. When you fight through the dread, you will understand the pleasures inherent in such "difference". To reject Misty Grey is to fear the unknown and to fear the unknown is to lie to oneself, because underneath it all, originality is the currency of art and art is truth.

The vocals will challenge you as they challenged me. I was able to see past the illusion and I saw the witch behind it, that is my great fortune. Now I've joined the Misty Grey witch cult.

Go with your gut, go with that initial reactions that was ready to go to war with the band when you first heard the heavy riffs. You haven't heard riffs this raw since Pentagram. Imagine or remember what the reaction was when people first heard Saint Vitus or Trouble or Cirith Ungoll or Kyuss. These are bands you and I might take for granted today, but they all feature vocalists not even their Grandmas could love. Remember that over time, people came to think even pugs were cute. Pugs!

Initially pugs were palace guard dogs in China. Roughly the size of a Saint Bernard, twice as mean as a Pit Bull, and uglier than hell. 'Grey Mist' is really no different. This is throwback music best described in terms of an evolutionary throwback animal. The vocals will make you feel uncomfortable and uncertain, but there's no mistaking the music. The overall effect is akin to the uncanny valley experienced when we see near-human automata. It's almost right, but there's just something a little off about it. I guarantee you after the second listen you won't even remember what you thought was so weird about it in the first place. But that might just be the witch hypnotizing you. Either way you won't care, you'll be happy. It's okay, you can go ahead and trust me on this. Now ... join us!

Rating: ««««« / 5

Misty Grey facebook

'Grey Mist' is currently available to download on the player below. Shadow Kingdom Records will soon release a cassette version of the album, followed by a CD version.

Shadow Kingdom Records webstore

EVIL SPIRIT - Cauldron Messiah (Album Review)

The pendulum is a torture device in which a thick blade is suspended and swings in a wide arc across the midsection of a victim until the body is halved. It was immortalized by Edgar Allen Poe in “The Pit and the Pendulum”, later adapted by filmmaker Stuart Gordon, arguably the foremost interpreter of the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Poe.

I know Horror Records as the home of Abysmal Grief. They're one of those bands that I binge listen to. They've had releases from other bands I've reviewed and liked, such as Black Oath and Anima Morte for example, but everything else from the label has been tertiary to me ... until I saw this album come up on my bandcamp feed. It's by a band with the ominous name of Evil Spirit. "Okay, I'm listening ..." Their album is called 'Cauldron Messiah'. "You still haven't lost me yet". Then I saw the album cover. "Alright, time to press play". There was only one song up at the time, "Grey Ashes of the Reptile" a razor sharp pendulum of blackened doom (it's since been joined by the title track). It was up for free download so I grabbed it immediately and pondered over the file's contents with hand resting thoughtfully on my (then bearded) chin. Then I waited.

And waited.

And so on. There were delays, the full album didn't go up on the scheduled date. I finally got my grubby mitts on it and the wait was worth it. While waiting I pondered the remaining empty spaces of the album and imagined what they may contain, the ultimate result, that shrouded entity that scientists have classified as 'Cauldron Messiah', was everything I imagined it to be, though not at first.

"Grey Ashes ..." primes a listener's expectations for doom metal. It's a great song, the first five slow-building minutes are doomy, creeping-through-the-musty-old-house-searching-for-the-vampire's-coffin-with-stake-in-clammy-hand music. The closing section of the song is that raucous moment when the creature awakes and the hunter becomes the hunted. It's bloody, it's messy and that sort of thing can be enjoyable in small doses.

The opening song (and short introduction before it) sets the atmosphere to "dense fog of dread". When the next song, "Eve of the Beholder" rolls in, it upsets the atmospheric balance, completely changing how I heard the album over the course of the next handful of listens. It's a quick two minute blast of death metal which re-primes the ear. It's a jarring sequence to say the least. I didn't realize how thoroughly doomy the next two tracks, "Let the Dragon Be My Guide" and "Reino Sangrento" are. Though they are both nearly eight minutes long, their collective mood is eclipsed by the two-minute "Eve ...". Then, just as the ear is re-adjusted, the last half of (also two-minute long) "Push Angie Back Into the Swamp" throws another blast beat at the listener.

It took me quite a few listens to get there but I see how the native language of this album is doom metal. The riffs are blackened in the style of another of my favorite bands, Head of the Demon which this album slightly reminds me of and the blast beats are few and far between. When they do appear, they leave a truly long-lasting impression on the atmosphere of the album, for better or worse. Those tempestuous moments increase tension, and the tension heightens the atmosphere of the album's doomy moments.

'Cauldron Messiah' is steeped in enough tomb-like horrific atmosphere that it could easily qualify for a Horrible Nights post. It's for this reason that I find myself fascinated by this album. I'm drawn to it repeatedly and there's no signs of slowing down yet, the pendulum arcs ever downward.

Rating: ««««½ / 5

Evil Spirit facebook

'Cauldron Messiah' is available on LP and cassette on the Horror Records bandcamp page and from their own webshop

Horror Records webpage

HORRIBLE NIGHTS - John Carpenter - Lost Themes

“It can be both great and bad to score over images, which is what I’m used to. Here there were no pressures ... It’s just fun.”

- John Carpenter [source]

You know John Carpenter. He needs no introduction, but he deserves one nevertheless. One of the most creative forces in the latter quarter of the 20th century in both film and music, John Carpenter scored and directed over 15 films between 1974's Dark Star and 2010's The Ward. His list of accomplishments during that span is significant. He helped defined the slasher film subgenre while simultaneously helping to define (along with Italian atmospheric prog masters Goblin), how music sounded in film for the next decade with but a single work: the classic 1978 film Halloween. He went on to direct and score some of the most iconic films of the 1980’s: They Live; Big Trouble in Little China; The Thing and The Fog among other classics.

[Image source]

So what John Carpenter does today? According to recent interviews he plays video games and watches the NBA on TV. How's that for one of the most innovative musicians of the latter quarter of the 20th century? Well it seems the video games help fuel his creative fires. In between rounds of Borderlands 2 and Assassin's Creed: Unity, he would sneak off to his home studio to improvise an idea in sound.

'Lost Themes' is a deceptive title and I imagine it's intentionally so. It automatically makes one think that these songs are unused themes from his films, but that's not the case. Though he's had many a soundtrack album released from his films over the years this is in fact, his first standalone album of all-new original material. But that doesn't mean he's forgotten the lessons learned in his film work.

Carpenter improvises when scoring a film. He starts with a drone, adjusted for the mood of what's on screen. Then he adds layers of keyboards as he watches the scene in real time. For 'Lost Themes', Carpenter used much the same process, but he didn't have a picture reference to draw from and the result is apparently liberating. Carpenter is free from the constraints of narrative, budget and the limitations of special effects to imagine all-new scenes and then to score the hell out of them. 

[Image source]

Music can often "suggest" images. It's one of the great joys of listening to music, specifically that of the "horror synth" or "darkwave" subgenres which Carpenter basically created. On 'Lost Themes', the opposite is taking place. Imagination creates images which suggest music. The resulting album is unique within Carpenter's ouevre. While still filmic, the music is free to be more than accompaniment, it's free to be just what it is, music for music's sake.

The songs or "themes" are highly atmospheric, as always the songwriting process begins with a mood, which is turned into a drone. But rather than remain static for the duration of a scene, the compositions are free to wander around and tell entire short stories of their own within their 4 to 8 minute lengths. That means they're structured, though not rigidly so. Of course, the best moments on the album are the darkest in both tone and title, "Night" and "Obsidian" stand out as particular highlights, along with "Mystery" and "Abyss". If nothing else, how often do you see a 67-year old release one of the best electronic albums of the year?

The LP version will be released in March by Sacred Bones Records. The album proper stretches 47 minutes across 9 songs, but the iTunes download comes with a half hour’s worth of remixes, which is jarring, unnecessary and their entirely different tone (read, dancey) only serves to undermine the carefully laid fabric of the album. Stick to Carpenter and you'll do fine.

Rating: «««« / 5

Also check out:

John Carpenter's official site

The Sludgelord write-up that originally turned me on to Carpenter albums

and

This cool beginner's guide to John Carpenter's music

DOOM CHART: Top 25 Albums of 02/07/15

Top 25 Albums

#). artist - album title

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

*Album available on itunes
** Streaming only
*** Pre-order

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ALBUM Spotlight on:

POMBAGIRA – ‘Flesh Throne Press’

Photo by Vic Singh [image source]

Pombagira's sixth album won't be released by Svart Records for another month and a half, so maybe it's a bit early to start the hype train rolling. But if this confusing and poorly-worded early review from The Sludgelord is any indication, that train's already picking up speed. Okay, full disclosure: I wrote the article linked above and I meant every poorly chosen word of it ... but I might have a few words left in the bag, so bear with me.

'Flesh Throne Press' is Pombagira's second double album, the first was their May 2008 debut 'The Crooked Path'. The band has evolved remarkably in the ensuing seven years. The debut threw heavy slabs of doomy riffs and gruff heavy metal vocals atop an aggressive attack. As ambitious as a 5-song double album debut truly is, one could pigeonhole that band into the stoner doom category. The new album is miles away from what nearly anybody else, anywhere is doing. The closest band I can think of in terms of similarity or resemblance is the incredible Aleph Null who use considerably more traditional structures and ideas.

As heavy as Pombagira was in their infancy, banging and crashing, they are now leagues heavier, deeper and darker both sonically and emotionally.

'Iconoclast Dream' [image source]

Of course, the evolution started much earlier, arguably on the band's fourth album 'Iconoclast Dream', a 42-minute single track that heralded the coming direction. That unbelievably heavy guitar tone was already in place, the band was discovering a moodier approach but the ideas present in the piece were still very much couched in the trappings of stoner metal. Nothing wrong with that approach, but Pombagira seem to have left it behind like an old mate that just won't grow up on their two subsequent releases, including this new one.

When comparing 'Iconoclast Dream' to 'Flesh Throne Press', it becomes apparent that much of the mood Pombagira projects as a band comes from drummer Carolyn Hamilton-Giles. Guitar snobs make note, the drums are a real instrument. Carolyn has traded heavy impact for a slightly muted approach making for a more overall psychedelic / shoegaze-y direction for the band. She's not invisible back there, but she invisibly weaves a blanket of order on what could otherwise be a chaotic affair. She uses tom patterns in lieu of crashing beats where appropriate, and her performance runs the gamut of power and subtlety. Her presence is absolutely essential to holding the ideas, mood and textures of the album together, by not calling attention to herself, the mind focuses on the deep modulating guitar tones creating a semi-hypnotic state for the listener.

So there you have it, if you've checked out the Sludgelord link then you get a double review for a double album. 'Flesh Throne Press' is 13 songs and 86 minutes long and will be released on double CD and double LP by Svart Records on March 23, 2015.

HORRIBLE NIGHTS - Jacula

Jacula was formed in 1966 by Satanist Anthony Bartoccetti and his wife Doris Norton. Their 1969 album 'In Cauda Semper Stat Venenum' is the most evil music that the world had ever known at the time of its release. That is, until a certain Brummy blues band stormed the world months later.

[Image Source]

Still, the impact of this album remains keen. There is a conspiracy theory that the album was actually recorded in the 80's or 90's and some of the production touches certainly seem to indicate that. In its original form, the album was said to be released as an edition of 300 copies, and they weren't sold in stores. In fact, they weren't sold at all. According to legend, the band gave copies away to anyone they met who had an interest in the occult. Most, if not all of the original copies have been lost or destroyed. I have yet to find any mention online of someone having dug up one up. If they did, I suspect they would hear much the same music as you would today on the iTunes version, for example ... minus some of the crushingly heavy guitar and synth overdubs.

But regardless of its true origins 'In Cauda Semper Stat Venenum' is an amazing album. In 1969 this album wouldn't have fit in anywhere. Church organ, played by Charles Tiring is the lead instrument, followed by thunderous timpani (played by Norton), with the occasional spoken/whispered vocal laced throughout. The album features 6 inverted hymns and insists on being listened to by candle light. This is dark ambient music before there was a concept of such a thing. While the infant prog scene of the day seemed to be focused on some of the more fanciful applications of the hippie ideal, Jacula were provocative, unapologetic occultists. One thing's for certain, this isn't pop music, but is it even prog?

Anthony Bartoccetti [Image Source]

The best way to describe the sound would be to call it devotional music. The thing is, what the group was devoted to would surely have sickened the sensibilities of the masses. They seemed to be made to inspire hatred. One could only imagine the response to the band at the time. Keyboardist / organist Charles Tiring was said to be in his mid to late sixties and married to an 18 year old girl by the time of their second (and last) album 'Tardo Pede in Magiam Versus' in 1972. This is one of those bands that every story you read about them gets crazier and crazier. Jacula is almost too good to be true. Another clue to make one question the authenticity of 'In Cauda Semper Stat Venenum' is to compare it to what came later.

'Tardo Pede in Magiam Versus' is very much a product of its time. It's certainly progressive. At times the album transposes the spookier organ works of J.S. Bach onto a Fairport Convention album. However great that idea looks on (e-) paper, it sounds even better in practice (see "U.F.D.E.M."). Doris Norton's singing voice is deep, rich and powerful, her spoken word passages sound desperate and pleading, whenever possible she leads group chants. Much of the album however is devoted to organ solos. There are jazzier / loungier / dreamier parts of the record however, such as "Jacula Valzer" which belies any proto-metal leanings. In spite of that, much of the record is steeped in eerie moods, but falls somewhat flat when compared to its predecessor.

[Image Source]

After this second record, the band changed parts and Anthony Bartoccetti changed gears into Antonius Rex with new personnel. The new group first appeared in 1974 with their 'Neque Semper Arcum Tendit Rex' album and continue to this day. Their latest record, 'Hystero Demonopathy' came out in 2012.

The beautiful and talented Doris Norton would eventually go on to become an early electronic music pioneer in the 1980s, actually working in IBM's research lab to create music. It's very much "robot music", not entirely unlike Kraftwerk. In hindsight, her fast moving electronic compositions might sound "retro futurist" to modern ears. They are not without their charms.