Aural Damage Retrospective Reviews, circa 2002 to 2003 from the old THC Zine website and from the long-deleted Scrawlshop zine online site. [by the THC & SS Zine Team 420/666]
Phantomsmasher
s/t
IPECAC Records
Just who and what the f is atomsmasher? A weird mindF noise/ambient/electronic grind freakazoid monstrosity to rattle the fn eardrums with till they are depleted and you’re deaf beyond human hearing (even dog hearing?). And if you still don’t know, this of course features Jim Plotkin (twisted noise architect from OLD, Khanate, and many other tweaked musical projects), Dave Witte (Burnt by the Sun/Human Remains/Discordance Axis/Melt Banana etc. etc.) and Speedranch who has done work with Venetian Snares.
This is exactly what might be the best coke/acid freakout soundtrack for you out there still lured by Meshuggah or DEP (no I don’t hate those bands I’m just really not in the right frame of mind right now), as jagged electronic sonic saws and power drills morph and transform, with super fast human drums sampled and digitally distorted with occasional layered vocals and samples and collage noises battling out for superiority to be heard among the din. It’s total chaos sometimes, sometimes strange ambience with a lot of tension and buried sounds that will not prolly sound good if you’re uhh, under teh influence (reverse psychology).
Burnt By The Sun
Soundtrack to the Personal Revolution
Relapse
If you know your history you’ll know this features the former rhythm section of Human Remains, which is Teddy P. and speed monster Dave Witte (one of my fave drummers of all time) so you won’t go wrong for all you first timers like me. A lot of real fast and solid, tight drumkit mayhem and when the whole unit grinds, it just doesn’t grind all out, but with some sort of disciplined and graceful attack different from most other outfits. A lot of groovy downtuned breakdowns here and oddtime phrased rhythms that suddenly burn and incinerate with some awesome ak47 round rupturing annihilating grind. It could be a bit comparable to Human Remains and Discordance Axis (well we have Teddy P and Dave W) but are actually different from them and having their own sound and riff stylings. BBTS are about freeform riffing/structures and breakdowns and slower tempos with abrupt grind passages that don’t take too much of the song. This separates them from most of the grinding bands and makes em hard to just pigeonhole easily. One of my fave “new” bands and a solid record that will deplete the mall metal and numetal armies everywhere.
Burnt by the Sun
The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good
Relapse
The new BBTS kills but sounds a little different. There are a lot of faster speed metally riffs and rhythms, before they cave in to small bouts of odd grooves. Everything sounds streamlined and in many parts kind of straightforward, compared to their previous CD, although the familiar juggernaut grooves with swerving, out of control spastic freakout parts are still there, the balance between the two are just more prominent here. It sounds kind of different but still forward-thinking just like what they’ve always been up to. It’s more direct, they don’t swerve around that much but it’s still fn heavy and with quality weird riffs and idiosyncratic parts that only the rhythm section of Teddy P. and Dave Witte can do masterfully. Sometimes there’s this part where they just rock out – they might not be conscious of that, but they really do. They concentrated on brutality and oddtime destruction last time out, this time they are trying to streamline songs and have longer flowing structures.
Matt Bayles (Isis, Mastodon, Botch, Radiation4, among others) succeeds yet again with a heavy and all-instruments audible and well balanced production – this is why he is in demand in the underground right now.
Let there be Doom compilation/sampler
Southern Lord
I got this along with the Grief CD that I mail-ordered from Southern Lord recently. I believe you can get this with each order. F’n good sampler that gives anyone who doesn’t know the label and its roster yet a good overview. The subtitle: “A Kult collection of Massive Sub-Harmonics” perfectly describes this CD. My only gripe would be that there should be more songs, haha. But what fits perfectly here is good shizz: note that * means new tracks: Place of Skulls, Sourvein*, Earthride*, SUNN0)))*, Grief* (from the Turbulent Times CD, review of that somewhere here), Warhorse, Weedeater*, Toadliquor*, Boris, Khanate and the original version of “German Dental Work” from none other than Earth to close this disc of sub-end rumbling destruction.
Sunn0)))
White1
Southern Lord
What awaits us into the next otherwordly journey of the mighty Sunn0)))? Summoning allies of the cold, grimm, black void (Runhild, Joe Preston and Julian Cope) the unearthly duo of Stephen O’ Malley and Greg Anderson once again unite to generate sub harmonic trance inducing (and bowel and intestine moving) powers of total doom. 3 long tracks comprise this wreck-ord, starting with “My Wall” starting with slow minimalist noise over Julian Cope’s spoken word lyrics of doom, stretching until the mighty subharmonic guitars and bass swell into a mass underneath everything. That is when you’ll fn feel that we are all under Sunn’s massive drone foundation.
Listening to this and the last SUNN0))) wreckords totally loud on max volume in an empty house can cause one to either a. destroy their hearing b. mind expansion by force in slow motion c. cause bowels to move – they can cause listeners to actually take a dump after hearing them and d. more of letter b. goddamn. The trick here is to make sure its played really LOUD and the bass is well heard and FELT – the first time I listened to this was in an empty house with a super LOUD and decent stereo, and it gave me the feeling, the second time, I immediately felt going to the bathroom to defecate, third time, I felt an uneasiness in my intestines and later had to defecate. Works perfectly when you haven’t taken a dump yet. This is the first song I am talking about, the slowest ever doomdrone song I’ve ever heard. Slow as the evolution of man while the sun(n) glows forth and is witness to the slow changes of earth’s evolution. 25:16 minutes.
The second track, “Gates of Ballard” is some sorta break/deviation, with Joe Preston’s programmed drums guiding the lost ship into the further regions of the netherworld. This by far is Sunn0)))’s uhhh… most “normal” sounding song, with Runhild of Thorr’s Hammer doing some drone vocals in the beginning of the track.
The last song, “A Shaving of the Horn that Speared You” returns to the black void, the final strectch of our journey, a black fn expanse where time and space do not exist. The vocal duet of Joe Preston and Runhild G only enhances this last dark lysergic trip to melt one’s brain into a black unconsciousness.
If that last CD was absolute SLOOOWW DOOOM torture and some sort of time travel to the past in slow motion, this one cuts up the phases of the journey to the underworld into three: mindF no.1, prelude, and then entering the fucking vortex. I don’t know where the next journey will be. For ambient drone listeners only. And do not listen to this under the influence of drugs.
Grief
Turbulent Times
Southern Lord
I had a totally inebriated thc-enhanced listening trip this one time on the dirty sludgecore/doom tip that pitted Iron Monkey, Eyehategod and Grief. Iron Monkey are students of EHG’s miserable doom/blues/southernrock sludge. EHG are of course the masters but are more negative and bleak and hopeless. Grief works within their confines of limitation: they don’t have much swaggering southern rock grooves and they don’t use too much variation. This small, totally negative and focused bleak limitation suits them well – as they churn out fucking slow and totally doomed out claustrophobic sludge/doom like there is no hope at all. They will crawl and trudge through dirt and once in a while groove with a bonghit riff until all else falls to the fucking ground and we all return to the slowcrawl once again. I like Grief a lot (I listened to this 2 weeks straight after it arrived on heavy baguio gold); Like superpotent hashish from your trusted dealer, everytime you feel like listening to them they crush so well that you’ll feel so down the first minute.
Rising from the ashes of crust kings Disrupt (actually starting when Disrupt was already active as a side project), Grief paints a total black and lifeless ashen grey of all things miserable and hopeless. These 11 tracks are everything they have left, surrendered long after they are gone… but not forgotten. They are monuments that will stand the test of time until the earth is one fucking lifeless planet.
A great layout and simple, negative destructive artwork goes with this CD – Southern Lord have the honor of finally laying down their gravestone of doom via this release. If you liked the above mentioned bands and negative filth but with the feeling of being totally doomed along with superpotent bud/hash, get this now. In closing, I have never seen Grief happy, but I tell ya, when you lift the CD from the case, there’s a pic of Grief goofing around a rhino statue – this is the only pic of Grief I’ve seen where they were once at least, happy, something we all never expected from the purveyors of Total Negative sludgecore doom.
Disfear
Misanthropic Generation
Relapse
The new Disfear rocks hard with awesome anarchic anthems all throughout this disc. With some solid Motorhead on meth staccato speed rock grooves, their all too-familiar d-beat/discharge but still rockin style, Tompa’s more punk leaning vocal assaults different from his other crust vocal work (Skitsystem, et al), as well as the wah-filtered alcohol fueled lead soloing still intact with a dirtier punk feel, Misanthropic Generation destroys while rocking and damning life with an acidic bite and attitude.
12 rocking crustpunk tracks with the same dbeat speed all throughout – as it wears down to the latter tracks it feels like the previous song though, but Disfear crank out some good f’n tunes here. It’s a dbeat rockin’ party compared to the total raging fury of Skitsystem. Solid shit hea fool. I gave this a so-so review before as this one is more rocking than Skitsystem, but this one eventually outrocked Skitsystem’s angrier pissed off record. Two different albums, don’t compare Tompa’s bands, OK>
16
Zoloft Smile
At A Loss Records
The mighty 16 return with this latest slab, dodging problems, negativity and line up changes. I’ve searched far and wide for 16 stuff for years, being rewarded with a compilation track or two and online mp3’s until the day I save enough low valued pesos to buy vynil and celebrate despaired existence with a trusty bong, superpotent cannabis and sounds of hopeless – and surprise surprise the first person to have lent me their Drop Out album on tape was none other than Rogel of VoC back years ago. I can officially say that Rogel of Valley of Chrome introduced me to 16. He didn’t dig it that much, but that tape I listened to about 6 years ago was just what the doctor ordered.
Propelled and enhanced by crystal clear heavy and balanced production, 16 offers an updated sound, some, like in opener “Damone”, are a li’l upbeat, offering a glimpse of hope in their otherwise bleak and negative aural wasteland. Negative grooving riffs trudge before they succumb to the massive juggernaut sludge doom crawls. That’s what I like about em, they’re in the middle of the stoner doom contingent; Not too over the destroyded yet still having a more refined and focused approach (most prominently with the vocals) and they present the best of both worlds by doing so. Someone described them as “Helmet meets Eyehategod in a hotbox room” and I don’t disagree.
Chris Jerue’s vocals air the despair and futility of living with pissed off but clear singing as opposed to inhuman howls – add to the human side, you can just feel the resentment and frustration of living through his vocals. Two tracks off the 16/Today is the Day split can be found here – “Balloon Knot” and “Aging Disgracefully”. Heavy doomed out thick guitar bong resin riffs atop a huge and massive bass (one of the best I’ve heard among most stoner doom) and drums backdrop – 16 never falters at their art despite their frustrated vibe and despair, they only get better at it. 10 solid tracks, 16 at their peak, hanging in there and surviving and at the same time still creating music for tortured souls. If you know what the I’m blabbing about here, do yourself a favor and check it out.
Tomahawk
Mit Gas
IPECAC
If it’s under the IPECAC label of course expect shit to be more electic and weird and better than usual. First of all this is my first exposure to Mike Patton’s other group so I have no other reference to hold on to, other than the fact that he has a musically f’d up side and is considered an insane genius, just recently his work with Fantomas and the Dillinger Escape Plan (Irony is a Dead Scene) are just a sample of this – don’t forget the many other current musical projects he has and of course IPECAC.
Featuring John Stanier of Helmet and a familiar name, Kevin Rutmanis (who did time for killer depressing rock moFckers The Cows, and also the Melvins), Tomahawk are more free form, sounding like what could have been a new Faith No More record but having a strange eclecticism to it, less keyboards more lysergic episodes and cleverly placed fills and spaceyness. It works. It’s what you would expect of Mr. Patton and his like minded allies.
Although not as explorative as his prime work with FNM and his weirder side on other bands, Tomahawk features a more elastic and freeform aesthetic that also has a lot of weird riffs – a more art rock flavored and focused project with a lot more shifting moods here, wah filtered licks, some odd beats and synth/keyboards swelling about. Those weird suave vocals he used to do in FNM make an appearance once in a while, without going overboard with the strange freakout vocal gymnastics and instead going more straightforward with a li’l variety. The music features a less whacked out but more freeform format – meaning this isn’t as totally insane as the others, the focus is there but it still meshes together a few electronic beat manipulations here sometimes going for oddtime workouts, sometimes going for an almost punk rock straight ahead rhythm, even a song with uhh French (?) lyrics as well as ambient sampled noise loops- they don’t let things go too straight – you know how Patton and co. work their songwriting minds around, as they always jumble things around. But actually this isn’t like most of his other stuff – you don’t need to take substance enhancements (although it is always uhh, recommended) or have lots of patience for this new album, just expect things to be a more unpredictable and electic and you’ll do fine. But you can just put this on and you won’t have to dissect or get in the mode to like it and absorb it.
Cog
Contact
Independent Release
This is a better and much more improved aural presentation of cog, with a better (kind of dry sounding in parts but still good) production and a balanced mix, and great packaging too. A fn steal at 50 pesos you mof’r so get one now. This is also a more varied release, as you get to hear their thrashier songs (“2 1/2”, the opener, comes to mind), incensed, totally pissed off anger (“Collide”), jazzy offbeat grooves that mutate into a weird clean tone/clean vocal duo and then on to a full on rage riot (“Ethel”), a weird but melodic track that features clean singing all throughout (“Tsunami” – the CD’s ‘ballad’ if you can call it that) and the closing track that could be one of their future directions (“Cleansing”) that is a bit like the 4th track, with a lot of clean axe passages and emotive, clear, clean vocals. One of the premiere hybrid metal bands in the scene right now. see interview on the interview box. / http://gearcog.tripod.com / gearcog@yahoogroups.com
DJ Spooky
Optometry
Thirsty Ear Blue Series
The newest DJ Spooky opus delves right into the heart of jazz chaos, using an almost purely instrumental urban jazz sound propelled by a steady backbeat and some grimy hiphop beats that aren’t mixed too upfront to give more emphasis on the jazz elements. Trumpets and saxes converse together in seemingly otherwordly languages, pianos reverberate and echo in sonic hallways and street corners of NYC while the vapors of ambient noises (one of Spooky’s main backdrops in a lot of his earlier releases) waft through on and off in the air.
Not sure if Spooky mingled with the jazz musicians live or had them play and looped it, did it cut and paste style or whatever. The flow of the music starts out frantic then winds down to a more subtler beat, allowing more ambient/abstract noise elements to come to the fore. Certain parts of this sound like an awesome mind warping trip that brings to mind Sun Ra jamming with Coltrane on hash, but with Spooky’s personality and patented unusual styles running all throughout the whole jam session.
Cavity
On the Lam
Hydrahead
Cavity are one of the newer fave sludgerock bands and On the Lam almost rocks out almost the same way as “Somewhere Between The Train Station…” though not as direct as that classic slab of drunken southern rock mayhem. On the Lam has slower grooves and more of a jammy feel, as opposed to the bar brawl riot of that earlier record. It’s like each song goes on and progresses to a jamming part full of noise and feedback and a trance inducing repeated groove as it either ends or goes back to the main rockin’ riff.
Those wanting a kickin in the teeth with the slightly catchy heavy tons-o-slab dropping style from em will not find massive doses here, instead the grooves are a bit more laidback and stoned. Still a great record, well done though the record slightly picks up by the middle track, then slows down again for a lazy, drunken rockin’ shuffle. It is also the final Cavity album, because they have broken up. Cavity R.I.P.
The Fucking Champs
V
Drag City
The new record sounds sharper and heavier than the previous IV, the songs are more technical, and seemingly this time around, shorter. It’s still twin guitar dueling with a lot of epic metal touches and building up parts that lead to more, more epic metal money riffs. Good, quality instrutechmetal without ever boring you with any showoff parts. That’s where the tension building and the money riff/epic metal riff combinations do their work.
The sharp, harmony based Maidenesque instrumentals are still here, but the growing classical music interest is much more focused and take up more of the sound (they even covered Bach’s “Air on a G string) as well as slower, more atmospheric pieces, as more keyboards are now utilized. I love the wah/flanger filtered solo on “I am the Album Cover” and the string section sounding keyboards on “The Virtues of Cruising” with a floating, slow lead solo on top as well. “Aliens of Gold” is the longest song at 4:36, also their weirdest sounding one, with a minor chord heavy riffing then a slow tripped out weird descending scale, then back to hard rockin, a slowdown and then a grand finale metal finish. And the Bach cover – man this is fucking excellent – a twin guitar solo duet done very beautifully – Very Good. And so is the rest of the album. If you dig them, and you dug the last record, you will absolutely love this.
Queens of the Stone Age
Songs for the Deaf
Interscope
I really liked the last QoTSA album and was looking forward to this one. QoTSA sound more rocking here, with huge doses of rock and THE RIFFS but keeping the mild psychedelics in balance and having a more retro, garagey sound. On the drumkit position on this album is none other than Dave Grohl using his Nirvana bag of tricks – Not too flashy but solid playing here that totally fits their sound. The vocals by Nick Oliveri, Josh Homme, and some with the soulful crooner Mark Lanegan add a good balance; Lanegan provides the soul and the laid back feel on a few songs, while Oliveri and Homme the rock vocals, from clean to screaming. I hope this is the record that puts QoTSA on the next level. Hell, if anything, them and bands like The Hellacopters should be up there with those bastards The Hives, The Strokes, The Vines and their types, cuz they know how to rock with a classic feel the right way. BUY or DIE.
Ice
Bad Blood + various mp3’s
A great find I got from the Relapse DC hub. Yeah it’s old, but this is because I couldn’t find any Ice for the past two years and only got a copy recently. But better late than never, I finally have Bad Blood. This is definitely some great cold, dark, grimy, discordant hiphop from noise/industrial psycho and beatmeister Kevin Martin, known for his work on noise industrial jazz groove gods (err) God, with co-conspirator Justin Broadrick and a slew of top underground guest musicians.
Beats plod out ala Godflesh, as pianos, guitars, grimy bass grooves and noise layers and samples conspire for homicide in the background, all the while Martin rhyming but in his instantly recognizable, fuzzed out vocals. I dunno if this is new but I bet that like me, you are new to Ice (but not necessarily new to God, Godflesh, et.al). If you like Cypress Hill’s Temples of Boom mixed with Godflesh and a bongload of hash, it is imperative that you search this out now.
Botch
An Anthology of Dead Ends
Hydrahead
So yes Botch has finally been put to rest, and as a souvenir of their final days, you have the live DVD and this final EP. Botch fire on all cylinders here and give us 6 (weirdly titled) songs (all of the countries with all n’s replaced by m’s as if the typewriter or keyboard has a defective n, what kind of clue this is I still don’t know). Discordant screech minor chord key shrieks and oddtime bashin aside, this is the final Botch EP for chrissakes and if you’re a fan you need this and the EP.
Bloodlet
Three Humid Nights in the Cypress Trees
Victory
Of the many early classic Victory Records bands, Bloodlet stands out for their unique and well crafted approach to hardcore with metal, doom, sludge, and experimental influences. Scott’s bitter and sometimes abstract lyrics prompt the listener to read it more than a few times and make you interpret it in your own ways. They play just mostly slow to mid tempo and don’t employ any other fancy styles such as math like tempo equations or noise (they did go more experimental on their last record which was a personal fave of mine), they just keep it simple, and use the basic riffs and add a solid rhythm to it.
This is a return to their Entheogen days, which would make most of their followers glad, those like me who wanted them to go and continue their path from The Seraphim Fall (falling off the deep end, hehh) will not see any of it here. But it’s not a disappointment though, because it’s a good album, more matured and can possibly be the best one so far, with regards to their sound on Entheogen. The riffs are slamming and at times catchy but still retaining a certain discordant feel at times, and the drums are more straightforward and groovy, since Charles has left Bloodlet and stayed in Germany with his own business there, and long time roadie John Stewart Jr. now on the drumkit position. Many got confused on what happened to Bloodlet back then, because the hiatus went on too long, but with this record, everything is forgotten and they have made a good comeback, stronger and more focused.
High Road No. 28
Obscure Madness demo CD
I actually traded for this CD with Butch of Get in Touch zine, we actually traded promos so we can review both. He described it to me as stoner rock which got me a bit interested but when I put this fucker on I was wondering what the F (he said he doesn’t even listen to stoner rock maybe i got fucking duped, haha). It’s not that bad, but the style’s more of a drunk biker rock / stoner rock hybrid, with unusual vocals: Lemmy 60%, a dash of gruff Anselmo at 15% and a drunk dude for the rest, you can just imagine that sound. The riffs are actually rockin and are good. The big problem with this bastard is that he does the drums and vocals and just hired somebody to do session guitars and bass, as it is just a one man band. It could have been better if it was a full band so he can have other inputs in what the total sound would be. Would’ve been better if he assembled a full lineup and got a stoned out frontman /vocalist that would fit nicely with the music.
Valley of Chrome
Transparent
Independent Release
Although their roots are in hardcore and punk, VoC don’t really feel accepted in the hardcore scene, and it’s no secret they are pursuing the path to heavy metal stardom. They are moving further from the HC scene musically. Valley of Chrome has now developed a metalcore/80’s metal hybrid sound, inbreeding their love for Iron Maiden and the now ever popular melodic shit of In Flames with their aggressive hardcore riffs. These guys are good, but sadly I can see this sound becoming a tired overused cliche with the newer bands in the years to come. 2nd overall release from our now well known pals and this is much better in all aspects from their first indie release. The riffs are much more groovy and and an ever growing interest in 80’s metal that shows in their crowd favorite anthem -“Forever Young” twin guitar melodies with a faster rocking groove, like Sick of it All smoking crack with Iron Maiden and Bad Religion’s “American Jesus”. The next one should be interesting, as they are adding more and more melodic metal elements to their sound, so all you metalcore kids, keep an eye out for these guys.
Ulver
Silence Teaches You how to Sing EP + Silencing the Singing EP
Jester/Trickster Records
There wasn’t a review of the Metamorphosis EP and Perdition City on the last issue so I had to get this in somehow. Basically, both EP’s are mushroom tripping soundtracks, with more, more space and ambient randomness in between episodes of the synths and classical pianos. Both sound more like independent film soundtracks, which I think Ulver are in which field now, and are starting to get recognized.
The Silence EP is a long, 24 minute track that progresses and builds up from discordant scratchy noise, to booming low frequency noise which gradually leads to a somber piano and vocal ending and slight feedbacking noise. It sounds more like a soundtrack to an edgy indie film. The Silencing EP has three shorter tracks that feature more layers of noise and music, as well as minimal electronic beats, but still generally explores space in between. They lately have been scaled down to three, but I am sure Trickster G. (Garm) is in this somewhere. It’s now been a very, very far odyssey that started with “Themes…”, And I know many of Ulver’s followers either hopped on the time warping vehicle or got left behind, so most of those who are just getting into this will be surprised at how they once used to be total raw true elite Norge black metal. And even though they progressed and changed at such and exponential rate, Ulver remains masters of no one but themselves, and they get our utmost respect just for it.
Red Harvest
Sick Transit Gloria Mundi
Relapse
If you’re expecting to hear slow Godflesh sludge industrial noise from all the reviews and mentions, think again. Red Harvest are destroyded in a different way; A much more cold mechanized industrial monster with faster bpm’s/and a hardcore and speed metal drum machine heart. Like God is LSD with a heavier and darker feel and aggressive vocals. They do use synths and keyboards, but more as a complement to add to the mood and not as dominant, helping add to the guitars. It does get slower from time to time, to bring out a more trudging feel, almost bordering on doom sometimes, but always having that cold, ruthless machine heart that sets the mood all throughout.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
s/t
Virgin
well from the name alone I was conjuring images of noisy rock and roll rebellion, of choppers and harleys and the whole Easyrider vibe, ignoring the Jesus and Mary Chain comparison. I was thinking raw MC5 and power chord driven full throttle. But of course it turned out to be the different MC, ya hear. If you liked the JAMC (or even know who the hell they are), you will like the BRMC. Don’t expect the wall of white noise guitars here, though, as our broes from BRMC prefer a li’l more soberer, clearer style on the riffs for a better driving on the highway, and the lazy vocal style is here too. Basically, it’s more stripped down and depressing, and has this weird 60’s atmosphere sometimes, the slow, bare bones rock and roll approach. A hardworking power trio, BRMC do live up to their hype, they have an a-ok outing here, but a few more trips to the drugstore and some more debauchery is in order for them to make the real hard impact on the second album, but for now, this record has really gotten the attention of the people in the indie/alternative scenes.
Down
II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow
Elektra
In a recent article, it has been confirmed that indeed, our boys from down had some minor help from creative substances for the making of this record. Old habits die hard, and this is fn rock and roll created straight from the Nodferatu’s Lair so you know the band made another classic. It only added to the overall attitude and sound, with a new collection of killer riffs and songs. It’s a damned good record, but overall it isn’t as catchy as the first Down.
There is more southern/classic rock flavor on here, and by goddamn, Phil sings better than ever here, the depth and soul is so much ingrained in the vocals here. In parts, if I’m not mistaken I hear some keyboards in this, but as accompaniment only and in very small doses. “Ghosts Along the Mississippi” seem to be the closest you’ll get of the first album, as well as “New Orleans is a Dying Whore”, “The Seed” and “Dog Tired”, with a more spontaneous jamming feel all throughout. The rest is some good whiskey drinkin’ jamming southern rock and blues. It’s pretty mixed, but an enjoyable record all in all.
Superjoint Ritual
Use Once and Destroy
Sanctuary Records
I already downloaded the demos so with the albums, you pretty much just imagine that with a better production and on CD and you’ve certainly got a winner here. Down II is a more traditional record, and this one’s more abrasive punk/hardcore/metal with a rawer edge. Down explores the rock elements and shows Anselmo’s soulful vocal style, while SJR leaves everything behind for good old moshpit beating all the while having the oldschool raw punk/hardcore sound as well, kind of having a drunk belligerent Black Flag drag a stoned Pantera out in a bayou swamp all the while drinkin’ whiskey to some raw tape of a southern rock comp on a shitty truck stereo. As the band bio says “our influences aren’t korn or limp bizkit” and you can pretty much take that to the bank. Let that be both a rallyin’ call and a warning to those concerned.
Elbow
Asleep at the Back
BMG
A good new band that seems to be one of those lumped in the group of Coldplay, Starsailor, Embrace, et al; The newer wave of bands next to the earlier wave group of Radiohead. But Elbow are different and take some airy keyboards/organs and subtle guitars to air the sadness and contemplation while not going over the edge, but still having that sad, slightly depressing feel but in a positive and hopeful way. Elbow are not here to give you answers, they do not present themselves as saviors, but they’ve been there and feel the same way you do.
Civilian – demos
This is kickass. Raw garagey version demos – pretty much what it would sound like if you were thinking what Chris Cornell and the remaining RATM members would sound like. RATM streamline their systems and eliminate the hiphop elements without taking out the grooves and the classic rock elements in their sound as Cornell rips with his unmistakable vocal style. The result is some smokin’ groovy hard rock that pretty much stomps on the likes of modern day crap such as nickelback, creed and bush and their likes.
Some of the riffs even sound “stoner rock”-like. It felt as if the band jammed with a fun, loose atmosphere, throwing and exchanging ideas as they jammed. The result is a spontaneous and honest collection of good songs here. With our friend Layne Staley gone, Cornell is just one of the few remaining Seattle alumni who together with the RATM personnel, are still creating and performing honest and heartfelt hard rock these days. Not as dark and foreboding as some of Soundgarden’s (especially the mid-career material to the late eras), but more on the side of (sometimes) Zeppelinesque classic rock, Civilian is a mighty balance of the two. Unfortunately, it ended just before the planned release of the album and an appearance on Ozzfest. There are plans to release the CD, we just don’t know when, and leaves it at that, an unreleased but exceptional side project. I (and surely many other people) am hoping these guys will jam again in the near future to produce some good songs again. In The meantime there are about 13 songs available for download from kazaa or whatever, so check them all out.
*update* in a recent new article online, the members of Civilian have renamed themselves Audioslave, whether or not they retain their sound is up in the air but all you fans keep an eye out for their upcoming activities and the new album due later this year.
Dragon Green
Emissions from Green Sessions
Infernal Racket Records
Fn heavy slabs of prime thick resin riffing from our buds Dragon Green here, with the perfect Matamp fried tones to bring out that solid, heavy ass bottom grooves from out the sludgy swamp and into the cannabinoid trapped ears of yours as each riff plods out and keeps your blown out speakers reverberating, enhancing the bongified state. They remind me a bit of High on Fire, especially when they go focus on the huge driving stoner money riffs and not the long jams in between.
But Dragon Green are in their own league here, with drowning amp fried riffs that test the patience (all songs above 5 minutes) of the stationary traveller. This is one of the perfect soundtracks to a long fucking journey in the desert in search for the ultimate hash in the kingdoms of the Hukka Queen, with a few upbeat and mid tempo swaggering swerves here and there. The few lead solo jams are in the middle of the trip, but don’t go on to an extended jam, but more as a transition to another money riff. Fans of Bongzilla, 5ive and High on Fire looking for the new total stoner boogie with mammothian Doom grooves and will dig this. Great production and mixing, and stoner-friendly graphics too in this quality package. Check this out, as well as the interview in this very issue.
High on Fire
Surrounded by Thieves
Relapse
Matt Pike and the rest of High on Fire carefully took the time to ferment their latest creation, and the headstrong fucking brew came out killer as usual. The new HoF is intense, a huge rumbling sonic titan that shakes the earth and leaves it in a crumbled heap. The tempos here are a bit more upbeat and rockin out, without ever losing that huge mammoth plod like always. The hallucinogenic lead solos aren’t as long here as with the first one, but when they rip, they rip everything into shreds just like they always do.
I always like the way Matt arranges the riffs out on a song and structures it with a lot of slowdowns for the lead solos to come in. Here, he condenses the arrangements and adds more pummeling time for the riffs to drill your head in. The huge giant bellow vocals are still there, he may sing in just one style, but it’s the only style that you’ll ever need for HoF. Another facet that makes them so killer is that huge mammoth sound for a three piece, everything is so interlocked and tight, including live, once they pause, and then hammer down on it, the grooves are heavier sounding. Easily, the faves here are the mighty “Speedwolf”, “Nemesis”, the title track and the last track that avalanches everything, “Razor Hoof”. Goddamn it this fucking record is a must buy for all you worshippers of the mammoth groove, and if you liked the debut record, well then by all means get this now or forever be a fucking wimp crushed at their heels.
Minus
Jesus Christ Bobby
Victory Records
If you haven’t been paying attention to the newer bands on the Victory roster then Minus will let you know. Minus is a bit related to the whole wide field of the math metal / noisecore brethren, but they’re a bit too weird for that, listening to them is like allowing Coalesce to smoke crack with Today is the Day while they fuck around with some electronic gadgets and sh*t. And there’s those headaching guitar noise fills and feedback that add to the overall sound. They’re there fn hell and they add to very welcome torture. It also helps that these dudes hail from the chilling parts of Iceland, their cold, sinister sides come through perfectly through this record. The vocals sound processed most of the time, even if they go for a melodic break. It’s total chaos and an absolute fckr, great for people dealing with serious problems to sort out, playing this record will agitate you even more. Almost the same intensity as the latest Converge record, only this time a different form, maybe even more insane. There are some breaks to relieve you of the inner tension, with a surprising acoustic track and some low noise level parts. The bonus track isn’t mellow, very far from it, it’s more like an industrial torture chamber noise collage electronics experiment gone bad.
Converge
Jane Doe
Equal Vision Records
On their official website, Converge lists their AOL Instant Messenger name, so I added them, and when the name was online I talked and talked about requesting an interview but no response, I did this for several times but not in like a stalker way but no response. Anyway, Converge are the kings of total chaos hardcore metal, and this is a testament to it. If you dug Petitioning and the last other wreckords, this new one levels up the self-destructive themes on full throttle.
The perfect soundtrack to an out of control riot complete with molotovs, baseball bats and shards of glass and metal that erupt in any given second, Converge continue to F sh*t up and destroy and be unpredictable on Jane Doe, and not to mention be riffingly techni-fucking-cal, and well tight and not even slacking off one second as fast tempo changes hook you by the throat and throw you down for a hellride until you fucking puke and leave a nauseating feel afterwards. It’s ugly and it’s awesome. Favorite tracks here are many but “Fault and Fracture”, which severs the Voivodian mathematical equations into an almost semi grindcore outbreak with the breakneck speed metal intensity and Bannon’s kill-everything vocal assault. All the other tracks here are in this style, with varying degrees of insanity and belligerence. Yeah it’s a bit dated but who cares, killer record.
Electric Wizard
Let Us Prey
Rise Above Records
The total fn masters of total sonic DOOM obliteration come out with this latest offering of THC loaded true UK doom fuckin’ metal. Sure it’s stoner, not rock, but fucking Doom. The total fuzz out ultra slomo, B-movie classic horror atmosphere adds to the overall thickness and weight, as everything transforms into total stoner fuzzed out heaviness.
The shifting psychedelic lead solo hallucinogen transmissions are shorter here, but more focused, providing distraction until EW bring back the slow elephant trudge plodding riffs again. There are only six songs here, but as always some mostly long, 9 and 10 minute cosmic trips to vortexes and parallel universes, where minds are warped, weed is King and song time lengths stretch out like fucking loose rubber bands. Overall, a great doob-out record to escape reality to, just as Supercoven and Dopethrone were. Everybody else can go leave the portal here, but all ye that follow the lead of the ominous bong of the morning star know what the F’s up.
Darkest Hour
So Sedated, So Secure
Victory
Another good new band on Victory, this time a bit influenced on the side of the Swedish Metal leagues, although they’re not even from Sweden. Take a little bit of hardcore plus generous alcoholic beverages of the Swedes X factor and you’ve got Darkest Hour. Although no veterans from the Euro scene, they’ve got the twin guitar riffage and single string mayhem down. They prefer to not outspeed everybody all the time though, having more slowdowns and sudden breaks for big drop riffs ala old Entombed (though not the chainsaw buzz guitar tones) before bringing the twin guitar cruise into the mix. Think Entombed with a li’l bit of At The Gates, some hardcore punk rock tempos and Darkest Hour’s own personal touch. They’re still a fairly young band, but they have already toured with the likes of The Crown and a few others. I think these guys are currently workin’ on the next album, and it will be pretty interesting where they would take it next after the tours and metal debauchery of the past season. Watch out for these guys.
Alabama Thunder Pussy
Staring at the Divine
Relapse
I actually haven’t been into ATP not until last year. The new record finally got released when they signed a deal with Relapse, and here you get to hear a revitalized and rocking ATP. If you’re into good heavy southern rock you’ll have no problem with this release. This is killer heavy rock and roll to cruise a truck with, drinking beer and raisin’ hell at a weekend or at the end of shitty day. There seems to be a lot more twin guitar phrasings here and a more downtuned and raw sounding mix on the guitars, which is good, showing more intertwining guitar dynamics. And good old Johnny here’s doin a whiskey and nicotine tinged performance on the vocals. This album’s not only for the stoner rock fans and the people in the metal and punk DIY scenes but have the potential to cross over a wider base without selling out. Hopefully with Relapse behind em and ATP’s hard working, underground DIY roots this will be seen this year.
Towards Harmonious Civilization Zine 
Leave a comment