So this is Christmas

So....Christmas. It's probably trendy to be all 'bah humbug' among bloggers at the moment but I freaking love it! The family get-togethers, the drink, the food, the good times; there's nothing better. Christmas was also the time of the year when my CD collection would bulge to near titanic proportions as every year, without fail, my hastily scrawled list to Santa would contain little more than albums. I'd always have to write a 'mum friendly' list as she'd never know which was the band and which was the album title, even then she'd just end up going into HMV or Virgin and just handing the list over to a helpful shop assistant. Ah, the good old days. Now, of course, what with the spread of music blogspots, a lot of the stuff I want I download, mainly because it's obscure and hard to find. I'm sure all of this is a God send to my poor mother.

All waffle aside, Christmas is a time to enjoy yourself, be with family and friends and in all ways spread love and joy to others in an all too easily cynical and bitter world. So here is my little attempt to bring the spirit of Crimbo into anyone's life who happens across my blog, enjoy...

We Wish You A Metal Xmas and A Headbanging New Year (2008)
Monster Ballads Xmas (2007)

The end of hope and dreams, fearless undead machines!

Deceased- Fearless Undead Machines (1997)

Abandoning the Best of the 2000s series of posts for a brief moment, here's a ripping album from way back in the 90s. The main reason I'm posting this, aside from it being a truly great death/thrash album, is my last post got me thinking about concept albums in metal. They seem to get such a bad press, constantly linked with notions of pomposity, self-indulgence and musical wankery, but that's rather unfair. Equally, concept albums =/= Prog, though progressive music does seem to lend itself very well to story telling and picture painting. Deceased's 'Fearless Undead Machines' album is based upon the Living Dead Trilogy specifically and zombie movies as a whole. It contains a few samples from the original Living Dead movie, most notably right at the start of the first track.
Though the band flirt with both Death and Thrash metal, it is predominantly the latter that we find here and the riffing is superb. In places it is reminiscant of Iron Maiden, if they were to play balls-to-the-wall thrash. There's more to this album than 'simply' break yer kneck riffage, however, there's melody, piano interludes (that surprisingly work) which all adds to the eerie, 60s B-movie horror effect of the album. It's a good deal that there's variety on the album as, clocking in at over an hour, it's quite a beast to be taken in at one sitting and the changes of pace and the odd shorter track help to break up hat might otherwise have become a bit of a monotony. This isn't to say that the music is ever in danger of becoming stale, but simply that a full hour of similar, albeit rather awesome, thrash metal might just start getting a bit dry.

I'm all too aware that I've started waffling more and more with my posts so I'll try to keep this one a little shorter. Last word on this album: If you like it then by the love of God, the Devil or Science (who am I to judge?) check out their other work, there isn't a crappy Deceased album, particularly Supernatural Addiction which I was originally going to include in the Best of the 2000s but decided upon the Concept album link.

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"When there is no more room in hell... the dead will walk the earth."

Summer dress slips down her arm

Porcupine Tree- Deadwing (2005)

Once more a release of the 21st century that truly roxxorz some boxxorz and it's another British band. Here we have a simply sublime and superb album full of brilliantly progressive rock, verging on the lighter scale of metal at times.
I read a lot about this band and, rather foolishly, was constantly put off by the name. For some reason it just didn't appeal to me in the slightest and I was reluctant to even try them out, despite the glowing reviews I'd heard. What a foolish mistake for this album (along with 'Fear Of A Blank Planet') are beautifully crafted, mature pieces of prog rock without the pomposity and bullshit that goes along with the genre. Sure, at times the lyrics are a little inane (the rhyming nonsense of opener Deadwing for example) but they then soar to the sublime in such tracks as Arriving Somewhere. The album lives up to to the 'prog' stereotype even further by being a concept album, apparently based upon a screenplay by the vocalist and guitarist, Steven Wilson. It's a ghost story, by all accounts.
So, a prog rock concept album about a ghost story by a group from Hertfordshire....I know I may not really be selling this to anyone in the least, but it's up there with my favourite albums ever. Musically it's just sublime, the guitar work ranges from lilting and haunting to straight up hard rocking riffage. The vocal melodies accompany they music perfectly and, as previously noted, some of the lyrics are almost tear enucingly brilliant. The whole of 'Arriving Somewhere' and 'Open Car' are songs that mske the hairs stand up on the back of your neck and arms; the kind of track you usually find one of on every 20th album you might listen to and here we are with 2 on the same album.
Really, to try to single out one or two tracks (as I appreciate I already have...) isn't fair to this album as it needs to be taken in as a whole, ideally listened to, and I mean really listened to, in one sitting. So, get it, listen to it, love it and pass on to all your friends, family and passing acquaintances who have even the vaguest of interests in music as a whole as it truly deserves more attention that it will ever receive.

WORSHIP

I'm standing on a ledge, push me over the edge

Wipers- Over The Edge (1983)

On one of my many visits to the Cosmic Hearse (an infinitely better and far more worthy blog than my own) I was confronted by this post.
I won't use such hyperbole as to say that the album posted changed my life but it was perhaps one of the best and most surprising albums I have downloaded without knowing anything of the band themselves.
The thing that really struck me about the album was the guitar work, it is simply superb. There's the angular and driving power chord riffage one would come to expect from any 'punk' album but there is melody, haunting, beautiful melody. This is no more perfectly exemplified than on the likes of Doom Town and the title track itself. The guitar work, the vocals and the lyrics all lend this album a sense of maturity, not in terms of simply being a tight nit group (which they undoubtedly are) but also of purpose and meaning; this is an album that deserves to be heard and deserves to be praised. This is no throw-away release from a band finding it's feet, this album is assured, direct, powerful.
Forget the fact that the Wipers influenced a swathe of grunge bands from Mudhoney to Nirvana and listen to the album on it's own merits. This album tells a story of a particular place in time and space, it is a document of life in Portland for this group of young men in the early 80s.

Nothing I have said in this post is worthy of this album, nothing I can say about the band or the music they produce can adequately convey how good this band were and their discography is.

So here is a shamelessly stolen link from Cosmic Hearse, if you download from here make sure to visit that blog and leaves comments there. It really is worth your time....

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From the ashes of the first stars our world is born

So another return.
I would spout the usual excuses about being really busy and not having the time but I'm simply lazy and generally find myself apathetic to everything.
At any rate, my laptop broke (and is still broken, with the W, D and 3 buttons refusing to work properly and one of the hinges on the screen completely knackered) and it's a pain in the arse to type for any prolonged period of time.
So here it comes, another half baked, half arsed return to my blog that seems to have only 1 fan, a very kind person who has left comments and the like.

Onwards....

A catatonic leisure at 1000 miles per hour

At The Drive-In- Relationship of Command (2000)
1) Arcarsenal
2) Pattern Against User
3) One Armed Scissor
4) Sleepwalk Capsules
5) Invalid Litter Department
6) Mannequin Republic
7) Enfilade
8) Rolodex Propaganda
9) Quarantined
10) Cosmonaut
11) Non-Zero Possibility
12) Catacombs

When this album first came out it was right up there with my favourites ever, it had such a profound impact on me that it's impression upon my young mind was indelible. Not that it's inspired me to do anything or actually seek out any other similar sounding artists, you understand, I just fucking loved the album. Unfortunately I don't give this anywhere near as much play time as it deserves and that is a crime on my part.....don't share in my crime lest you be taken to prison and molested in the showers by a big hairy guy called Brian with knuckles the size of water melons. It may very well just happen.
I first heard of these guys on XFM waaaaay back in the day when the station kicked ass and played shit like this. Post-fucking-Hardcore on XFM; I know, almost unthinkable nowadays what with them playing the mind numbing bullshit of Scouting For Fucking Girls. Going back to this 'post hardcore' nonsense I equally am clueless as to what it actually means or constitutes. I do at least know that it has nothing to do with the 'happy' hardcore variety that my mum assumed I was speaking about when she asked me what I was listening to when she overheard me playing this album for the umpteenth time. So, no cheesy bullshit euro dance trance fuck-whittery, instead we have an album full of schizophrenic, angular guitars with lyrics penned by a psychotic, drug addled 7 year old wearing a fez (the head wear is just for effect you understand.) This album is controlled chaos, but so loose is the band's grip on it that it threatens at any moment to veer off course and careene into a village, killing everyone. I'm so full of metaphors and similies it's untrue.
I digress, this is the fucking shit right here. It makes me want to head butt a small child in the face, that's how good it is. It's aggressive and angry.
The lyrics....oh how to describe the mad as a box of frogs lyrics. Best to let Cedric's words speak for themselves:
Yes this is the campaign
Slithered entrails
In the cargo bay
A neutered is the vastness
Hallow vacuum check the
Oxygen tanks
They hibernate
But have they kissed the ground
Pucker up and kiss the asphalt now
Tease this amputation
Splintered larynx
It has access now
...lol wut?

Enough waffle. I would talk more but I'm already painfully aware that this 'review' is so completely full of shit that it's in danger of being flushed very soon. So, get this album, listen to it, head butt small children an consider the musings of a totally ass hat mad bunch of young crazies.

My soul's gone Kold

Sólstafir- Köld (2009)
1) 78 Days In The Desert
2) Kold
3) Pale Rider
4) She Destroys Again
5) Necrologue
6) World Void Of Souls
7) Love Is The Devil (And I Am In Love)
8) Goddess Of The Ages

Yet another 'best of the 2000s' and yet another mashing of genres. It's kinda getting boring, I know, but I'll make up for it with the next few posts....I almost half kinda promise.
This time round it's Solstafir (fuck messing around with the funky 'O' bullshit in their name), an Icelandic psychedelic rock meets Viking black metal band. According to Wikipedia, the oracle of our ages, their name is Icelandic for the beams of light that radiate from the sun. Epic.
They happen to be another band that I found out about due to a sampler CD I got free with a magazine, either Metal Hammer or Terrorizer this time round. The track was 'Blood Soaked Velvet' (don't worry, no emo bullshit to be found here) from their Masterpiece of Bitterness album. Their music is epic in scale and sound and with Kold (again, fuck the dodgy 'O') it's as sweeping and vast as ever. There's an ethereal feeling to the album, an almost haunting beauty behind it's riffs. This isn't really 'metal' per se, but there's definately a remnant of the black metal guitar sound and effects present, just something about the guitars '78 Days In The Desert' reminds me of Cobalt and the ilk. The songs constantly threaten to break into full ahead, balls to the wall black metal but never actually do. This may seem anti-climactic, bathetic if you will, but it adds a fragility to their sound that makes it haunting and adds that ethereal essence I mentioned earlier. For me the sound is represented perfectly by the album cover and all that it depicts: darkness, bleakness, the ethereal and ephemeral and beauty. Yeah, you heard me, this music is beautiful, what of it? It's progressive, melodic, psychedelic, sweeping, haunting, fragile, cold, rousing and immortal.
This is the type of album you listen to with the lights off, imagining cloud giants fighting over the mountain of Megiddo or a lumbering leviathan writhing under glacial oceans, the waters so deep a blue they almost seem black. Beauty juxtaposed with power, precision and a sense of the grand(iose?)
To paraphrase Tenacious D; this album has powers, 'What powers you ask? I dunno...How 'bout the power... to move you?'

If I could catch a glimpse of your grand design...

1) Verdelet
2) Seduced
3) Shelter From The Sand
4) Eyes Of The Dawn
5) Abbadonna, Dying In The Sun
6) Words That Go Unspoken
7) Intractable
8) Seraphs and Silence
9) The Penance
10) Lex Talonis

Next up in my random selection of the best albums of the 2000s is one from perhaps the best British band of recent times. It feels a bit of a shame to say something like that, classifying them as British as if they've overcome some kind of burden and managed a spectacular feat of endeavour to create a good album. I'll start this again; Akercocke kick ass. They play blinding mix of blackened death metal with progressive elements. More music that mixes prog with metal, me thinks a theme is emerging in the albums I post here.
Anywho, I first got into the 'cocke when I heard two songs from the 'Choronozon' album on a sampler CD I got free with Metal Hammer (back when I thought the magazine still had the tiniest shred of dignity left.) I remember being absolutely blown away by the songs, Leviathan and Son Of The Morning, from then on I was hooked. I bought the album, and the previous two releases 'The Rape Of The Bastard Nazarene' 'Goat Of Mendes', and couldn't get enough of them. I loved the raw blackened death sound they played on the first two, with just a hint of progression bleeding into songs like 'A Skin For Dancing In.' I read up on the band, not only were they British but they came from London to boot. Not only this but they also had a penchant for wearing rather dapper suits on stage and during photo shoots.
So, I then hear in 2005 that the band were going to release a new album, I nearly shit myself in eager anticipation and when it hits it only turns out to be one of the best damn albums I think I've ever heard. To top it all off the album sports what is one of my favourite songs of all time...'Verdelet.' I know it's a bold statement and all and I know that for me, like most people I assume, their favourite songs change from day to day, minute to minute, but Verdelet is always up there in my top somethingorother. However, this one simple song is so full of not only 'win' and 'awesome' but also emotion and a sense of real honesty. It rises above the simple 'anit-christian' lyrics of some of the bands work and actually hits home to the real spirit of anyone who has ever questioned life/death or their own existence. It's enough to bring a full grown metal-head to tears of joy, sadness and realisation.
This doesn't even begin to draw upon the crushing epic majesty of 'Shelter From the Sand' nor the haunting message of 'Intractable.' The album continually fluxes between melody and brutality, something it does with brilliance and aplomb but not in any simplistic 'quiet bit, loud bit, quiet bit, loud bit' non-sense, there is real creative song writhing and structure here.
Anyway, it's a brilliant album from start to finish and deserves to be heard by as many people as possible, so give it a listen and go buy it when (not if) you think it's a work of genius and if any doubt remains, simply think on these lines:
'Hollow inside but dreaming
I curse this world
That it should keep turning
I curse this God
Who decrees that I should die
I will give you Hell
Avail the sins of the past'
....FUCK...YOUR....GOD!

Alone I bore the full weight of an empty heart

I came to the sudden conclusion that the main reason I don't update this place is mainly because I can't be bothered to sit through the upload process of sticking albums here for people who don't even visit. So, epiphany fully realised, I decided that the only way forward is to do what I originally started this blog to do; talk nonsense about albums I like/love/loathe.
It's a creative outlet for a man too lazy to write a novel, too ignorant to write a novella and too stupid to write a poem.
I also decided that IF on the slightest of off chances that anyone happened to happen upon this site and was so deeply in need of one of the albums I talked about they could simply leave a comment offering sexual favours, hard cash, cookies or simple e-peen and I'd slave away over a Megaupload loading screen to bring it to them.

So, this is yet another promise to post more....though with less actual content. What a bastard I am.

Mechanical time is an imperial installation

1) Introduction
2) Time As Ideology
3) Time As Methodology
4) Time As Surrogate Religion
5) Time As Imperialism
6) Reintroduction
7) Time As Abjection
8) Time As Automation
9) Time As Commodity
10) Time As Resistance

Here's another instalment in the 'best of the 2000s' series. I first heard this band on a Relapse sampler which happened to contain some other rather excellent stuff that might be up here soon (Cephalic Carnage, Dysrhtymia, Botch and other shit I've forgotten about) and immediately went out and bought the CD on the strength of the 2 songs I head. I was far from disappointed!
Buried Inside play a mix of sludgey post-hardcore....at least that's what it sounds like to my ears, and although the riff work and chord structures might be simple and repetitive they're bludgeoning, break-neck and almost trance like at times. Encyclopaedia Metallum says they play grindcore but that's only really present on their earlier works as this release sees them sounding almost like Converge at points. There's melody here too, it's not all abrassive and punishing, with the Introduction and Reintroduction utilising a slower tempo and an almost haunting little riff.
Track 2, the first 'real' song of the album, kicks your ass, punches you in the face and then pisses on your prone, twitching body. It's hard, fast and brutal...but always engaging, the drums, guitars and vocals all hit you with a crescendo of noise after the slow build up of Introduction. This is a trick utilised throughout the album, peaks and troughs of noise, power and aggression and you are often lulled with melody and sparse arrangements before being bludgeoned in the face again. However, it's unfair to judge this album track by track, each song as an individual entity as the band originally intended this album to be one long track listened to in one long sitting so the full effect of their work, efforts and concept. Record label pressures or a need to be commercial or whatever the fuck happened stopped this idea so the album was divided up into manageable chunks for us moronic listeners.
A brief word on the concept of the album, the recurring theme behind the music and lyrics. As the full title of the album alludes to ('Selected Essays on Time-Reckoning and Auto-Cannibalism') the concept is of time and it's stranglehold over humanity. A bold and rather aloof subject in theory but the practice of it all works brilliantly. The vocals and lyrics seem to suit the haunting and also pounding nature of the music and when the vocalist (Stephen Martin) shouts 'Time is the defacer. Time is the devourer. The grand mediator of effect and the prosthesis to which we depend' at you, it's delivered with power and conviction. It's an interesting concept and one that got me thinking and it's not very often that a metal album does that any more.
I've rambled a lot, and it's pretty much a case of TL;DR but fuck you, it's my shitty worthless blog and I'll waffle all I want! To quote a live Frank Zappa rendition of 'Titties and Beer', "Stick it up your ass, motorcycle man!"

Lost in a forest, the moon guides my steps

1) Desolation Embraced
2) The Gales Scream of Loss
3) Under the Endless Sky

DOWNLOAD: Here

PASSWORD: www.thrashmageddon.com

Here's another album (EP this time) I uploaded to a forum, so a password here I'm afraid.
Here we have some atmospheric Black Metal from the UK with more than just a little 'post-metal' feel to it. I don't know a great deal about this band other than the fact that I like their shit....which is surely all anyone needs to know. Don't be put off by the fact there's only three tracks, this little baby clocks in at nearly 30mins so you get all the bang for your downloading buck you need.
I was going to upload their 2009 full length 'The Malediction Fields' to fit in with my 'kick ass albums of the 2000s' but seeing as I upped this for another site I thought this would do.

Laziness and apathy have taken a firm grip of me and I find myself wasting my life away trawling through encyclopaedia dramatica, encyclopaedia metallum and You Tube...just for the lulz. Anyway, I'll try to be more active, if only for my own sanity and self gratification.....I need an outlet for all my nonsensical ramblings seeing as no one I know likes this shit.

My eye and ears are awash with light

To kick things off here is the best album of 2008. Quite a grand statement I know, but think of any other album made last year, any album you like. Got one? Ok, 'Vertebrae' shits on it, from the greatest of heights....trust me. I know a lot of 'tr00' and 'kvlt' metal fans out there think it's a pile of shit but that's just because they can't see past the blinkers they wear. For the love of all that is (un)holy, the second wave of Black Metal is over; Euronymous is dead and buried, Grishnackh plays a casio keyboard in jail and Darkthrone are playing punk. It's over, live with it.
Thankfully not all Black Metal fans are retrogressive an intransigent. Case in point; Enslaved.
This album marks the peak of their progressive, creative and experimental Black Metal creations. The work on this album is the apex of a curve evident on 'Ruun' and 'Isa', but to simply call this a Black Metal album would be an insult and a tragedy. Of course the band uses BM as a frame work but over this they weave a rich golden tapestry of progressive psychedelia that it transcends simple classification.
The inability to clearly define and classify music is a recurring problem with much of the metal music I like nowadays (something I believe I touched upon in an earlier, equally unread post) and that's the way I like it. If a band can be too easily pigeon holed they have to do something truly remarkable with their genre to interest me.
Enslaved have eyes to the future for they have seen the stagnation of the present. The Black Metal scene has been dying ass upward for a long while now and it takes bands like Enslaved and Misery's Omen to revitalise it and bring faith to the masses.
Do not miss this album, it might just change your life....

REDEMPTION

My Cup Runneth Over

Yeah, so I've been lazy and I know no one ever checks this thing anyway so I guess this post is more for me to have an outlet for my musical ramblings. Either I need some friends who appreciate this sort of music or I just need some friends....either way.
Anyway, I've decided that I'm going to chronicle some of the greatest albums of this century. There's a lot of shit talked about the 'good ol' days' of music and I must admit I'm one of those guilty in the past of lamenting the loss of these times. The thing that gets me the most is the loss of musicians or bands that created some truly seminal work that we shall never hear from again; Chuck Schuldiner left us in the '90s, so no more Death or Control Denied. No more Alice In Chains (William Duvall can suck my balls) or Mad Season albums. Faith No More reuniting without Jim Martin.....travesties of all travesties. This isn't even beginning to touch upon the likes of Jaco Pastorius, Nick Drake, Roger Patterson....too many to name.

Meh, shit happens, people died, bands split up, potential opus' are never recorded due to fate, karma, God, the Devil or man's own folly. But, every cloud and all that, for every album that isn't made by these greats there is another band waiting in the wings to vie for your attention. There are some true works of sonic genius to have been produced in the 21st century, 9 years old as it is, that go some way to soothing the sense of loss and anger we all experience due to no more Zappa or Emperor.
So here goes my little homage to the century that has produced more mediocrity in music in less than a decade than was achieved since the first cave man banged a stick on a rock and performed the first drum solo; proof that there are diamonds amongst the shit storm of the worlds music markets.

I close my eyes and I say goodbye....

1) Acid Bath- 'The Blue'
2) Godflesh- 'Frail'
3) Solstafir- '78 Days In The Desert'
4) Enslaved- 'Clouds'
5) Voyager- 'Surfacing'
6) Zombi- 'Spirit Animal'
7) 35007- 'Tsunmi'
8) Battle of Mice- 'At The Base of the Giant's Throat'

This is a random compilation I put together for a really good blog I visit quite regularly Sludge Swamp.
It's a bit of everyting, sludge, stoner, post-rock, experimental progressive black etc etc, just a lil summin summin for y'all.

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Let's Get Funked Up!

Bootsy's Rubber Band- 'Stretchin' Out' 1976
1) Stretchin' Out (In A Rubber Band)
2) Psychoticbumpschool
3) Another Point Of View
4) I'd Rather Be With You
5) Love Vibes
6) Psychical Love
7) Vanish In Our Sleep

Bootsy Fuckin' Collins. To be fair, I could leave the bullshit blurb there and that would say it all, but my desire to waffle aimlessly to the void of emptiness would not be sated....and that just won't do.
This. Is. Funk. If those three words don't get you reaching for the 'fro comb, flairs and star shades then step away from the vehicle and put your hands on the bonnet! This is Bootsy's first 'solo' album, the first in which he was able to forge a complete album of his own unique brand of P Funk, having previously cut his teeth with James Brown and the daddy of funk, George Clinton. Granted, there are some of Bootsy's trade mark humorous banter on the album, but if you were to strip that all away (but why would you?) it's pure, unadulterated funk.
Bootsy's bass sound is as unique and distinctive any of the guitar gods you could care to mention. His voice may be....an acquired taste but his quirky, goofy and colourful approach is to 70s funk what Snoop Dogg was to 90s gangta rap; for all their amusing eccentricities neither are novelty acts and neither should ever be dismissed.

Though all of Bootsy's late 70 releases are well worth owning, this is his most consistent, funky and essential offering. Even if only to check out the utterly brilliant, truly genius I'd Rather Be With You (I can't praise this track enough!) you must give this a spin.
May the funk be with you...

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The Skye Is Crying

Just heard a very rough rip of the new Mastodon album 'Crack The Skye.' It is very far from what I expected, far more progressive, experimental and ambient than any of their previous works. There are still a few driving riffs here and there, but it's hugely removed from the likes of Mother Puncher and Slick Leg.
> The first track (Oblivion) is sublime, proggy and full of solos, the kind of shit you wish Mastodon would do full time...well, me at least. It took a while for me to even realsie that it was actually Mastodon, I thought I'd been had and that this was just a random (although good) band.
> Track 2, Divinations, is very Mastodonesque. As such it feels somewhat of a let down; the riffs and techniques on show sound so familiar it's as if this song could have come straight from 'Remission', 'Leviathan' or even 'Blood Mountain'...be that a good or bad thing.
> Quintessence is the third offering from the album. Yet again we have some very familiar sounding riffs here, the hammer ons/pull offs just seem to come from another Mastodon track somewhere. It does continue the ambient/mellow feel though, there's even some synth or synth guitar on there as far as I can tell.
> Next up, The Czar....even more proggy goodness! The intro even bears some resemblance to the Space Rock of Zombi and the post-rock ambiance I've come to admire over the last few years. Evidence of even more keyboards/synths. Being a near 10 minute track there are obviously musical twists and turns that I could waste much time explaining...but I won't, suffice to say there's even a Grand Magus 'Iron Will' sounding riff just as the intro breaks....

I could spend even more of my not so valuable time reviewing the album (well, the 6 of the 7 tracks I heard) but I shan't, as I'm trying to sort out uploading some Bootsy Collins shit. I urge all of you to check the album out as soon as it's released (I'm definitely buying this one!) as I think it's one of the most mature releases of Mastodon's career. A huge leap away from the 'Life's Blood' EP material, this is progressive, experimental, ambient and heavy rock all rolled in to one. There seem less and less straight metal passages here, but I for one am not sad. I want more Pink Floyd loving solos, more chilled out riffing and some of whatever these guys are drinking!

I haven't uploaded what I've got for a few reasons:
1) It seems that most uploads are being pulled quite quickly by the label
2) A few blogspots have been sent not so pleasent e-mails about it from the record label
3) It will probably be on a crap load of other sites for you to check out, so it would be a waste of my time, especially in the incomplete state I have it
4) I know 1 and 3 seem to contradict themselves, but fuck you and you're Miss Marple investigations!
5) I'm sorting out some P-Funk for yo asses, so I can't be bothered with it
6) Buy it when it comes out! Seriously, this album is 'wikkid kool hommies'

Out there...

Zombi- 'Spirit Animal' 2009

1) Spirit Animal
2) Spirit Warrior
3) Earthly Powers
4) Cosmic Powers
5) Through Time

Wikipedia and journalists alike describe the genre of this band 'Space Rock.' I suppose that's as apt a term as you'll come across. The way I described them to a friend was "Imagine if a progressive post-rock band were transported back to the 70s and decided to make trippy, far out albums but Vangelis offered to play keyboards.....and Cheech an Chong catered." It's hard for me to quantify this band (actually just two people, one on drums the other on bass/synth) as the space rock genre has, thus far, been an unknown entity to me and this is my very first introduction. When listening to the album I can't help but visualise, not necessarily specific images, more like the visualisations you get on Windows Media Player; colours, shapes and swirling masses of....stuff. I also imagine it to be a soundtrack to a particulalry brilliant 70s sci-fi/horror film. If I were ever to make such a film, I'd get these guys to swathe my worthless footage in loving arms of synth, psychedelia and 'space.'
Enough waffle, simply put this is another album to lose yourself in. You could quite easily put it on in the background whilst working on your computer, whittling some wood you found out back or even making love to a beautiful man/woman/animal/vegetable/mineral, and it would never intrude on your activities, simply leaving you with a warm and pleasent memory of what you'd heard. However, if you really listen to it, actually sit down and give the album the time it deserves then you too will get lost in it's wonder.
So, once more, turn the lights off, pour yourself a drink of your favourite tipple, roll a fattie, get naked or do whatever it is you do to chill out and lose yourself in sapce....

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MySpace Samples

I've got chills, they're multiplying...

1. Main Titles (3:42)
2. Blush Response (5:47)
3. Wait For Me (5:27)
4. Rachel's Song (4:46)
5. Love Theme (4:56)
6. One More Kiss, Dear (3:58)
7. Blade Runner Blues (8:53)
8. Memories of Green (5:05)
9. Tales of the Future (4:46)
10. Damask Rose (2:32)
11. Blade Runner (End Titles) (4:40)
12. Tears in Rain (3:00)

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die."

After listening to the Conan OST almost obsessively for over a week I thought it was time to give something else a spin. For an unknown reason I thought to d/l this sound track, probably because I seem to be in more of an 'ambient' kinda mood. Simply put, this album, much like most of the film itself, gives me chills.
Synth music like this is probably maligned and stigmatised by most folk for being dated and cheesy; all I can say to that is in that case Beethoven is outdated, classical music is cheesy and stale. It annoys me so much that people dislike a certain type of music because 'It sounds dated.' Dip shits, all music (as all art) is dated and all art is timeless, get over your childish and social hang ups about everything old being of no worth and only the now being 'hip.'
Richard Corliss said something along the lines of 'Nothing ages so quickly as yesterday's vision of the future.' I said something fairly similar, along the lines of 'Nothing means less than half baked, horse shit sound bites.' Spooky, huh?
Sod 'em all, turn the lights off, the music up and escape into a world of synth.

Download

Sailing the Seas of Cheese

I've officially decided there is all together too much damn music out there in the world. The internet is seething with stuff I'm longing to check out. The problem is that there just isn't enough time, even for someone with as little going on in their life as me. I just can't take it all in and actually process music nowadays, there's so much music stockpiling in my collection I can't give it the time and attention it truly deserves....there's just too much good music out there!
Couple that with all the shit that's out there too and it can be quite daunting; I often sit up at night worrying that there must be so many absolutely killer, shit hot releases out there by obscure bands and I'll never get to hear them. The best album in the world is out there and I'll never find it....
Somewhere, somehow, someone has committed to tape (well, mp3 most likely) the ultimate Blackened Death Funk album ever and I shall never hear it. Equally, in a small bedroom three friends have just put the finishing touches to their Progressive Thrash Jazz band's magnum opus and it shall never grace my ears.
It was all so much simpler when I didn't have the internet...or, to quantify, when I didn't have broadband. Back in the day when it would take the best part of a fortnight to download a single song (where it would have been quicker for me to receive the information by overweight, asthmatic carrier pigeon) I had time to savour the music, the opportunity to pour over the intricacies of the slap bass and gravity blasts, time to salivate over the arpeggiated sweep picking and triple vocal harmonies. Now, in the age of my terabyte hard drives and being able d/l a double album in the space of 10 minutes, I find myself cataloguing it, changing the track names to suit my OCD of everything being in the right order and filing it away with hours of other stuff I haven't got the time to listen to because I'm too busy d/l more.
Fuck the internet, fuck this on demand life and fuck my inability to spend more than five minutes listening to music that actually excites me.

Daft Punk

I'm a bit undecided about the Punk's discog, some of it is funky as Bootsy Collins in a bath full of lava lamps and yet they can sometimes come across as really cheesy euro-pop shite. Either way, when they're hot, they're shit hot, so here are a couple of YouTube videos of interesting mashups featuring their work. Mainly cos I like them, also cos I'm lazy and it means I can post stuff without doing any real work....

This is taken from a live show the duo put on in 2007. It's a mashup of Around the World and Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. It's a really good song, and the crowd seem to be going ape shit.
Righteous.


This one is just a remix of Harder, Better.... with Outkast's Roses.
Representin'

MegaDriver

Another band that plays metal versions of classic game themes, this time, the guys focus on Sega games (hence the name.) I never knew this niche genre was so popular, or taken quite so seriously. This band (and it's a full band this time) have a very professional looking website and all their releases are polished and sound pretty damn good. Their latest release is a full length CD of Sonic The Hedgehog themes, which sound very very good. Their impressive Discography boasts more themed releases with Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Shinobi etc etc. My personal favourite has to be either Ken's stage music from Street Fighter II (I remember playing the game on that stage just to hear the song which I really liked, even as MIDI!) or the various Streets of Rage tunes, simply because the game was so damn good. Personally I prefer these fellows to The Plasmas I posted last time simply because I used to have a Megadrive and I can actually remember most of these songs.
Instrumental, fist pumping, metal nostalgic goodness!

Their entire discography is available for free download directly from their website but here are a few samples to get you going:
> Sonic Chemical Zone
> Street Fighter II: Ken Stage
> Altered Beast: Rise From Your Grave

Website:
http://www.megadriver.com.br/site.cgi
(try to spot the ridiculously out of place Brujeria t-shirt. Decapitations and Mega Drive themes, a natural progression)
MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/megadriver

Nintendoooooo

I found this 'band', The Plasmas, whilst browsing another blog, checked his MySpace page and he's got three albums up there, free for d/l. It's a one man band, from what I can tell, and he plays instrumental metal versions of classic video game themes and songs. If there is anything better than that, I'll be damned. It's not the usual shite reworkings of game themes with badly played guitar and horrendous production, it actually sounds good!
So here they are.

2008- Noentiendo

1.- KILLER INSTINCT
2.- KIRBY GOURMET RACE
3.- CONTRA (Feat. DUANE of "The Adventures of Duane & Brando")
4.- DR. TETRIS
5.- LINK IN THE FIRST DUNGEON
6.- SUPERMARIO
7.- MAVERICK HUNTERS
8.- CASTLEVANIA
9.- STARFOX
10.- X IN THE FORTRESS
DOWNLOAD

2008- Extreme NES Terror

1.- GHOSTS 'N GOBLINS
2.- DESCENT
3.- DOOM CASTLE
4.- GOLDENEYE
5.- THE WILY WARS
6.- BIRTHDAY BUBBLE BOBBLE BLOWOUT
7.- ACTRAISER
8.- T.M.N.T.
9.- KUNG FU V SHINOBI
10.- MEGAMAN
11.- RYTHMIC HALLUCINATION
12.- DOOMED DUKE
13.- MORTAL KOMBAT
14.- TERRANS OVER THE UNIVERSE
DOWNLOAD

2009- NES Cult Armageddon

1.- IN LALIVERO THE CULT BEGINS
2.- TROUBLES IN ABEL CITY
3.- ICE CLIMBERS
4.- METAL GEAR
5.- ZERO AGAINST NEO ARCADIA
6.- KID ICARUS
7.- KING BOWSER'S EVIL CASTLE
8.- CULT AT THE MILLENARIAN FAIR
9.- SIMON'S QUEST
10.- ADVENTURE ISLAND
11.- THE ULTIMATE TEAM
12.- SONIC THE BLUE HEDGEHOG
13.- DEMON'S CREST
14.- THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
15.- TE(GRIND)TRIS
16.- K.O.N.G.
17.- FINALLY THE CULT IS EARTHBOUND
DOWNLOAD

Utah Saints- Lost Vagueness 12" Mixes

1) Lost Vagueness (Oliver Lieb Main Mix)
2) Lost Vagueness (Josh Wink Deep Dub Mix)
3) Lost Vagueness (Josh Wink Deep Interpretation Mix)
4) Lost Vagueness (Oliver Lieb Dub Mix)

I first heard this song, must have been 2000 I think, on XFM, way back in the day when they played some good music. I only recently remembered the track when I stumbled across a mix of it on YouTube (video bellow) and immediately set about scouring the interwebs trying to find it. Low and wide, high and narrow I searched and couldn't find the bleeder, until very recently. Thanks very much to the original ripper and uploader for letting me rediscover this brilliant track. According to Wikipedia (which I've already asserted as the foremost bearer of truths) the song 'features' Chrissie Hynde*. I'm assuming this is on vocals but they're so processed and there's too many effects on them for me to confirm or deny this.
So, for your aural pleasure, here is the only version of it I've been able to track down, the Lost Vagueness 12" which features 4 remixes of what is a grade A, certified 'CHOON'!

Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=E22D89LU

*which, incidentally, reminds of another single from around the same time that XFM played a bit (and I quite liked), Hybrid's remix of the Pretender's song 'Kid', released as 'Kid 2000' with reworked vocals by the aforementioned Ms. Hynde. I'll have to dig that one out too.

Conan The Barbarian OST

1. Anvil Of Crom
2. Riddle Of Steel / Riders Of Doom
3. Gift Of Fury
4. Wheel Of Pain
5. Atlantean Sword
6. Theology / Civilization
7. Wifeing (Love Theme)
8. The Leaving / The Search
9. Mountain Of Power Procession
10. The Tree Of Woe
11. Recovery
12. The Kitchen / The Orgy
13. Funeral Pyre
14. Battle Of The Mounds
15. Death Of Rexor
16. Orphans Of Doom / The Awakening

Download:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XEIF9F9P

Bit of a change of pace here but I simply cannot stop listening to this. It's epic, sweeping, emotive, chilling and rousing, every time I hear it I am immediately transported back to my childhood, huddled in front of the TV watching the film on a tape copied from ITV.
According to Wikipedia (the bastion of truth and all knowledge):
"Originally, producer Dino De Laurentiis had planned a soundtrack of pop music for the movie, but was eventually persuaded by Milius to use a full orchestral score. For this purpose, Milius hired Greek-American composer Basil Poledouris, a former classmate from the film department at the University of Southern California, and tasked him to make "a continuous musical drama." The result was a choral and orchestral soundtrack that fills nearly every moment of the film, with pronounced use of leitmotifs to portray mood and character."
Each 'song' is the scene it is taken from. Do not miss this

Misery's Omen- Hope Dies

1) Hope Dies
2) And The Stars Bled
3) Death Lily
4) That Which Lies Beyond
5) Fiendish Ghoul
6) A Cobbled Path
7) Celestial Trinity
8) Planes Of Gold
9) Desecrated Icon In Ruin
10) Ancient City Of Cyclopean Fear

Download:
http://rarme.com/?HopeDies (MU)
Password:
www.thrashmageddon.com
Size:
75.2 MB
Bitrate:
192 kbps

Check them out here: http://www.myspace.com/miserysomen

Another release from last year that I'm still listening to and another d/l from an original post of mine on a music forum, so sadly there is a password again.

Black metal.....but not as we know it. This Australian band play a skilfull blend of progressive and doomy post-black metal. I know, I know, sometimes trying to pigeon hole bands and their sound is pretty pointless. Anyway, as it stands I really like the mesh of styles.
As you might be able to tell as the blog evolves, I do like some of the more 'experimental' bands, ones that mix solid styles (that I equally love) and genre's pre-existant sounds with the more unexpected. Be it jazzy death metal, ambient drone doom or (like this) progressive black metal with post rock tendancies, I love it all.
A much over looked and criminally under rated band, give them a try, you might just like it!

Capricorns- River, Bear Your Bones

1. Broken Coffin Of The Venerable King
2. Seventh Child Of A Seventh Child
3. Tempered With The Blood Of Beasts
4. November Suicides
5. Owing To The Fogs
6. The Bells Rang Backwards
7. A Savage Race By Shipwrecks Fed
8. Drinking Water From The Skull Of A Hanged Man

Download:
http://rarme.com/?Cap-RBYB (MU)
Password:
www.thrashmageddon.com
Size:
68.2 MB
Bitrate:
192-320 kbps (mostly 320)

Another of my posts from a music forum, so there's still a password for the rar file.

I love this band, they play a, moslty, instrumental sludgey mix of stoner doom that appeals greatly to me. This is their 2nd full length release and comes from 2008 and although I don't think it's as good as their debut LP, it's still really good stuff. It sounds as if a group of guys went into the studio, smoked a fatty and laid down some perfect stoner sludge.
With a rhythm section boasting former members of Orange Goblin and Iron Monkey it's no wonder this band is tight and quite frankly brilliant! What's more they hail from good ol' London Town.

Ashdautus- Shadow Plays...

1) Intro
2) Entourage Of Apathy
3) Lightless Horizon
4) Veiled Wombs...Smashed Like Glass
5) As The Vile Must Digress
6) The Death Of Remorse
7) And You Will Shed Tears Of Scarlet
8) Tremble As Your Heaven Falls
9) Eyes To A Headless Procession

Download:
http://rarme.com/?Ash-ShadowPlays (MU)
Password:
www.thrashmageddon.com
Bitrate:
128 kbps
Size:
35.1 MB

To get the ball rolling here is a post I made on a music forum I upload to. As such the rar file is password protected (see above for p/w.) A few of my early posts will be similarly protected but in future they won't be, so just grin and bear it. It's my link and my original and shitty review:

"Proof, if it was needed, that there is far more to US BM than Xasthur and Leviathan; while they deal with the more atmospheric, depressive element of BM, this band deal with "real" Black Metal. It's refreshing to hear an actual BM 'band' (instead of the 1-man projects) hailing from the US and it's a nice change, for although the album is raw and brutal, the liveness of it all adds a reassuring human element to the proceedings. Add to that the seeming lack of keyboards (save maybe the intro) and this seems to be getting back to what Black Metal is really all about. There are a few acoustics in there and a couple of more 'melodic' and contemplatively depressive breaks in the songs, but they are never over done and over all this is a hatefull and harsh album.
In the over saturation of the today's Black Metal market I see this as a shining example of how the original sounds and energy of the movement still have their place but with a modern edge. Though I'm sure some of you who are only into the kvlt stuff won't like this, but for me I can't stop listening to it.
As a quick word on the vocals: fuck. The guy sounds as if demons are tearing to get out of his throat. As another reviewer put, the album "[is a] noxious cocktail of pure, unabashed agony." Truly 'Tremble As Your Heavens Fall'!"

This is Black Metal as it should be, cuastic, abbrasive and harsh. This isn't for the dabblers!

First Post!

So here is the first post (hopefully of many) on a blog that will showcase some of the music that I love and think should be put out there for others to hear. It won't be confined or retrained by genre, movement, critical or public opinion or era, simply music I like/respect or whatever else I chose to post.
I know there are thousands of similar blogs out there and that this will probably act as naught but a drop of diarrhea in the shit stained toilet bowl ocean of the internets but hey, I've got nothing better to do!