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Formed back in 1977, Satan’s Host is no stranger to enthusiasts of classic heavy metal. Although still classic in the Iron Maiden sense, they have also added (what they describe) a “blackened/power metal” sound.Virgin Sails is the bands 8th full length release, and if we are to judge by listening we can absolutely concur with their genre branding style.
The legendary St. Vitus, the purveyors of American doom metal, present us with a re-issue of their early 90’s album C.O.D. This is the only St. Vitus album you will find with vocalist Christian (Chritus) Linderson (currently with Lord Vicar and Goatess, formerly of Count Raven).
Infestus, a one-man black metal band from Germany, returns with its fourth full-length, The Reflecting Void. According to the press release, the album is “A daring glimpse behind the mirror-like emptiness of the mind that only serves one purpose: to hide what lies underneath. A mental barrier unconsciously created by the existential need to burry unbearable emotions and experiences that corrode the “soul”.” The information ends with the grim words, “Catharsis is an illusion.”
Third Wave Holocaust is the 2013 release from Eastern Pennsylvania’s T.O.M.B., and anytime there's a new recording from this project it's a time for silent rejoicing and anxiety. The project has been releasing material since 2002, with each new release seemingly topping the next. With the sole member know as No One, T.O.M.B. takes on a secretive aura which works perfectly with the art that is herein created.
Everyone’s favorite label for wonderfully themed HNW releases presents Dresden by the mysterious Anonymous. On this go around, Anonymous tackles the bombing of Dresden in a massive (and I do mean “massive”) 12 disc, 12 hour box set. The theme itself seems like a fitting match for a mammoth HNW release, but 12 freaking discs, is a lot of static fucking sound to digest. Of course with a slim edition of 6, this will definitely be for the handful of diehards who know what they're getting themselves into.
W>A>S>P>S is a fairly new British based HNW/ ANW project, and this 3inc CDR presents the listener with two ten minute walls, that move from buzzing bass bound wall-making, onto glitch bound grating ‘n’ treble based wall-making.
Germany's open-minded attitude to sound art has seen (or heard, rather) non-musical matter of all tones and textures regularly broadcast on national public radio for decades, and boasts many organisations and support networks, often voluntary, state-funded or both, with a focus on electro-acoustic composition. Frankfurt's Deutsche Gesellschaft für Electroakustische Musik e.V. (DEGEM for short, or the German Society for Electro-Acoustic Music Association) is one such body, run as a voluntary organisation affiliated to the Deutscher Musikrat (the national 'music council').
"Everything Louder Than Everything Else" finds this Minneapolis based noise and ambient artist in his extreme pop song deconstruction setting again. As he takes recognisable tracks & turns them into mostly unidentifiable journeys into extreme drone, walled noise, and HNW/ambeint crossbreeds.
“The End Of The World” is a C50’s worth of apocalyptic yet dreary & morose themed walled noise from this French project. I’ve enjoyed much of what of heard of this projects work in the past, so I was looking forward to hearing and course reviewing this release.
The artwork for this Nervous Corps cdr, all sealed up in a rectangular zip-bag, carries visual nods to what I think is black metal. The front cover alludes to crust, more than anything; with a torn collage depicting a studded garment and messy gothic script. But flipping over to the back cover, all we find is the track length: “63:36” and I wonder if this palindromic duration points towards “666”; giving it a more black metal slant for me. Or perhaps it all simply points to crusty black metal… Either way, the only real trace of these sub-genres in “Suffocate”, is the crackle of saturated black metal and the howl of crust.
Black and dark ambient bands seem to be a dime a dozen these days. Low drones and grim music is very evocative, so I can see why. Slap together a few layers of drone, and you're basically there. However, some artists go beyond this simple approach and craft wonderfully haunting and moving pieces that make you want to celebrate the darkness and join a mystical cult. Harlowe Macfarlane, under the moniker Funerary Call, is one of those inspiring us to the dark side. Harlowe is also the man behind Sistrenatus, a very different, but equally as awesome project. Hearing him work so well with different aspects of darkness makes you pretty sure he won't let you down, and The Mirror Reversed- Part 1 is no exception.
“Stumbling Lips” finds Irelands Where Is This offering up a taut ‘n’ tensely wavering & slowly shifting slice of static noise making.
Lurid Hallway is the new walled noise project from Mayfield USA based Ryan Barber (Hearse Fetish & Tomb Of Trickets). This new project follows a fairly similar path to his other work, as it sits squarely in industrial & looped based walled noise, but I’ll have to admit the whole thing has quite an grim, starkly appealing, and at times quite moodily surreal vibe about it.
Coltsblood is one of a number of up and coming bands, having signed to Candlelight Records after releasing just one demo and a split. This British trio leaps headfirst into the fray with their first album, Into the Unfathomable Abyss, out on 25th of March in the US, and 21st April 2014 in Europe. It’s definitely a rare thing to be signed to such a big label with so little experience, so I was hesitant at first, wondering what it is exactly that these three Brits have up their sleeves that got them signed.
This bible story themed split/ collaboration brings together two European HNW acts, and these come in the form of Scotland based Death Frees Every Soul, and German based Ataraxy.
Static Goat are a Southern California based two piece who create an often dense & extremely overloaded, hellish & psychedelic take on harsh noise. "Mental Castration" is a two disc CDR set, which brings together six ear searing ‘n’ brain melting slices of their deranged & truly head-fucking sonic attack.
This excellent split, from Excavated Productions, comes in a dvd case; adorned with murky grey pictures of buildings. The cover sleeve is printed on the kind of material I used to see used for tablecloths, in cheap cafes and fish’n’chip shops; it helps give the release a definite diy feel - the underground is alive and well!
From summer 2013, this is the 5th album from Austrian Alpine Folk collective Sturmpercht. And following on from the tone of their pervious full length 2009’s “Schattenlieder”, this new album sees the band further delving into the dark, moody & psychedelic tinged side of their sound; and more distancing themselves from the sweeter fairytale & stein mashing drinking song vibe of their early work.
Portland's Nux Vomica, now veterans of the scene (formed in 2003), are now releasing their 3rd full length, a self titled album, in 2014. Their style could be described as unusually slow epic melodic hardcore, in which their d-beat and crust roots are mixed with influences from modern stoner and sludge metal bands, black metal, and symphonic death metal like At the Gates. This album contains 3 songs, all of ambitious 10+ minute length.
Indian unleashed their brand of sludgy doom fury on the world in 2003. Two years later, their first full length was released by Portland, OR's Seventh Rule Recordings. The two follow ups were successful enough to secure the Chicago metallers a spot on the Relapse Records roster. Their Relapse debut, Guiltless, was met with great reviews from all over the community. Here we are, three years later, and Indian and Relapse have released their follow up, From All Purity. The boys took a slightly different, noisier approach on this album. Time will tell if metal fans will appreciate their new sound.
Tiny Tim is probably one of the most well known musical outsiders/ odd musical stars the world ever created. He’s most recognized for his distinctive falsetto/vibrato take on ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’, but he also appeared regularly on US TV in the mid 1960’s to early 1970’s. God Bless Tiny Tim was his first album from 1968, and it stands as a highly consistent & entertaining journey into Psychedelic pop, off-kilter variety show fare, and good honest odd-ness.
Maledictum is the latest full-length from Swedish black metal horde Flagellant. Flagellant has only been active since 2007, so it’s a relative new comer to the scene.
This release collects five remixes of Nine Inch Nails tracks by Coil's Peter Christopherson and Danny Hyde. The original Coil remixes appeared on a couple of the US stadium rock band's releases in the early to mid-nineties, but the five pieces here are "PRE- BIG studio- mix downs" unreleased at the time. They only saw the light of day in 2012 after a campaign directed at Hyde by members of the Nine Inch Nails forum, EchoingTheSound.org, resulted in a free download called Uncoiled featuring all but one of the tracks presented here.
From late 2012, this 3inc CDR offers up a rewarding slice of aggravated walled noise from the Italian harsh noise/HNW project Fukte. This release came in a edition of 15 copies, and it was released by Italian HNW label Claustrophilia, which is run by Lorenzo Abbà( Nascitari, Tomorrow I’ll Shoot My Self In The Mouth)