Queen - The Prophets Song

Warchetype - Goat Goddess Supremacy

1. Itaca (18:47)
2. Marduk's Stairs to Earth (16:33)
3. Manitou (10:58)
4. Hangover (6:59)
5. Death Card (The Sun of the Country Priest) (12:59)

Blistering and epic doom in the vein of Candlemass, Cathedral, Goatsnake and Burning Witch from the magical land of Spain. The vocals soar and riffs roll, pummel and dirge... bathing the proceedings with fine layer of filth. These guys aim to evocate Sabbath-via-Sleep and succeed in spades. Was that a wah bass solo?

Warchetype Myspace

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Sonic Youth - Moist Vagina

1. Moist Vagina (Nirvana) 3:01

Here's Sonic Youth's version of one of Nirvana's greatest b-sides, "Moist Vagina" (also known, to the prudes, as "MV"), as a b-side itself on SY's "Sunday" single (which, by the way was the only single off of A Thousand Leaves). What makes this cover even more unsettling is the fact that Kim is singing, giving it an unexpected reversal of gender... odd.

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Dead Reptile Shrine - A Journey Through the Darkest of Forests

1. Bones in the Dungeon
2. A Cave Full of Corpse Lanterns
3. Fire and Flame
4. Songs For the Deadwood
5. Feuer und Stahl
6. Violencia
7. Diabolical Plague
8. The Snakes of the Earth, Pt. II
9. Exekutioner of the Final Solution
10. Above the Ziggurat They Dance
11. Transformation
12. Our Feast of Victory
13. Reversion to an Ancient Form
14. Clouds of Doom Gather...
15. Dawnfires at the Lake
16. A Beastcults Procession

Oft mentioned is the adjective "filth" when describing the recent crop of Finnish black metal. Dead Reptile Shrine is, by far, the filthiest of them all... I don't know if black metal even begins to describe the madness that is DRS. Another review likened this to noise rockers Harry Pussy, and that isn't too far off the mark. This is easily the strangest black metal release I've heard, and that's definitely not a bad thing. This is raw, unhinged, possibly insane "music"... wandering the boundries between ritual chanting, BM, noise, ambient and folk.

Will:

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Lesbian - Power Hor

1. Black Forest Hamm
2. Powerwhorses
3. Loadbath
4. Irreversible

I wasn't prepared to take a band called Lesbian seriously, I have to admit. I certainly wasn't ready for the epic ten to twenty minute jams combining all the best elements of Isis, black metal, doom, crust and krautrock found on Power Hor. Yes, unfortunate record title along with the band moniker, but at least the record is solid. Fans of Neurosis, Isis, Pelican, Om, and Can should dig on this...

Engaging:
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Melvins - Boris

High on Fire - Blood From Zion

DEVO - Hardcore DEVO Vol.2

1. Booji Boy's Funeral
2. Can You Take It
3. Bamboo Bimbo
4. A Plan For U
5. The Rope Song
6. Goo Goo Itch
7. Be Stiff
8. All of Us
9. Baby Talkin' Bitches
10. I Need A Chick
11. You Got Me Bugged
12. Chango
13. Freulein
14. Dogs of Democracy
15. 37
16. Bottled Up
17. Working In A Coalmine
18. I Been Refused
19. Fountain of Filth
20. Clockout
21. Let's Go

Raw DEVO! Crude, unrefined, and absolutely the best thing to crawl out of the depths of Akron, Ohio. The pop factor heard on the first volume of the series is largely unfound on Vol. 2... not exactly radio fodder, but then again, DEVO was never a radio band. No band before or since has made cheap synths sound so dirty, wrong and AWESOME. "Baby Talkin' Bitches" and "Bottled Up" are classic DEVO, outshining just about everything on this comp, while "I Need A Chick" is uncharachteristically David Allen Coe on a Stones kick. There's still plenty of totally fucked moments, "U Got Me Bugged" and "Chango" heading up that regiment. "I'm envious of your IQ of... 37 (37)"

Cute?:

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Singles soundtrack

1. Alice In Chains - Would?
2. Pearl Jam - Breath
3. Chris Cornell - Seasons
4. Paul Westerberg - Dyslexic Heart
5. The Love Mongers - The Battle of Evermore
6. Mother Love Bone - Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns
7. Soundgarden - Birth Ritual
8. Pearl Jam - State of Love and Trust
9. Mudhoney - Overblown
10. Paul Westerberg - Waiting For Somebody
11. Jimi Hendrix - May This Be Love
12. Screaming Trees - Nearly Lost You
13. Smashing Pumpkins - Drown

Sure, this soundtrack contained some pretty vile shit (the formerly great Westerberg's "Dyslexic Heart", Ten-era Pearl Jam throw-away tracks, the grunge-lite hit "Nearly Lost You"), and even the Soundgarden song isn't that great. Why bother posting this? Well, glad you asked. While you've got to wade through a pretty deep puddle of garbage, it's all worth it in the end. Literally, the end. The final track is what I would choose as my favorite Smashing Pumpkins moment (right up there with "Starla")... feedback freakouts and space-noodling abound. While Gish and Siamese Dream were great albums, the best tracks were the hidden gems cast off for b-sides and soundtrack compilations such as this one. Go ahead, I won't judge you for bumping Mother Love Bone. I'll never know.

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Sunn O))) - Live White - Northsix, Brooklyn, NY 07.28.2004

1. B-Alien Skeleton

2. Space Bacon Reactor

3. Intone

4. Hell-O)))-Ween

5. B-Witch

6. NN O)))

7. Death Becomes You

8. Caveman Salad

9. Grease Bacon Fire

10. Bathory - A Tribute to...

The almighty Sunn O))) drone machine in full effect. Released by ArchiveCD.com as an "official bootleg", a limited edition of 300 5" CDs (the contents of which are found above) together with the "Funeraldrone" 3" CD which I cannot find. Sold on the Australasian 2005 tour. Anderson and O'Malley begin with a lulling drone before bringing the glacial noise to smash eardrums and skulls.

Sleeping:

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Jesu - Heartache

1. Heartache (19:42)
2. Ruined (20:13)

With a combined running time of forty minutes, the two tracks comprising Heartache epitomize the Jesu ethic, albeit on a much larger, more epic scale. Harsh, doom-laden guitar riffs, bludgeoning drums, iced with a beautiful melancholly. Justin Broadrick, Jesu's mastermind, should be known to many as a former member of Napalm Death, Head of David, and especially Godflesh. Jesu, to a point, is an extension of Broadrick's work as Godflesh. The urban anxiety, the internalized frustration of having to live with other people is intact, given room to breathe and grow into it's own organism. And while I'd wholeheartedly recommend everything by Jesu, this EP is as good as any point to start.

Charlie:
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Cathedral - Soul Sacrifice EP

1. Soul Sacrifice
2. Autumn Twilight
3. Frozen Rapture
4. Golden Blood (Flooding)

Time to kick off the weekend right with a pair of Cathedral jams straight from the early 90's. "Soul Sacrifice", pulled from the incredible doom masterpiece Forest of Equillibrium, was chosen as a single by the ill-fated Columbia/Earache alliance. The following three spliffs are non-album b-sides. These four tracks also appeared on the oddly titled Earache comp Gods of Grind (of the four included bands, Confessor, Cathedral, Carcass and Entombed, only Carcass was grindin'...), albeit in a different order. Cathedral have always been great at adding psych flourishes to the Sabbathitude, and "Golden Blood" is a prime example.

Batman:
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Cathedral - Grim Luxuria single

1. Grim Luxuria
2. Sky Lifter
3. A Funeral Request 1993

Single from the great and underrated The Ethereal Mirror features a pair of non-album tracks worth grabbing. Decibel magazine recently named The Ethereal Mirror as one of the top 20 "Stoner Rock" records of all time, and I'm in accordance. As far as I know, "Sky Lifter" only appears on this single, and "A Funeral Request 1993" is a rerecording of the track from the epic debut, Forest of Equillibrium.

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Prurient - Black Vase

1. Roman Shower
2. Silent Mary
3. Sorry Robin
4. Silver Flashlight
5. The Black Vase
6. Back Cuts
7. Whipped Hole
8. Soft Crack
9. Lord of Love
10. Myth of Love




If you're like me, and enjoy putting yourself through the aural equivilent of sandpaper to the face, Prurient is 40 grit. However, while this record is a great way to piss off those who don't "get" noise, it's also much more than that. Pieces are constructed of violent shards, dissonance colliding with dissonance, and great are the rewards for the patient, foolish and careful. Tread this delapidated boardwalk lightly. Herr Fernow's live act is a spectacle to be witnessed and absorbed... one man, one mic, one amp, one shitload of pedals. Absolutely the most intense performance I've had the fortune of seeing.

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Sonic Youth - 06-07-2001 Paris, France @ Olympia

1. Intro
2. Having Never Written A Note For Percussion/Voice Piece For Soprano (Part I: Against the Wind)
3. Six/Voice Piece For Soprano (Part II: Against the Wall)
4. Treatise/Voice Piece For Soprano (Part III: Against the Sky)
5. Clapping Music
6. Four6
7. Side2Side
8. She Is Not Alone
9. NYC Ghosts and Flowers (encore)

This is the first show on the short tour SY embarked upon for the fourth installment of the SYR series, Goodbye 20th Century, a record of covers of 20th Century avante garde composers. As you can probably guess, this is the more "out there" Sonic Youth, so don't expect to hear "Tom Violence" (although the set is followed up with an encore of "NYC Ghosts and Flowers"). Cool show with lots of guests, in addition to Jim O'Rourke. Richard Edson, SY's original drummer, makes an appearance on "She Is Not Alone", and William Winant and Christian Fennesz both do their thing.

Mack:
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Khanate - Live @ WFMU

1. Pieces of Quiet
2. G>>>D>>>Work
3. No Joy
4. Skin Coat

Live abject DOOM! With guitar strings tuned so low, you can hear them flapping against the fretboard, the lord of all things DOOM, Stephen O'Malley chugs out a four track set with his non-robed hell unit, Khanate. Unsure of the recording date, because I'm lazy like that. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWGGG!!!!!!!!!

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Periscope: Another YoYo Compilation

1. Mukilteo Fairies - Bloody Breath
2. Go Sailor - Last Year
3. Excuse 17 - Sevenwhateverteen
4. Fitz of Depression - Piss Butt
5. Love As Laughter - Super Christ
6. Tummy Ache - Purple Violet Squish
7. Raggedy Ann - Orange Juice Star
8. Cub - Flaming Red Bobsled
9. The Crabs - Chubbette
10. Appleseed - High
11. Bloodthirsty Butchers - I Hate You
12. Neutral Milk Hotel - Bucket
13. Long Hind Legs - Dress In My Bed
14. Tattle Tale - Girls Go To Heaven
15. Team Dresch - Fake Fight
16. Copass Grinders - Bakuoni
17. Beck - The World May Loose Its Motion

I had ordered this through the fine folks at the K Records mailorder way back in high school when this 1994 compilation came out, and it's been one of my very favorite comps ever since. I had ordered this for the Beck track (which appears nowhere else), and was turned on to more bands in the active NW mid-90's scene. This comp crosses all genres of indie rock, from the cuddle-core of Cub to the rockin' punk of the late, great Fitz of Depression, to the homocore of the overrated Team Dresch, to the AmRep-style noise rock of Long Hind Legs. The highlights are the beautifully melancholy "Bucket" by Neutral Milk Hotel, the pre-Isis jamming of the Bloodthirsty Butchers and the contribution by the Mukilteo Fairies (who's singer could have been great in a black metal band), "Bloody Breath". I don't know how many scene compilations I've heard that I can't listen to all the way through... Periscope bucks the trend hard, keeping the quality consistent and creating a solid listen. Enjoy.

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Kawabata Makoto - Guitar Solo II

1. Mitsuha
2. Hangon No Shirushi

Makoto, mastermind of the ever-astonishing Acid Mothers Temple, released this droning two-part escape pod in 1998. Fans of AMT wont' find any suprises here, as there is drone to spare, but there is no Iommi-worship to be found on this recording. The atmosphere is set and kept, leaving the listener to discern the subtleties. One of my favorite drone records, period.

Seventh:

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Devo - Hardcore Devo Volume 1

1. Mechanical Man
2. Auto Modown
3. Space Girl Blues
4. Social Fools
5. Soo Bawls
6. Satisfaction
7. Jocko Homo
8. Golden Energy
9. Buttered Beauties
10. Midget
11. I'm A Potato
12. Uglatto
13. Stop Look and Listen
14. Ono
15. Mongoloid

Essential early recordings by the essential DEVO. Pre-Q: Are We Not Men?... recordings showcase the absolute brilliance of one of the finest bands to grace our ugly planet. Several of these (the cover of the Stones' "Satisfaction", "Jocko Homo" and "Mongoloid") went on to become certified Devo classics, the others left to languish in obscurity. The wicked sharp sense of humor and outright weirdness is all intact here, shining from the elastic tools of the new traditionalists. "Social Fools" could have become another cult hit, had it been rerecorded for one of the later records... mindboggling that this isn't in print.

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Make A Change... Kill Yourself - II

1. Life Revisited (23:06)
2. Fooling the Weak (17:53)

Epic Danish Black Metal that falls squarely into the dark and depressive category (I'm sure you hadn't guessed that from the name, right?). Fans of Xasthur, Leviathan, and Judas Iscariot should be diggin' on this misanthropic slab of despair. The production straddles that fine line between being recorded on a My First Sony at the bottom of a diaper pail in the next room and the glossy professional recordings shunned by tr00-kvlt black metallers. There's just the right amount of lo-fi fuzz to this... it's not drowning in tape hiss, and that's a good thing. Extra props for the band name.

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Morbid Angel - God of Emptiness

Gallhammer - The Dawn of Gallhammer

1. Speed of Blood
2. Crucifixion
3. May Our Father Die
4. Aloof and Proud Silence
5. Hallucination
6. Selfish Selfless
7. Insane Beautiful Sunnyday Slaughter
8. Beyond the Hate Red
9. Friction
10. At the Onset of the Age of Despair
11. Crucifixion (demo)
12. May Our Father Die

YES! Japanese all-female black metal trio Gallhammer absolutely destroy in the vein of the first wave of BM such as Hellhammer and Bathory. Best "Yeah, I gargle broken glass, so what?" female vocals this side of crust. I've been rocking the fuck out of this for months. Gallhammer rages and slows it down and gets all Burzum-y, then throws more coals on the hellfire... gimmick or no, this shit kills.

Where:
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RZA - NYC Everything promo

1. NYC Everything w/Method Man
2. Do You Hear the Bells?

This promo CD came with a copy of Stress magazine (is that still being published?) right before RZA's Bobby Digital album came out. The reason for posting this is not for the album side "NYC Everything", but for the 11-minute "Do You Hear the Bells?" freestyle, in which B.O.B.B.Y. states "fucking up microphones be my hobby". RZA has always been my favorite of the Wu-Tangers, and I think this track might be a large part of that. Shame this wasn't part of the record... this blows away half those tracks.

Having:

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Transmission0 - 0

1. Journey
2. San Miguel
3. Dust Like Sand
4. Ether
5. The Return
6. Serenity
7. U-Boot
8. Vs. Vampire
9. Xxxx
10. Xxxxxx

Transmission0 (I don't really get the 0 at the end of the name, but whatever) are Dutch. They make a very modern hybrid of doom, black metal, noise/art metal and manage to make it a cohesive sound. Spots on o recall Khanate, Tribes of Neurot, Emperor, Isis and many more. In fact, Isis may be the closest comparison, yet still quite a ways from the mark. The vocals at times can impart a hardcore influence, making this, i guess, in some part, metalcore? Not really... I haven't heard the latest, Memory of a Dream, but I'll mos def be checking it out after letting this spin.

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Aldebaran - Dwellers In Twilight

1. Beasts At the Throne
2. Pillars of Geph
3. Sightless and Silent Into Blackened Gulphs

DOOM! From the tar-black depths of Portland, Oregon comes Aldebaran, a Sleep-y doom unit on the blackened end of the spectrum. Serious riff-mania for those who like their doom dark and and dirty. Don't worry, the songs approach the twenty minute mark.

DOPE.

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Boris & Merzbow - Megatone

1. It Continues Waiting For A Headronefish (23:26)
2. Encounter With The Inside Of The Wavemotion Of Great Water Fuzz (20:04)
3. ...And Texas Spaceship (17:56)

Three extended pieces from Japanese doomanoids Boris and noiselord Merzbow. Mr. Akita takes a backseat for the later two-thirds of the record, allowing Wata's otherworldly guitarring to channel spirits in the forefront, especially on "Encounter...". This is easily my favorite of the Boris/Akita colabs, trumping the Walrus/Groon EP released earlier this year and Sun Baked Snow Cave, both on Hydra Head. Boris fans take note that Boris is not on full-on doom mode here, opting to give air to the space-Boris hidden within.

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