Thrash Metal.
Female Vocals.
In short: awesomeness.
Go hear the track 'Holy Wars':
Hell, go listen to the whole album
Monday, December 14, 2009
Death Metal Live
Last Saturday (12 December), I finally went to another festival. It was about goddamn time. So now I'm sitting here with a minor neck-ache, telling you how much awesome bands I saw. Well, I'll just keep it short since I have a paper to get to. Here's the time schedule and all the bands that played:
16:45 - 17:15: Hackneyed
17:15 - 17:45: Escutcheon
17:35 - 18:15: Ulcerate
18:05 - 18:45: Dead Head
18:35 - 19:20: Krisiun
19:10 - 19:55: The Rotted
19:45 - 20:30: Grave
20:20 - 21:05: Disharmonic Orchestra
20:55 - 21:55: Tankard
21:45 - 22:45: Hail of Bullets
22:30 - 23:30: Nile
These were (obviously) on two different stages. I've seen most of Hackneyed, most of Ulcerate, all of Krisiun, a little bit of The Rotted, most of Grave, Disharmonic Orchestra and Tankard, a few songs of Hail of Bullets and all of Nile.
For starters, Hackneyed was a band of teenagers playing pretty straight-forward, slightly modern death metal. They were pretty good for such a young band, I just hope they get a little better. After some food, I went to see Ulcerate, which had just started. This was to be (for me, anyway) one of the best bands of the festival. They played what is best described as technical death metal. Technical as their playing might be, it didn't come off as technical wankery. There was a pretty wide variety of sounds here and I'm definitely going to check at least one of their two albums out. After a break, Krisiun from Brazil played. This three-piece played some pretty good death metal. That said, I really hated the sound of the bass guitar. The bass player (and vocalist) did get the crowd moving though.
After this, we saw a little bit of The Rotted, which was a kind of grindcore band from the UK. The front man here was a pretty funny dude. They put up quite a show. This did, however, get old pretty soon. We went to see Grave, which was quite a disappointment for me. Sure, the band played well, but I find that Grave lacks bits that really excite me. They've got all the basic death metal elements, but that's just about all.
Anyway, next up was Disharmonic Orchestra: the other big positive surprise for me. First thing that is notable about this band is that they don't look like average death metal folk. Then again, their style doesn't really conform to that either. They've got a lot of elements: grindcore, death metal, alternative metal and some funk influences too. Add to this a large variety of speed and a charismatic stage performance and you've got Disharmonic Orchestra. They played songs from most of their albums, including from their upcoming one, which is due (quote:) "maybe in 2010". I'm looking forward to hearing some of their albums.
Beyond this band was Tankard, thrashing beer-addicted metal from Germany. They had a pretty good show, just you'd expect a thrash metal band to play. They're the only thrash band I've seen (though I read Dead Head was thrash metal too, I didn't see them).
Last up was Nile. I can be really short about this: their performance was great. The only thing I really missed was that they didn't play Unas, probably my favorite track off In Their Darkened Shrines. That said, they picked songs off each album roughly equally (ie. it wasn't a show based on their new album, or with only new material, like sometimes tends to happen).
So there you have it. I'll probably update this later with pictures or something. The venue has a page where they put pictures for all their events, but there aren't any up there as of yet.
16:45 - 17:15: Hackneyed
17:15 - 17:45: Escutcheon
17:35 - 18:15: Ulcerate
18:05 - 18:45: Dead Head
18:35 - 19:20: Krisiun
19:10 - 19:55: The Rotted
19:45 - 20:30: Grave
20:20 - 21:05: Disharmonic Orchestra
20:55 - 21:55: Tankard
21:45 - 22:45: Hail of Bullets
22:30 - 23:30: Nile
These were (obviously) on two different stages. I've seen most of Hackneyed, most of Ulcerate, all of Krisiun, a little bit of The Rotted, most of Grave, Disharmonic Orchestra and Tankard, a few songs of Hail of Bullets and all of Nile.
For starters, Hackneyed was a band of teenagers playing pretty straight-forward, slightly modern death metal. They were pretty good for such a young band, I just hope they get a little better. After some food, I went to see Ulcerate, which had just started. This was to be (for me, anyway) one of the best bands of the festival. They played what is best described as technical death metal. Technical as their playing might be, it didn't come off as technical wankery. There was a pretty wide variety of sounds here and I'm definitely going to check at least one of their two albums out. After a break, Krisiun from Brazil played. This three-piece played some pretty good death metal. That said, I really hated the sound of the bass guitar. The bass player (and vocalist) did get the crowd moving though.
After this, we saw a little bit of The Rotted, which was a kind of grindcore band from the UK. The front man here was a pretty funny dude. They put up quite a show. This did, however, get old pretty soon. We went to see Grave, which was quite a disappointment for me. Sure, the band played well, but I find that Grave lacks bits that really excite me. They've got all the basic death metal elements, but that's just about all.
Anyway, next up was Disharmonic Orchestra: the other big positive surprise for me. First thing that is notable about this band is that they don't look like average death metal folk. Then again, their style doesn't really conform to that either. They've got a lot of elements: grindcore, death metal, alternative metal and some funk influences too. Add to this a large variety of speed and a charismatic stage performance and you've got Disharmonic Orchestra. They played songs from most of their albums, including from their upcoming one, which is due (quote:) "maybe in 2010". I'm looking forward to hearing some of their albums.
Beyond this band was Tankard, thrashing beer-addicted metal from Germany. They had a pretty good show, just you'd expect a thrash metal band to play. They're the only thrash band I've seen (though I read Dead Head was thrash metal too, I didn't see them).
Last up was Nile. I can be really short about this: their performance was great. The only thing I really missed was that they didn't play Unas, probably my favorite track off In Their Darkened Shrines. That said, they picked songs off each album roughly equally (ie. it wasn't a show based on their new album, or with only new material, like sometimes tends to happen).
So there you have it. I'll probably update this later with pictures or something. The venue has a page where they put pictures for all their events, but there aren't any up there as of yet.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Swans, stoner metal and Wodensthrone
And then there was yet another post!
First off, Swans - Filth:
Now what can we say about this? For starters, you can clearly hear these guys were involved in the no wave scene. The whole thing actually sounded a lot clearer than I expected it to be (I expected something like Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, though). It gives off a really good first impression, eitherway. I gave it a 4/5 for now.
Next off is some goodies stoner metal with some Sci-Fi sounds from the Netherlands, Toner Low's selftitled debut:
You should really just go listen to this. Their myspace has one song from this album, though for some reason the track titles are different from those on musicbrainz and RYM.
Finally, my most recent purchase, Wodensthrone - Loss:
Which is an atmospheric black metal band that got me really excited. The album itself is a pretty solid mixture of black metal and some folky parts. The intro track, Fyrgenstréam, is a real mood-setter. I should note right here that beyond this track, it's not exactly the most variated album of it's kind, but it is certainly well-played. Though not as fast, sections of the album appeal to me in the same way that Emperor's first two albums do. The drumming is solid, as are the vocalists. That's right; they've got several of them. It works pretty well. Most of it is your-average-black metal-screaming, but there are some clean, folky background vocals too. The only thing that bothers me is that it comes off as a lot of the same. Overall, a really grand, almost warm atmosphere. Also, there's a lot of replay power in this. I've been listening to this nearly on a daily basis, and I just can't get bored with it.
Speaking of atmospheric black metal, I still need to check WitTR, even if only for the enormous hype and the fact that they're on Southern Lord. If you've got any tips, please let me know :).
First off, Swans - Filth:
Now what can we say about this? For starters, you can clearly hear these guys were involved in the no wave scene. The whole thing actually sounded a lot clearer than I expected it to be (I expected something like Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, though). It gives off a really good first impression, eitherway. I gave it a 4/5 for now.
Next off is some goodies stoner metal with some Sci-Fi sounds from the Netherlands, Toner Low's selftitled debut:
You should really just go listen to this. Their myspace has one song from this album, though for some reason the track titles are different from those on musicbrainz and RYM.
Finally, my most recent purchase, Wodensthrone - Loss:
Which is an atmospheric black metal band that got me really excited. The album itself is a pretty solid mixture of black metal and some folky parts. The intro track, Fyrgenstréam, is a real mood-setter. I should note right here that beyond this track, it's not exactly the most variated album of it's kind, but it is certainly well-played. Though not as fast, sections of the album appeal to me in the same way that Emperor's first two albums do. The drumming is solid, as are the vocalists. That's right; they've got several of them. It works pretty well. Most of it is your-average-black metal-screaming, but there are some clean, folky background vocals too. The only thing that bothers me is that it comes off as a lot of the same. Overall, a really grand, almost warm atmosphere. Also, there's a lot of replay power in this. I've been listening to this nearly on a daily basis, and I just can't get bored with it.
Speaking of atmospheric black metal, I still need to check WitTR, even if only for the enormous hype and the fact that they're on Southern Lord. If you've got any tips, please let me know :).
Industrial hardcore/power noise
Subwoofer time!
Here's some stuff I've been listening to on this fine evening:
Liquid Blasted - Kremlincore:
Full stream on last.fm.
discogs page & you can buy it right here (2x12"). Hard, fast, good 4/5.
Terrorfakt - Cold Steel World:
After freshly ripping this from CD (I bought it together with Skinny Puppy's The Greater Wrong of the Right), I was kind of disappointed yet again. This album just looses it's punch if you get up with it every morning for a while. Anyway, you can find it on Amazon and iTunes or from the label. Discogs entry. 3/5.
After Terrorfakt, I grabbed something a little more gentle, in the form of Pneumatic Detach - [re·vis·cer·a]:
![Pneumatic Detach - [re·vis·cer·a]](http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s1299026.jpg)
I'm pretty sure this is a remix album of the guy's previous album, 2005's [vis·cer·a]. Remixes are by Terrorfakt and thirteen other artists I've never heard of. I actually downloaded this a long time ago, after hearing some of Pneumatic Detach's own stuff on the last.fm radio. At the first listen, I remember being suprised by the more EBM sound, but right now it was simply quite enjoyable, though it could use a little more punch. Notably, the track Embers (remix by Censor) was a drum'n'bass track, which was a pleasant suprise. 3.5/5.
And after this, it is time for one of my first 'connections' to the power noise genre, xotox - (Die) Unruhe:
This shit is really hard. REALLY hard. Not in the sense of a difficult listen, just an incredibly hard bass. The biggest 'flaw' of this album is that it consists of two core tracks: Mechanische Unruhe (Mechanical Unrest) and Nasse Wände (according to google translate, Damp Walls) and remixes of them. Scattered inbetween these remixes, another 6 original tracks are around, which brings the album to a total of 15 tracks. Remixes are by a bunch of artists I've never heard of, though Jesus Complex sounds vaguely familiar. At just over an hour of hard, loud music, it's pretty hard to hold an album together. If one takes this into account, this is one damn fine album. But of course, I don't do that, but judge the album on it's experience. There's still an okay amount of variety here: the MH20 remix of Mechanische Unruhe (by Heimataerde) is probably one of the most EBM-like tracks, but there is also borderline noise stuff here like Pumpe/Düse and Paderborn, which paint a bleak picture of a late-night party in an industrial facility of inhumane proportions. Overall, 4/5.
Anyway, enough for today. I'll probably make a post somewhere tomorrow on my most recent purchase, Wodensthrone's awesome atmospheric black metal debut Loss. If you can't wait, metal-achives has some reviews for your reading pleasure. Also, I finally got around to fetching Swans' debut, Filth, which is one of those albums which I'm probably going to regret not checking out earlier.
< RAGE > On an unrelated note, /mu/ is being really godawfully slow recently. I suspect /b/ is to blame, since the 4chan status blog and our good friend downforeveryoneorjustme both say that img, dat and static.4chan.org are down. < /RAGE >
Here's some stuff I've been listening to on this fine evening:
Liquid Blasted - Kremlincore:
Full stream on last.fm.
discogs page & you can buy it right here (2x12"). Hard, fast, good 4/5.
Terrorfakt - Cold Steel World:
After freshly ripping this from CD (I bought it together with Skinny Puppy's The Greater Wrong of the Right), I was kind of disappointed yet again. This album just looses it's punch if you get up with it every morning for a while. Anyway, you can find it on Amazon and iTunes or from the label. Discogs entry. 3/5.
After Terrorfakt, I grabbed something a little more gentle, in the form of Pneumatic Detach - [re·vis·cer·a]:
I'm pretty sure this is a remix album of the guy's previous album, 2005's [vis·cer·a]. Remixes are by Terrorfakt and thirteen other artists I've never heard of. I actually downloaded this a long time ago, after hearing some of Pneumatic Detach's own stuff on the last.fm radio. At the first listen, I remember being suprised by the more EBM sound, but right now it was simply quite enjoyable, though it could use a little more punch. Notably, the track Embers (remix by Censor) was a drum'n'bass track, which was a pleasant suprise. 3.5/5.
And after this, it is time for one of my first 'connections' to the power noise genre, xotox - (Die) Unruhe:
This shit is really hard. REALLY hard. Not in the sense of a difficult listen, just an incredibly hard bass. The biggest 'flaw' of this album is that it consists of two core tracks: Mechanische Unruhe (Mechanical Unrest) and Nasse Wände (according to google translate, Damp Walls) and remixes of them. Scattered inbetween these remixes, another 6 original tracks are around, which brings the album to a total of 15 tracks. Remixes are by a bunch of artists I've never heard of, though Jesus Complex sounds vaguely familiar. At just over an hour of hard, loud music, it's pretty hard to hold an album together. If one takes this into account, this is one damn fine album. But of course, I don't do that, but judge the album on it's experience. There's still an okay amount of variety here: the MH20 remix of Mechanische Unruhe (by Heimataerde) is probably one of the most EBM-like tracks, but there is also borderline noise stuff here like Pumpe/Düse and Paderborn, which paint a bleak picture of a late-night party in an industrial facility of inhumane proportions. Overall, 4/5.
Anyway, enough for today. I'll probably make a post somewhere tomorrow on my most recent purchase, Wodensthrone's awesome atmospheric black metal debut Loss. If you can't wait, metal-achives has some reviews for your reading pleasure. Also, I finally got around to fetching Swans' debut, Filth, which is one of those albums which I'm probably going to regret not checking out earlier.
< RAGE > On an unrelated note, /mu/ is being really godawfully slow recently. I suspect /b/ is to blame, since the 4chan status blog and our good friend downforeveryoneorjustme both say that img, dat and static.4chan.org are down. < /RAGE >
9dw/Boris - Golden Dance Classics
Okay, it's been a long time, but I decided to write something again. I revamped my rating system on My RYM, so I figured this would be a good point on which to start and tell a little about what I listen to. I guess you could see this as a review, but that's an overstatement in my opinion. It's more jolting down my thoughts while or shortly after listening than anything else, and it happens quite often that I later don't agree with what I wrote anymore. I'll only publish these reviews on RYM if I consider them to be worthy.
CD cover.
12" cover.
It seems this split EP has generated a bit of controversy among Boris' fans.
Some people seem to feel that 9dw's two funk tracks, 'エイの宇宙遊泳 (Stingray)' and 'スパイス (Spice)' are a lot better than Boris' side of the split. For me, as for probably most people, 9dw is a band I haven't heard of before this split.They play pleasant, dancable and instrumental funky music on this split.
The Boris side, on the other hand, consists of two tracks that are kind of hard to put a label on.The first, トーキョーワンダーランド (Tokyo Wonder Land), can be seen as a continuation of what 9dw does on their side.If you try to imagine Boris doing a funk track, with some kind of noisy weirdness in the background and Takeshi's typical voice singing something gentle (?) in Japanese, you're probably on the right track.Continuing after this into the final track, あきらめの花 (Akirame Flower), Boris hops back to their trademark doom-like sound a little, but the funk can still be heard.
In conclusion: 9dw was a pleasant and funky suprise, Boris did something I personally didn't expect at all, but it caught on quite well for me. 4/5.
RYM entry
Discogs entry
Buy the 12"
Buy the CD
Source for the directly linked MP3's. Obviously, I have no control over those.
CD cover.
12" cover.
It seems this split EP has generated a bit of controversy among Boris' fans.
Some people seem to feel that 9dw's two funk tracks, 'エイの宇宙遊泳 (Stingray)' and 'スパイス (Spice)' are a lot better than Boris' side of the split. For me, as for probably most people, 9dw is a band I haven't heard of before this split.They play pleasant, dancable and instrumental funky music on this split.
The Boris side, on the other hand, consists of two tracks that are kind of hard to put a label on.The first, トーキョーワンダーランド (Tokyo Wonder Land), can be seen as a continuation of what 9dw does on their side.If you try to imagine Boris doing a funk track, with some kind of noisy weirdness in the background and Takeshi's typical voice singing something gentle (?) in Japanese, you're probably on the right track.Continuing after this into the final track, あきらめの花 (Akirame Flower), Boris hops back to their trademark doom-like sound a little, but the funk can still be heard.
In conclusion: 9dw was a pleasant and funky suprise, Boris did something I personally didn't expect at all, but it caught on quite well for me. 4/5.
RYM entry
Discogs entry
Buy the 12"
Buy the CD
Source for the directly linked MP3's. Obviously, I have no control over those.
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