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Pale Divine - Cemetery Earth (I Hate
Records) Review by Steve Green |
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I wasn't really sure what to make of this album on my 1st
couple of listens. Thankfully everything fell into place on
further spins. Pale Divine sit somewhere between the smooth
and the fuzzed up. And we aren't talking pubic hair here. More
a case of John Gaffney's fuzzed up bass and the smooth tones
of vocalist Greg Diener. This is Doom in the classic
Pentagram/Sabbath vein, there's a slight, I'm at odds to say
it, but a Stoner, type edge... I guess this sounds more like a
Meteor City type of release than an I Hate Records one. Pale
Divine may be wearing their influences proudly on their
sleeves, but there's enough here to keep the comparisons in
check.
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And whatever Pale Divine's influences, I have to admit, by 2nd
number Fire And Ice, they had me hooked. The groove is so
intense on this number, it's impossible not to get sucked in.
Greg Diener has such a cool voice, I could sit and listen to
him all day. And while the melody is so inviting in his voice,
the music is rocking away and taking me away to my own little
world. It gets even better on Broken Wings, with the chorus
totally winning me over. I'm also loving the long meandering
solos, which to an old hippy like me, reek ( if you'll excuse
my description) of Neil Young. The solos are firing on all
cylinders again on (I Alone) The Traveler, but they are more
Schenker era UFO than anything else. If only Metallica had
hired Greg Diener for St Anger, he could have taught Hetfield
and Hammett how to solo again.
The title track is 11 minutes of pure spaced out bliss
and from then on, the spaced-out vibes takes over the album.
Empyrean Dream is a short interlude, like the ones once
utilized by a certain band from Brum, before the The Seventh
Circle quickly settles into a hypnotizing groove. Same goes
for Soul Searching, another strung out jam that sucks you in
and mellows you out. Shadows Of Death is a little heavier and
the beat just a bit more intense. The final jam of this hour
long disc is The Conqueror Worm and as before, The Pale Divine
don't let things slip for the finale. The quality is there
right to the death.
Quite simply, a fucking cool album.
www.ihate.se
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www.myspace.com/paledivine |
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Phallusifer The Immoral Code DVD (Karnal
Film) Review by Steve Green |
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This movie has stirred up one hell of a storm on Blabbermouth.
As per usual, the backlash the film received in terms of
quality, production etc...was completely unfounded. And of
course a rival film got in on the act just to stir up
controversy over which film really was the first Black Metal
Porn movie. But to be fair to the makers of Phallusifer, they've
remained dignified throughout and have let the film do the
talking, rather than create any bullshit hype.
I hate Hollywood style porn, I'd much rather dig up some juicy
amateur film or something a little European: IE: Not so
polished and slick and full of fake tits. This film falls
somewhere between that. The camera work, editing and direction
are all top notch and even though the sex isn't the best I've
ever seen, the uniqueness of the subject matter, gives it all
a nice twist. And you have to look at this as the first in a
series. If this were a band, it would be classed as a demo and
it's on your demo that you make your mistakes. With Phallusifer, my only complaint is the fact they've only used 2
people in the DVDs 65 minute(ish) duration. Oh, |
the "stud" has a less than attractive pair of balls. And since
I have a huge scar on mine from an operation, I'm an expert in
these matters :-)
The films main scene sees the anonymous Black Metal stud,
prepare his wench via a multitude of foreplay, including oral,
fingering, a rubber dildo (which looks like a strap-on, not
worn of course), a bit of ass-whipping and the finale of
burning candle wax over her torso and some light
asphyxiation!!! In return, he gets his reward in the form of a
blow job and a very nice bit of ballsucking action. I will
point out that the female lead in the film is not as top heavy
as you see in most films, but she is extremely professional
and extremely accommodating. I don't think you'd ever get
bored with her, that's for sure. While all of this is going on,
a Black metal soundtrack, including Blighty's own Thus
Defiled, is blasting away and various satanic images are shown
at intermittent periods. The music is mixed with the female
leads moans and on occasions, the directors instructions,
which I thought was a nice touch.
While the foreplay was interesting to watch, the actual
penetration part is a bit of a letdown. Literally. Our lead
man is not really up for the job and someone with a little
more experience in front of the camera would have been more
suitable. Then again, I'd rather watch this dark maiden give
head than be fucked anyway.
The extras consist of 7 short clips featuring the female lead
in various states of masturbation, including gloves, pvc, a
huge black dildo, (very satanic of course) double
penetration on herself using 2 dildos and my favourite, Shaken
and Stirred, which features a Martini bottle (who says Black Metallers don't have a sense of humour?)
Part 2 is likely to be filmed in London, so let's hope that a
bevy of British beauties sign up for it. In the meantime, get
your hands on this one via
www.karnalfilm.com |
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RSJ – Gain to Nothing (Hangmans Joke) Review by Samuel
Munch-Petersen |
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RSJ or Right Shite Jamboree certainly have a heavy setup.
Touring with the likes of Funeral for a Friend and Orange
Goblin there’s a niche for them to break into. They’ve had
massive acclaim following online sales and developing a rather
solid and devoted fanbase and have managed to move on to tour
themselves in May of this year. The album is sixteen tracks
long but ten of them are unique whilst the last six are
remixes with two live tracks starting the bonus material.
RSJ give you a powerful and shocking start to the album and
continue that aggressiveness |
throughout. There isn’t much on the net about the band at all
but from what I’ve read they seem to hail from the UK (York)
and this is their second throw out into the world of music in
regards to albums.
The five-piece band have intense presence and there isn’t much
to go on except that the music is constructed clearly and with
a definite end in mind. They follow their regular tracks of
intensity throughout the album and there isn’t much deviation
in the ways that the tracks are delivered or even created.
Code Zero which appears fourth on the album is meant to be
Tool influenced. It is basically divided into two parts. One
of which is quite heavy the second of which is spoken word and
becomes “sinister” in the same way that Whisker’s is sinister.
Overall the band are adept at delivering their music and with
a large fanbase giving them strength from below they are bound
to be a band to watch out for in the coming months. If you’ve
seen them already you’ll know the ferocity with which they
play their music and command the stage. I’m not sure about
venues being “naïve” when putting RSJ on stage but more that
venues are “clever” to put them on stage since they are a sure
hit on the UK scene of heavy metal.
As for the remixes and the live tracks there isn’t much to say
about them except that they include The Officers, Harpies and
Matt Willcock doing various renditions of the RSJ songs along
with the band themselves doing a swing rendition of their
Delusions of Popularity track.
This band are going to come on strong this year and you should
be sure to look out for them touring, playing, supporting and
releasing for a while yet I should think.
www.hangmansjoke.net/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=205 |
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The Austrasian Goat - The Austrasian Goat
(I Hate Records)
review by James Young |
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The Austrasian Goat is a project of former sludgecore
ShallNotKill frontman, Julien Louvet (also known as ‘The
Goat’), but this should in no way mislead you over what to
expect on this release. This self-titled album is over forty
minutes of blackened doom metal, as slow as you can get
without stopping, and it’s possibly the most depressing thing
I’ve heard in a very long time. The name of the project
derives from Austrasia, a place between France and Germany,
which remained Pagan until the eighteenth century. Thus the
whole album resembles the atmosphere of a funeral,
representing the fall of a civilisation, which musically is
assisted by the echoed production job and dirge-like quality
to many of the songs, the |
doomier numbers plodding along and
the shorter ambient tracks doing little to reassure the
listener that humanity isn’t dying. Personally, doom metal is
not my cup of tea and I can get quite impatient towards the
end of even the most hyped bands, but this release had me
hanging on until the end. It’s usually the minimalism that
puts me off these types of bands, but in this case I was
whisked away into the gritty and hideous mindset that went
into such bleak music. The misanthropic black metal elements
were a fantastic addition, reminding me of the evilness of
Skitliv meeting the nihilism of Nortt.
There are nine tracks in all, each with a distinctive flavour
and varying in length from the one minute ‘River And Fog’ to
the twelve minute misery-maker ‘Unchained’. This prevents
anything becoming too overwhelming, but if I was to be overly
critical I might have liked a few tracks added together for
some in-song mood changes rather than having the same sounds
throughout each track. Nevertheless, the more ambient tracks
provide some substance to the album, with ‘Embrace A Green
Distress’ bringing a slow orchestral feel, and ‘Silence Is
Weapon’ delivering a more electronic atmosphere. The longer
tracks bring to the table a slow mix of wailing guitars,
creeping drums, and pained shrieks when necessary. If there
was any doubt over whether this was supposed to reflect a
funeral mood, one of the tracks, and possibly the fastest on
the album (although that’s not saying much), a cover of
Grief’s ‘I Hate The Human Race’ finishes with rain and wind,
setting the grim atmosphere perfectly.
This is a really depressing piece of music, and perfect for
playing at full volume, kicking back and despising humanity
to. It’s about as far from mainstream as you can get, so
prepare for total morbid bliss.
www.ihate.se |
www.myspace.com/austrasiangoat
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T.M. Stevens - Africans In The Snow (SPV) Review by Marco Gaminara |
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A very Kwaito sounding intro for "What" starts up this CD,
'til the song starts in earnest with T.M. yelling "Shocka
Zooloo's in the House" on what is a very Funky Metal album,
with plenty of African vibe to boot. In some ways "Up" reminds
me a bit of Urban Assault (another South African funky skate
metal band from the 1990's) with it's very funky slapped bass
cutting through the simple time-keeping and choppy guitar
rhythms. Building up slowly and with a laidback, but funky
chorus "Fight, Fight, Fight" might come across as not
aggressive enough, but at the same time, there's no hostility
in any of this music. Sadly I |
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don't have a clue who else plays on this other than T.M. on bass and vocals I can't really
comment much on them, but somehow "Gotta Get My Move On" has
that snap and pop that Robert Trujillo gets down pat on all
those Infectious Groove albums from so long ago. And I guess T.M.'s pedigree as a session muso also explains much in the
way of his amazing ability to play and incorporate different
styles into his songs, all the while keeping their core funky
element wholly intact. The marimbas in "Afro Soul" definitely
bring out that African air, as do the vocal melodies and
harmonies that are so prevalent in most tribal music. In some
ways "Tell Me The Truth" could've fitted on the Lion King
soundtrack, by being so unobtrusive and contemporarily pop in
flavour. A bit of 70's disco in "Wake Up" has me weirded out a
little, but then there are so many different things going on
here, that not even that really detracts from the overall
song. "Why We Rock So Hard (It's Our Roots)" is a far cry from
Sepultura, while some of the sentiments may be the same, and I
guess this music shall always be in your blood once it's
there. As a child of the 80's, getting away from radio music
was impossible and "Mama Said" sounds so Milli Vanilli for the
choruses it's actually quite a laugh. Now there's a nice
chunky guitar riff in "We Will Never Do That Again" and
thankfully it doesn't stray too far from that, while the bass
bounces all over the place in all it's funky glory. An awesome
drum solo opens up "Weird G", which then fades into what
sounds like an arcade game gone wrong 'til it sorts itself out
with some funky guitar strumming and groovy vocal melodies.
I'm trying to decide whether "Africans In The Snow" was
prophetic or not, as there were widespread snow storms in
South Africa a couple of weeks ago, and possibly the 1st in about
25 years for that matter. Slowing things right down, "Ayeahi"
is sadly currently just a pipedream of peace and unity in
Africa, but here's hoping. "Why We Rock So Hard (Raga Muffin
Rootdown Remix)" is a very Eddy Grant feeling remix of an
earlier track, but it's also a lot more chilled than the
original and a nice way to quietly fade out the CD.
www.tmstevens.com
| www.spv.de |
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Toxic Bonkers - Progress (Selfmadegod)
Review by Steve Green |
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If I ran through Toxic Bonkers long and varied career, then
this review would be hitting a thousand words on the intro
alone. Condensing it down with all the info you need is quite
simple. They formed in Poland in 1993, this is their fourth
album and they play a mixture of Death, Hardcore and Grind.
For a band that formed 14 years ago, apart from one certain
band, who shall be named later, I don't sense much of an old
school edge, which I'll immediately counteract by not really
hearing much of a modern feel either.
The core of Toxic Bonkers sound is Death Metal. The drumming,
as you'd expect with Poland's history of producing quality
sticksmen, has a strong presence, without being
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overbearing. This drives forward the (albeit lightly
flavoured) hardcore tinged Death Metal, which in places,
particularly on Evolution, reminds me of mid-era Sepultura. The comparisons
with the Cavalera brothers (for they are really Sepultura,
even if they don't seem to own the name anymore) can be heard
on nearly every song. Not blatantly, just with a steady flow
of nuances. The Grind is more vocal based than anything else,
with duel low-high pitched vocals taking centre stage to good
effect. The exception to the rule is the punk ass blastbeat
induced grind of Manifesto.
Chaos AD was released in 1993, the year that Toxic Bonkers
formed. And I know I've probably harped on too much about
Sepultura and I'll be quite rightly told off for the
comparison. But that's fine, as I'm not so much saying that
Toxic Bonkers sound like the boys from Brazil, more that
they've captured a certain moment in time and have bastardized
it to create something equally as vibrant.
www.toxic-bonkers.com
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www.myspace.com/toxicbonkers |
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Watain - Sworn To The Dark (Season Of Mist)
By: Dave Schalek |
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Given that the band’s first demo is entitled “Go Fuck Your
Jewish God” and their last full-length, “Casus Luciferi”, is
heralded as an excellent example of raw black metal, you would
not necessarily expect Sweden’s Watain to somewhat switch
gears and morph into a sort of combination of latter-era
Marduk enhanced with a heavy emphasis upon the melodic
tendencies of Dissection, but that’s exactly what has happened
with “Sworn To The Dark”, the band’s third full-length, on
Season Of Mist.
Frankly, the results are a bit mixed and I find that
frustrating to say the least. At times, this album simply
smokes and knocks you over with all out assaults such as the
opener |
“Legions Of The Black Light”, and through the use of excellent
tempo variation and the incorporation of melody on “Storm Of
The Antichrist”. At other times, though, Watain seem
to lose their way a bit and meander through some tracks (such
as “The Light That Burns The Sun”, and even the title track)
that could’ve benefited from a trim. These moments,
unfortunately, take some of the steam out of an album that
otherwise shows every sign of firing on all cylinders.
This complaint, however, is minor, as the album features a
great, bottom heavy production with a deep guitar sound,
strong drumming and, overall, great musicianship. The
production results in a powerful album that does pummel the
listener when the songs are clicking. Other than the tendency
to periodically meander, the songwriting is generally good
with the all out assaults mixed with tempo variation and
guitar melody.
Certainly, “Sworn To The Dark” will appeal to anyone into
Watain’s influences if you’re not already familiar with the
band. Those that have been on board with Watain from their
inception may be a bit surprised by the change in direction,
but “Sworn To The Dark” is good.
Speaking of frustration, I live on the West Coast, which was
passed over on the recent Watain/Angelcorpse/Nachtmystium
tour. That REALLY frustrates me.
www.season-of-mist.com
| www.templeofwatain.com
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Weedeater - God Luck And Good Speed (Southern Lord)
By: Dave Schalek |
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By the time you will have read this review, I will have seen
North Carolina- based sludge trio Weedeater as part of the
West Coast Southern Lord tour during their stop at the El Rey
Theater in Los Angeles on July 3rd. After hearing “God Luck
And Good Speed”, the band’s third full-length, and first in
five years, being released on Southern Lord, I’m very much
looking forward to seeing this pummeling trio in a live
setting.
I’ve only heard bits and pieces of the band’s previous two
full-lengths, but have not really had an opportunity to sit
down and give Weedeater a chance to really sink in. That
opportunity is now upon me with “God Luck And Good Speed”,
which consists of |
absolutely gigantic, bass-driven, bottom heavy riffs,
thundering percussion, and throat scraping, cottonmouth-heavy
vocals that propel the album’s eight tracks (two are
acoustic). In addition, the production, courtesy of Steve Albini and, in part, Mike Dean of C.O.C. fame, is
perfect for the genre, resulting in a gigantic sound that
picks up all of the deep harmonics that absolutely drip from
your speakers. For those of you not familiar, C.O.C. also
emanates from North Carolina and Weedeater has some deep roots
in the form of bassist, and band anchor, “Dixie” Dave Collins
(who also serves time in Bongzilla) in another hardcore/sludge band from the same region in the mid 90s, the now
defunct Buzzov*en.
Sludge in this form really has to consist of excellent, catchy
riffing for it to really sink into my consciousness and hold
my interest for a full-length, and “God Luck And Good Speed”
is certainly able to do just that. This is where Weedeater are
at their best, and will no doubt shine in a live setting.
Sludge is a little bit off of my well tread path of death and
black metal, but I can only say “Buy or die!” for “God Speed
And Good Luck”.
www.weedeatertheband.com
| www.southernlord.com
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