Tag Archive: doom

Blindead – Affliction XXIX II MXMVI

Filed Under: Reviews

Mar.24, 2011

Blindead

Affliction XXIX II MXMVI

01. Self-Consciousness Is Desire and
02. After 38 Weeks
03. My New Playground Became
04. Dark and Gray.
05. So, It Feels Like Misunderstanding When
06. All My Hopes and Dreams Turn Into
07. Affliction XXVII II MMIX

[10/26/10]
[Mystic]

It’s hard to deny that last year’s progressive metal releases were dominated by the two huge releases by The Ocean. In, the somewhat eccentrically titled Affliction XXIX II MXMVI (henceforth referred to as ‘Affliction’), Polish sludge aficionados Blindead seem to go some way towards capitalising on this success. Though I’m not for a minute suggesting any foul play, it is worth noting that if you were a fan of The Ocean’s last two albums, Heliocentric especially, this album may be worth a solid listen.

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Tags: Affliction XXVII II MMIX, Blindead, doom, sludge, The Ocean

REVIEW: Witchsorrow – Witchsorrow

Filed Under: New music, Reviews

May.25, 2010

Witchsorrow

1. The Agony

2. The Trial of Elizabeth Clarke

3. Gomorrah

4. Thou Art Cursed

5. Impaler, Tepes

The album opens up with a very traditional doom sounding combination of a guitar chord, and a low, rumbling bass line surging through your body. The drums pick up, and then the guitars begin to match the bass line with a wicked, drone like tone. The opening riff is very impressive, and soon the depressing, drawn out, coarse, vocals sludge out from the vocalist’s mouth and the riff changes, conveying a whole new atmosphere, but still remaining a very early doom sound with a combination of modern stoner doom heavy, thick, and hazy tone. The repetitive structure of the song continues for about five and a half minutes, really sucking you in and then a new pounding guitar riff enters to lead us into some bluesy death. The first song exits, with some tremolo picking over a crushing riff, and then fades to feedback.

The next song opens up with a guitar, and then another guitar and already I’m rocking in my chair and slightly headbanging before the drums and bass kick in. The riffs change up a bit, and even eventually pick up the pace. These riffs are A+++++ and nothing is standing in this albums way so far as the riffs bludgeon, and the awesome guitar and bass tones assault with love.

Gomorrah opens up with an awesome, sludgy guitar riff at a pretty quick pace, especially for this band. The vocals with subtle, but cool effects on them bleat a tapestry of words over the metal as the tempo goes back down, but of course, only to pick up again and keep the song interesting. The next track, Thou Art Cursed sticks out pretty well, with a medium gain guitar intro similar to many a sludge song. The drum pound in, and the bass rumbles on, solidifying this opening as a heavy, dark, and bluesy piece of quality metal.

As is a characteristic of most great doom, the rhythm section is superb, and this is no exception. The bass lines are tight, and sound really, really good. The same can be said for the drums too. I don’t mean to give the guitarist/vocalist the short end of the stick, he’s got major talent as well, creating superb riffs, and a quality metal voice from the gods. This album stands out as just being really good. With every listen, the small hard to notice things come out, and the tone of the album gets better and better, and for this increasing awesomeness

Witchsorrow’s self titled debut gets…

-MW

Tags: doom, rise above records, witchsorrow

Harvey Milk – A Small Turn of Human Kindness

Filed Under: Reviews

May.18, 2010

Harvey Milk

A Small Turn of Human Kindness

1. *
2. I Just Want To Go Home
3. I Am Sick of All This Too
4. I Know This Is No Place For You
5. I Alone Got Up and Left
6. I Know This Is All My Fault
7. I Did Not Call Out

Usually I listen to an album while reviewing it, but never have I described my thoughts exactly as they come out, and limited my thoughts to the space of each song and the album length. So I’m gonna do that shit right now and see how it goes.

1st Track ( ) - The opening guitar riff is what I’d call, Star Spangled Satan. It’s an interesting opening to such an album, that’s for sure. The band punches in a couple times, but it’s mostly the guitar riffing. The band finally finds a permanent position in the mix, really picking up some atmosphere. It’s surely doomy, but the song doesn’t contain that familiar bleak, and downtrodden atmosphere that usually comes with the genre. The riffing soon gets heavier, creating a harsh outro to the song.

2nd Track ( I Just Want to Go Home ) - Sludgy bass punches in, droning on a bit, rumbling off through the speakers. The whole band enters again, and the guitar line squeals some feedback, and throws out a couple riffs before we get to some very Melvins-esque drum and bass doom. The vocalist finally makes an appearance, bleating his heart out against the terrifying background music helping solidify the song’s atmosphere. This drones on for a while, before the guitar’s feedback enters again, creating a noisy sound scape ready to defile anyone’s mind.

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Tags: A Small Turn of Human Kindness, doom, Harvey Milk, sludge

Satan Worshipping Doom

Filed Under: General News, New music, Upcoming releases

Mar.02, 2010

Bongripper, a Chigago, IL based doom band knoWn for being lOng, sludgy, harsh, and even stRaight up noise muSic are getting ready to put out tHeir new full length album tItled Satan Worshipping Doom. The album will contain 4 songs and will clock in at over an hour of SATAN. The track listing is as follows. I’m Pretty excited.

1. Hail
2. Satan
3. Worship
4. Doom

No joke either. TheSe guys Are seriously good and I wanT to see how they pull off slightly more trAditioNal and cheesy early doom. If you haven’t heard their material before, I suggest the releases Hippie Killer, The Great Barrier Reefer. The band are still looking for a label or some distribution for the new album, so if you can provide that for them, provide that.

-MW

Tags: bongripper, candlemass, doom, doom metal, hidden messages, hippie killer, pentagram, saint vitus, satan, the great barrier reefer, void, witchfinder general

One Night (with) Mare

Filed Under: Live, Video

Feb.08, 2010

Ha. Ha. Ha. I’m hilarious…

Yet another one of those bands I came to way too late (i.e. after they broke up), Mare played a unique mix of uber-sludgy doom with part haunting falsetto, part ball-achingly screechtastic vocals from Tyler Semrick-Palmateer (vocalist for The End on Transfer Trachea Reverberations From Point: False Omniscient). Caleb Collins of Circle Takes the Square handled drums, and there was…urm…some dude on bass.

They only put out one EP before going to the great gig in the sky (re: Crydebris, Push Me Under, a load of more obvious bands I’m probably forgetting) but it got them signed to Hydrahead. They announced the split three years ago this month, but I just got wind of a one-off reunion show they played in Mississauga, Ontario last summer. Some thoughtful guy thought to film it and whack that shit on YouTube: +10 internets for him. The audio quality is pretty damn good, too, and there are some flashy song titles if you didn’t already know them.

Check the related videos for the rest of the set. It’s good.

- CG

Tags: Circle Takes The Square, Crydebris, doom, falsetto, Hydrahead, Live, Mare, Push Me Under, screech, sludge, the end

Mother Dirt: This is a totally flawed recording, make of it what you will

Filed Under: Downloads, New music

Feb.05, 2010

“Mother Dirt is a result of too many line-up changes, alcohol and substance abuse and a general lack of faith in everybody and everything. Fast as fuck, loud as fuck, unholy sons of bitches, fuck you.” – Dan Best, Mother Dirt

Born in a tiny town in the dark hills of Worcestershire, Mother Dirt, in their own words sound like “some kind of bastardised necro doom punk.”

I don’t know what it is about our little arse-end of nowhere, but the past few years has seen Malvern churn out more than its fair share of damn good bands. From your AZWAIs, your Deacon Birches and your Push Me Unders at the heavier end of the spectrum, to more expansive artists like Orbit: Dear Beacon. I can pretty much guarantee you won’t have heard of most of them, but that’s besides the point. These bands don’t do it for the glory; they do it because there’s fuck all else to do when you live in a field.

Mother Dirt are not for everyone. In fact, they’re utterly horrible. But in a good way. They are as dirty as both their name might suggest, and as the cow shed they use as a practice space. I don’t really have a basis for comparison I can offer you bar that their vocalist sounds like Jacob Bannon with a throat full of barbed wire. Their EP has absolutely no title bar the moniker above, but it’s angry, full of contempt and should probably come with a health warning. I doubt they care what you think of the recording quality (which is raw, to put it lightly), but it really doesn’t matter with this kind of brutality – in fact, it’s kind of the point.

Live, they’re on a different level. I believe at their last gig a banister got destroyed. I’ve seen blood and beer flying, and everyone in the room fucking loves it.

Belly Crawler
Tomb
Fallen
5 Bar Prison Blues

You’re not likely to ever get your hands on a copy, so hit the link below if you think you’re ‘ard enough. As an extra treat, you can also download their live set from The Purple Turtle in London last year over at their Last.fm page. Better quality, equally as nasty.

Myspace // Last.fm // Download

- CG

Tags: doom, Mother Dirt