(((Ø)))

2010-05-31T14:53:00.001-07:00

Harvey Milk
A Small Turn of Human Kindness

New album from some of the greatest experimental sludgers around. These guys have been at it for years perfecting their already near perfect sound. This album is much more organic and sounds only like the trio of Spiers, Spence, and Tanner. Very well produced and executed. 320 rip.

2009-11-24T17:13:00.000-08:00

Accept Death

S/T

Some very misanthropic sludge metal. Very dark sound with some decently grim doom vocals. Incredibly heavy and evil tone. Definitely check it out.

2009-11-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

Blutklinge

Reflection of a Bleak Mind

If you're into Coldworld or Wedard, this is a necessity. Blutklinge is a defunct one-man atmospheric black metal project from Germany. The genius in this album is in the guitar riffs. It creates a beautiful yet deadly atmosphere. The production is much more typical black metal then Wedard, but the riffs are a hundred times more beautiful. Check it out.

2009-11-06T10:49:00.000-08:00

I Shalt Become

Wanderings

Great atmospheric black metal record. Clear influence taken from Burzum records. The first couple of tracks could have easily appeared on Filosofem (with slight production changes). Vocals are a little more growly than Varg, but the atmosphere is nearly identical.

2009-11-04T14:52:00.000-08:00

Thou
Tyrant

One of my favorite doom bands right now. It is nearly impossible to listen to this record without headbanging, and the tone is grim enough to create an atmosphere. The combination of these two makes an incredible record. Their sound is akin to Eyehategod, only more massive and tight. Give it a spin, and DEFINITELY check them out live. They tour fairly often. Great shows...

2009-11-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

Vociferian

Beredsamkeit

Great raw French BM. No thrills here. Straight up thrashy and rigid black metal. Vocals are much more death growly and instrumentation is a little less atmospheric than most of the stuff I've been posting recently, however there is something immediately enjoyable about this album. Although it is a fairly run-of-the-mill generic, the riffage is quite satisfying. Plus, there is some great drumming. Pick it up if you're looking for some good raw BM.

2009-10-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

Wedard
Wo die Ewigkeit die Zeit berührt

Great melancholic and atmospheric black metal. The album has a near orchestral quality with much more major, resounding guitar lines. Think in terms of Drudkh's Sunwheel or Coldworld's Hymn to Eternal Frost. Much of the mix contains insane amounts of reverb, giving the album a very open and airy feel, almost as if the tracks are blowing on a frostbitten wind into your ears. Very visual, scenic album.

2009-05-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

Sunn O)))
Monoliths & Dimensions

Long awaited release. Pick it up from the Lord for some SWEET package deals. The shirt is incredible...

2009-03-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

Paysage d'Hiver

"The music of Paysage D'Hiver is used as a monomanic, minimalist musical mantra. This mantra is supposed to help the listener to visualize Alpine winter landscapes, and to experience this landscape as sublime, an aesthetic emotion of simultaneous attraction and fear, an emotion which finds its origin in Romanticism. Listening to Paysage D'Hiver is a phantasmatic practice.
How this practice is connected to other elements of the listener's lives (social, economic, psychological, political etc.) falls outside of the scope of this post."

From surrealdocuments.blogspot.com . Best description I could find, since I certainly can't explain it. The album is low-fi and underproduced, and contains some of the most atmospheric black metal material I've heard. Its worth a few listens. Great for bedtime.

Sunn O))) live in LA...

2009-03-03T17:35:00.000-08:00

Sunn O)))

Live in Los Angeles 10/10/2008

First show of the Grimmrobes tour live at the Regent Theatre in LA (moved from Safari Sam's). First night of the tour. Excellent quality. They actually released this show as a tape (well, 45 minutes of it at least) for the final leg of the tour in Japan.

Really REALLY good quality. Bass frequencies come out very well. For those of you in Japan, go see them if you get the chance. Its great to see just the two of them. Better in my opinion.

Sunn O))) live in London...

2009-03-01T15:37:00.001-08:00

Sunn O)))
Live in London 2/22/09

From the Lord site:
With honor, SUNN O))) is announcing one exclusive live performances in the United Kingdom, the first since their phenominal Altar concert at The Kentishtown Forum December 2007, to recognize the 10th anniversary of SUNN O)))’s creation. To coincide with the recording of the first album, The GrimmRobe Demos, SUNN O)) will be playing material from it exclusively. It will be a return to their primal origins, and approach respecting a zen concept of shoshin, the beginner’s mind, the yet undyed pure wool, the clarity in initiation upon the untraveled. The attitude of embodying the basics precisely, point by point, line by line, with an immovable faith in the teaching, experience and of beyond the possibility. Of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when approaching, even with much experience, just as a beginner would upon the initial impetus and thirst to seek the path. And so, with this mindset, they will be approaching these live concerts. Pure, raw, uninhibited invocations featuring O)))s core members: Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson ONLY. No guests, no vocals, no keyboards. We hope you will join us!

"Setlist" :
1) DRONE
2) THEME
3) THEME 2
4) DRONE
5) JUIBLEX (R)
6) A DRONE
7) EARTH
8) FEEDBACK
9) EPIC RIFF (L)
10) ISENGARD
11) D DRONE
12) DRONE
13) BWYTCH
14) MUSTAINE
15) BW
16) ETC.

Audience recording. sony mzr55 md > SBM-1 (44khz) > CSB/mod/BRO-box > soundforge 8.0 > flac frontend level

Russian drone doom

2009-02-24T17:46:00.001-08:00

Вирь
Хорна

Вирь (translated Vir') is a solo drone doom outfit from Leningrad, Russia. The bleak tone of the album is achieved with mostly bass and vocals. No drumming, no guitars. Just fuzzed out bass and shrieked lyrics in Russian. The vocals are very reminiscent of early BM recordings, and no lyrics have been posted, so themes are unknown.

The album contains a good amount of experimentation, and has a handful of guest musicians. Some electronic oscillator action here and there, and some break downs full of different sheets of metal being banged and bowed; there is even some bowing being done on the electric bass.

Check it out if you're into any drone doom. Some parts sound Jesu, some parts like Sunn o))). It's really just a more experimental drone cd with some brutal vocals. Enjoy! It took me a while to find this one.

Lets talk about war...

2009-02-22T18:09:00.000-08:00

Damaar

Triumph Through Spears of Sacrilege

Damaar is a Lebanese black metal group writing music from the depths of the war torn Islam nation. The album is entirely anti-Islamic and the tracks convey the pure, genuine hatred these guys have. Unable to release a physical copy, the band released MP3s of this demo before moving to Australia where they were able to fully release the cd.

The sound is a little more warlike and death then most black metal. However, lyrically the album stands up against the Eastern gods. Guitars and such are pretty typical black metal.

Devastating demo... DO YOU WISH TO DIE?

A dose of riffy Black Metal...

2009-02-21T19:07:00.000-08:00

Vordr

Take any black metal album, add some REAL bass and low end, and you've got Vordr. Fucking spiteful, raw metal. Clear BM influence with a dose of thrashy punk. The vocals are typical screechy BM vocals, but are certainly less reserved. The guitars are heavy enough to be labelled as sludge (particularly on the opening track), yet dark enough to be black.

Oh, and did I mention it's grim as shit? Fucking grab this right now.

DL

Ulver / Mysticum Split 7"

Ulver will be playing their first live show in 15 years this coming May in Lillehammer, Norway. Though they won't be playing any of the old black metal stuff, I figured I'd post this on up anyways. Very strong two tracks, with a typical dose of low-fi recordings. If you aren't familiar with either Ulver or Mysticum, go google some of their other shit and get familiar.

Mysticum is straightup norweigian BM. They went slightly industrial on later releases, but didn't veer all to far from the standard. Lyrical themes generally lie in the occult.

The Ulver side of the split is a typical Ulver release. Folk, acoustic elements that slam straight into typical black metal blast beat riffage, with lyrics based more around folklore.

Uncomfortable much?

2009-02-21T18:18:00.000-08:00

Khanate

Khanate (2001)

PLEASE PLEASE

NO FACE
NO BREATHE
NO BREATHE
PLEASE DON'T BREATHE
NO...
NO JOY
NO JOY
NO JOY
NO JOY PLEASE

Some basic grimmoire...

2009-02-21T17:39:00.000-08:00

Burning Witch
Crippled Lucifer (Seven Psalms for our Lord of Light)

From the Lord website:
"Shortly after disbanding: " Crippled Lucifer" a compilation CD of the two EPs, was released in 1998 by the then new label Southern Lord Records. It was the second release of the label, the first being Thorrs' Hammer. Burning Witch briefly reformed for their last shows in the fall of 1998 after which Edgy 59 left the band. O'Malley reunited with Anderson to form Sunn O))), and Dahlquist joined both in sunn 0))) for their first two albums (The Grimm Robe Demos øø Void) then briefly joined Anderson in Goatsnake for the "Flower of Disease" album. Currently, O'Malley is in various projects including Sunn O))), and KTL. Dahlquist and B.R.A.D are in Asva."

Utterly dark, grim, painful doom. Even after you have adjusted to the gritty tone, the tracks are barely accessible. One of my personal all time favorites. I seriously recommend you go to the Lord site and buy yourself a copy of the CD. Great packaging, and comes with a 50 page booklet of pictures. $16. Sample "History of Hell" here.

DL

Corrupted
Paso Inferior

Recorded in 1996 in Osaka, Japan. Originally on Frigidity Discos records. One dark, sludging 40 minute track with the same tempo throughout. For a sludge record, there is a lot of droning, atmospheric guitars that give the album a drone feel. It drags in much deeper sludge then usual, which lends the group an incredibly heavy sound. The vocals themselves are incredibly gutterel, adding to the painfully heavy, dragging tone of the record. If you are not familair with Corrupted, this one is a great one to start with.

And as usual, you can't listen to it unless its shaking your fucking face off.