Neurosis

Okay, because it’s my goal to make the sludge section bigger than the black metal section, here is Neurosis’ album The Eye of Every Storm. I have to admit that it was kind of a hard thing for me to like, the first song didn’t much do it for me, but I kept listening and I was blown away. The song No River to Take Me Home is a favorite of mine, it’s heavy, it’s melodic, and it’s brooding. Neurosis was actually a band that took me a while to track down (much like Isis), and when I finally found it I had to listen a couple of times before it clicked. I am also giving the link to the album A Sun That Never Sets, which I haven’t had a chance to listen to yet, but I’m looking forward to.

Neurosis- Eye of Every Storm
Neurosis- A Sun That Never Sets

Rue/Aldebaran split

...

YOB - Catharsis

This is a request being filled in.

This particular album, Catharsis, encompasses all qualities an album should have. It's heavy as fuck, it doesn't get boring easily i.e. it has a lot of respin value. Great production etc...

Just listen to it, durrrrr

Evoke.

Skeletonwitch

Fuckin Skeletonwitch, fuck yes! Alright, so Skeletonwitch is a black/death/thrash band, another of those crazy crossover bands. So yeah, Skeletonwitch is a very good band, I got their albums Beyond The Permafrost and At One With The Shadows, which I'm going to share with you today. I gotta say first that Beyond The Permafrost does NOT disappoint, it delivers and keeps on delivering, and At One With The Shadows (which I checked out after, I'm all out of order) sounds very similar, only it includes more of a black metal sound to the vocals, whereas the vocals on BTP sound very death metal with high shrieks here and there. Anyway, this band is fucking brilliant, I wish I'd found them sooner than I did, but you can't do much about that. Their blend of bay-area thrash metal mixed with Blackened Death is fucking splendid, they hail from Athens, Ohio, and they are a band that gets around, so if they're near you, go see them. If nothing else, go see them for me, since I will never have such a chance. Life choice tip: Don't move to Hawaii if you're a metal fan.

At One With The Shadows
Beyond The Permafrost

Cynestole & Mirkwood

Artist: Cynestole / Mirwood
Album: Cynestole / Mirkwood [SPLIT]
Genre: Black Metal / Atmospheric


Tracklist:

Cynestole side
1. Time and Essence
2. Distant Skies
3. As the Light Fades...

Mirkwood side
4. Path of the Dead
5. Legend
6. The Broken Blade

Download (Mediafire)

Uploaded for Arnd and the rest of ye.

Mirkwood - Journey's End

Artist: Mirkwood
Album: Journey's End
Genre: Black Metal / Atmospheric

Tracklist:
1. Journey's End
2. Winter Path
3. Through Endless Forests

Download (Mediafire)

Uploaded for Arnd and the rest of ye.

NN2S

Okay, it isn't music, but I felt that Mitch Clem's online punk comic Nothing Nice To Say needs a little more coverage. I've been a fan since the 7th grade, when my friend sent me some of the comics. Some of you might already know about Mitch Clem's amazing work, the comic is a commentary of punk rock and the culture surrounding it, you mostly follow the exploits of roommates Blake and Fletcher who satirize the scene around them and fall into funny situations because of it. I must admit, his artwork has come a LONG way from where it used to be.

Comic 1
Blog

Anaal Nathrakh

Here is The Codex Necro by English black metal duo Anaal Nathrakh. This album was released in 2001, being their third release. I'm not a huge black metal fan, I don't describe myself as kvlt, grimm, or frostbitten. And as such there isn't much the black metal scene has to offer me, sure I like the artistic sounds of bands such as Nifelheim and Mayhem. And maybe a few others like Godless Cruelty. But I'm no huge on the scene like some of the other contributors/most of the metal forum. However, Anaal Nathrakh is a band I can readily get in to, they mix together industrial, death metal, and grindcore onto a black metal palette. I figured this album would be appropriate since Halloween is fast approaching, and this music is very grimm and kvlt, not so frostbitten, but it is grimm and kvlt.

The Codex Necro

Skaven/Dystopia

Here is a split LP of crust band Skaven with sludge band Dystopia. It was put out in 1996, and I found this, oddly enough, when I was searching for some fucking Amebix (which I still haven't found). So yeah, it's actually a really good album. Sadly, this is also the only Skaven I've found that isn't in fucking Quicktime format. So until I find some other albums, this is all you get, sorry. Being a HUGE fan of Hellraiser film series, I was happy to find out that many of the Skaven songs use samplings from the films.

Skaven/Dystopia Split

Tom Waits

I offer up a couple of albums that were posted on the Stormblog a while back, which I doubt any of you go to. So here is a couple albums by legendary bluesman Tom Waits. Swordfishtrombone is kind of a batshit album altogether, which doesn't mean it's bad, just that it's a tad more experimental than some of his other works. Small Change is a good album, which features his raspy voice to the back drop of pianos, saxophones, and drums. Heavily jazz influenced, bluesy, introspective, and brilliant. The songs Underground and Sixteen Shells From A Thirty-Ought Six are my favorites.

Swordfishtrombone
Small Change

ZZ Top

Here are two albums by classic Blues-rock band ZZ Top. Here is the 1992 Greatest Hits and One Foot In The Blues. The Greatest Hits is a great album, all of their greatest hits throughout the years, some of my favorite songs are on this album like Sharp Dressed Man, that shit was the jam when I was little. It's a very good album, a lot of the classics like Legs, La Grange, and I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide. One Foot In The Blues is another compilation album, they made it to make a cohesive album of all of their songs that qualify as blues songs. A lot of great songs like A Fool For Your Stockings and She Loves My Automobile.

Greatest Hits
One Foot In The Blues

Bongzilla

So Bongzilla is a stoner doom band out of Wisconsin. Yeah, I can't really say much about this band because 1) I only own two albums, and 2) it's not totally my style. Yeah. Obviously it's quite a bit of emphasis on the "stoner" aspect, they sing about legalization and other marijuana related shit, it's pretty cool. Apogee is a decent album, but most of the songs on it are live, so they sound pretty shitty, but the songs that are studio sound really good. Amerijuanican is their latest album, and it's not half bad, if I don't say so myself. Cool band all around, again, it's not totally my style, but I like it nonetheless, just gotta check 'em out and make up your own mind. This is another band that Dixie is in, the man gets around.

Apogee
Amerijuanican

The Village

Artist: Hilary Hahn / James Newton Howard (Composer)
Album: The Village Soundtrack
Genre: Classical / Violin Instrumental


TRACKLIST:
1. Noah Visits (2:35)
2. What Are You Asking Me? (6:01)
3. The Bad Color (3:57)
4. Those We Don't Speak Of (3:59)
5. Will You Help Me? (2:34)
6. I Cannot See His Color (1:31)
7. Rituals (2:01)
8. The Gravel Road (4:31)
9. Race to Resting Rock (1:16)
10. The Forbidden Line (2:17)
11. The Vote (6:03)
12. It Is Not Real (3:36)
13. The Shed Not to be Used (2:03)

Download (Mediafire)

The Village is M. Night Shyamalan's fourth film and also his fourth collaboration with composer James Newton Howard. Although The Sixth Sense still is the composer's best score for a Shyamalan film, the score for The Village is a very strong composition, better than Unbreakable and just as good as Signs, if not better. Like the scores for the three previous films, The Village is dominated by soft underscore rather than big themes.

The Village is set in the state of Pennsylvania towards the end of the 19th Century and to reflect this musically, Howard uses violin solos performed by Hilary Hahn throughout the score. Not that the sound per se is typical of those days, but Howard manages to create a somewhat "dated" sound in parts of the score. One example is the opening track on the CD, "Noah Visits", which opens with a quiet violin solo, which after a short time gets more lively, with quick descending and ascending figures backed up by soft strings, all ending with a sudden bang.

Piano solos, performed by Randy Kerber, are also used in a couple of tracks, and when they're coupled with Hahn's violin solos, supported by soft orchestral writing, as in "What are you Asking Me?", the result is excellent. It won't blow you away, but succeeds in setting the tone really well. Flutes, chimes and subtle electronics are used throughout the score to create a very windy, airy quality - "The Bad Color" for example and together with the violin solos this creates a sound reminiscent of parts of the composer's score for Snow Falling on Cedars. "I Cannot See His Color" is a real highlight with some amazing violin solos dominated by the quick ascending and descending figures, supported by strings. Short but outstanding. I really cannot emphasize how effective Howard's use of the violin is in this score. It's one of the score's cornerstones and the sound he creates using it together with the orchestra is just amazing. The rythmic figures sometimes has an almost hypnotic effect, reminiscent at times of Philip Glass's music, while the more lyrical passages, like in "The Gravel Road" and "The Vote" is simply breathtaking.

The score's first real suspense cue is the tense "Those We Don't Speak Of", which brings percussion and brass to the mix, although ending on a rather optimistic note, with some beautiful music performed by violin and piano. It gets more frightening towards the end of the CD, however, with some dissonant brass and strings in "The Forbidden Line", getting even more chaotic in "It is Not Real". But The Village is surprisingly not dominated by these kind of orchestral outbursts, which is usually the case with scores for movies like The Village.

The Village is without doubt one of the more interesting scores of 2004 so far and as I listen to it closely, with the volume turned up, while writing this review I realize how incredibly beautiful, layered and effective it really is.

The Fountain Soundtrack

Fantastic soundtrack for a fantastic movie. If you've heard the Requiem for a Dream main theme, you'll know what to expect: take strings quartet, mix in some songs with a little Mogwai influence, and a beautiful piano song, and you've got a great, great soundtrack that feels like much more than a soundtrack.

Meagupload.

Rob Zombie

Something I posted a while back on Phantasma Musica:

The Rob Zombie compilation album featuring a lot of Rob's work with White Zombie, and also a lot of his solo career. This album features a lot of music that is industrial in sound and just plain out enjoyable. Rob is a talented musician and performer. I am personally a big fan of some of the songs on this album, some songs make me want to get up and dance, Thunder Kiss '65, Dragula, Living Dead Girl, and Never Gonna Stop (Red Red Kroovy) all prime examples of his great work.

Track Listing:
1. "Thunder Kiss '65" – 3:54
2. "Black Sunshine" – 4:49
3. "Feed the Gods" – 4:30
4. "More Human than Human" – 4:28
5. "Super-Charger Heaven" – 3:37
6. "I'm Your Boogieman" – 4:27 (KC and the Sunshine Band Cover)
7. "Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn) (w/Alice Cooper)" – 4:12
8. "The Great American Nightmare (w/Howard Stern)" – 3:54
9. "Dragula" – 3:42
10. "Living Dead Girl" – 3:22
11. "Superbeast" – 3:40
12. "Feel So Numb" – 3:53
13. "Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)" – 3:10
14. "Demon Speeding" – 3:44
15. "Brick House 2003" – 3:48 (The Commodores Cover)
16. "Pussy Liquor" – 4:46
17. "Blitzkrieg Bop" (Ramones Cover) – 2:43
18. "Two-Lane Blacktop" – 3:02
19. "Girl on Fire" – 3:29

Past, Present, Future

Lifelover - Konkurs

Artist: Lifelover
Album: Konkurs
Genre: Black Metal/Depressive Rock
Nationality: Sweden

Tracklist:
1. Shallow (6:26)
2. Mental Central Dialog (3:59)
3. Brand (4:17)
4. Cancertid (4:56)
5. Konvulsion (3:13)
6. Twitch (3:21)
7. Narcotic Devotion (4:19)
8. Alltid - Aldrig (4:30)
9. Stängt p.g.a Semester (5:52)
10. Original (3:19)
11. Bitter Reflektion (5:12)
12. Mitt Annexia (3:21)
13. Spiken I Kistan (5:18)
14. En Tyst Minut (1:00)


MEGAUPLOAD

Taake - S/T

Artist: Taake
Album: Taake
Genre: Black Metal
Nationality: Norway

Tracklist:
1. Atternatt (6:48)
2. Umenneske (8:15)
3. Lukt Til Helvete (5:05)
4. Doedsjarl (5:25)
5. Motpol (5:12)
6. September Omsider (5:12)
7. Velg Bort Livet (10:26)

Mediafire

Founder

Okay, so Founder is the solo project of our very own Antonius Block. He has since put the project to rest, but when he was still doing it the music rocked the shit. He released a total of 6 songs, all of which are included. This is a great set of music; it reminds me a lot of Jesu, Godflesh, and a touch of Boris. This project impressed me so much I made some graphic art for it (seen above), I first downloaded the song Laryngospasm, going at it kind of doubtful because there are a lot of Gaia people that say "LOL I MADE MUSIC" but can’t deliver. Dan delivered, and he kept it coming, I never get tired of listening to these demos, they are spectacular.

Track Listing:
..And God Made Fire In The Northern Sky (Demo 2)
Albatross (Demo 2)
The Cracked Sky (Lunar Tears)
Laryngospasm
..And God Made Fire In The Northern Sky (Demo)
Sun In Mourning

Founder Myspace
DOWNLOAD THE DEMO, YOU SCALLYWAGS

Jesu

My friend Lauren over at The Stormbeard Guild requested some music that would make her cry. It didn’t take me long to figure out what I would post for her. This band is called Jesu, it was formed by Justin Broadrick following the break up of Godflesh. I picked Jesu for a couple of reasons, 1) because when I heard the Heartache EP my eyes did water and 2) Jesu should be heard by everyone, it doesn’t matter what your musical preference is.

Jesu can be described as an experimental rock/sludge band; their music is highly textured, and avant-garde. The Heartache EP was their first release, and it’s a very touching album, there are 2 songs which are 19 and 20 minutes in length. The vocals are stunning, smooth and serene. The instrumentals range from abrasive sludgy doom, to electronic and watery clean shit. This is very touching music, I was hooked as soon as the song Transfigure hit my ears.

Heartache EP
Conquerer

Ted Nugent

Here is Ted Nugent’s Great Gonzos! The Best of Ted Nugent. Those of you that know me well know that I’m a HUGE fan of Uncle Ted; he gives me a lot of inspiration, musically, and physically. I one day hope to be able to afford a bow hunt with this man. The Nuge is not only an amazing guitarist and songwriter, but his activism for second amendment rights, conservation, and hunters everywhere should tell you a little something about him: he knows what he loves, and fights for everyone’s right to enjoy it too. He’s an accomplished bow hunter, and gives a good name to hunters everywhere by teaching respect and responsibility towards the land.

I offer up his Great Gonzos! album, which is a collection of his greatest hits. It’s a damned shame, though; the songs Great White Buffalo and Fred Bear are not included in this collection. It does, however, have such classics as Cat Scratch Fever, Wango Tango, Paralyzed, and even a cover of famous blues song Baby Please Don’t Go. If you’re already a fan, this is a great addition, if you’ve never heard Uncle Ted before, you better get to it. It can be enjoyed by everyone, Conservatives and Liberals, vegans and carnivores, fat and skinny, tall and short, cat and dog, ant and anteater, its madness. If I’m going to encourage you to go out and buy any of the albums on this blog, I’m encouraging you to buy this one.


Kamakaze from the hundredth floor, swan dive the the street.