Music can have the incredible ability to influence the emotions of the listener. It can induce joy, sadness, fear, courage, and just about any other feeling you can think of. Take Slayer for instance. Nothing on earth will get you fucking lifted to skate or surf or get in to a fight with a cop like Slayer. Or perhaps you're more of a lover and less of a fighter and throwing on some R.Kelly is more your steez. That's cool, it'll get gnob greased.
Knowing this about music. Some states have passed laws saying that providing already depressed people with the music of Dystopia can get you charged with criminally negligent homicide. It's true. I read it somewhere.
Seriously. This is possibly the heaviest, most depressing, truly fucking grimmest sludge band in the history of the genre. For fucks sake, just look at the fucking title. HUMAN=GARBAGE. Never has there been a more apt title for an album, because at about 2:43 into this album you already feel like true breathing, walking shit. It's fucking awesome.
God I love this fucking band. Talk about some fuckers who need to get back together.
Unholy fucking hell, Black Breath just might be the best new band around. This is the best goddamn first full-length I've heard in fucking ages. If they're not the new Entombed then I'll be straight damned. Hints of Motörhead, Crusty D-beat, and good old fashioned old-school hardcore all floating on top of a Swedish Death Metal sound.
When I worked at Sirius, Bobby Black from High Times magazine had an all Stoner Metal show called Contact High. Sadly, they shitcanned his ass shortly before the extended the same courtesy to me and the world lost a great hour of radio every week. Oh well, their stock price is in the shitter for a reason (and it ain't their coordinators or DJ's who are some of the best people I've ever worked with...). Anyways, at the time one of my pet peeves with the show was that homeboy played too much damn Kyuss for my liking and it got me all cranky and what not. I just couldn't get in to it. I listened to a lot of Queens of the Stone Age in high school and college (thanks to my soph. year roomate leaving Songs for the Dead on repeat for something like 3 months. No, seriously. I'm not fucking with you and I have witnesses. Ian literally only listened to QOTSA, every day, from like January through April or something like that. Ian, back me up here.) but for some reason Kyuss just wouldn't click with me. My friend tried to turn me on to it in like 11th grade too but back then if it wasn't Black Flag I probably didn't give a fuck.
Anyways, a couple of months ago the Mishka Bloglin did this "choice is yours" thingy where they asked people which was better, Dopethrone or Welcome to Sky Valley. At first (and kinda now) I scoffed at the idea of these two things even being in the same fucking sport much less the same league. Dopethrone is possibly the heaviest album in the universe by the heaviest band in the universe. Kyuss (or so I thought) was basically a glorified stoner rock desert dwelling hawkwind ripoff. Either way, I figured if some motherfucker had the cojones to compare these two, I'd better at least give another listen.
So, after going back and giving these two albums a spin, I can officially say I'm a convert to the Kyuss way (although they still can't hold a fucking candle to Dopethrone. Sorry, ain't never gonna happen.) I guess it really hooked me with the first riff in Thumb on "Blues for the Red Sun." That kinda uberstoned "Hole in the Sky" jam thing definitely got caught in my head for like 2 weeks and from there it was downhill.
Since pretty much everybody and their mom has written fucking volumes on this band already, and I'm fairly new to Kyuss fandom, I'm gonna leave it with this. It's fucking awesome music to bike/drive/train/travel to. Get some.
I haven't posted in a long time. Basically because all I listen to is Weedeater. When that's all I listen to, I don't feel like it's necessary to repeat myself every day. Having just seen Weedeater, Black Tusk, Gates of Slumber, and Struck By Lightning at Webster Hall last weekend, I was forcefully reminded of the fact that yeah, maybe I do need to repeat myself.
WEEDEATER IS THE FUCKING SHIT. PERIOD. END OF STORY.
I am proud to report, yet again, that Dave, Keko, and Shep are still, entirely unfuckwittable. They are, undeniably, one of the heaviest, most reliably fucking awesome doom bands in the history of the Earth and nobody praise them enough.
Anyways, now that the WE cocksuck sesh is over, let's get down to the real biz.
The night opened up with this band "Struck By Lightning" who I'd never heard of but was totally blown away by. I showed up half way through the set to a lead singer in a his hero is gone shirt, blasting crusty doom, and good times already underway. Apparently one of the dudes in that band is formerly of Mouth of the Architect, all well and good, but SbL fucking destroys. Expect big things from these guys. I'm fucking stoked that Metal is getting more and more punk every day. Also, their drummer fucking kills it. Check out THEIR MYSPACE. Their live recorded shit is a lot more tech than it sounds like live but it's still awesome. I can taste notes of Disfear, HHIG, old school Baroness, classic Swedish Death Metal, and a buncha other good shit in here.
After SbL, Gates of Slumber, looking more than a little like a marauding viking hoard, took to the stage with their vengeful old school doom sounds. Like St. Vitus? Go buy a GoS album. Now. These large, hirsuit barbarians from the midwest play a brand of Doom rarely seen or heard done properly these days. Classic, Sabbath worshipping, Wino copping, old school no bullshit slow ass, riff driven heavy metal. I just recently got into these guys but I feel like they'll be around for a while to come. They're headed to Europe for the upcoming festival season over there and you can bet your ass that they're gonna fit right in with the bekutted, longhaired Hessians over there. I still have massive fucking neck pain from when they busted out "Blood and Thunder." Hesh on.
Finally, Black Tusk was the last "opener." I use quotation marks around the word opener because I feel like that term is slightly less than fitting for a band that the entire audience is going ballistic for. I'd heard some BT before and always though they were pretty good. I never really paid too much attention (probably because I was listening to Bongzilla or something) before, but after this show, my eyes (and ears) are wide fucking open to the greatness of this band. Black Tusk did something that I haven't seen a doom band do in ages. The put the goofy fucking rock star shit back into metal, and it totally rules. These dudes are possibly one of the most fun shows I've seen in ages. Fucking awesome. Jumping around, ripping shit up, headbanging, crossing the fucking guitars, wailing, all of it. No shame, no mercy, all metal. If you get a chance to see these guys, especially in a kinda small venue, be there. It's totally worth it.
Which brings us to Weedeater. Yeah, there's just nothing you can say about their set besides:
1) It fucking rules. 2) It's fucking mindblowing that these dudes are still alive.
The thing about a lot of sludgier bands is that live they tend to speed shit up. WE does the opposite. The slowly strangle the last drops of life out of every fucking note they hit. They crank the fucking volume to earsplitting levels, the bash drums harder than anyone else out there, and you could pave a fucking highway with Dave's voice. Just watch the videos and try to ignore the fact that I gave more of a shit about going nuts than holding the camera steady. Sorry bout that, it's fucking Weedeater.
CLICK THE PIC OF DIXIE FOR A LINK TO THE FLICKR PAGE.
