Giving A Junkie A Half Fix Just Ain't Right

Just got another email today from Eddie of Seven Sisters of Sleep letting me know that they have new videos up. Some of these are reposts but fuck me if they're not worth listening to over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Man, somebody sign these fuckers so I can get the fucking album already, they're the best unreleased band on earth right now and fuck me if they don't put together a hell of a video on top of that.

Just for good measure I threw in some newly posted live Tafkata vids in there too.

Warning: Do not listen to these bands at work, they'll make you want to punch your boss in the neck, piss in the water cooler and peace the fuck out to shred some amps and beers. Jus' sayin'. Support good sludge fuckers.





Tafkata Lives

Weight

I know this has little to nothing do with metal but I'm into it anyways. Fergal Smith, Tom Lowe, and Mickey Smith are doing some of the most amazing, interesting shit in the surfing world. Also, they're fucking hellmen charging eyes of the abyss.

Death, Satan, Hell, Life?

Gehennah - Hardrocker

A million bazillion moons ago, Metal Thom Skvld gave me an album by this band called Gehennah. Gehennah, with an H. Not with no H, like Gehenna. I'm glad we went over that. I summarily was super stoked to listen to it, then never did. Because I am a jackass. Well, a few weeks ago I rediscovered this album and put it on for shits and giggles. It made me shit, and giggle. This crap is fucking awesome.

Gehennah is straight up Thommetal (new term), aka raw, punk rooted black thrash that's as much Motörhead as Mayhem. Apparently this album came out in 1995 but it's blowing my mind right the fuck now. You can really see where the new crop of Bone Awl/new Darkthrone/Sarke type bands are drawing from with this RawBlackHikingMetalPunksRevival movement going on.

I don't feel like writing more because I'm headbanging right now. Listen to Gehennah fuckers. They're german or something and rad.

Ceremony - Rohnert Park

I've never been a huge Ceremony fan. It's not that I don't like them or that they're not good or anything, it's just one of those bands that's kinda hovered around the periphery of my listening. I definitely won't turn them off if they're on and I'm always pleasantly surprised at how good they are when they show up on shuffle, it's just I rarely go straight for Ceremony when I'm putting something on at home. The Rohnert Park LP is fast changing all of that.

It's been a good long fucking while since I put on an album that needed no second listen, no time spent pondering, and no second guessing. This is a great. punk. record. period. Ceremony moved from their darker, harder brand of hardcore I associated them with to a straight up, orange county style, modern day HC classic. It's fast, it's snotty, it's unmistakably punk rock and it's awesome. Think Black Flag/Circle Jerks, Poison Idea, Negative Approach. It just sounds like 1982 man. So good, so pissed, and yet so refreshingly "American." I guess that after a long ass stretch of Japanese and Swedish Doom/D-beat a little good old fashioned US Hardcore is just doing it for me.

This album has some long term playability. In the words of my friend, "It made me like punk again," and nothing makes me happier than only having to tag "punk" and "hardcore" at the bottom for this post.

Listen to Your Elders

Alix was wondering if this was fit for NGNV. I think perhaps yes...

Buzzov*en - To a Frown/Sore/...At A Loss + Boat Show

Buzzov*en - Sore

Buzzov*en - ... At A Loss

In the world of sludge there are technically a ton of bands, but when it comes to SLUDGE and it's foundation, there are only two. Eyehategod... and Buzzov*en.

Sludge can sort of be defined as the disgusting, even more anti-social, down-syndromey bastardbaby of hardcore and doom metal. For anyone who listens to hardcore, the thought of crossing a genre that values speed with a genre that values plodding slowness should raise an eyebrow. Well, if you're on as much fucking smack as the guys in Buzzov*en were, this cross doesn't really raise shit much less an eyebrow. In fact, it's probably the only kind of speed you can muster besides the crank you just bought off that biker.

Buzzov*en basically sounds like all the drug-addicted, shit-filled, depressed, violent hate in the world bottled up and slowed to an irrepressible crawl. There's no stopping it, just submit. After over a decade, their first three full lengths are still some of the most, brutal, depressing, heavy music ever committed to tape. Feedback, a layer of creeped out movie samples about violence, and distorted riffs under screamgrowled vocals pretty much sum up the sound that defined a movement.

Start with To A Frown, move to Sore, and end with ...At a Loss. Then buy your tickets. Thanks to Dozer at the Acheron/Crust Massacre Gig for the tip off on this one. It's going to be messy.

NOTE: MY TO A FROWN IS ALL FUCKED UP AND NOT RIGHT, IF ANYONE HAS A COMPLETE VERSION THAT'S NOT SCRATCHED AS HELL PLEASE SEND IT? OH YEAH ALSO ALBUM ART IN A DECENT DIGITAL SIZE WOULD BE RAD...

Concussion - Dried Blood EP

From the ashes of the Bones Brigade and the fabled Haunted Castle and out of the beardmetaled pits of north Brooklyn comes CONCUSSION with their 1st EP. Right, now with all the stupid blogwritingbullshit out of the way, this is Brooklyn's very own, homegrown thrash legion... made up almost entirely of dudes from boston. Bones, Blake, Matt, and Hugo are doing something very few people these days even dare to attempt. Playing badass, balls to the fucking wall thrash, without any retarded, kitschy, neo-thrasher, throwback idiocy. In this band you will find no Gama Bomb patches, you will find no perfectly scuffed white Reebok hitops, you will find no acid-washed spermannihilating nuthugging jeans, and you will find absolutely no bullshit when it comes to raw metal talent. Yes that's right, I just admitted my asshole friends' band is one of the best metal bands player for player in Brooklyn. That's embarassing but fuck it, it's true.

The Dried Blood EP, recorded by Will from Orchid up in Massachusetts is 5 massive chunks of unapologetic, unrelenting thrash. While you can tell these hesher assholes have done their due time sitting around drinking heavily, playing ookiecookie to a soundtrack of Mandatory Suicide and Bonded by Blood, there is something distinctively non-throwback about this shit. The production is 100% modern (but not overproduced or fucking sterile like many these days), the riffing/writing definitely shows notable hardcore influence (especially in the strained vocals) with some heavy pantera jams thrown in just for shits and giggles.

Anyways, I'm sick of tooting these retards' horn for them, they're all too busy tooting each others horns most of the time anyways. Just get the fucking album.

Thou - Summit

A few years ago I saw a band made up of dudes probably not even in their 20s yet from Lousiana in some tiny venue that's escaping my name somewhere in the city or Brooklyn. The venue wasn't completely packed but there was definitely a crowd. The dude at the merch table before the show was a wiry not too tall, not too short friendly guy with a Lousiana accent. Seemed nice/normal enough. Then the band started and that guy walked to the ground in front of the stage and grabbed the microphone. He announced that they were Thou from Baton Rouge and the shit hit the fan. The singer turned around, hunched over into this bizarre fucking Smeagol contortion facing the stage and the band dropped a fucking nuclear note. About an hour later I had one of my new favorite bands.

Thou's brand of completely fucked, crawling punk bayou sludge, drenched in raw crude oil and growing from the destruction of a world slammed by the most brutal storms on earth multiple times every year is definitely one of the most interesting, heavy, relentless flavors of doom around. In a genre plagued by repetition (not just of the same chord over and over again) and me-too bands, Thou is a glowing fucking beacon of rad. They're one of the few that manages to not just incorporate, but expand upon their many and varied influences (Can you say Minor Threat, Mayhem, and Sabbath) as opposed to so many other bands that just re-hash, the result being something that's never boring and always heavy.

This new album shows a constantly maturing Thou with fucking blastbeats, acoustic breakdowns (not cheesedick lame shit, promise) and even a "tasteful" (if that's fucking possible) incorporation of some of the less annoying traits of Black Metal. Frankly, this ain't yer average Vitus coverband wannabes.



Thou is so fucking good that even the dudes at NPR got soggytrowed when they heard their new album "Summit". This band is definitely one of the best doom/sludge bands currently performing.

If you've never seen this band live, stop what you're fucking doing and go find a show.





CLICK PIC FOR ALBUM.

Masakari - "The Profit Feeds" & "Eden Compromised EP"

During the summertime I don't feel like doing fuck all. Especially during this summertime, when the waves have been good, it's been really fucking hot for days on end, I'm moving, was out of town for a shit ton of time, and frankly I'm just fucking lazy.

This band is good enough to awaken the long dormant blogasshole inside of me. You need this album. Especially if your name is Brendan or Junior and you were once in the band Rats in the Walls. Yes, that's right I reference my own (former) bands on my blog. Fuck all y'all.

Right, anyways, Masakari out of Cleveland are the disgusting crusty HHIG 90s political hardcore fiends I have been needing. They're loud, they play d-beats, they have meows, they scream real loud about how fucked up the world is, they write great fucking songs, and they write great fucking songs. Basically, the first thing I thought when I heard this was, "Motherfucking Portland gets all the good shit goddamnit." Then I read that they were from fucking Cleveland and all was made better. If we can get a crust album strong enough to get signed by Souther Lord out of Cleveland, none of us have excuses for why we're not making more awesome punk elsewhere.

This band, named after a Japanese warrior monk battle axe (and not a finnish spelling for massacre or something like I originally thought...) solidly walks the path that His Hero is Gone, Deathside/Burning Spirits bands, From Ashes Rise, etc. carved out before them while somehow never being boring. You can definitely hear why Southern Lord would be interested in them after signing Black Breath as well. They have that "Heavy and Raw yet Produced" sound that we've come to know and love.

Long and Short, put your buttflap back on motherfucker, it's Masakari time.