After a number of demos and EPs the members of Sutekh Hexen have unleashed their debut LP upon the world. Unleashed seems to be the only fair way to describe the release of this record as any other terminology feels as though it is undermining the nastiness of this recording. While the band play a form of black metal it is imperative that one not get this confused with what gets passed for black metal in the current climate. There are no hippie-ish, transcendental overtones (ala Liturgy), no overplaying or reliance on synthesizers and choirs ( looking at you Dimmu). Instead what you get is something that feels evil acts like a blackened barbarian smashing down your door. The record begins with a cold overly fuzzy monstrous riff slowly building into the main riff of opener "The Great Whore" the band go hard and heavy through the song save for slight moments that break the noise up with calm quiet pieces making way for more darkness to enter the framework. By the last half of the second song "In Worship They Weep His Name" the band fully embrace the ambient bit that was hinted at on the opener creating a … Read more
Dear lord is this ever one of the heaviest split records in quite a while, and I am sure that … Read more
Don’t you just absolutely love when split releases reveal some new band or musician that completely changes how you listen … Read more
Let's face it: djent is beginning to sound really, really homogeneous. Though we've known for a while that every single … Read more
The newest John Cate & The Van Gogh Brothers album X has been released and I am happy to say … Read more
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Opening with a sound not unlike some kind of spaghetti western death knell, Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method, the comeback album of noise mongers Earth, shocks the old time listeners of the band. Anyone who has heard Earth 2 or Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars will tell you that. But, the mastermind behind Earth, Dylan Carlson, is known for throwing people for a proverbial loop. It would be hard to say that he holed himself up somewhere listening to Ennio Morricone soundtracks or wrote this new album as a tribute to Morricone's work, but the comparison between Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method and say the soundtrack to the Clint Eastwood movie The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly would not be far off. Earth offer up … Read more
The guys of Sabertooth Zombie have been doing their own thing for awhile now. That "thing" as it were is a mash up of hardcore, stoner metal, and outright rock n roll with not a fuck to be given. While they don't really tend to add onto what they already do they over the course of their last couple 7 … Read more
Frankly, I'm just as surprised as you are. Ben Sharp, known to many only as Cloudkicker, had warned earlier this year that he was not going to be releasing new material for a while. I guess Sharp's conception of a long time is drastically different from the norm, because the year hasn't even ended yet and he's already let loose … Read more
There’s a level of familiarity in Street Eaters that I can’t put my finger on. That said, I’ll do my best to in reviewing their debut release, Rusty Eyes and Hydrocarbons. I discovered the band at Fest 10, and it didn’t take long for the two-piece bass-drum combo to pull me in. Devoid of guitar, they build melodies around John … Read more
It's been 8 years since Small Brown Bike released their last full length, The River Bed, but they haven't lost their touch in the slightest. The band's back, and it's almost as if they never stopped writing together. Fell & Found follows the thread left dangling from The River Bed and even expands upon it. They open the record with … Read more
What do you get when you throw Mastodon and Neurosis into a blender? If you answered 'Scott Kelly's over-stroked ego,' then, yes, you're technically correct. But if you're not being a smart-ass, you would have a band with a sound akin to that of Brooklyn-based post-/doom metal band, A Storm of Light.Their debut album, And We Wept the Black Ocean … Read more
I’ll be honest, I missed Roads Bridges & Ruins, even after guitarist Chris Matulich said it would be quite a transition from All In. While I liked All In, for whatever reason I never got to its follow-up. 2011’s Borrowed Time is surely a reflection of the evolution in between. The Social Distortion influence is more tempered (though it’s still … Read more
Negative Plane are certainly not a new band. Having released their prior full length 5 years ago the band seemed to have disappeared for quite some time. Many times when this happens bands tend to forget their original purpose or just forget music altogether. Thankfully for us, the music consuming public, the band have returned to become something stronger. The … Read more
I really wish I could describe Argentinian three-piece Random's sound to you. Their Facebook page lists their genre as 'extreme prog metal,' but that label could cover any band from Meshuggah to early Anacrusis. I could describe them as 'avant-garde' metal, but that label gets used to describe every band from Ved Buens Ende to maudlin of the Well to … Read more
“Psychic Teens Are Regular Adults”Let that sink in to your thick skull bit (I know it took me a bit to wrap my head around) because it is one of the singular strangest statements to be made by a “rock” oriented band in many a year; think about it, and I mean really think about that as a statement and … Read more
Bear with me here as I am in the middle of sonically orgasming while listening to this tape from Cremation Lily (the aptly titled 2 as this is the second tape from this project); no seriously, I am not overly hyperbolizing right now because these sounds literally elicit this kind of intense and powerful emotional response while the tape plays … Read more
Andrew Jackson Jihad runs the folk-punk gamut—they’ve put out a split with Ghost Mice, play The Fest more or less annually, and they’re a two-piece mostly acoustic band comprised of Sean Bonnette (guitar) and Ben Gallaty (bass). Now that I’ve lumped them in with a number of other acts, it’s time for the separation.The Phoenix band is distinct in their … Read more
Brooklyn's Smother Party come armed with an intriguing name and an interesting sound. Apparently gaining the band name from an old English custom of literally covering bedridden family members with mattresses and, well, smothering them. This loving ritual was deemed "a smother party." How perfectly morbid. It's the fascinating nom de plume that piqued my interest in the band, and … Read more
There’s no wasting time on X File on Main St. Within the first few lines, singer Daniel Pujol has taken his stance on careers, art, children, and life in general. I don’t know much, if anything, about his previous acts Meemaw and Saigon Baby, but Pujol plays noisy, stripped down garage that celebrates a DIY punk ethic. His vocals are … Read more
Bradford Cox is in many ways like a ghost. There’s his whispery vocal style, like that of a specter, haunting and evanescent. And the glaring image of himself on the cover of his side project, Atlas Sound’s, second release, Logos. Or for instance his entire musical catalogue; a seamless spawn of translucent albums that are distinct, yet share vivid familiarity. … Read more
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