Candiria - Subliminal

Let me preface this post by saying that after this demo, this band turned to ABSOLUTE SHIT. They got so bad I needed to capitalize it.

This demo on the other hand is sort of Atheist meets Deicide. While I'm not a fan of Atheist, I love Deicide, so I can handle the jazzy parts a lot more in this than I can in most other "progressive", or whatever the kids are calling it these days, death metal.

This tape was brought to my attention by my friend Mithrandir who couldn't find it online and brought it by for me to make him a digital rip of. When I realized that this was actually pretty decent, especially when you compare it to the rubbish Candiria turned into, I figured I'd post it here so everyone could give it a listen.

DOWNLOAD:
HERE

Satan's Satyrs - Live as Blue Cheer for Halloween 2012

Four Blue Cheer covers from the current kings of metal-punk heavy sleaze. This was recorded on October 27th, 2012 at The Dead Kennedy Center in Washington DC. This is the full set and lasts for just under 20 minutes.

01) Summertime Blues
02) Out of Focus
03) Parchment Farm
04) Come and Get It

Download:
HERE

Spirex - Demo

Spirex is the result of members of the legendary (but highly underrated) death metal band Darth Vader's Church joining forces with someone who called himself "Magic Juan" and making bizarre music. I'm not much of a fan of this sort of stuff usually, and to be honest, this isn't really an exception. It's very good for what it is, but what it is has little appeal to me. I grabbed it many moons ago because of the DVC connection. I'm  uploading it here because it's not so easy to find on the web, and I figured some people might actually appreciate it.

Grab it here:
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Abaddon - Funkin' Murderers

Abaddon were a local death metal band for me during my introduction to metal. Knowing that, it should be no surprise when I say I love this CD. Even in the face of the stupid "thug" interludes in some of the tracks, this CD has always stuck with me. The death metal contained on this disc is pretty damn good in my opinion, being slightly technical (as most was in the mid 90s), but not overwhelmingly so (like it was in the late 90s and early 2000s), and vocally varied, with the vocalist using both high screams and guttural growls.

Anyway, even though I professed my love of this album earlier, I don't really have a lot to say about it. It's not really reinventing the wheel or anything, and most of it's unique elements aren't really worth mentioning (aside from the stupid "thug" rants). Anyway, grab this while it's hot.

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Ruinacre - S/T

Hardcore from Flagstaff Arizona. These guys had what I call the "southwest sound". A lot of bands from Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado all had a similar sound and these guys have it. It's sort of metallic, but not overly so, it's hard to describe unless you live around here and hear all the bands that I'm talking about.

Anyway, this stuff sort of blurs the line between fast metallic hardcore and power-violence. It's not quite what I think of as power-violence, but a lot of kids these days would probably call it that.

I'm pretty sure this would be cheap if you were to look around the web, Satan's Pimp did decent size presses of most of their releases, and a lot of them seem to have been forgotten by most people.

Grab this here:
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Tomsk-7 - Discography

I know very little about Tomsk-7. What I do know is that they were from Arizona, were active from the mid-90s until sometime shortly after 2000, and they released a total of 13 songs which comprise just under 15 min. of music.

Musically they fall into the southwestern hardcore sound that is hard to describe, but it's sort of a mix of hardcore, sludge, grind, and power-violence. Tomsk-7 was also female fronted, so it's a bit different than some of the other bands who had the "southwest" sound.

They didn't have an "official" discography release, so I compiled this one, which is sourced from my own rips of the vinyl the songs appeared on. I've included complete artwork for the release in case anyone gets the urge to burn the songs and print their own case (I did).

Grab it here:
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Sicarii - Within Your City Walls A Rising Storm

I've had a copy of this for about a decade now, and I never knew the album wasn't self-titled. The band only had screen printed cover versions on sale when they were on tour, and no place on that cover does it mention the album's actual title.

Anyway, it's a pretty good album. I remember when I set the show up, the band member in charge of booking said something like "we're similar to what would happen if Orchid and Catharsis melded together". That's fairly accurate I guess. 

It's got elements of both Orchid and Catharsis. It's less chaotic than Orchid but does feature some of their chaotic bursts, and way less metal than Catharsis, but gives you the same overall feel as listening to them, all while being slightly less pretentious than either of those bands. It's been one of the records I've held on to even through multiple purges...so there's something about it that really does it for me. I don't know how other people would feel about it, so I don't know if I'd call it a lost gem or anything, but it's certainly a personal gem.

Grab this here:
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Wellington - Discography

Wellington hailed from Arizona, played some nasty sludge. They were around and active in the mid/late 90s, but were done by the time this compilation came out in 2000.

I don't know too much more about them other than the fact that Ryan Butler (Unruh, Structure of Lies, Landmine Marathon, Northside Kings, etc.) played in the band.

Grab this here:
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Devil - Live Entry

This was released twice, in asinine limitations each time, so that after two pressings there are 141 copies in existence: 100 of the tape and 41 of the 7"+CD. It's needless to say, that with limitations like that, this tape is now impossible to find for a reasonable price in a legit distro. I'm sharing this because I've seen people asking for somewhere between $25-$50 dollars for the tape version which is less than a year old. That's unacceptable.

Musically, Devil play nasty, ultra raw, and evil black/thrash. It's pretty good stuff if you can get past the fairly lo-fi recording. I personally think it was one of the better thrash releases of 2010/11.


Grab it from
HERE

The Beast - Discography

The Beast were a heavy metal band from NJ. Their debut EP, Power Metal, was released in 1983, though they are probably best known for their appearance on the Born to Metalize compilation in 1984. They followed that up with a 4 track demo in 1986. After that, the vocalist, Scott Ruth, went on to form Ripping Corpse. This collection is everything the band released to my knowledge.

Download:
Here

Lie Still - Demo 2011

Old school power violence seems to be a pretty dead genre. These days kids want all sorts of bullshit like what Weekend Nachos, or some similarly detestable band, is doing. Lie Still are for people like me: who don't want innovation or hybridizing fucking up their music. This is power violence played perfectly with nods to all the greats. Get this and let Pete Benumb and friends help you forget about all that shit that kids are calling power violence these days.

Download:
Here

Vomitus - Discography

I know very little about the history of these guys aside from the fact that they're from Arizona, recorded two tapes (one of which went unreleased), and a split 7" with Flux of Disorder, and are no longer active. What I can tell you is that their two tapes are some of the best crusty hardcore/grind/metal that has ever been overlooked by most people.

Until I met a local punk rock fan at a show, I had almost completely forgotten about this band. I have owned the split wiht Flux of Disorder for probably 12 years, and while I used to listen to it a lot, I hadn't heard it in about half a decade...then this kid showed up with a Vomitus t-shirt. "Holy shit, is that a Vomitus shirt?" I inquired, totally perplexed because very few people around here are familiar with them. Turns out this dude used to be roommates with some guys in the band. He turned me on to both these tapes (and hooked it up with a sweet Vomitus t-shirt). Since, these aren't particularly easy to find on the web, I figured I'd share it. This link contains both the released Sutimov tape, and the unreleased, unnamed tape. The songs from the split with Flux of Disorder are taken from these two tapes, so this is, in essence, their complete discography.

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Nemo - 8-bit Grindography

There doesn't seem to be anyplace to easily find this grindcore band's discography. I'm fixing that. This release compiles all the songs that I'm aware of into one easy to grab release.

These guys played what could be called 8-bit grindcore, which makes liberal use of Atari style sounds mixed with ferocious drum machine grind.

Probably the best of the video-game styled bands in my opinion.


Download:
Here

Living Impaired - Blossom and Decay

Living Impaired

Their debut album, World Keeps Spinning, was decent but nothing amazing, but the follow-up, Blossom and Decay is one of those albums that even though I have it in my collection, I frequently forget how good it really is. This is unique death metal with a hint of dissonant hardcore flavor. It sounds like it wouldn't work, but it does...really well. This used to be findable for dirt cheap in many second hand online shops, but I think with the recent (semi) explosion in obscure metal has caused a lot of places to charge stupid amounts for this. It also seem to not be available on the web in digital format except for on this blog, which surprised the hell out of me.

With Hell our Road Ends - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUsAqMvw-pI
Basic Values - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ee2AVlEk6w

Download:
Here

Speedwolf OOP releases...

Excellent US black speed punk. These two releases were requested by the guys over at Renrat's Metal Bazaar. It took me a while, but here they are.

Both of these (the Bark at the Poon demo tape, and the split 7" with The Hookers) are getting tougher to find, but I highly recommend that you pick them up if you see them around. They always come with stickers and other goodies.

Download.

Fukrot - Local legends.

Fukrot was one of the best bands to ever grace the Albuquerque local scene. The music is a sludgy, crust, hardcore assault. The guitarist manages to get the BEST guitar tone in this history of 6 stringed instruments.

They toured a few times, and played quite frequently around town. Yet to me, they where one of the few bands that played a lot that never got boring.

It was really a sad day when the drummer moved to Portland putting the band on indefinite hiatus. The drummer and his wife formed Murderess in Portland, who are another great band, but they don't have the awful muck (this is a positive thing...) of Fukrot, while the guitarist and bassist continued to make similar under the name Roñoso (Who I'll talk about in another post).

I still hope for a Fukrot reunion.


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Nitre Pit - Lo!

Self-released album from 1994 from this San Francisco band whose members (Tasha Riggins, Aaron Russell, Greg Saunier, and Rob Fisk) went on to form Deerhoof, Weird Weeds, and 7 Year Rabbit Cycle.

The guitarist and vocalist Tasha, also played guitar in a hardcore/powerviolence band with me around 2000/2001. This is pretty experimental and weird, but it's top notch stuff.

Download.

Doomsday 1999

These guys are without question the best bunch of guys I ever set a show up for. Really excellent music as well. Sort of silly, but not a joke band.

I can't really say too much else, what they where doing was fairly unique though it's pretty solidly rooted in grindcore. Just give it a listen for yourself. The link below includes both their albums; Maniac on the Floor and Racist Unicorn.


Doomsday 1999 discography download

Black Death - Black Death

My next recommendation will go down in history as being one of the first all black heavy metal bands. Of course, I could only be speaking of Black Death.

Band: Black Death
Album: Black Death
Genre: Heavy Metal
Year: 1984
Origin: USA
Label: Auburn Records

These guys are more than just a racial milestone in metal though, their album is full of way above average heavy metal. In fact, this is one of my 50 favorite metal albums of all time, and one of the only heavy metal records to make that list. Everything about this album is done just right. The vocals are great, the guitar is great, etc. I can't recommend this stuff enough...really.

This stuff is beyond impossible to find a real copy of, and a download isn't easy to track down either because the name Black Death brings up just about every metal blog post ever. I'm hoping that uploading this will expose the band to more people. I've heard that Auburn Records wants to reissue this, so I'm hoping that actually happens, as this is one of the few metal albums to make my top 50 that I don't actually own.

Best Track(s): Fear No Evil, Black Death, Here Comes the Wrecking Crew

For fans of: Heavy metal

Preview: http://www.myspace.com/blackdeathcleveland

Download:
Here

Satan's Satyrs - Demo 2010

I acquired this demo on CD-R at the end of last year, before it was decided that a tape release was best. It's a great mix of black/punk-n-roll.

I don't know what the band plans to do next, but I'm looking forward to it, as this has been one of my top demos of the last year. The only shortcoming is that it's only 3 songs. I wish it was longer. Everything else about this is perfect for the style.

Grab this here:
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