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This is 'Liberation through Amplification.'
If you are new to Blood Ceremony, this album is as fine a place to
start as any. If you have heard any of their previous albums and enjoyed them,
your enjoyment of this one is guaranteed. This is as good an example as any of
a band looking to the past both in terms of musical and folklore tradition to
create fantastical and occult inspired music.
“Lord
of Misrule” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1.
The Devil’s Widow
2.
Loreley
3.
The Rogue’s Lot
4.
Lord of Misrule
5.
Half Moon Street
6.
The Weird of Finistere
7.
Flower Phantoms
8.
Old Fires
9.
Things Present, Things Past
The
Review:
Blood
Ceremony
returns with their latest album. It shares a title with the late Sir
Christopher Lee's autobiography and features some of the same atmosphere and
sense of macabre theatrics that the great man brought to his films. “The
Devil's Widow” kicks things off sounding like, well, Blood Ceremony-
that is to say that it sounds like how Jethro Tull would have sounded if Tony Iommi
had stayed on playing guitar and Ian Anderson decided to hand over the vocals
to a female chanteuse while still playing flute.
The
sound is reliably retro and, yes, shimmery. The drums have that 70's sound but
with modern muscle in the tones, while reverb is ever present elsewhere. Like Tull,
the band makes excellent use of light and shade, quiet and loud. The rather airy “Loreley” contrasts
well with the more leaden “The Rogue's Lot”.
Certainly, the band has come on since “Ceremony
of the Ancients”- but not so much as to be unrecognisable. Being Canadian, Blood Ceremony
perhaps lack some of the authenticity of a band raised in a place permeated by
folklore and old main tracks, but that is only if you are aware that they don't
hail from deepest Cornwall or some such other olde worlde enclave.
The
title track is one of the shorter tracks on display here and features a driving
riff and rhythm with percussion and bass driving the groove home with aplomb.
One of Blood
Ceremony's strengths is their willingness to incorporate Hammond
organ, percussion, flute and so on- marking them out as unusual in the
“bass-guitar-drums-vox” rigid line ups of most bands; even the retro ones. “Half
Moon Street” uses a rather nice syncopated riff and swings along
very nicely. The band are not afraid to really slow things down on “The
Weird of Finistere” as they take a full-on folk persona.
By
contrast, “Flower Phantoms” sounds as if it is straight out of the late
60's with an insistent vocal refrain. “Old Fires” is a straightforward
rocker with a juddering rhythm. The intriguingly titled “Things Present, Things Past”
is the albums parting shot and it is also one of the best tracks here. Acoustic
guitars and echoey vocals coalesce very effectively. Some great lyrics here too
(“If
there's anything you need... just ask Mephistopheles”- superb!).
If
you are new to Blood
Ceremony, this album is as fine a place to start as any. If you have
heard any of their previous albums and enjoyed them, your enjoyment of this one
is guaranteed. This is as good an example as any of a band looking to the past
both in terms of musical and folklore tradition to create fantastical and
occult inspired music.
“Gee, That Ain’t Swell”,
a cheekily monikered debut if ever there was one, indeed Palehorse
were possibly so underground during the time of the band’s debut release in
2003, the fact that 16 years later the band are calling it a day, is perhaps
testament to that statement. But all joking aside, a band whose debut could be
construed as a modern British masterpiece, all the while with a comparatively avante
garde approach with two basses ringing distorted noise through a filter of
depressive and maniacally savage vocals, Palehorse have remained
at the cutting edge of the underground heavy scene. Quite simply they have always been the
one, but not Metallica
So
as we approach something resembling the summer here in the UK, Palehorse are set to issue what will most likely be their
epitaph, with new album “Looking Wet in
Public” via Truthseeker Music.
Having
recently undertaken a co-headline tour of the UK with Ghold
throughout the early part of May and finishing up in Leeds, Palehorse will perform their final ever appearance
and farewell show, at the prestigious Temples Festival in
Bristol on 5th June. As their press
release for their new album attests too, Palehorse are about to
leave listeners with the uncomfortable sense that something inevitable and horrifying
is going to happen, indeed this will be the only time, you’re gonna be happy about
“Looking Wet in Public”.
With
a little over a month to go before the new album drops, today at The Sludgelord in
partnership with the good folks at Truthseeker Music, we can officially debut an
exclusive stream of a brand new tune entitled “Terrifying Japanese Coldplay Documentary”. You have been warned, this is sluggish distorted
sludge at its best, so before you check it out, fix yourself a sandwich because you won't want to die on an empty stomach.
“Looking
Wet in Public” has a street date of July 1st and is available as
a download and limited vinyl. It can
preordered herenow, so what are you waiting for. A full track listing and artwork can be found
below.
Child
Bite create an idiosyncratic racket, a chaotic collision of off-kilter punk,
the weirder end of 80’s hardcore and rumbling post-punk. “Negative Noise” is an invigorating blast of
dissonance, a blend of familiar influences twisted into their warped vision. Shawn Knight’s hyperactive drawl makes a
compelling foil to the band’s manic yet inventive playing, as his Jello Biafra
via Mike Watt drawl varies in intensity to match the song’s twists and turns.
“Negative Noise” track listing:
1). Death Before Dementia
2). Paralytic Phantasm
3). Euphoria Saturation Point
4). Born a Hog
5). Video Blood
6). Apex of Anxiety
7). Vermin Mentality
8). Beyond the Dirt
9). The Great Ego Flood
10). Into the Disease
11). Heretic Generation
12). Feed Me Septic Dreams
The Review:
Child Bite create an idiosyncratic
racket, a chaotic collision of off-kilter punk, the weirder end of 80’s
hardcore and rumbling post-punk. The Detroit
quartet have shared vinyl with the illustrious likes of David Yow and Dope Body.
New album “Negative Noise” shows
they are more than match for these heavyweights.
The band cover a lot of ground stylistically
over the course of “Negative Noise”
but their identity maintains strong and coherent throughout. For every
breakneck burst of damaged rock like “Death
Before Dementia”, “Born A Hog”
and “Vermin Mentality” there are
voyages into stranger territory like “Paralytic
Phantasm” and “Beyond The Dirt”.
The spooked-out reverb soaked guitars of the former are taken to extremes with
the huge wall of sound and a hypnotic bass line that begins the latter, seven
minutes of menacing riffs and anxious vocals that make for the album’s
highlight.
“Video
Blood” sees the band at their most angular, sharp chiming guitar lines
building to keening screeching wails while the stop/start riffs of “Euphoria Saturation Point” sees them at
their most restless. Strong undercurrents of noise rock bubble to the surface
periodically, most noticeable during the intro of “Apex of Anxiety” which exudes the shambolic belligerence of Pissed Jeans
and the churning riff that heralds the arrival of “Heretic Generation”. Shawn Knight’s hyperactive drawl makes a
compelling foil to the band’s manic yet inventive playing, as his Jello Biafra
via Mike
Watt drawl varies in intensity to match the song’s
twists and turns.
“Negative
Noise” is an invigorating blast of dissonance, a blend of familiar
influences twisted into Child Bite’s warped vision of noisy punk rock.
Rob Zombie hits a home run with each gnarly
cut, keeping the fire hot throughout. Pastor Snow was right. Rock n’ roll has a
great beat. And that evil feeling you feel when you sing it? It’s a good
feeling to feel!
“The Electric Warlock Acid
Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). The Last of the Demons Defeated
2). Satanic Cyanide! The Killer Rocks On!
3). The Life and Times of a Teenage Rock God
4). Well, Everybody’s Fucking in a U.F.O.
5). A Hearse That Overturns With the Coffin Bursting Open
6). The Hideous Exhibitions of a Dedicated Gore Whore
7). Medication for the Melancholy
8). In the Age of the Consecrated Vampire We All Get High
9). Super-Doom-Hex-Gloom, Part 1
10). In the Bone Pile
11). Get Your Boots On! That’s the End of Rock and Roll
12). Wurdalak
The Review:
“If you talk to the average teenager of today and ask
them what it is about rock n’ roll that they like, the first thing that they’ll
say is the beat!” Pastor
Jimmy Snow exclaims in the riotous “Get
Your Boots On,” one of the songs off of Rob Zombie’s new album “Electric Warlock.” Snow continues, “I
know how it feels, that evil feeling you feel when you sing it.”Zombie
answers this excerpt by allowing “that
evil feeling” to wash over him as he scats his way through the song’s rowdy
chorus, calling his followers to get their boots on and find out just how good
that evil feeling feels.
Just as “Get
Your Boots On” delivers in spades, heavy rhythm and groove is “Electric Warlock”’s key to success.
The album is therefore teeming with a nostalgic 90’s
kick. Zombie
is inspired and excited, getting things done with a unique stomp and holler
that keeps his songs sounding like they’re jumping out of the speakers at you.
It’s an addictive sound, one that could go on for hours. The guitars are loud
and crunchy, sure, but its Zombie’s pummel that demands attention. With
his Wyndorfian-style chest beating, Zombie takes full command of center stage to
boast about the dirty life of criminals, demons, and rock n’ roll on top of the
sturdy foundation his backing band – John 5 on guitar, Piggy D on bass, and Ginger Fish
on drums – has laid for him. As case in point is the lead-off single “Well, Everybody’s Fucking In a UFO,” a
song that’s on fire from the start and is home to the strongest chorus you’ll
hear all year.
Initial thoughts upon first listen to “Electric Warlock” may suggest a never
ending party. But give this record a couple more spins, dive into the lyrics
and look up the audio clips that are sprinkled throughout, and you’ll discover
a bit of depth to the record, too. For example, “Satan’s Cyanide” ends with an excerpt from The Talmud, explaining that “we don’t see things as they are; we see
things as we are.” This clip provides enough fat to chew on as Zombie
takes us through each cut, whether he’s going on about being worshipped as a
Rock God or telling the story of Jeffrey Dahmer, a necrophiliac serial killer,
to the tune of an uplifting beat and a rad vocal delivery.
The songs are layered enough to hold interest but also
simple enough to lose yourself with. Then there’s Zombie’s tell-tale delivery, one
in which you can hear him grinning as he sings and his
I-can-get-away-with-anything strut. Rob Zombie hits a home run with each gnarly
cut, keeping the fire hot throughout. Pastor Snow was right. Rock n’ roll has a
great beat. And that evil feeling you feel when you sing it? It’s a good
feeling to feel!
“The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy
Celebration Dispenser” is available now
By
the time of “Death of a Spartan King”
(great track), the EP is well underway and you know exactly what to expect:
blasting fury, with a surprisingly atmospheric bent to much of the riffing. If
you have been digging bands such as Arkaik, Rivers of Nihil, Eschaton,
Apocrophex et al. This is a must listen and this band has great things ahead of
them. The final verdict? Blade of Horus are, indeed, razor sharp!
“Monumental Massacre” CD//DD track listing:
1). Intro
2). Monumental Massacre
3). Succumb to the Owerwhelming Stench of
Necrophagia
4). Inhumane Experimentation
5). Death of a Spartan King
6). Descent into the Cosmic Realm of Everlasting
Madness
7). Return to the Dark Gods
The Review:
Brutal
and technical death metal straight out of... Sydney, Australia?! Well, why
not?! So, what we have is: very speedy blasts, tight sound, very low growled
vocals and screamed vocals and a focused attack of six tracks coming in between
three and four minutes and an intro. It speaks volumes about the dedication of
those involved that bands like this now exist; incredible musicianship and
dedication to a very underground cause.
The
themes take in ancient Egypt (don't think anyone in metal of any genre has done
that before!) mythology and so on. All death metal, all the time! Until recently,
the band did not have a permanent drummer, but with the skills of Kevin Talley
playing session drums, his contribution is A1 in terms of content and
execution. If their newest recruit can match what is on this EP…hats off to
him!
By
the time of “Death of a Spartan King” (great track), the EP is well
underway and you know exactly what to expect: blasting fury, with a
surprisingly atmospheric bent to much of the riffing. If you have been digging
bands such as Arkaik,
Rivers of
Nihil, Eschaton, Apocrophex et al. This is a must listen. It is
long enough to get a real flavour of what the band is all about and short
enough to leave you wanting more. No mean feat for any “genre” band.
“Descent into the Cosmic Realm…”is impossibly
serpentine in its riffing and soloing. Nice vocal effects and production, too.
There is even a bonus track: “Return of
the Dark Gods” is pounding and rolling in delivery- with blasts in place as
well, of course. For fans of tech death, this EP is a must; no doubt, with a
new drummer, this band has great things ahead of them. The final verdict? Blade
of Horus are, indeed, razor sharp!
It
has been 20 years since the release of the monumental 'Through Silver in Blood' and its power and influence is as strong
today as it ever was.
From
the opening mechanical noise of the title track (Noah Landis' first appearance
on a Neurosis
record) it's evident that something special is happening. Managing to make a 12
minute song simultaneously feel like a flash and a lifetime, this is the sound
of a cohesive unit firing on all cylinders. Tracks like the raging 'Eye', the decadent 'Aeon' and the incredible 'Locust Star' strike a chord with the
audience with their sheer force and ethereal overtones and are still met with
rapturous cheers and applause when they're played.
The
epic 'Purify' and 'Strength Of Fate' serve as lengthy
legs of the journey while brief interludes of 'Rehumanize' and 'Become The
Ocean' serve as pit stops that enhance your awareness along the way. It
closes with the often overlooked and underrated 'Enclosure in Flame' and leaves your spirit obliterated...but
refreshed, regenerated and ready to begin again, awakened.
While
many bands up to and throughout 1996 had travelled well worn paths to reach the
top of the mountain, Neurosis had been carving stone, digging earth
and building, slowly and meticulously for 10 years, through this, everyone
realised Neurosis
had made their own mountain and were now at the top. While many feel that this
and 1999's 'Times Of Grace' remain
their best work, they seem to have missed the point, 'Through Silver In Blood' is a one of a kind album, trying to
repeat it would be a foolish and unrewarding move. There will never be another Neurosis,
they've continued to push the envelope, adding more earth to their already
towering mountain, they sit, godlike, watching the world spin.
Album
Details:
“Through Silver in Blood” is the fifth album from Neurosis. The album was released on
April 2, 1996, and was their first record to be released under Relapse
Records. Thealbumwasrecorded at Brilliant and Coast, SF
and produced by Neurosis and Billy Anderson. Mixed at Different Fur, SF and
mastered by George at Fantasy, Berkley.Following it’s original release there
has been 22 versions released in total, with pressings by Iron City Records, (1996) Music For
Nations (1997), Rocris Disc (1998), Ritual Records (2002), Relapse Records
(2006), Neurot
Recordings (2009), Relapse Records (2011) and more recently
(2016) the first repress on vinyl for 10 Years to celebrate Relapse Records
20th Anniversary
During an interview with “Chronicles of
Chaos” in 1996, bassist Dave Edwardson was asked “What is the
most important thing that you want a Neurosis fan to get out of this record? To which his response was
DE:“For people to be inspired by it. Maybe with the emotions we reveal
people can relate to it and get through that shit. To have a part of it speak
to their deeper self or soul. That is what we'd like to see come out of it.”
So
my editor Aaron hits me up with this offer to live review and talk to Magrudergrind,
the now Brooklyn based Power violence trio,
about their newest album, ii, out
now on Relapse
Records. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity having remembered the
sonic force of their live set from the 2013 Decibel tour with Immolation,
Napalm Death,
and Cannibal
Corpse.
The
band, however, had since undergone a line up change, released a new album
following their hiatus, and one result was that there was an unrivaled energy
surrounding this show. So I drove to Richmond.
Arriving at the venue, a renovated old fire house, I sought to find RJ, the
individual that I had exchanged very brief words with in 2013. Once I was able
to track him down and get the interview out of the way I made a quick stop for
lunch-dinner, Jamaican chow, and wandered amid the small but growing crowd for
the opening sets.
Ramming
Speed brought
every bit of the intensity that you know them for, a non stop ride start to
finish. Really rad dudes too. They had run out of tapes so I snagged some
spiffy fresh shades. Yautja, I discovered, is a force that I simply
could not have prepared myself for. In a set spanning about an hour, they held
every moment of my attention. The perfectly executed riffs, the arrangement of
dynamic within their songs, the raw power that exuded from them as they played.
I made absolute sure to snag a tape from them before I hit the road again for
the night. That tape has been on repeat in my car’s deck since the show.
Finally,
around the break of the 22nd hour, 10:00 pm, Magrudergrind took the stage.
The energy in the crowd was insurmountable. The only other time I have seen
that much excitement for a set was the first tour that Godspeed You! Black Emperor had
after their 6 year hiatus. Final checks done and Magrudergrind starts. I gave up
on taking photos of the set because the energy was simply too great not to feed
on and feed into. With this kind of music you aren’t going to watch and listen
to a band, you’re going to become part of the show, to be part of that energy.
I found myself head banging slowly, quickly, that one kind of head bang that
you can totally do really fast but can only do it for a like a little bit cause
then you get really rattled and tired….all of it.
Luckily,
friend and photographer Craig Zirpolo was there to get some great shots of all
of the action. To bear witness to the live presence of Magrudergrind was a catharsis,
just as it was in 2013. Halfway through, Avi asks how many folks were seeing
them for the first time. It seemed that at least half of the hands in the crowd
went up. There has been so much passion and support generated from fans behind Magrudergrind,
and I saw it come out, all at once on 4/20 in Richmond. There were a few
shouted requests from the crowd, most notably, “BRIDGE BURNER!!!” to
which Avi looks at RJ and Casey and said, “not even three songs in…” It would
seem that they get that request a lot. Playing a decent mix of old and new,
absolutely nobody was let down. I got kicked in the face a few times by crowd
surfers and stage divers but it just made the show that much better. Magrudergrind
are a band that is best appreciated live at very high volumes, celebrated with
friends that are chaotically running around and into everyone and everything in
their path. This is "get to know your neighbor" pit
music.
Support
your scene, Support the artists, Support the music, you’re a tool if you don’t
make this tour, spend all of your dirty capitalism dollars on shits and tapes
from these guys. Then at least your friends will think you’re cool. Seriously
though, this is not a tour to miss.
(Interview with RJ Magrubergrind)
Sludgelord)
So what’s the direction of Magrudergrind
right now? When I saw you guys a while ago you were kind of doing a different
thing, I know there was a [band] and location change up…
RJ) Oh yeah, we
all at one point lived in DC or right around there, Avi, our singer, moved to
New York…about a couple of years back, I did the same thing about four years
ago.
Sludgelord)
where are you these days?
RJ) We both live
in Brooklyn…all three of us live in Brooklyn actually…and then our drummer was
still in DC and, you know, the distance was a little too much to do, and I
don’t think he really wanted to be doing this kind of thing anymore so…he has
other bands, so…Casey joined about two years ago and other than that there’s
not really a new direction, keep writing the same songs.
Sludgelord) I
listened to “ii” a few times through before the differences really clicked with
me. I noticed that there weren’t samples, there seemed to be more of an
emphasis on “hardcore”, forgive the overly generic label, it seems like the DIY
feeling is still very much there, is there any real intention…like, is there
emphasis from within, focused on any one thing more than another or is this
just kind of what the group as of now is producing?
RJ) It’s kind of
circumstantial. I feel like we’ve been writing the same handful of songs for a
long time, for better or worse, I can hear it myself, the record sounds
different, the recording is completely different even though it’s the same guy…
Sludgelord)
It’s got a polarized opinion…
RJ) yeah, it’s
not as noisy, I mean yeah, there’s a lot of shit that’s different about it,
but, to me, I think that people will focus a little bit more than is necessary
on like kind of the surface level aspects, and then I think, the songs, the
core song writing, is pretty similar. The samples, it’s just, you know, frankly
we weren’t able to do that this time.
Sludgelord) I
like them [samples], don’t get me wrong, but with “ii” I’m not missing them in
your music. It seems like there are a lot of grind kind of bands that are slowing
down lately. Pig Destroyer slowed down with “Mass
and Volume”, Agoraphobic Nosebleed slowed
way down for “Arc”, you guys came out with “ii” recently, and it just seems
like the whole grind/sludge kind of stuff has just slowed down. Are you in
favor of that?
RJ) Yeah.
Perhaps…I mean...
Sludgelord) I
mean you recently toured with Primitive Man,
right? How was that?
RJ) It was
great! We’ve made a habit out of touring with slow bands frequently; we all
listen to that kind of music for the most part…
Sludgelord) Fister?
RL) yeah! Fuck
yeah, dude! You know, it’s something that we all enjoy, so you bring a couple
of friends of that into the fast stuff…
Sludgelord)
Mix it up, get a little dichotomy going?
RJ) Yeah, I mean
if it’s fast all the time…I mean, we’re not a dynamic band to begin with, and
you lose any of that dynamic if you only have fast parts.
Sludgelord)
How do you feel about John Cooke’s band, Corrupt
Moral Altar?
RJ) Oh they’re
great! We just got off tour with them.
Sludgelord)
How was it working with Kurt Ballou at God City again?
RJ) It’s great.
We go back to him cause he’s a good engineer, he gets good takes out of bands,
he gets good sounds…you know, we intentionally kind of did different things
with the guitars, we didn’t really have an end point, as far as like, to work
backwards from…
Sludgelord)
what are you playing with now?
RJ) Right now?
Tonight I’m using a new set up, this is the first tour I’m going on with it,
but it’s basically, it’s pretty simple shit, it’s like a really old mesa 200 watt
all tube head for the guitar channel and then I also split off a bass signal,
it’s like an SWR.
Sludgelord)
Guitar?
RJ) I’ve always
played SGs.
I played Fernandez
for a while but I only really ever felt comfortable playing an SG.
Been playing the same guitar since I was pretty much fifteen.
Sludgelord)
So to wrap it up, you’re confident in the direction, you like what you do, it’s
about the music, all that jazz?
RJ) I wouldn’t
really be here if we weren’t…the new album doesn’t really feel new cause we
recorded it like 18 months ago…We’re stoked on playing these songs, we’re gonna
try to put together a new record of some length this summer between tours…
Sludgelord)
cool and many thanks for taking the time to chat about the current going ons
with Magrudergrind! I can’t wait for the set!
