Cult Of Luna

I first got into these guys about ten years ago, as part of some colossal pretentious post-metal binge that also involved the likes of Isis, Jesu and Pelican.


They pull most of the usual post-metal moves; rambling non-conformist song structures, repetitive ethereal melodies, crushing walls of noise, songs that last three days...


But Cult of Luna do it all with roughly twice as many band members, a smidge more Swedidh doom and a metric fuckton of reverb.


Best.  Post metal.  Band.  Ever.  This week.











Website: http://cultofluna.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/cultofluna
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cult-of-Luna/14897083390
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_luna

Soundgarden

Another band long overdue a mention in this shitty blog; although their inclusion is for a slightly odd reason...


There was much sadness and wailing and gnashing of teeth when Soundgarden broke up way back whenever it was.  The sadness was replaced by a sense of profound disappointment when frontman Chris Cornell joined with the remaining three quarters of Rage Against The Machine to formed what appeared to be a Led Zeppelin tribute act.  Not that Audioslave were particularly bad; they were just far less great than the sum of their parts.  Similarly, countless Cornell solo efforts failed to fill the Soundgarden-shaped void in my soul.


And then a year or so ago came news that Soundgarden had reformed.  And not just one of those got-a-mortgage-to-pay festival circuit take the money and run reunions, either (although there does seem to have been a lot of that); there were promises of new material...


Which brings us up to a few days ago, when I learned that a new song, Live To Rise, was available for free download from itunes.


I grabbed a copy straight away, of course; but I haven't dared listen to it yet... because what if it's shit?  It's their first new release for a million years, it was written for the soundtrack of a blockbuster film about spandex-clad superheroes... it has middle of the road written all over it.


And so instead I'm listening to all their old stuff again, because at some point Soundgarden were definitely the greatest band in the world ever.  Meanwhile, as long that new single stays tucked away on my hard drive without me hearing it, they could be the greatest band in the world ever...











Website: http://www.soundgardenworld.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/soundedenmusic
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Soundgarden
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundgarden

Pelican

Once again, my opinion of which band is the greatest in the world ever is informed largely by the gig I most recently attended.  But they were superb, so it's not just because I lack imagination or have a short attention span.

Although I do lack imagination and have a short attention span.

In any case, Pelican were superb.  For the last few years their sound has been steadily developing and maturing, which I guess is nice enough in a pretentious chin-strokey soundscapey kind of way; but I was starting to miss the thunderous majestic sludgery of old.  Which is why I was grinning like an idiot when they took to the stage and spent the next hour levelling the place with big fucking riffs, closing with a fine rendition of Mammoth from their 2001 debut EP.

Seismic.

Website: http://hydrahead.tortugarecordings.com/pelican/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/pelican

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pelicansong

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelican_(band)

Nine Days To No One

Another week, another spiffing band that I know next to nothing about.  My extensive research (clicking on the first result of a Google search) informs that they are/were from Kent...


...and that's about it, really.  They managed to release two EPs before going kaput; some people liked them, some people hated them, but the overwhelming majority of people either didn't hear them or didn't care.


Which is a great shame really, because I really liked them.  They sort of occupied the same throat-shredding-screamo-riff-death-hardcore-fury ground as Will Haven, I guess; but they swapped out the atmospheric wall-of-noise guitar parts for more acerbic, apocalyptic shredding.  It's a good thing.





And Then Came The Floods - And Then Came The Floods


Sangreal - Sangreal


Website: nope
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/ninedaystonoone/music
Facebook: nope
Wikipedia: nope

Ted Maul

A little while back my good friend Smith was asking about bands that combined metal with drum 'n' bass.  I thought about it for a short while, and then dug out some mid-nineties Pitchshifter and Earache's Hellspawn compilation.  It was only a couple of weeks later that I remembered about Ted Maul, the London band that takes their name from a fictional news reporter and whose entire USP is that they play drum 'n' bass 'n' death metal.


There's generally a lot more death metal than drum 'n' bass going on, so it's perhaps not as foolish an omission as it might at first seem.  The electronic element is definitely there, but is frequently drowned out by noisy metal bastards with exploding guitars and a throat full of evil.


Except for on 200dbs Down, which is a full-on drum 'n' bass bludgeon with a fuckload of shredding.


Ted Maul disturbs.











Website: nope
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/tedmaul666
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/TED-MAUL/6782749959
Wikipedia: nope