Godflesh

For a big chunk of the 90s Godflesh was one of those bands that I knew I was supposed to like, but it took me ages to get around to sticking any of it in my ear.  This probably worked out best for me, as I reckon I prefer the later records; the relentless industrial dirge is still very much relentless, industrial and dirge-y, but with a bit more variety and texture.

Godflesh disintegrated around the early 2000's, and frontman Broadrick (once in Napalm Death) went on to form Jesu.  Cut from the same drum-machines-and-vast-slabs-of-distorted-guitar cloth as his former outfit, Jesu is generally a bit more uplifting - occasionally overlapping with some of the more doomy shoegaze bits of Godflesh.  Doomgaze?  I dunno.  Well worth checking out though.

But I'm a gloomy bastard at heart; and since Godflesh reformed for a few shows a couple of years ago and maybe are perhaps writing some new material possibly, I'll take a fat slice of caustic mechanical trudging this week please.







Website: http://justinkbroadrick.blogspot.com
Myspace: http://nz.myspace.com/godsflesh
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Godflesh/11374368195
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godflesh

Charger

Having temporarily relocated to the other side of the world, leaving all my precious CDs far behind me, I've been experiencing sinister foreign radio stations as I've pootled about in a variety of terrible cars with no ipod connectivity.  This has brought me to the same conclusion I reached many years ago in my homeland; radio is what you listen to when you don't really like music enough to care what you listen to.

I do like music enough to care what I listen to, even if it might occasionally seem to the casual observer to be an earful of foetid shit.  So I've spent the past few weeks burning shiny round mixtapes on my laptop, trying to put together some (relatively) coherent playlists.  In doing so I have discovered that a) I can put together some pretty fine easy listening compilations, b) I don't own nearly enough jazz funk, and c) there are certain bands that I struggle with when it comes to making shiny round mixtapes.  Charger are one such band.  The problem I have is that when I try to pick the best Charger songs to put onto the shiny round mixtape, I eventually come to the conclusion that the best Charger song is ALL OF THE CHARGER SONGS.

The extent to which they clearly don't give a single fuck about anything is evident both in the violently uncaring sludgtality of their vaguely musical output, and also in the way in which they have deftly avoided any sort of tangible success or recognition in the ten years or so that they have been retching up their completely inhuman racket.

They are the perfect antidote to the sort of musical apathy that makes commercial radio a viable proposition; because no matter how little you like music, Charger like you even less.

Fuzzbastards.







Website: http://www.fuzzbastards.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/charger
Facebook: nope
Wikipedia: nope

Hyatari

I've only ever listened to the first record by these guys (they released a second a few years back while I wasn't paying any attention), but it's a fucking doom drone masterpiece.


Of course, the standard reference point for all things drone is the mighty Sunn O))).  Hyatari plough a less grimm furrow, a little more up tempo and tuneful - as if Sunn O))) acquired some pop sensibilities and decided to make an album full of cheery summer fun.  Except that because it's Sunn O))), that still sounds like a colossal lead casket filled with tar floating through space and annihilating the stars.


Crushing.











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

Necro Deathmort

I realise that these electro doom behemoths were the greatest band in the world less than a year ago; and whilst I don't like to repeat myself too much on this shitty blog, there is no escaping the fact that I have been listening to their new record The Colonial Script quite a lot this week.


It is bowel-shattering.


In a good way.


It was hard to imagine things getting any darker after last year's doom masterpiece Music Of Bleak Origin; but Necro Deathmort have managed it on the new record with a black mass of ambient doomscapes and the kind of apocalyptic riffing that will reduce your fucking skull to ash.







Website: http://necrodeathmort.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/necrodeathmort
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/necrodeathmort
Wikipedia: nope

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

MAKE

I only just got into these guys, so there's not an awful lot I can say about them without simply rehashing recent press releases. Which frankly still seems like a lot of effort to me. Fuck it, if you're that interested you can Google it all for yourself.

The important thing is that their debut full length Trephine (available here) manages to combine huge sludgey stoner riffs with psychedelic ambience and creeping end-of-the-world doom, sounding at any given time like early High On Fire, Black Math Horseman, Mouth Of The Architect and This Will Destroy You at their most ethereally swirly. It sounds as though it should make for a slightly confused and inconsistent mess; but in practice it creates depth and variety, and prevents the record from getting turgid and samey.

It's awesome. Go and dedicate your life to it.

Website: http://thebandmake.blogspot.co.uk/

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

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

Wikipedia: nope

Melvins

I've mentioned before that I dislike repeating myself here.

Hence the delay. I kind of hoped that something else would pop up and rock my entire world.

But in a week where I saw the Melvins play to a sold out Thekla, there was only going to be one greatest band in the world ever.

Website: http://www.melvins.com/

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

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvins

Manatees

Mostly I'm still moist with anticipation at the prospect of seeing the Melvins in November. But the all-Melvins-all-the-time playlist was interrupted the other day when I dug out the most recent effort by these Manatees fellows.

It comes with quite charming handmade packaging, was bundled in free with a Humanfly record I ordered, and is cumbersomely entitled We Are Going To Track Down And Kill Vintage Claytahh The Beard Burning Bastard.

It is of course very excellent indeed.

"The Pulp Cut" is a standout track. Which is odd, because it's not really representative of the rest of their output. The vocals are all by Eugene Robinson of Oxbow, for a start. It's one of those songs that manages to be heavy without being bowel-shatteringly loud.

Everything else by Manatees is, however, bowel-shatteringly loud.

It is of course very excellent indeed.

Website: http://sunclimber.tumblr.com/

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

Wikipedia: nope

Melvins

I made a very conscious decision to leave my mp3 player behind when I went on holiday. Partly because it's just another thing to lose/break/drop into my fruity cocktail; but mainly because if I had taken it with me I would have spent the entire time time listening to the Melvins, to the complete exclusion of all other activities. Including sleeping, eating and washing. And it would be shame to go all the way to the Greek Islands without trying out their leading brand of shower gel at least once.

A few days before I left, my good friend Smith gave me a heads up that they would be playing in my favourite shipwreck in November; I immediately squealed with delight, bought a pair of tickets and ordered two more records for good measure. Nine days later, and I am still giddy with anticipation. The next two months are going to be hard to get through.

Plenty of other people have tried before me to explain how fucking great this band is; and as much as I'm in favour of plagiarising the best bits and standing on the shoulders of giants, I fear that this will merely provide me with a better view when I too run out of superlatives. You'll just have to take my word for it that the Melvins are way better than your favourite band, and probably have twice as many drummers too.

Website: http://www.melvins.com/

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

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvins

Necro Deathmort

Ye gods, this is some dark shit right here.

Kind of droning doom fused with a bit of dubstep. Or dubstep fused with a bit of droning doom. Either way I refuse to coin the term doomstep. Because it's stupid.

The Pixie describes dubstep as sounding like giant robots having sex under water.

Necro Deathmort sound like that, except that it's happening at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and the oceans are made of tar, and a planet is crashing into them in slow motion, and the planet is on fire.

Website: nope

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

Wikipedia: nope

Nadja

Like most people, I frequently experience the nagging sensation that I am forgetting something important. And, like most people, this is because I am confused and neurotic.

Usually.

For the last three years, however, this nagging sensation may have been because I genuinely had forgotten something important. I had forgotten to buy everything ever released by Nadja ever.

I remember hearing the track Sandskin; and then I went to see them play at The Croft in November of '08; and then I swore that I would buy everything ever released by Nadja ever; and then I forgot all about it, until my iPod shuffled Sandskin back up to the top a week or so ago.

Having failed to buy, or indeed listen, to anything other than that one track up until this point in my life so far, I can't really claim to be any sort of authority on what this mostly Canadian duo really sound like; but from what I recall/have been able to plagiarise from other reviews, words like doom,ambient, experimental, drone, and bowel-shattering soundquake should probably feature quite prominently.

Website: http://64.92.105.10/~coldsnap/aidan/nadja.htm

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

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

Hey Colossus

I went to see these guys last week. I had tried to see them almost two years previously, playing alongside Part Chimp and local chaps Tractor. A number of unfortunate scheduling issues meant that I only got to see the last thirty seconds of their set; it sounded like this.

DUUURRRRR we're hey colossusRRRRRRRR thanks chimp RRRRR thanks tractor RRRRRRRRRNK -CLUNK- --sqeak--

Which was a bit disappointing, really; and didn't give much of an idea as to what they really sound like beyond an ominous droning dirge. Their recorded output at the time included a really quite splendid ominous droning dirge stoner-doom effort, and one record of ominous droning dirge so badly produced that it bordered on unlistenable.

Well as it turns out, Hey Colossus seem to rock a kind of sprawling wall-of-noise tinnitus-inducing ominous droning dirge.

Excellent.

Website: http://noisestar.co.uk/colossus/

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

Wikipedia: nope

Humanfly

These guys were first support for earthtone9 last fortnight. It was the first I'd ever heard of them, but they were good enough that I bought their new record (Darker Later) and then played it more or less non-stop for a week.

It kicks arse.

And I don't know a single other thing about them.

If you like your grind with a thick doomy crust, then you should definitely check these jerks out.

Website: http://totalprog.bigcartel.com/

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

Wikipedia: nope

YOB

Still on kind of a doom trip at the mo; to be honest, still mostly listening to a lot of Electric Wizard.

And why not.

But in the search for further turgid heaviosity I also dug out these guys again. Still doom, as I say; but they trade in the 'Wizards Hammer horror black magic rituals for gigantic space-faring bulldozers. Like if Devastator was made entirely out of Bonecrusher, the bulldozer constructicon; and then he combined with a load of other Devastators made out of bulldozers to make one giant Devastator, that then transformed into a bulldozer driven by a Devastator made out of bulldozers.

Crushing.

Website: http://www.yobrock.com/universe-yob.html

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

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

Electric Wizard

Where to start? Electric Wizard's self-titled debut surfaced in 1995. It was pretty much a by-the-numbers stoner rock record, seemingly influenced in equal parts by the first four Black Sabbath records, witchcraft and the occult, and a lot of weed. It's not a bad record, especially the last half which gets a bit more spaced out and psychedelic; but on the whole, I'd say it's fairly unremarkable.

But on second record Come My Fanatics, things changed. Specifically, they got thicker, heavier and slower; more doom. Like, way more doom. Take the doomiest thing you can think of, drown it in the centre of a planet made of tar, and then hurl that planet into the centre of the sun. In slow motion. Hooked up to Orange amplifiers.

Very little has changed since then. This is a good thing.

Website: nope

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

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Wizard

Richard Georg Strauss

Well, not really. I generally find classical works to be a bit meh, with the exception of some of the more doom-laden stuff like Wagner and Holst; and even then, it's not anything that I would generally choose to listen to.

But this week, in between feverish bouts of engineering coursework and the occasional mild panic attack, I've been somewhat slightly obsessed with his "tone poem" Also Sprach Zarathustra and it's many cover versions.

Also Sprach Zarathustra is more commonly known as The Music From 2001: A Space Odyssey. For reference, here is what it should sound like.

Even for an uncultured philistine such as myself, it's hard to deny that it's a pretty powerful piece of work. The first version of it that I ever owned was in fact far more appropriate for an uncultured philistine such as myself; it was by Toadliquor, a filthy doom/sludge/grind outfit that I had never heard of and know almost nothing about. The disc came as a freebie bundled in with some other stuff I got from the good people at Southern Records - thanks chaps.

Some years ago, my private braincare specialist/local smutmonger/friend Tim pointed me in the direction of this Deodato Funk Odyssey version from an album full of lounge covers of film soundtracks. Gotta love a bit of funk.

But I think my favourite version is this next one, on account of the sheer eye-swivelling lunacy of the concept.

It's by the Portsmouth Sinfonia, an orchestra for which the entrance requirements were that players either had to be non-musicians, or play an instrument that was completely new to them.

It shows, I think.

Website: http://www.richardstrauss.at/html_e/17_willkommen/0fs_index.html

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

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Strauss

Earth

And so the doom and the droning continues.

Earth are pretty much the definitive drone band, although they are more or less doomed to be better known for the fact that frontman Dylan Carlson is the guy who bought Kurt Cobain that shotgun. Especially if pricks like me keep bringing it up.

Earth's output has gone through two distinct phases. Phase one, which might be otherwise known as The Old Stuff, was conceived during a period when Carlson was very much fuelled by pharmaceuticals. It is typified by dense walls of heavily distorted guitar and repetitive droning, and it is this sound that primarily inspired Sunn 0))) - who take their name from Earth's amplifiers of choice.

Phase two, or The New Stuff, is quite different. Carlson has cleaned his act up, and the claustrophobic aggression of phase one has given way to a more open, reflective and sombre sound. And it's a bit.. erm... country. Ahem.

But strangely, it's phase two that I like more; and not just because of my deviant slide-guitar lust. It's not heavy, more... weighty. Weary. Like it's seen too much. It won't tell you about any of it, but it doesn't need to; you can see it in the pitiless black of it's soul. And you don't fuck with it.

Website: http://www.thronesanddominions.com/

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

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

Black Math Horseman

...and so just when I was thinking that nothing could possibly depose the mighty Old Man Gloom as the Best Band In The World Ever, my ipod went and jammed this lot in my ear.

I dimly recall ripping a track off of a Rock Sound cover CD and filing it away for further consideration. Naturally, I forgot all about it; so it came as quite a pleasant surprise when it got shuffled to the fore. I listened to it a second time, then a third; and then immediately ordered everything they had ever done ever. Which was all of one album.

It's kind of a doomy brand of post rock, I guess; the whole thing has a haunting quality to it. The guitars are all slide and reverb, and sound as though they were recorded in some sort of cathedral. And the vocals sound like they were recorded in some sort of cathedral thousands of years ago, and are being being channelled to the present through an ancient suit of armour, once witness to myriad bloody atrocities, now ominously still but for the echoes of the past.

Yes, yes, pretentious, I know.

Website: http://www.blackmathhorseman.com/default.html

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

Wikipedia: nope

Old Man Gloom

A supergroup of sorts, except that almost no-one has heard of the other bands that these guys are from.

Not that it matters. Whilst you can hear the influences - the slow build and weighty growl of Isis, the thundering fuzzy bass of Cave In, the rusty chainsaw guitar explosion of Converge - the sum of these parts is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike any of them.

Old Man Gloom also refer to themselves as the O.M.G. Institute for the Advancement of Alien Simian Technology and Human De-Evolution Studies, and their output ranges from sub-minute blasts of sludgy hardcore, to half hour post-metal epics, to white noise and crackly tape recordings.

Drones carry their bodies.

Website: nope

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

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_man_gloom

Black Sheep Wall

All I know for sure is that their music is tar-thick, and possibly the heaviest thing you can stick in your ear. They believe in nothing.

Also, their name is taken from a cheat code for Starcraft.

So they're nerds, as well as nihilists.

Website: nope

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

Wikipedia: nope