Negative Standards - the revenge ...

No download but an alert/update for the people out in the USA and who dig this killer band from Oakland, California, already featured in this blog. It's the raging dark, crusty, sludgy hardcore band NEGATIVE STANDARDS.

Here is what bassist Will wrote to me yesterday via e-mail ...

"We've been keeping busy of late, and in a week we're setting out on a
month-long US tour. This will have us looping around the country,
rolling through Austin in time for Chaos in Tejas. We'll have our two
newest releases along with us: our LP, as well as a 10'' version of the I-V tape
that's been co-released by Halo of Flies (halooffliesrecords.com), Cop
Grave Records (http://www.cgrave.org/), and Gay Scientist Recordings
(gayscientistrecs.blogspot.com)."


They've got the LP (as well as the previous release I-V) streaming for free at our Bandcamp
site — negativestandards.bandcamp.com — if you want to check it out. The LP includes 6 tracks named with Roman numbers as in he previous release.
You can buy the LP here (it's the label's webstore) and the EP is available from each of the labels as well as on Bandcamp. After they are back from the tour they'll put the new album for full download as well.

But there's more, the list of tour dates below:

May 8 - Reno, NV @ Holland Project w/ Criminal Code, Pissmixer, Fathoms.
May 9 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Boing! Collective w/ All Systems Fail,
The Relief Society, Society Miscall, Filthlord.
May 10 - Denver, CO @ Rhinoceropolis w/ Damaru, Reproacher, Dripfed.
May 11 - Omaha, NE @ The Sandbox w/ Kills & Thrills, Kublai Khan,
Bruja, Grimer, Flies @ the Sandbox.
May 12 - Minneapolis, MN @ The House of Lard w/ Indulge, Cokskar, and
Brain Tumors.
May 13 - Milwaukee, WI @ Creem City Collective w/ Protestant,
Sacrificial Massacre, Gnarrenschiff.
May 14 - Chicago, IL @ TBA w/ Canadian Rifle, Thieves, Calendar Boys.
May 15 - Cleveland, OH @ Now That's Class! w/ Tragedy, Lucha Eternal, Dismal.
May 16 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Roboto Project w/ Bacchus (Ireland),
Torch Runner, Pray for Teeth.
May 17 - Washington, DC @ Ras Hall, 4809 Georgia Ave. NW w/ Good Luck,
Spoonboy, Hop Along, Sundials.
May 18 - New Brunswick, NJ @ Ray Cappo's Cantina
May 19 - Brooklyn, NY @ Stolen Sleeves Collective, 538 Johnson Avenue
w/ Anasazi, No Sir I Won't, Sad Boys, Zatsuon.
May 20 - Northhampton, MA @ VFW Florence, 18 Meadow Street w/ Warrior
Kids (France), MFP.
May 21 - Montreal, QC @ Death Church w/ Æsahættr, Xothugua, Sand Witch.
May 22 - Portland, ME @ 442 St. John St w/ The Piper and the Salami,
The Correspondences.
May 23 - Boston, MA @ Whacky Kastle w/ Vaccine, VYGR, Nailed Shut.
May 24 - New Haven, CT @ TBA w/ Escalators.
May 25 - Philadelphia, PA @ Cloud City w/ Bacchus (Ireland), Torch
Runner, Hazards, War Emblem.
May 26 - Baltimore, MD @ TBA
May 27 - Asheville, NC @ The Get Down!
May 28 - Atlanta, GA @ Wonderroot Collective
May 29 - New Orleans, LA @ Hey Cafe w/ Mauser, Post-Teens, Mystic Inane.
May 30 - Houston, TX @ Vinyl Junkie w/ Napalm Raid, Sixbrewbantha.
May 31 - Austin, TX @ Chaos in Tejas (TBA)
June 1 - Austin, TX @ Chaos in Tejas, End of an Ear Day Show
June 2 - Austin, TX @ Chaos in Tejas, Prank Records Breakfast Show w/ No Statik
June 3 - Austin, TX @ Chaos in Tejas (TBA)
June 4 - El Paso, TX @ The Horizon Club w/ Røsenkøpf.
June 5 - Phoenix, AZ @ TBA
June 6 - Los Angeles, CA @ McWorld, 5011 W. Adams Blvd.
June 7 - San Francisco, CA @ TBA


More infos on the band's page here.
Negative Standards rule!
Folks, one full month touring around USA and Canada as well. Catch these guys if and when they are at reach!
\m/\m/

Doom death monsters

I have posted it on Vonfrost's blog, but I guess this one fits here as well, in case some of you didn't get hold of it before.
Thanks to the blogger in The Mean Man for sharing.
Limited edition vinyl-only release out on US label Contagion Releasing.

Bands' links: here and here - here and here

Buy (if still available) here

d/l

Nasty, filthy and raw

Official debut vinyl LP release by US Harassor, a “Primitive/Grinding/Black-Core/Anti-human/Sludge/Metal” band, or else “primitive black-sludge metal grind thrash savagery”, from sunny Los Angeles, California.

Harassor are a trio including Pete Majors on vocals, Sandor GF on drums and James L. Brown on guitars.
James L. Brown, aka Roach, was the mastermind of underground legend filthy black metal act Lord Foul.
They play some sick tunes halfway between raw black metal and crusty punk with evil raspy vocals, killer pummeling drumming and a muddy production just perfect for the scope of it.

This release shares most of its tunes with previous recordings, but is lacking something of the self-titled, probably unofficial release from 2008 (I posted it here, together with two cool videos).
These guys are on the underground label Universal Consciousness (also home to Gnaw Their Tongues).
The band is sharing the digital version of the new vinyl via Bandcamp for free download.

Band here and here
Label here

Harassor – Harassor (2011)

Deadly sick black lullabies …

Thanks a lot for the invitation to this place full of blog titans! I’m not tall but now I feel even smaller, basically a bug …
Anyway, let’s start with something.
Tomorrow I’ll go to Transylvania, Romanian sector, for a few days (well, I’ll say hello to Uncle Vlad for you all!). Therefore I thought about starting with a thematic post related to Transylvania.
You may guess it is not warm and jolly hard rock. And the name of the band says a lot: A Transylvanian Funeral …
Actually Romania was host of a massive, well known black metal band, Negura Bunget (sorry for the lack of proper accents …). However here I would like to post the self-titled 2009 debut album by a US one-man band, ditto A Transylvanian Funeral.
The band’s only member, Sleepwalker, is owner of the releasing label (Third Eye Audio) and does everything, from main vocals to bass (quite evident) to guitars to drumming (programmed drumming but not that bad actually). He is helped by musician Sojourner for the double vocals and song writing.
Nothing radically new but just some enjoyable thrashy dirty black metal with quite varied pace (from slow to rather fast), nice and catchy riffs, some hypnotic atmospheres and these two overlapped deathly rattling voices which give a sense of gloomy and sick lullabies to the tracks.
I’ve read two interviews to the guy and he appears to be quite talkative and kind to interviewers.
Apparently he sold out all the copies of his debut release.
So a new addition to the expanding US black metal panorama and a nice debut by a band worth of checking out for future developments.

A Transylvanian Funeral - A Transylvanian Funeral (2009)

listen