Drowning label and Wyrm - Paramount (2011)

Well, peeps, Happy New Year!

We still have some months before the end of the world, so there’s plenty of time to go through some awesome music done by musicians and bands in the roster of Drowning, a cool Danish underground label, or better “netlabel”.
The label is run by music lover Danny Kreutzfeldt, features bands from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and also from Asia, is devoted to doom and drone as basic genres and distributes its releases as free digital downloads.
Last year Sol, the awesome Danish one-man, eclectic doom-death act, released its latest album / tape, called Black Cloud Of Becoming, on Drowning.
Other artists share their own experimentations in the fields of black metal, drone, doom, sludge and electronics via Drowning. This is the case for bands like Sick To The Back Teeth, Depriver, Pest Lives, Dead Black Arms and also Nernes/Skagen, Norwegian project involving Kjetil Nernes, guitarist in Arabrot and experimental artists Stian Skagen.

As of late Drowning featured a new project, Wyrm, devoted to producing some really cool drony spacey black vibes.
Wyrm is a new project by Texas-based Bryan Ferguson, who may be not completely new to some of you who maybe know or read about his other cool, very heavy, obscure and hypnotic doom drone band, Bring Me The Head Of Orion, on Doommantia.
The experience of Bring Me The Head Of Orion is finished and Wyrm is now the new active project.
Wyrm’s debut release is out on Drowning label since the end of November 2011 and is called Paramount.
Wymr’s sound here is maybe less punishing than in Bring Me The Head Of Orion, and actually it has been defined as “ kraut-doom droning black metal”. This debut is rich in spacey sounds and great atmospheres encompassing ambient, doom, black metal and some shoegaze.

Check out the cool debut release by Wyrm, and also check out the other cool bands and releases featured on this label, Drowning, definitely to be kept under one’s radar.

Drowning Label - main page here and all the releases (free d/l) here

Wyrm band here

Wyrm – Paramount (2011)

Grønlandshund.

New album.

order, info, etc.
DL. | DL 320 kbps rip.
listen.

Black “freakazoid” experiments

I posted this on Sludgeswamp, so this is a double post, but I guess there may be interest here as well for what Crucial Blast is offering ...

Thanks to Adam Wright from US Crucial Blast Records for the heads-up about the newest releases of his super-cool and super-underground label.

During these days (since the first of February) the label has released two slabs of punishing noise-drone-dark ambient “demented” black metal to make your winter days even more gloomy or, for those living in the southern hemisphere, to make an implacable sun dry out your veins and blind your eyes and … uh, nasty!
You know that at Crucial Blast Records people have no pity. And they are faithful to this line …

The bands involved in the newest releases are Korperschwache and Demonologists. here I'm dealing with Korperschwache.

If you don’t know US band/project Korperschwache (from Austin, Texas), you may appreciate the telegraphic description given from RKF on Myspace: “Korperschwache is psychedelic black metal drone noise or something like that. Nine of ten mothers agree that it's real evil-like and stuff, plus probably harmful if swallowed.” And here I stop as RKF gets a bit naughty …
RKF is the “jackass” in charge of the band together with his long-standing partner-in-crime, Doktor Omega, who is “is still around to swing her golden hammer at those glacial tempos”. So RKF is in charge of “guitars, vox and ugliness”, whereas Doktor Omega is in charge of “beats, time and emptiness”.
Korperschwache began as a solo noise side-project in 1995 beside Unholydeathmachine and Autodidact, that RKF left in 2003. The meaning of the band’s name is rather creepy: “organic decay” …
Korperschwache has a long history and a wide musical production, as you can see while browsing in the band’s website.
Korperschwache shares a fat website with the UK noise band Skullflower. Beside the web-managing aspects of the relationship between RKF and Skullflower, there is an actual or at least inspirational link between the two bands.
RKF said in an interview: “Skullflower is definitely one of the influences on Korperschwache, although the earlier, noisier albums were influenced considerably more by the likes of Whitehouse, Merzbow, and Hijokaidan. At this point the band's biggest influences are probably Skullflower, Hijokaidan, Abruptum, Burzum, and Khanate.”

The brand new Crucial Blast release is Evil Walks, available both as a way smart digipack CD and digital download. As it is usual for this label, you can get a taste of the punishment by getting hold of the mp3 samples of all the tracks of the album. And you can also read a rich description of the release by Adam.
As pointed out by Adam, Evil Walks is actually the first widely available cd release for Crucial Blast from Korperschwache after almost a decade of smaller, limited-run discs released through the label's Crucial Bliss sub-imprint. It's also the most focused work yet according to the style, the “weird, lumbering black-dirge” into which the band gradually evolved from its noisy start.

“ … the music forms into this stoned blackened hypno-rock thing, the buzzing guitars and acid-scorched melodies looping over the skittery industrial beats and weird dubbed-out snares and concussive Godflesh-esque rhythms, turning into something that sounds remarkably like a mutant cross between late-80s British psych/drone rockers Loop and those notorious improv-black metal freakazoids Abruptum.”

“It's not black metal, but Korperschwache's Evil Walks is definitely recommended to fans of the demented fringes of underground blackness inhabited by like-minded bands like Utarm, Wrnlrd, Charnel House, Diapsiquir, Brobdingnagian, Mamaleek, Wormsblood and Lonesummer.”
Take note …

A companion release to the Crucial Blast release is called Evil Crawls and features original mixes, remixes, and outtakes recorded by the duo during late 2009 - early 2010. The release can be found on Bandcamp and is shared as free download by the band.
And here you can find more of Korperschwache’s Bandcamp releases.
More free tracks from this productive weird duo can be found on Korperschwache’s webpage.

News about the band: here and here

For the latest digital and über-cool physical output by this gloomy duo you can’t go wrong by visiting Crucial Blast and the dedicated page: Korperschwache – Evil Walks (2011)

Bandcamp companion release Korperschwache - Evil Crawls (2010)

(Thanks to Adam from Crucial Blast for the heads-up and to the band for sharing)

Epic.

New album.
Info. Initial post.

order. 1 | 2
DL.
listen.

And if you want more samples for your exploration …

… here is a ten ton heavy compilation, the mammoth compendium of the first 10 years of activity of label Crucial Blast into the heaviest underground.
This compilation has been posted on the label’s website early this year and offers, as free download, over fifty tracks summing up over four hours of , well, punishing tunes.
I posted this on the Swamp but I guess it fits here as well.
As it is a general compendium, the compilation features past and present artists and bands related to the label and explores genres such as sludge, ultra-doom, drone, dark ambient, post metal, psychedelics, industrial, noise, post-core, experimental black metal, apocalyptic anything …

Here is the track-list:

01. GNAW THEIR TONGUES Sawn Asunder and Left for the Beasts - From An Epiphanic Vomiting Of Blood
02. FISTULA The Basilisk - From the Burmese/Fistula split CD
03. BLACK ELK She Pulled Machete - From Always A Six, Never A Nine
04. SKULLFLOWER Black Rabbit - From IIIrd Gatekeeper
05. UNHOLY GRAVE After The Bloodbath - From Not Without A Fight
06. YEAR OF NO LIGHT Par Économie Pendant La Crise On - From Nord
07. MARAX Returning To Rust - From Veil Of The Black Sanguinarian
08. JUMBOS KILLCRANE Locust Blanket - From The Slow Decay
09. THE GOSLINGS Statuette - From Spaceheater/Perfect Interior
10. EARWIGS Megatron Locust Invasion - From the Dataclast/Earwigs split
11. GEISHA A Wilderness, Except by Sight - From Die Verbrechen Der Liebe
12. SOUVENIRS YOUNG AMERICA Invocation in the Caldera - From An Ocean Without Water
13. KORPERSCHWACHE Red Wind - From Broken Blades Of Steel Scattered Across The Narrow Way
14. BURMESE Spill My Fuck - From the Burmese/Fistula split
15. SAMUS Who's Pumping Estrada - From Desengano
16. SKULLFLOWER Void of Roses - From Tribulation
17. GENGHIS TRON Arms - From Cloak Of Love
18. BLACK ROLLER CROP ROTATION Prayers from the Rotten Soil - From Prayers from the Rotten Soil
19. ACROSS TUNDRAS Cosmic Retribution - From Dark Songs Of The Prairie
20. WETHER Cloven Hoofed Priest - From Uncertain Ritual
21. MICROWAVES Codex Vortex - From Contagion Heuristic
22. HAISHA Loser - From the Haisha/Mizuko split
23. NADJA Affective Fields - From Desire In Uneasiness
24. TOTIMOSHI Cellophane - From Mysterioso
25. THE HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA Denial (part I) - From Politics Of The Irredeemable
26. SUBARACHNOID SPACE Lilith - From Eight Bells
27. NOISM Yesism - From +/-
28. SORC'HENN Leka met elden - From Faro: Death Of The Island Sheeps
29. SOIHADTOSHOOTHIM Chausson Chansson - From Alpha Males & Popular Girls
30. GREY DATURAS My Sciatica - From Dead In The Woods
31. THE MASS This Is Your Final Dream - From Perfect Picture Of Wisdom And Boldness
32. UNEARTHLY TRANCE Scarlet - From Record Of Shadows Infinite compilation CD
33. SUZUKITON Rogue Mechanica - From Service Repair Handbook
34. AUN Consumed By Flies - From Multigone
35. SKULLFLOWER Annihilating Angel - From Orange Canyon Mind
36. GEISHA Bondage Death - From Monde Del'Orrore
37. NEKRASOV Disillusion - From album IV
38. JUMBOS KILLCRANE Gasmouth - From Carnivale De Carne
39. LUASA RAELON Gravitational Pull - From Into The Void
40. HEDORAH Hyperbolean - From Collected
41. THEOLOGIAN II (unreleased - from the Charting The Schism EP)
42. BACTERIA CULT Mastication - From Soulless Solace
43. ALL IS SUFFERING Mauthausen - From The Past: Vindictive Sadisms Of Petty Bureaucrats CD (out of print)
44. WEEDEATER Potbelly - From Sixteen Tons CD
45. DATACLAST Pull of the Culture - From the Dataclast/Earwigs split CD
46. ENCOMIAST Pumpkin - From Bathed In Sunlight
47. MIZUKO Razing The Sky - From Haisha/Mizuko split CD
48. WHOURKR Slaagt - From Concrete
49. WILDILDLIFE Things Will Grow - From Six
50. THE MASS Trapped Under a Ice - From City Of Dis CD
51. YES, COLLAPSE Untitled - From Final Diagnosis
52. ROBE. Vacant (previously unreleased exclusive track)
53. GNAW THEIR TONGUES My Orifices Await Ravaging - From Dread Magnificence Of Perversity
54. LYCANTHROPIC WARHEAD Vexator (unreleased)

You can read the notes accompanying the compilation on the dedicated page of the label's website.

VVAA – Blast Wave X - Crucial Blast Compendium 2010

Heavy weird stuff

In Jaci’s post asking for comments, one of the visitors of this blog asked for more indications for listening stuff and, eventually, buying stuff, i.e., not solely sterile download but acquaintance with a band and support.
That’s a very good attitude especially for the final result, support.
Btw, with such attitude I’m encouraged also in writing a bit more of the few lines I normally write on here (those of you who follow the Swamp know that I can flood the blog with words, hahaha ... ). But if people feel like having some info, I’m glad to gather them and pass them on. But I promise I won’t flood here as I do in the Swamp …

Going back to how this post started, if you don’t like myspace because it jumps if the connection is not working well, etc., you may then appreciate what some bands and some labels do, i.e., giving away a few tracks and substantial samples in mp3 to let the people listen to the stuff in adequate conditions. This is the case of a finest label precious for the underground, true underground music where open-minded attitude and experimentations among genres of heavy music are welcome: label Crucial Blast.

If you go and visit Crucial Blast’s webpage you get some tracks and samples from some of the coolest, creative and in various cases, I would say, most extreme bands around, if you think about what the label’s roster has been during its ten years of activiy: Genghis Tron, Monarch!, Gnaw their Tongues, Subarachnoid Space, Nadja, Skullflower, etc.

Well, in this period some cool albums are about to be released (tomorrow, 9th November 2010) by eclectic acts Theologian and Ehnahre.

Theologian may appeal to those of you who like weird, grim heavy tunes “poisoned” with electronics.
Theologian is a New York-based project by Leech, previously in Navicon Torture Technologies, that creates a dreary blend of blackened industrial drone ambient noise heaviness. As described in the release notes, the debut album, The Further I Get from Your Star, the Less Light I Feel on My Face, and the accompanying digital EP Charting The Schism, are a descent into roaring, cosmic drone, howling electronics, colossal industrial soundscapes and grim, low-end heaviness. Leech elaborates, strains and mixes extreme music genres such as Swedish death industrial, classic power electronics, dark ambient, etc., on a base of melodic presence; the music is harsh, often hellish, but retains an icy, desolate beauty.

The other release of extreme heaviness as well as charm is Taming The Cannibals, the new album by Boston trio Ehnahre, that recently inked an agreement with Crucial Blast.
The band has a “stable” line-up including Ryan McGuire (Bass, Double Bass, Vocals, Percussion), John Carchia (Guitar, Vocals) and Ricardo Donoso (drums). Btw, Ryan McGuire and John Carchia are members of the avant-garde metal band Kayo Dot. Additional fellow musicians crafted in all sorts of instruments and from other cool bands, such as Maudlin of the Well, Milligram and Castevet, etc., contribute(d) to create the evil music produced by this bunch.
You may know their killer debut album, The Man Closing Up, released in 2008 when the band was on Sound Devastation Records. In that debut album they experimented their overly distressing, mind-melting, powerful, obscure, crazy metal, which has been defined as “untraditional” in rhythm and chromatic/disharmonic in tonal interaction, speaking drum-, guitar- and bass-wise.
If you want a simplified tag for Ehnahre’s, you can call it "avant-garde doom death metal". In more detail, Ehnahre combine atonal contemporary classical music (they studied Arnold Schoenberg) and "vicious blackened death laced with shots of free-jazz horns, stretches of intense choral ambience, and blasts of calcifying glacial doom".
Definitely a difficult, ruthless and absolutely heavy way of playing that does create a bleak, restless, menacing and chaotic atmosphere, which is what, at the end, gives us the thrills. But, incredibly, there are melodies dragging you through this chaotic darkness. The result is fascinating …
If you feel like for more and far better “literature”, you may appreciate the brand new and very well made interview to Ryan McGuire on Doommantia.

So go to the label’s webpage to get your mp3 sample tracks for Theologian and Ehnahre releases: here, here and here

Encompassing.

Cover

Info. More releases on this label here.

order. | UK: CD US: CD | LP Norman Records: CD | LP
DL.
listen.

Verb.

New album. More releases on this label here.

order.
DL.
listen.

Experimental apocalypse …

There have been a few posts (by Petya and myself) dealing with some experimental stuff by guys related to Napalm Death as well as mighty Bill Laswell. Here’s something else …

Industrial, core-electronica, breakcore, raggacore, hip hop, drum and bass, dub, experimental …
So many different tags and ingredients for the baby born from a team of gods including guitarist Justin Broadrick from Godflesh/Jesu/Napalm Death and experimentalist Bill Laswell.

“The Blood of Heroes is a collaboration project featuring Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, Napalm Death) and Bill Laswell, with beats from Submerged and End.user and vocals from Dr. Israel. Post apocalyptic soundscapes and de-imaged electronic beats backed up with heavy guitar and bass. Features live drumming from KJ Sawka and Balazs Pandi, and sound design from film sound architect M. Gregor Filip. Powerful anthemic tracks collide with vicious drum n bass beatdowns and intersperse with breathtaking synth beauty and Aphex Twin style mezzed beats. The soundtrack to post-solarflare humanity!” (release notes, out on label Ohm Resistance)
And the cover art is scary and terribly cool …

Check the project here and buy the baby here

Try it

First-rate.

Paras bändi maailmassa.

order.
DL.
listen.

Death jazz psychonauts…

I like Meshuggah a lot, so it came almost natural to dig the creature invented by Meshuggah's lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal. In the project called Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects the incredible technical textures of Meshuggah are blended with jazz while a demonic, reptilian voice accompanies you through the crazy, puzzle-like development of sound.
Amazing!
I’m posting the re-edition of Sol Niger Within, the 1997 only album done in 1999 (the so-called version 3.33). I know that this edition is a bit different from and is missing something of the original one, in spite of bonus tracks, but I don’t have the pristine 1997 edition.
Enjoyable anyway …

The project

The tunes

Yellow lead

Super-group with members of Sonic Youth, Ministry, Murder Inc./Killing Joke (debatable) and Minsk /Nachtmystium (session musician) ...
Release notes speak about "a psychoactive dose of mind-altering sonic experimentation".
I think it's great stuff.
Out on Relapse Records.

Listen
Myspace

Manic.

For my seeking friends. More here.

order.
DL.
listen.

Live.

Valborg live at Roadburn, as provided by our dear friend from Slon.

info/orders.
DL.
listen.

Repetative.

Second solo release by the Norwegian raw guitar electronics maniac from the group in the previous post + 200 others.

order.
DL.
listen.





Debut from the Norwegian 'melancholic' piano-based jazz trio that syncs perfectly with the album above.

order.
DL.
listen.

Guzzlemug - Away With the Wind and Noise

Instrumental band from Minnesota.. kind of sounds like Capricorns, La Gritona/Keelhaul, Dysrhythmia....its good
dl
listen

Prolific.

Mick Harris returns with the 14th full-length.

order.
DL.
listen.

Audacious.

New album. Led by J. Munkeby who is on the new Ihsahn album. Includes Grutle Kjellson from Enslaved on a King Crimson cover. No, this is not the Swedish one.

order.
DL.
listen.

Conflicting Ingredients.

This bands' history is extensive. This bands' history is sordid. They have released at least 16 albums to date, ranging in style, record label, moniker, and line-up [ one of the albums was released as a "double trio" ]. One of the members went on to play with Rival Schools, while the front-man now also plays in Ascend and Eagle Twin. Not for the faint of ear.

order.
DL.
listen.