Just when you thought the Melvins couldn’t possibly do one more meaningful and moral thing, they went ahead and made a classic-rock record. The follow-up to 2006’s (A) Senile Animal—the first record to see Melvins core lineup of guitarist/vocalist Buzz Osbourne and drummer Dale Crover augmented by Big Business’ titanic rhythm section, Jared Warren (bass) and Coady Willis (drums)—Nude With Boots crosses the goddamn line…and comes through clean.
Where Animal was a stripped-down rocker full of jagged, monster riffs and an up-tempo midsection of mosh-pit terror (closer resembling Boner-era Melvins than their more recent juicy, experimental heavy Ipecac sins) with Nude, the Melvins have issued what just might be their first radio-friendly record. Too bad nobody gives a fuck about the radio anymore.
Nude With Boots confirms these deviants—namely King Buzzo and Crover—grew up like many of their generation worshipping Kiss, Alice Cooper, ZZ Top and the Stooges. Tracks like “Suicide in Progress” rocks like Melvins crossed with Thin Lizzy and Jeff Beck, while “The Stupid Creep” has the boys twisting Rainbow-riffs between choruses full of pure Priest-like passion. The Melvins keep the weirdness to a minimum, except on the somewhat out-of-place “Flush,” and “Dies Iraea”—where they do a take on Wendy Carlos’ interpretation of the Latin “Does Irae,” made pop-culturally famous via the title music for Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
But the shit-kicking crown jewel of Nude With Boots comes in the form of “Smiling Cobra.” This song is wound so tightly that when it lashes and strikes, it hits you with a potent dose of their catalog’s choicest venom. Other highlights include “Billy Fish” and “The Savage Hippy,” which sound like classic-rock infused with the Melvins’ singular rhythmic stomp.
By the time you reach the end of Nude With Boots you realize the Melvins have made the same record back to back for the first time, well, ever. The main difference between Nude With Boots and (A) Senile Animal are not the song styles, but rather the approach they took constructing the songs: the harmonies are better assembled, the rhythms tighter, the riffing smoother and the breakdowns more deliciously complex.
At first this truth might not seem self-evident, but after a few hard listens your ears realize that these savages are actually attempting to join their classic-rock forefathers in the genre’s canon. And what’s more, they succeed with peculiar grace…and that familiar Melvin-y aftertaste. Melvins fans will love it. Classic rock fans won’t get it. Everyone else will let it float by. Don’t let that mistake be yours. —Butch Asimov
When I first learned that Nadja’s Bliss Torn From Emptiness was a three-song CD that clocked in at fifty-three minutes and eleven seconds, I was intrigued. Since Nadja’s 2003 formation, the Toronto-based ambient/shoegaze metal duo, made up of multi-instrumentalist Aiden Baker and bassist Leah Buckareff, has been creating increasingly heady, epic and swirling dirges, and I was ready to check out this latest installment—which was originally available several years ago as an extremely limited one-track CDR and recently received a lavish eight-panel digipak re-release by Profound Lore Records.
If you’re planning to listen to Bliss be sure to set aside at least an hour for the experience. My first attempt at it came while driving my car on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. But the mounting tension of being stuck in traffic quickly proved to me that this wasn’t the proper theater in which to listen to this record. Bliss is not the kind of record that you give a casual listen to. In fact, “listening” is not even the correct term for what you must do with a Nadja record. In fact, it’s much closer to “absorbing.”
My second attempt at Bliss happened after I got home from my drive on the BQE. I put in the CD, pumped the stereo’s volume, turned out the lights and then positioned myself on my back in the middle of my floor. Just as I began contemplating the ceiling, the myriad molecules that comprise concrete and steel, and all the infinitesimal space between matter… Just then, as inline with some perfect cosmic cue, (more…)
Before they were creating proto-black metal in Celtic Frost, guitarist/vocalist Tom Gabriel Fischer and bassist Martin Eric Ain were members of seminal blackened thrash outfit Hellhammer. If you’re a fan of Celtic Frost, Hellhammer, or extreme metal in general, you should definitely check out Hellhammer’s new demo reissue, Demon Entrails (Century Media), which sheds new light on a band that influenced generations of aggressive music.
Active from 1982–1984, Switzerland’s Hellhammer released three seminal demos, Satanic Rites, Death Fiend, Triumph of Death, one full-length, Apocalyptic Raids, one seven inch, Buried and Forgotten, as well making appearances on various compilations such as the Metal Massacre series. These early recordings, either by design or by sheer coincidence, sounded far more satanic, hardcore and metal-charged than most of the heavy metal at the time.
In fact, at the time, most mainstream music fans considered Hellhammer’s sound to be formless noise. But this didn’t stop the group from attracting a rabid cult following throughout the world—a following that would only grow after the group’s demise. Even today, the impact of this “formless noise” can be heard in the black, death and thrash metal scenes, as well as in the hardcore and punk worlds. (more…)
I’m not a huge stoner or doom fan, but Electric Wizard’s latest record, Witchcult Today (Rise Above)—with its eight tracks of monolithic, narcotic doom and trippy melodic sense that grooves in a Charlie Manson/Spahn Ranch kinda way—put its hook in me and won’t let go. If I smoked weed, I would definitely turn on Witchcult Today, turn out the lights, burn one…and then start sharpening my knives and see where the night took me. Luckily I don’t smoke weed.
Electric Wizard was formed in Dorset, England, back in 1993, by guitarist Jus Oborn, (more…)
Scorching the earth with their fourth full-length studio album Death Is This Communion (Relapse Records), High On Fire reaffirm, yet again, that certain blazes are meant to last. From the album’s gripping start to its epic finish, this Cali power trio—made up of guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike, drummer Des Kensel and new bassist Jeff Matz (formerly of Zeke)—never stop fanning the flames.
Opener “Fury Whip” is an instant classic and rages like the best High On Fire burners of old. Imagine if 2000’s The Art of Self Defense was crushed into one single song, only then are you approaching the furious realm of “Fury Whip.” And thanks to legendary grunge producer Jack Endino (Nirvana, Mudhoney), the sound mix is clear, while still staying true to High On Fire’s brutal, thrashing vision. [Check out MetalKult’s in-the-studio footage of High On Fire here.]
“Fury Whip” begins with Pike’s atmospheric octave riffing, which soon twists into a knotted line that nods to Jeff Hanneman’s notorious intro on Slayer’s “Raining Blood.” The song really unleashes when Kensel assumes a galloping rhythm while Pike and Matz lock into a beefy guitar/bass assault. The trio pummels along until Pike steps to the forefront and carves out a sloppy, murderous solo. This is supreme, brazen metal that lashes the backs of those unfortunate enough to cross its path. (more…)
Continuing to walk one of the saddest, most disfigured and truly isolated paths in today’s black metal scene, Xasthur excretes another slime drenched trail of moribund hits with his latest full-length, Defective Epitaph (Hydra Head Records).
Entrenched in the desolate outer edge of L.A., Malefic, the black metal isolationist (and modern day cave dweller?) behind Xasthur, has, since 1995, been a veritable factory of grim metal (he’s released six full-lengths, eight splits, and various other 12 inches and demos). And with his latest, Defective Epitaph, Xasthur shows no signs of ceasing the bleak, seething ambience he’s refined since his first split with Orosius in 1999.
Taken as a whole, the twelve songs on Defective Epitaph are muddied and warped, a masterwork of black garbled madness. Upon first listen there is an eerie repetitiveness to each song, but upon closer examination each track glistens uniquely, be it like an obsidian jewel or a freshly popped bubonic (more…)
Originally a cassette-only release, Canadian black metal group Akitsa’s 2002 debut full-length, Goétie, has just received a proper CD reissue by New York City’s Hospital Productions. Now, all you lo-fi black metal fiends who missed out on the hard-to-find original, can finally get your fill of Goétie’s slashed-throat vocals, bouts of blasted noise and distorted suicidal rage.
Opener “Ouverture de l’Espirit” sets the dark mood nicely. Drummer Néant delivers arrhythmic beats, while multi-instrumentalist O.T. deploys an ambling, clean guitar line that delicately weaves through a billowing curtain of fuzzy guitars as his vocals slowly chant “ahhh.”
“Haine et Vengeance” (translated “Hate and Vengeance”) boasts some killer jackhammer snare/kick-drum action and jagged guitar assault. This is some traditional gritty black metal topped with Akitsa’s powerful, hateful vocals.
But the kicker comes with the surprising, “Les Ruines de la Modernité.” (more…)
Birthed in an abysmal New York City basement, black metal band Ash Pool issue forth smoldering, dark and noxious metal. World Turns On Its Hinge (Tour De Garde/Hospital Productions) is their latest batch of truly, and quite literally, underground black metal. Like unknown soldiers, their identities are unlisted, kept in the dark, letting their music reign in pure black mass.
Ash Pool waste no time before igniting the subterranean blaze. World Turns On Its Hinge’s opening track, “Sin of Life,” begins with crashing cymbals and brash guitar, a gated technique reminiscent of Ukrainian black metallers Hate Forest’s work on Sorrow. “Mouth is cracked, stuffed with feces,” hawks Ash Pool’s singer from under the assault of metallic guitar and drums.
Track four, “Shade of Rape,” continues the unforgiving assault with its incinerating wall of thrash. This visceral, hack-and-grind (more…)
It’s hard not to love Chicago’s Shellac. They are consistently—if not defiantly—rigid in their sonic scope (the group’s predilection for analog gear and custom electronics is legendary), and still manage to produce some of the best, and weirdest, sounds out there. And 15 years into their career, they show no signs of letting up. Excellent Italian Greyhound (Touch And Go), Shellac’s long-awaited follow-up to 2000’s stellar 1000 Hurts, is a relentlessly intense, catchy and controlled batch of mathematical noise rock.
The players in this self-proclaimed “minimalist rock trio”—guitarist/vocalist Steve Albini (more…)
Dizzying! Cephalic Carnage’s latest record Xenosapien (Relapse) contains such advanced levels of math-metal deathgrinding stoner madness that it’s a wonder the Colorado five-piece didn’t set the studio ablaze while tracking it.
Definitely a more sophisticated (if the term can even be applied to Cephalic) successor to their previous 2005 pot-fueled masterpiece, Anomalies, Xenosapien finds guitarists Zac Joe and Steve Goldberg playing more mind-bendingly complex riffs, unexpected changes and floor-punching breakdowns than you can shake a Thai stick at.
And in fine grind style, on top of Cephalic’s metallic geek frenzies you get plenty of samples and inhumanly gargled vox. These guys like to mix it up, and it shows in the album’s scope—Xenosapien jumps from Dillinger/Cryptopsy craziness to doom sludge to hardcore breakdowns to epic moody jazz weirdness.
With Xenosapien, Cephalic Carnage not only deliver just about everything your stoned metal mind could possibly handle, but also what may prove to be the best grind record of 2007. – Jimmy Hubbard
Check below for Episode 1 of Cephalic Carnage’s two-part Making of Xenosapien video: (more…)
