Their last album, Eat The Low Dogs, was hailed as a masterpiece, and Run Thick In The Night doesn’t depart drastically on the sound they’ve already established. It begins with the moody, brooding 13 minute track ‘In The Night’, with its heavily textured, wall of sound “outlaw country gone shoegaze” guitars and spacey keyboard sweeps, and morphs quickly into the Hawkwind inspired rager ‘Wolf On Anareta.’

‘Fire Is Sleeping’ is a tender ballad, really upping the ante on the Southern and Skynyrd influences without resorting to the usual cliches, and adds some weepy violin and mournful slide guitar to the mix. The next few songs continue in this style, country-tinged, acid drenched, and melancholy, until the bass and drum driven track ‘The Quena’ breaks the spell and gives a much needed change of pace.

Continue reading: StonerRock.com – U.S. Christmas – Run Thick In The Night.

And for those who haven’t heard Place of Skulls since then, or for those who perhaps are stuck on 2003’s epic With Vision — on which Griffin united with Scott “Wino” Weinrich (The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, etc.) to release one of the finest traditional doom albums of its decade – you should know a lot has changed. Of course, Griffin is still a master riffer. He has been since the days of Death Row, but sound-wise, Place of Skulls is a much different band than they were nine, seven or even four years ago.

In 2010, their sound is still rooted in doom, but as the lead songwriter, Griffin doesn’t shy away from balladry either. The third track on As a Dog Returns, ‘Though He Slay Me’, is essentially a power ballad about Jesus, and the follow-up, the ‘Planet Caravan’-esque ‘Psalm’, isn’t far off that either, at least for the first two and a half minutes. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that after a career touching five decades (Death Row formed in 1979) Griffin’s songwriting should have matured, but the doom on As a Dog Returns isn’t miserable, isn’t downtrodden. It seems to rise up to its challenges. It has hope.

Continue reading:  The Obelisk » Blog Archive » Place of Skulls Return to a Peaceful Place.
(Special thanks to JJ Koczan for the very kind permission)

But the real appeal was that they could craft these expansive dirgescapes and then explode into noise rock freakouts, or super complex mathy grooves. And if anything, on Wonder, it sounds like Knut have moved way further into mathy noise rock territory, which we’re actually pretty psyched about. Heck, the world has enough long songs that build slowly into epic metallic heaviness, and yeah, okay, maybe the world has enough gnarled grinding math metal juggernauts, but we think not.

And Knut are indeed masters, putting most other heavies to shame, really in the space of a single song. ‘Leet’ explodes in a frenzy of churning riffage and pounding chaotic drumming, bellowed vox, a deft chugging stuttering lurching start stop convoluted mathy workout, but infused with little bits of melody, some super cool, weirdly obtuse breakdowns, a relentless math metal freeforall that practically out-Don-Caballero-s Don Cab themselves.

There are a few tracks, where the bands reel in their insane time signatures and frenzied riffing, letting their sound ooze and sprawl, droning and buzzing, where they unfurl epic brooding heaviness, much like the above mentioned post metal. But even those moments are peppered with little mathy bursts, little gnarled and convoluted twists, there are a few interludes too, more sort of droned out guitar ambience, before they finish off with the 8+ minute ‘Wonder/Daily Grind’ –the first half of which is a gorgeously lysergic dronescape of layered slow motion chords and thick psychedelic guitar smolder, it does eventually lurch into some lumbering chug and pound, but just as quickly it slips back into some minimal ambient buzz and drone.

Some seriously awesome heaviness.

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.

While Cave have become masterful at their ability to create rhythmic and propulsive kraut like jams, with Bitchin Bajas, Cooper is taking his aim at the more spaced out side of kosmische bliss. Evoking the kraut-drone / kraut-age of Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Deutsche Wertarbeit, Cluster as well as Terry Riley’s A Rainbow In Curved Air, this is such a perfect early morning sunrise salute of a record.

Tones / Zones also reaches the level to which modern day cosmic travelers like Arp, White Rainbow, Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never have ascended. The sounds here get locked in the most celestial grooves and you find yourself floating into the sky losing any sense of gravity or the mundane reality of everyday life. This is perfect music for dreaming, drifting and softly coming down. Majestic and so satisfying.

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.

The Bastard (2001)

Starting out your canon with a concept album is inherently bold. Starting out your canon with a concept album that effortlessly blends elements of classic NWOBHM power metal, gentle-madrigal folk, black / death metal, traditional doom, and prog… that doesn’t only take some balls, it takes exceptional talent. But The Bastard does exactly that without a hint of a misstep.

The concept (let me see if I got this right) is a three-act tragedy about an illegitimate son confronting and defeating the tyrannical father / king who abandoned him at birth and taking up his reign. Along the way are oaths of vengeance sworn in Hell and a Blood Ax is thrown in for good measure – got that so far? All of which would be a moot point if the musicianship wasn’t completely stellar. But not only does the music manage to blow your mind with its sheer diversity and intricacy, it’s also cohesive and damn if it isn’t catchy in places.

Mike Scalzi voices the main character here, and my first impression is to automatically compare this to Slough Feg, but of course there’s going to be a common influence between ‘Feg and HoM – both Scalzi and John Cobbett pulled double-duty in both bands at the time, and as chief songwriters, how could the similar influence not rear up? The soaring operatic vocals of bassist Janis Tanaka are breathtaking, and Cobbett’s guttural turn at the mic voicing the tyrant king is also noteworthy.

The guitarwork is impeccable; light-handed with the solos but that’s not a complaint – a lesser progressive band would have simply soloed all over the map to impress you. But the idea is for this album to be taken in as a whole, and not just the sum of its parts, so singling out standout songs is pointless here. My recommendation is that you take the entire album in, in one sitting; you’re an active participant as the listener and this is not background music. Also, though I was listening to a digital advance, it is my understanding that the album’s artwork paints a clearer picture of the storyline, something to consider as you undertake a listening session here. Highly impressive, I can’t wait to see where they go next. (8)

Continue reading:  Hellbound » Welcome to the Hellbound.ca Archives » HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE: The Metal Blade Reissues.

I sadly cannot get into most of the current retro sounding bands as I seem to just need that original feel that only comes from the 30 year old albums, but Elektrohash has fooled me a few times with acts like: Colour Haze, Kings of Frog Island, and now Hypnos 69, they sound so fucking genuine 70’s psyche / prog rock that I can’t help but fall under the spell they cast upon me. The album, as are some of the tracks, can be moody so don’t expect everything morose or spacey as they may begin. Maybe the reason this works for me is that just mentioned but also the jazzy rhythms used throughout because I think of organs and jazzy improvs with trippy lyrics when I think prog and that’s what I get here overall.

Legacy kicks off with a great catchy and still epic track, ‘Requiem (For a Dying Creed)’, that is woven from the threads of folk-like almost acoustic passages complete with a flute, a heavier psychedelic jam free-for-all, and the absolutely essential saxophone solo right smack in the middle of the psyche jam. This track is unmistakably prog, not neo-psyche or some stoner variety of a band and really does set the tone for the album as whole. Starting out an album with a 17 minute track isn’t usually something I’d advise as it makes better for a closer or middle bridging track given most peoples short attention spans, but Hypnos 69 pulls it off and it really DOES pull you in to the album nicely.

Continue reading: HellrideMusic.com – Hypnos 69 – Legacy.

The opening track lays it all out, the dark chaotic crunch, the pulsing throbbing blackness, the strange, seemingly out of place melodicism. From the first few minutes, a strange sound like an approaching train, distant reverbed vocals, a slow build to a sort of post industrial black drift, the chug of the ‘train’, overtaken by another layer of buzz, that sounds more like a helicopter than any sort of instrument. Then in comes some achingly mournful minimal minor key melodies, while that helicopter sound, becomes an almost riff-like pulse, and coalesces into thick syrupy SUNN-y sludge, before slipping right back into that pulsing chug. This time accompanied by crooned clean, high vocals, almost like a pop song set amidst all the roiling blackness, a strange mix for sure, but it works, creating a sort of dour black industrial pop.

The rest of the record is equally as striking, spreading out swaths of coruscating feedback, over deep tectonic rumbles, letting the sounds build into undulating sheets of doomgaze, before becoming a proper slabs of glacial doom. Tamping down thick buzzing riffage into hushed, blurred downtuned shimmer, laced with field recordings, disembodied processed voices, buried melodies, creaking machinelike percussion, simple strummed acoustic guitars, butted up against massive squalls of blackpsych guitarnoise, 16 rpm riffage gradually slowing down and easing into brooding Godspeed style slow build post rock. Or exploding into brief flares of Nadja like doomdronedirge, but seemingly always settling back into something darker and hauntingly tranquil. Awesome stuff.

Most definitely for fans of Nadja, SUNNO))), Troum, Skullflower, To Blacken The Pages, Robedoor, Bong, Have A Nice Life, Fear Falls Burning, Marzuraan, Snowblood and other purveyors of avant blackness, brooding post metal, and all things slow, low, heavy and blackened. Features super striking red and black Justin Bartlett artwork…

Listen to Postludium:

Listen to Pakt:

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.

Now, in 2010, well into the much celebrated “3rd Wave of Black Metal”, it seems a lot of the modern bands have gotten away from that, and gone for something else. And that’s cool. But not A Forest of Stars – they’ve managed to create a sound that’s unsettling in not only its tonality, but its instrumentation as well, with micro-tonal keyboard sweeps and violin slides that blow away traditional Western approaches to melody and harmony, and leave the listener awash in a wave of paranoia and claustrophia.

And to think that they dress in Victorian garb, then sing about poets and medieval royalty. A band of British hippies haven’t sounded this evil since Electric Wizard, or perhaps even Black Sabbath. Just to make sure you noticed, this band is distinctively British. They revel in it, and it translates well in their sound.

Continue reading: StonerRock.com – A Forest Of Stars – Opportunistic Thieves of Spring.

If for some insane reason you don’t own this already, this deluxe double disc reissue is the perfect reason to finally get it, and for the rest of you, if as obsessed with Streetcleaner as we are, a whole disc of demos and unreleased versions should definitely be enough to get you to buy it again. More on the bonus disc down below, but first, let’s get to the record itself, the mighty Streetcleaner…

It’s weird to think that amongst the legions of fans out there who LOVE Jesu, there are probably loads of folks who don’t realize that Jesu was born out of the mighty behemoth that was Godflesh. Justin Broadrick, who started off in grind pioneers Napalm Death, made a quick pitstop in Head Of David, and eventually struck out on his own in Godflesh. These days, drum machines and metal are not strange bedfellows, but back in the day, this was some seriously what-the-fuck action.  Metalheads and punk rockers alike were confused, but got over it pretty quick once they realized that Godflesh might just be the heaviest, fiercest thing they had ever heard.

And Godflesh at their heaviest was to be found right here, on Streetcleaner, adorned with the now iconic image of crucified men on crossed in front of a cascade of burning lava (a frame from the genius movie Altered States), this record, originally releases in 1989, still sounds as fearsome as ever.

And now that we have a handful of Jesu records to reference, it’s easy to hear that some of the seeds that would eventually blossom into the dreamy shoegazy metallic bliss of Jesu, were present even back then, albeint buried beneath a black hole crush of churning downtuned riffage and blistering skull rattling programmed beats. Our old three sentence / 14 word review still says it best: “One of the heaviest, scariest “metal” albums EVER. Drum machine doom death. Godflesh’s best.”

And as if that weren’t enough (which it most definitely IS!!), this new version comes with a second disc, overflowing with awesome rarities, including a whole mess of previously unreleased original mixes, which definitely sound different enough to be worth your while, as do a handful of 1990 live tracks, some rehearsal tracks from 1989, and coolest of all, a couple demos, just Broadrick with guitar and drum machine!

As if the above didn’t already make it abundantly clear, Streetcleaner gets the absolute highest aQ recommendation. And remains one of THEE most essential metal records EVER.

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.

At the center of the attack are vocalist/ guitarists Mark Buteux and Mat Bethancourt (the latter ex-Josiah and current Dexter Jones Circus Orchestra) and drummer Roger “Dodge” Watson, though Gavin Searle adds vocals, Gregg Hunt plays bass and there are numerous guests throughout. The Kings of Frog Island are what early Desert Sessions jams might have been had they happened in London in the winter instead of, well, the desert.

The main comparison point for The Kings of Frog Island has always been Queens of the Stone Age, and that holds true on III. After the opening intro ‘In Memoriam’, on which a list of condemned is read out over beating drums, there comes  ‘Glebe Street Whores’, which has shades of ‘Regular John’ from the Queens of the Stone Age 1998 self-titled release in its insistent rhythm and catchy riff. The vocals come on strong, somewhat overblown, and seem to rest on top of the instruments in the mix rather than cut through them, which can make them seem loud. That comes up again later in the album, but if you can find just the right volume and adjust your equalizer to fill out the sound, it’s not an issue.

One of III’s catchiest tracks, ‘Bride of Suicide’, follows ‘Glebe Street Whores’, and is pushed along at a good clip by steady snare hits from Watson and a good balance of cleaner and fuzz-soaked guitars over a long opening lead section. On first listen, III will sound like The Kings of Frog Island have abandoned some of the warmth of II, and maybe they have, I don’t know, but these songs are still plenty hairy.

Continue reading:  Hail to The Kings of Frog Island, Baby | The Obelisk.
(Special thanks to JJ Koczan for the very kind permission)