Posts Tagged ‘Aquarius Records’

Album of the day: Lurk – Lurk

Posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Praise for Lurk‘s S/T from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: This is the debut release from these Finnish heavies, and is a crushing slab of gloriously abject doomsludge infused with plenty of old school slo-mo death metal crush, the label mentions bands like Coffins, Autopsy, Winter and Celtic Frost, and we’re definitely feeling all of those, but we’re also hearing plenty of Melvins (especially in the vocals) even some diSEMBOWELMENT, not to mention all those other modern death metal outfits like Disma, Vasaeleth, Vastum, Encoffination and the like.

Lurk mix long stretches of droned out ambience, layered guitar buzz and effects drenched thrum, with bursts of churning chugging heaviness, pounding doomic sludge. The drums massive and pummeling. The vocals slipping from a growling guttural howl to a surprisingly melodic bellow (hence the Melvins comparison), there are some surprising melodies too, even some hooks,  but they’re less noticeable once they’ve been stretched way out and slowed way down.

The songs often fracture into lurching lumbering stop / start workouts, or disappear in squalls of white noise, slipping into near-grooves, before splintering into something much more abstract and dirgey. The closer is the fastest of the bunch, but even then it’s still basically a crawl. But when the drums and the riffs fall just right, and the band lock into a serious chunk of blackened chugging sludge, these guys become fucking monstrous, and that sort of sonic power and black hole metallic fury, should have all those other modern death metal outfits looking over their shoulders, and running for their lives.

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.

Tags: Album of the day, Aquarius Records, Death, doom, Lurk, sludge, Total Rust Records
Posted in 2012, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended | No Comments »

Album of the day: Hills – Master Sleeps

Posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

Praise for Hills‘Master Sleep from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: We imagine the master sleeps soundly, if THIS is the music loudly vibrating in his dreams! He may never wish to wake up. Here’s the 2nd album from (to be sibilantly alliterative) this spacey Swedish psych band, the first we’ve listed ...read more

Album of the day: Tort – Tort

Posted on Sunday, January 29th, 2012

Praise for Tort‘s S/T from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: One of three new releases from Jerusalem based Total Rust label, who specialize in the slow and heavy, the sludgey and dirgey, so it makes sense that these Spaniards would find a home there, even more so when you consider that ...read more

Album of the day: Rhyton – Rhyton

Posted on Saturday, January 28th, 2012

Praise for Rhython‘s S/T from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: So, sure, “experimental / improv / psych” bands based outta Brooklyn are probably a dime a dozen these days, so what makes the debut from this new Thrill Jockey signing worthy of glorious Record Of The Week status here at aQ? ...read more

Album of the day: Les Goths – Reve De Silence

Posted on Friday, January 27th, 2012

Praise for Les Goths ‘Reve De Silence from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: We have to say, that lots of the time, when a band is touted as being some lost heavy psych or proto-metal classic, it often eventually turns out to sound sonically more like blues rock or bar rock, ...read more

Album of the day: Cold Body Radiation – Deer Twillight

Posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Praise for Cold Body Radiation‘s Deer Twillight from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: The 2010 full length from these Dutch avant shoegaze black metallers was one of our favorite records that year, but for whatever reason we were never able to get enough copies to review on the list. So when ...read more

Album of the day: The Great Society Mind Destroyers – Spirit Smoke

Posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Praise for The Great Society Mind Destroyers‘ Spirit Smoke from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: All it takes is about 30 seconds of the opening track, the awesomely titled ‘Temple Lurker’, on this debut full length from Chicago psych rockers The Great Society Mind Destroyers, to realize these guys are serious psych ...read more

Album of the day: Dust – Hard Attack

Posted on Sunday, January 15th, 2012

Praise for Dust‘s Hard Attack from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Dust’s two early ’70s proto-metal classics had been out of print on cd for far too long – and even the last time we had ‘em, YEARS ago, we could only get a few drilled, cut-out copies. But now, huzzah, ...read more

Album of the day: Dust – Dust

Posted on Saturday, January 14th, 2012

Praise for Dust‘s Self/Titled from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Dust’s two early ’70s proto-metal classics had been out of print on cd for far too long – and even the last time we had ‘em, YEARS ago, we could only get a few drilled cut-out copies. But now, huzzah, import ...read more

Album of the day: Black Hole – Land Of Mystery

Posted on Friday, January 13th, 2012

Praise for Black Hole‘s Land Of Mystery from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: This is the THIRD time we’ve had a reissue of this album to list, and so if you missed it before, pay attention, ’cause there’s good reason it keeps getting reissued (& slightly differently each time, too). Black ...read more