Tuesday 11 December 2012

Black Tar Prophet / Crawl split preorders available

Atlanta's Crawl and Nashville's Black Tar Prophet are about to release a split CDEP of low end driven dirtdoom, the pre-order for which is now up on Crawl's bandcamp page, where you can also hear an edit of the track they have recorded for the split, Rise. Feast.
Head on over to Black Tar Prophet on the same site to hear two tracks clocking in at around 3/4 of an hour and get an idea of what to expect!

Crawl:
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Bandcamp
Black Tar Prophet:
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Bandcamp

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Updates update.

Today I've been making some minor changes to the site, but I think they are worth mentioning here.
First, we've added a search function to the main page, having almost 700 posts at the moment, the old archive/tag/labels system was becoming a bit cumbersome.

So now we have a box that you can search in (Really. Try "Leeds Fenton" or something similar) and the results pop up at the top of the site there, in a box you can click closed.
This has meant that we can streamline the archive a little bit so that it now looks a little neater:
 And over on our Facebook page, we have added a link for you to sign up for our email newsletter, which we plan to be a weekly update, sometimes with stuff we haven'y been able to get up on the site here.
 Anyway, there you go. Mounds of stuff to review, more posts tomorrow!

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Mage - Black Sands

There's only so much filth one can be immersed in before you want something...different, for want of a better word!

We recently received a promo copy of Mage's BLACK SANDS, and when we put it on, what a refreshing release this is!

Mage are rocking out, simple as that.
This is 10 tracks of Sabbath-infused good time Doom Metal.
It's nice to see bands with doom influences that are not bothering with the occult-shtick Scooby Doom nonsense that's so prevalent these days.

As soon as Cosmic Cruiser X blasts out of your speakers, it's time to crack open a cold one and enjoy.
The song grooves along, with the rhythm section of Andy and Mark working together to lay down some serious bedrock for the twin guitar attack of Ben and Woody to play across the top of.

Tom's vocals are classic heavy metal in the vein of Pepper Keenan or Ben Ward, and when it all comes together...well, I lost count of the amount of times I started playing air-bass or nodding along when I gave the disc it's first spin!
There are plenty of brilliant bluesy style moments in the tracks, alongside sections that really rock, such as the start of Rust.
In places the band have a feel of mid-period Cathedral or Kyuss, and I've found myself humming the basslines off a few of these tracks today!
Drowning Doom is a standout track for me, a straight up doom beginning leading into some excellent double bass drumming before the riff comes back in again, it also has an almost Alice in Chains feel to it, which is a good thing.
Witch of the Black Desert has a Sleep-esque start to it before it really kicks off, Sabbath style about two and a half minutes in.

All in all, this is a real stomper of an album, covering all kinds of ground, and Boulty's production really puts the band right in your face.
Brilliant.
The band are self releasing this as a digipack CD, and it will be distributed online by the hard working Witch Hunter Records, you can get it on Spotify, iTunes and Amazon, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

wwww.facebook.com/mageband
www.witchhunterrecords.com

Ilsa - Intoxicatations

Washington DC's ILSA return with the follow up to 2010's Tutti il Colori del Buio, with Intoxicantations; a true example of real crossover, merging metal, hardcore, sludge, you name it.
Foreign Lander starts with a squeal of feedack, and is into some serious riffing, with a tornado of drumming, moving forward at breakneck speed, with Orion growling atop it all.
Harking back to the days when death metal and hardcore mixed effortlessly, this is filthy, downtuned noise just the way Thee Claw likes it; brooding passages punctuated with bursts of feedback and death growls.

The cover art of a tiger downing a bad trip whilst lines of maggots are prepared should give you some idea of what's in store for you when you listen to the album.
The title track is a grinding juggernaut of a song, with stunning double-kick drumming from Joshy, there are even some black metal influences on show here, where Brendan and Garret hold the guitars back and Orion's voice reverberates over the rhythm section.

Deadbeat's Ballad is a punkier, more in your face track, where your head starts nodding along and your feet start to stamp, followed by Man-made Monsters, a more metallic track which brings to mind sweaty gigs in small clubs when you'd see a band you hadn't heard before and they'd blow you away whilst you tried to figure out where they were coming from, reminds me of dISEMBOWELMENT in places, and musically even the good old demo days of the unholy English trinity of Anathema, My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost.
Striding across all of it is some outstanding bass work from Sharad, real speaker-shaking bottom end.
Love it.

The album ends with a one two of Martyrs and Skin and Bone, the former is another stomping, crusty anthem with some metallic riffs that will send crowds mental, the latter being a doomy, crawling number at the start, that the drums join at around the two minute mark to create a nasty, lumbering beast of a track with a hauntingly atmospheric guitar solo, before becoming complete Whitehouse-style noise that cuts off suddenly and is replaced with the sound of an air raid siren.

Take heed, Ilsa mix together all aspects of the underground and may well be one of the bands of 2013.

Out now on a389 Recordings.

a389 Recordings
Ilsa (facebook)