2011 - Patchie

There were an awful, awful lot of top releases, of which I know I have missed many, but here are a few highlights for me.

Ravens Creed - Nestless and Wild
-total thrash/death madness, true heavy metal!
Tree of Sores
-Unique future-crust, psychedelic crushing doom.
Anathema - Falling Deeper
-re imaginings of some of my favourite songs ever written, transcending genre.
Sigiriya - Return to Earth
- eclectic and unique, riding a wave of fuzz on a surfboard made of your favourite records.
Lifer - Cursing them Out
-good old 90s style head stomping metal. A breath of fresh air.
Arkham Witch - On Crom's Mountain
- British Steel. Lovecraft bangs his head and worships these riffs.
Lifelover - Sjukdom
- even more poignant after the death of B.
Peste Noire - L'Ordure à l'état
- utter headfuck of a black metal masterpiece.
Hateful Abandon - Move
- post-punk influenced urban blight
Rawhide - Branded for Life
- Sleazy rock n roll, like Entombed doing Motörhead.

Gig of the year has to go to Iron Maiden at the Belfast Odyssey Arena, not just for the show but the entire experience of a wonderful city in some beautiful surroundings.
Special mention to Ravens Creed, Arkham Witch and Sigiriya for the Devil's Church gig, which again was an awesome day out!

Now…off to await the big announcement Iron Maiden have planned for 9pm tonight…

Patchie

July 11

On the Death Decks this month:

Tree Of Sores

Iron Witch - Single Malt

Lifer - Cursing Them Out

Thorns - Stigma Diabolicum

Sabbat (UK) - History of a Time To Come

Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse

Masacre - Ola de Violencia

Hadez - Extreme Badness on the World

Storm - Nordavind

Hateful Abandon - Move

Peste Noir - L'Ordure à l'état Pur

Tree of Sores - S/T Album

It's taken me so long to get this review up for one reason or another, but one of the main reasons I held back was to make sure I wasn't over reacting.

The main reason for this is that Tree of Sores' debut (on Witch Hunter) is one of those rare releases that wears it's influences proudly, but still manages to bring them together in such a way that you can't put your finger on the band, you're drawn back again and again to try and discover what makes this album so compelling.
Amongst the waves of Amebix-style crust bleakness, melodies and grooves that bring to mind Damad/Kylesa at their most hypnotic. When I first heard Monolith by Amebix, I listened to it over and over again for about two months; I did the same with this album, and that's pretty good company to be in. After a dark, blackened crust type intro that the previously mentioned 'bix would be proud of, the album winds it's way through five tracks, each one claustrophobic yet with all the expanse of sound normally associated with po-faced post-rock shoegazers, giving the songs an oddly uplifting feel not unlike jesu, even on From Within, with it's Killing Joke-esque tribal drumming from Ben and "plea/response" vocals from Matt and Talia, but especially on Sandford which brings to mind British post-punk being played in a darkened squat, the ending of the song being total late Godflesh/early jesu bigness..
One of the benefits/disadvantaes of popping this review out so late is that I've had the fortune to read other reviews of the CD; a lot of people seem to be missing is that this album makes one feel insignificant, compressed and crushed by such a rolling black ocean of sound, preferring instead to cop out and compare them to Neurosis, a comparison I don't think is fair, as Neurosis have never sounded so wounded and utterly fucking fed up; a feeling that brings to mind two of their home county's enduring locations, the moor and the coast of the North Sea. I'm looking forward to catching the band live and seeing how they evolve in the future.

In a nutshell: Amebix and Killing Joke have a knife fight with jesu and Kylesa, causing Antisect to reform.


Tree of Sores (paywhatyouwant/myspace/facebook/twitter)
Witch Hunter Records

Playlist 5/11

Tree of Sores

Horslips - The Táin

Crass - Feeding of the 5000

Amebix - Monolith / Arise

Gang of Four - Peel Sessions

Sepultura - Morbid Visions

Pagan Altar - The Time Lord

2010

It's that time of year again, where we look back on what's gone on in the past 12 months.
Normally there would be a load of gigs in my list as well, but not this year.
There has, however, been a wealth of releases in 2010, so much so that when I was compiling this list I was utterly amazed that some of these were only released this year!
So, in no particular order, let's see what we've got.

Ghost - Opus Eponymous
Long awaited debut by Rise Above's new signings.  Initially a bit disappointing after the Mercyful Fate-esque darkness of the preceding 7" and demo, however, a grower that is actually just as good, if not better than them.

Black Breath - Heavy Breathing
Skogsberg-worshipping Seattleites kick out the jams on this from Southern Lord.
Total Motorhead/Crust punk knife fight in Chris Reifert's back yard.

Watain - Lawless Darkness
Harking back to the good old days of early black metal, Watain strip down to a melodic Hellhammer/Sodom type vibe, a refreshing change from overproduced modern black metal.


Darkthrone - Circle the Wagons
What can be said about Gylve and Ted that hasn't already been said on here?  Polarising opinions again, they are back with a slab of 80s Metal, filthy crust and dark humour that is over the head of quite a few people in the so-called scene.
Total class.

Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier
The build up to the release of each new Iron Maiden album raises the same questions, and each time Maiden answer them emphatically.  As relevant as any release on this list, The Final Frontier is Iron Maiden's best album for 20 years.

Black Sun - Twilight of the Gods
Glasgow terrorist's sixth album shifts through anger, sorrow, hate, anger... it's a very angry album.
Don't listen to it whilst you're driving.


Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. 2
Shifting away from all out Black Metal, more experimental prog/hard rock influences creep in, which is no bad thing.  Still filthy.


Alcest - Écailles de lune
French Black Metal that is as far away from LLN as you could imagine.  Introspective and brooding, akin to Amesouers etc (there are two members of the band in Alcest after all).  Rewarding, kind of post-Black Metal.  Now that symphonic BM seems to have gladly bitten the dust, we seem to be moving off in two directions; vltra-kvlt and feeling sorry for ourselves.  I like both.


Electric Wizard - Black Masses
Spooky cover of Venus In Furs aside, Electric Wizard have released an album that has had people scratching their heads, I'm on the side of people who actually like it. They've made an artform of jamming a riff until it means something else.


Kylesa - Spiral Shadow
It would have been hard to top last year's Static Tensions, and Kylesa do, and don't at the same time.
Energetic and dynamic, set side by side with mellower, trippy passages.  The only respect in which it doesn't top ST is because it shouldn't have to.


Xasthur - Portal of Sorrow
Guess which branch of Black Metal Xasthur's (apparent) final album falls into? That's right.
Cloying and suffocating, you get drawn in to this album before you realise there's only one way out.


Cathedral - The Guessing Game
Twenty years on, and Cathedral are still releasing fresh sounding albums like this.
A double disc with songs covering all kinds of ground.


Deathspell Omega - Paracletus
Quite experimental, even by DSO's standards, a less polished release than we are used to, and absolutely all over the shop.  Manic and demanding, but rewarding.


Autopsy - The Tomb Within
I know it's only an EP but hopes were high for this one and Reifert and the boys didn't dissapoint.
In no way is this a tribute or cash in, the new tracks here sit comfortably against their back catalogue.

Grand Magus - Hammer of the North
A worthy follow up to 2008's Iron Will, this saw the development of the band into a more classic-sounding metal band, without ever quite crossing over into the pastiche of metal that is power metal.
Every song on the disc is an anthem, and it gets better with every listen.


Orisha Shakpana - Spectral Duppymaan Black Metal

Jamaica's Lord Ifrit plays all instruments on this, and embraces the evil of man that is evident on the islands in the Caribbean to create some 80s style, hissy, monochrome, necro Black Metal.

Jamaica is just as scary as anywhere in Europe, filled with it's own mythology the heat and darkness of the islands can be felt throughout this album.

Even finishes off with a Slayer cover. 

All Pigs Must Die - All Pigs Must Die
A couple of "big" names in this group (Ben Koller, Kevin Baker) but don't worry about that, this is nast WB2D style hardcore with a metallic edge.  Reminds me of mid-period Discharge.

Bongripper - Satan Worshipping Doom
Sleepy instru-Mental fuzziness from Chicago. Four songs; HAIL - SATAN - WORSHIP - DOOM.
Does exactly what it says on the tin.


Conan - Horseback Battle Hammer
Local boys come good.  Stringbending, skullrattling low end dementia, momumental riffs in a sea of overdrive.
For fans of sunn/Burning Witch etc.

Grave Desecrator - Insult

Coming out of The Brazilian darkness...Rio's favourite sons return with more ultra-thrash.
Much respected at Claw Towers, this Sodom/Hellhammer/Sarcófago style classic has been getting a lot of airplay.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

Enslaved sit atop mountains at the top of the world with the latest in their fusion of psychadelia, black metal and full on vikingness.  Did Vikings listen to prog? They do now.

A great mix of the epic and the claustrophobic, Enslaved transcend their Black Metal roots to create a unique fusion of seemingly unrelated genres, prog-rock style basslines mixing with tremolo picked guitars, leaving me thinking more than once of ships sailing out from harbours under cold, cloudless night skies.

A prime example of where Black Metal should be in 2010.

Which brings me nicely onto the Turkey Of The Year...I don't know what exactly it was that I expected, but you still let me down Varg.  Belus was as if time had stood still, but not in a good way.

Like when you bump into an old friend you haven't seen for years and he's still telling the same jokes.

Reissues:

I know that they don't really count, but I must draw your attention to two reissues from this year, namely the Sanctuary Records deluxe editions of Black Sabbath's Seventh Star and The Eternal Idol, two massively underrated albums from a turbulent era of Sabbath's past, both firm favourites with Thee Claw.

It's the extras that really shine here; nine tracks from a 1986 gig with Ray Gillen on vocals, and the Gillen version of The Eternal Idol, remastered and properly produced.

This week:

On the Playlist:

Hateful Abandon - Famine
Peste Noire - La Sanie des siècles
Watain - Lawless Darkness
Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. 2
Alcest - Écailles de lune

Not So Strange Bedfellows

On a friend's recommendation I recently got a copy of English band Hateful Abandon's 2008 début Famine (Into the Bellies of Worms).
It was sold to me on the strength of being "Joy Division worshipping Black Metal" and that's not far wrong, You can hear elements of all kinds of dark late seventies/early eighties pop on here, think Killing Joke, Warsaw, Public Image, even Bauhaus and The Fall mixed in with modern black metal a la Amesoeurs or Lifelover, which aren't as different as you think, I mean there are themes of alienation and misanthropy running through the output of all these bands.
When it all comes together, such as on the track Boiling Seas, what you have is a truly unique sound that works unbelievably well, but don't expect a BM album, as with Amesoeurs etc, black metal is only one of many influences here and is not worn on the sleeve.
There's more to come soon, I believe they have finished sessions for an upcoming release recently, and I look forward to hearing more from them.

Hateful Abandon Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/hatefulabandon

Best of 2009 (Patchie)

There have been so many amazing releases this year that it's been hard keeping this article to a reasonable length.
Normally at the end of each year I'll pick out ten or so things that have come out and present them in no particular order, but this year I've been enveloped by three releases so strongly that I had to pick out an actual overall "best" of 2009. So what were those three releases? Well, in third place....

PORTAL - SWARTH

Portal's latest full-length, Swarth, sees Australia's finest antique death metallers fly off on yet another tangent. The music contained on this disc is technical death metal that sounds primitive and raw, with production that makes your first listen sound as hypnotic as any early nineties Black Metal, but is clear enough that after each following listen you can pick out more and more details. Lovecraft inspired metal that actually makes you feel as if you are living in that age instead of just being lyrically influenced.

In second place:

LIFELOVER - DEKADENS

Sweden's Lifelover are a band that I have followed for a while, and on this EP they have delivered their best set of songs yet. Lifelover take the isolation of Black Metal out of the forest and into the cities, creating a sound that is only in part influenced by black metal but ends up sounding more black metal than most other things I've heard this year. I have spoken to a lot of people who hate this EP though, a lot more than like it. Good.

Vocally, a tortured performance from () but Non's drumming being a high point for me, excessive use of the cymbals and amazing drum rolls.

This EP was my best release of the year, then my second best, then the best so many times, and the only thing that made it number two in the end was the fact that it's only an EP and as such a full length album "won" this year. And that album is...

Patchie's #1 release of 2009:

AMESOUERS - AMESOUERS

it was a bit of a no-brainer really wasn't it? It was released in April, I first heard it at the end of March and this is what I said about it then:
Set to divide opinion in the world of Black metal is the eagerly awaited debut full length from France's Amesouers.
Described by the band as "a kaleidoscopic soundtrack for the modern era", this is 11 tracks of music that encapsulates everything from shoe-gazing post-rock (how I hate that term), through chanson-style French pop, to - yes- howling Black Metal, quite often in the same track.
They may seem like odd bedfellows, shoegaze and Black Metal, but it works.
I don't know how, but it does.
Black Metal has often been about the alienation and isolation of the northern countryside; what I feel here is an album about the solitude of modern city life.
Many attempts have been made by BM bands to become a bit more modern and urban, but I've always felt that they've failed...not here though.
I'm going to put my neck out and say that this is my favourite release of 2009 so far, and there will have to be some fucking strong albums coming out over the next 8 months to knock this off my top spot.
Like I say, the eclectic mix of styles present here won't be to everyone's tastes, but if you like black metal, and you like the introspective nature of the likes of Ride, Cocteau Twins et al then give it a try.
French metal doesn't begin and end with Trust you know.


Since then i've listened to this album at least once every week, and I have got more and more from it as time has passed. Blending so many styles without sounding forced can't be easy, but Amesouers manage it here, this album really drew me in and made me feel like it was the soundtrack to a film about a busy city and it's dark underground.
Amazing.




Coming Close:

Church of Misery - Houses of the Unholy
Sabbath-infused madness from the Land of The Rising Sun, Church of Misery finally grab doom by the throat and carve out their own, unique sound.
Gig of the year as well.

Heaven and Hell - The Devil You Know
Dio, Butler, Iommi and Appice in a return to True Metal Greatness. What did "The Prince of Darkness" do this year that was worthy of attention? Oh yeah, a World of Warcraft advert.


Sarke - Vorunah
Ted and Sarke combine to bring an LP of modern metal infused with old style soul and wit. Stands on it's own without being a Darkthrone side project.

jesu - Infinity
Beautiful, textured, rich, and in parts back to the heaviness that JKB's fans have been crying out for such a long time for. One track encompassing everything we love about jesu.


The Devil's Blood - The Time of No Time Evermore
Full length from Holland's spookiest retro rockers. Alongside new tracks, a couple of tracks from the demo get an airing here, with ultra-clean production and amazing vocal work.


Beherit - Engram
The first "proper" Black Meal album from Beherit for 15 years, and a total kick in the skull to pompous, overblown "symphonic" BM. Holocausto conveying his (un)usual vocal delivery. Only knocked out of third place by Portal!!

Also well worth your dirty money this year was:

Count Raven - Mammon's War
The Gates of Slumber - Hymns of Blood and Thunder
Tietanblood - Seven Chalices
Fenriz' Red Planet - Engangsgrill
sunnO))) - Monoliths and Dimensions
Baroness - Blue Record
Kylesa - Static Tensions
Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
Megadeth - Endgame
Greymachine - Disconnected
Gravedigger - Ballads of a Hangman
Jesu - Opiate Sun
Olde Crone - S/T
Death In June - Lesson One: Misanthropy
Death In June - Black Angel live!
Urfaust/Joyless - Split EP

Disappointment of the year: Shrinebuilder. On first listen it sounded immense, second listen only lasted two songs. It's still on the shelf. I'm prepared to be proved wrong and I'll admit it here first.....

Side Darkness/ Side Evil

Floating my boat this week/month

Baroness - Blue Record
Shrinebuilder - Self Titled
Demon - Night of the Demon
Megadeth - Endgame
Treblinka - Severe Abominaton
Stone Roses - Self titled
Motorhead - Rock And Roll
Black Flag - Damaged
The Pitchfork 500
Melvins - Stoner Witch.
Witchcraft - ST/The Alchemist
Saint Vitus - Hallow's Victim
Bathory - The Return of the Darkness and Evil/Bathory

It's going to be a hard task to put together a best album of 2009 list.

This week

LIFELOVER - Konkurs/Pulver MSG - The Micheal Schenker Group/MSG Darkthrone - Panzerfaust AC/DC - If You Want Blood You've Got It Mayhem - Life Eternal / Deathcrush jesu - Heart Ache Witch Cross - Fit For Fight

On the death decks this week

...as well as lots and lots of Voivod....

 

KAT - BASTARD 

 Early 90's Polish thrash masterpiece. I have NO IDEA what they are on about in these songs though!

Playlist, year 31 edition

on thee death decks this week:

Beherit - Engram (Spinefarm 2009)
Scorpions - Tokyo Tapes (RCA 1978)
Motorhead - Snake Bite Love (CMC 1998)
Bathory - Twilight of the Gods (Black Mark  1991)
Church of Misery - Houses of theUnholy (Rise Above 2009)
Darkthrone - Total Death (Moonfog 1996)
Iron Maiden - Buenos Aires, Argentina (Bootleg, 2009)
Black Sabbath -Technical Ecstacy (Warner 1976)
Venom - Possessed (Combat 1985)

Playlist

floating my "boat" this week:

Amesouers - S/T (Code 666, 2009)
Witch Cross - Fit for Flight (Roadrunner 1994)
Beherit - The Oath of Black Blood (Turbo Recs, 1991)
Olde Crone - Olde Crone (psycheDOOMelic, 2009)
Alice Cooper - Constrictor (MCA 1986)
jesu - S/T (HydraHead 2004)
Anathema - All Faith is Lost (Demo 1991)
Metal Church - The Dark (Elektra 1986)
Anvil - Metal on Metal (Attic 1982)

Slow Time

Bit of a slow time at the moment, because we are in the no-man's land between the end of one year and the start of the next.
Some things that have been tickling my ears this week (including a few that should have been in the bast releases of 2008 but I somehow forgot):

Angst Skvadron - Fluct (Agonia Records 2008)
Avant-garde, space obsessed Black Metal from Urgehal mainman Nefas.
Any album that uses the five note communication sequence from Close Encounters as an intro to a black metal song is worthy of attention.
The Devil's Blood - Come Reap (Ván 2008)
Occult-obsessed retro rock from one of my favourite bands of last year. I'd been listening to this that much that I forgot to put it into the best of 2008 list. Five new tracks on this LP, following on in the vein of the 2007 demo and the Graveyard Shuffle 7".
Forbidden (US) - Twisted Into Form (Combat 1990)
Total old school thrash classic. If you don't love this you don't love thrash.
Amazing non-falsetto vocals from Russ Anderson, and spot on drumming from Paul Bostaph before he ruined himself joining jock-rock titans Slayer. Currently redeeming himself in Testament.
Deep Purple - Burn (EMI 1974)
Glenn Hughes and David "Thee Squire" Coverdale join the band on this album, and it still sounds like a breath of fresh air 35 years(!) later.
Flux of Pink Indians - Neu Smell (Crass Records 1981)
Angry, meat-free anarcho punk from Hertfordshire. Tube Disaster still makes me smile, for some reason.
Think Crass, think Rubella Ballet.
Gehennah - Hardrocker (Primitive Art 1995)
What can I say about this album? It really needs it's own post on this zine, a big long post about Say Hello to Mr Fist and Skeletons in Leather. It's hard to imagine this album being anything other than tongue in cheek, but Gehennah were deadly serious.
If you like early Venom and the direction Darkthrone are moving in at the moment, you could do a lot worse than getting hold of Gehennah's back catalogue and drinking some good European beer listening to it in your leather jacket/patched denim vest.

Visual Aggression

On the death decks this week when I was in work (to the 19th Dec)

Entombed - Uprising (Music For Nations, 2000)
Sepultura - Beneath The Remains (Roadrunner, 1989)
Pentagram - First Daze Here Too (Relapse, 2006)
Saint Vitus - V (Hellhound, 1989 - my copy Southern Lord Re-issue, 2004)
Zyklon - World ov Worms (Candlelight, 2001)
Pentagram - Turn To Stone (Peaceville, 2002)
Darkthrone - NWOBHM (Peaceville, 2007)
Isengard - Vinterskugge (Peaceville, 1994)
Capricorns - Ruder Forms Survive (Rise Above, 2005)
Darkthrone - Under a Funeral Moon (Peaceville, 1993)
Darkthrone - Transylvanian Hunger (Peaceville, 1994)
Darkthrone - Panzerfaust (Moonfog, 1995)

two thousand and fucking eight

's that time of year again, the end of another twelve months of travelling, headbanging (hetpenging), sleeping on floors, drinking, spilling tea all over bus floors, surviving on vegan curries and foreign sweets. We outdid ourselves this year, visiting some amazing cities and meeting some new friends along the way. It's pretty hard to pick the "best" of the year out of everything that happened, and I'm sure I've overlooked some stuff, but let's see... Top Gigs of 2008 (in no particular order) Cathedral - Damnation Festival Waited around sixteen years(!) to see Coventry's finest again, and they didn't let me down, apart from not playing Soul Sacrifice, but you can't have everything. Dorrian's Eyes!!! Motörhead/Saxon - Manchester Apollo Thee Head were amazing at Donington, but you can't beat seeing Lemmy and the lads in a theatre. The fact that it was a double whammy with the legendary Saxon too just made this Heavy Metal Heaven. Pagan Altar/Lamp of Thoth - Doom Metal Inquisition Amazing set from thee Lamp, a band on the brink of greatness, and as ever, a masterclass from NWOBHM/Doom legends Pagan Alltar, in the sweaty confines of Bradford's 1 in 12 club. Iron Maiden - Twickenham Stadium As part of the "Somewhere Back in Time" tour...a setlist to die for. I finally heard Wasted Years live, and as such can die a happy man. Morbid Angel - Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall Maze of Torment? Check. Chapel of Ghouls? Check. Evil Spells? Check. David Vincent may be the most unintentionally camp frontman in Death Metal but Morbid Angel are faultless live. Ravens Creed -Leeds Fenton Bank Holiday Monday, and an almost completely empty Fenton (shame on you) was treated to some true, underground thrash, worshipping the idols we grew up with. Fuck all this Earache nu-thrash nonsense. Gloomy Sunday/They Are Cowards/Black Sun - Manchester/Bradford The same three bands played at the Star and Garter and the 1 in 12, and laid waste to both. Three of the most intense bands walking this earth, all together getting drunk and loud....nasty. Deviated Instinct/Extinction of Mankind - Bradford A childhood dream come true, total terminal filth stenchcore in a sort of one-off, the pit fucking stank at this gig, and I was right in the middle of it. Two bands that will be sorely missed by me. Trouble / Grand Magus / Church of Misery / The Devil's Blood - Roadburn, Holland. The roaburn festival this year was a ball from beginning to end...from seeing John Lennon as Steve Harris in Liverpool Airport through hungover eyes (we'd been to Leeds to watch Witchcraft the night before) to trying stuff all our merch, CDs and Vinyl into our bags in the airport coming home, not even the non-appearance of Celtic Frost could ruin this weekend, with those four named bands being the highlights for me. The only way they could top this would be to get Saint Vitus and Angel Witch back together to play next year....oh wait...they have.... Albums of the 2008 (Again, in no particular order): Darkthrone - Dark Thrones and Black Flags More blackened crust thrash from Gylve and Ted, true as fuck. Jesu - Why Are We Not Perfect? Something to relax with, sonic dreamscapes from Justin K Broadrick, expanding on the jesu ethos and blasting off into space. Motörhead - Motorizer A great album from an amazing band who never dissapoint, the new songs sounding amazing next to the classics in a live environment. Grand Magus - Iron Will Total fist-pumping, headbanging heavy metal. Very modern whilst still retaining that old-style true sound that Thee Claw loves. Lamp of Thoth - Portents, Omens & Dooms Victorian England's premier doom trio with their first full length album, updating some demo tracks and a weighing in with a couple of new compositions, recorded by gaslight in a Yorkshire stately home for you to listen to on your gramophone. Black Sun - Paralyzer Filthy fuckers from Glasgow who will come to your house, drink Buckfast and not flush the toilet after themselves, because they are in rush to get their clothes off in the pit at Charger gigs. They Are Cowards - Demo My tip from the underground for 2009...slow, brooding, hate-filled sludge from the wastes of Northwest England. With riffs....oh my god the riffs!!! Personal Highs and Lows: Highs: Kirk Windstein telling me never to shave and kissing my cheek. Orange Goblin playing some Saxon for me. Singing with Skum onstage with Motorheadache. The fact that me and SJW can now navigate our way around any major (and not so major) European city. Finally seeing Deviated Instinct. The birth of Thee Cult ov Cold Lake. Lows: The death of Richard Wright. The fact that Metallica are still recording, and performing a sell-out UK tour. Celtic Frost pulling out of Roadburn and splitting up. Not being able to get a copy of sunnO)))'s Domkirke LP after a 1,500 mile round trip to actually attend the performance that this recordng was made at back in 2006. Anyway....next year is going to be even better!! \||||/ STAY TRUE!! \||||/

On the Death Decks

Aural pleasure this week:
Damascus - Open Your Eyes
Dorsal Atlântica - Antes Do Fim / Dividir & Conquistar
Saxon - Into The Labyrinth (Promo)
Cathedral - The Garden of Unearthly Delights
Sepultura - Beneath The Remains / Schizophrenia
Darkthrone - Goatlord / Total Death
Isengard - Vinterskugge
Lamp of Thoth - Cauldron of Withchery
Motörhead - Another Perfect Day / Orgasmatron

Listening in November

Destruction - Sentence of Death
Darkthrone - FOAD / Dark Thrones and Black Flags / Soulside Journey
Onslaught - Power From hell / The Force
Witchcraft - Witchcraft

It's getting to that time of year again where I would be putting together some form of Best of 2008 list;
But to be honest there have been so many releases that are worthy this year, and so many amazing gigs that we have been to it's hard to know where to start!
I'll do my best for you though! Probably the next time you hear from me (unless I hear some amazing new album or unearth some lost gem before the weekend - speaking of lost gems, check out NWOBHMBLOG^†) will be my review from the Damnation Festival.
Till then, keep it trve and ignore young bugs!

\|||/ Patchie \|||/

^†I very rarely link to download sites, mainly because I feel that proper record/cd collections are vastly superior to mp3s, but most of the links on NWOBHMBLOG are to out-of-print EPs that would be forgotten about if it wasn't for sites like this. If you don't speak the language, use it in conjunction with Encyclopaedia Metallum to unearth some classics.

This week's playlist in images

(and how good are some of those photos? The last two being particular favourites)

July's End Worship

Getting me through the days:
Pentagram - Pentagram / Day of Reckoning / Be Forewarned
Lamp of Thoth - Various Demos
Witchcraft - The Alchemist
Storm - Nordavind
Saxon - Strong Arm of the Law / Denim and Leather
Raven - All For One
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky / Soulside Journey / F.O.A.D. / Goatlord Demos

Just a little bit of advice - If you go through a break up, don't listen to Neurosis or Today is the Day!!