Albums to Flaunt

A short, recent visit to various blogs seemed to show that almost every extreme/alternative music bloggers are putting up posts about their pick of the year’s best handful of albums. Funny. Why do we need to flaunt our personal musical preferences, annually?

Well, I guess I’ll go along and flaunt the two albums that have been spinning rather persistently on my favorite playlist this year (as if anyone’s paying attention at all).

Tolling 13 Knell

Hatred for Mankind

Not enough flaunting yet, eh?

Mortuary Drape and Dragged Into Sunlight are THE DEFINITIVE KILLER BANDS this year for The Ars Totum Requirit Hominem temple of unbridled misanthropic lust.

Nuff said.

Rare Moments

It is so fuckin rare, that a good cover art on a Metal album actually correspond to good quality music inside. Maybe it’s all about taste, but I didn’t exactly get hooked with, let say, Iron Maiden’s “Killers” album just because the cover artwork is great?

Anyways, this bloody great German Doom band has in my opinion managed to have themselves that ‘fuckin rare’ moment with this 2007 album. The cover art is great (haven’t seen such good occult-tinged shots lately), the music is great, what else could a metalhead ask for?

Well, maybe some additional beers would be nice?

Triune Impurity Rites

Killers’ Eyes (and Ears)

Some say you can tell from a person’s eyes if he/she has killed before. It’s that thousand miles-sight in a killer’s eye, so they say. Empty, vacant, indifferent. Glad I have met a few of such intriguing characters.

As fucked up as it may sound, I think you can also sense where a person has been from their taste of music. At least that’s how it seemed with what some of my uncanny acquaintances prefer to listen to. Does it say much about their character?

Maybe. Maybe not.

It’s still is nice to know that some who are more misanthropic and less scrupulous than others also have good taste in music.

4th Volume of The Sabbath (1972)

The Beastly Number (1982)

My Kinda Tree

If this is how X-mass is going to be celebrated everywhere, then I’m all for it!

Mr. Anders(s)on

Which Mr. Anders(s)on is better?

That guy above surely has the best choice of color for his attire. Nothing beats a priest-like black robe and shades to boot. Plus, he has some kick ass moves too.

This other guy, however, creates the best flavor of Dark Ambient music I could ever crave for. Plus, he’s doing it for real rather than just acting it out. So I definitely chose him over the former.

Whatever.

My kinda Anders(s)on

Darkness, undisputed

What was it that many in the good ole “snail-mail and no-internet” underground said about Sigh and Master’s Hammer? Avantgarde? Heck no.

The way I remembered it, they were just admired for being truthful to their lyrics and image and for creating music like no other fucker does to top it all off.

It’s good to know that they are still doing exactly the same thing throughout the years. Even with all those theatrical trumpets, timpani, violins, cellos and samplings galore, I can still feel the darkness of the musicians oozing through every track.

As experience has always shown, real ‘darkness’ can never be limited by stupid categories. And this is darkness, undisputed.

Trumpets from Hell

Hell’s opera

Tribute to Blogs - The Super Hoarders

Is hoarding really such a bad habit to have? Not when it’s about meticulously collecting extreme music releases it’s not. Bearing that in mind, I’m just blown away with the range of stuffs presented by these blogs. They are for me the super hoarders of extreme music blogging.

Compendium Metallicum

There’s a lot of blogs featuring lots of extreme/alternative music genres out there. Nothing, however, is as impressing as the angry chairs (or is it ‘angrier chairs’ now?) The blog doesn’t only parade awesome collection of albums after albums, spanning decades, but it also provide concise, easy to understand info on each musician. Heck, it even grouped them into a sort of ‘discographic’ thread with all the necessary albums featured. Definitely, an awesome way to browse for lost and longed musical stuffs of the filthier kinds.

superb hoarding #1

The 70s Galore

The 70s is a magickal era in music, as far as I’m concern. Almost nobody is playing the exact same way as others do even when they practically played the same genre. So, to cut the crap short, finding a blog that actually features well selected collection of 70s Hard and Progressive Rock (with good, succinct info for each featured musician[s]) is really a treat. Good, ever expanding 70s stuffs. Long live the fucking blog.

superb hoarding #2

Hell’s Radio

What would a Metal Music museum be like in a world of blog? Me thinks ‘radio666sw’ might just be the answer. The collection is really awesome. Even with the lack of any information (other than what particular business-music-defined genre a certain musical work is) the collection that this blog hoarded is just amazing. I suppose not all of the infernal radio’s collection accounts for everyone’s taste (whatever the fuck that should mean), but with a logo featuring Iron Maiden’s iconic mascot ‘Eddie’ an old (or die hard) metalhead just can’t go wrong.

superb hoarding #3

Stained to the Bones

The name, the artwork just wrung me by the neck like stupid cows to the slaughter. Granted, it doesn’t seem to be updated regularly, but who gives a shit anyway? This blog has the right feel and type of collection for any old and diehard headbanger to dig into. Most of the stuffs here are Heavy Metal, the good ole way. The rest are some of the most intriguing, rather rare Doom/Speed/Thrash Metal galore. Fuck, it feels like being in a candy store here.

superb hoarding #4

Deep Stains

It has been an on and off affair, me delving into the depths of extreme underground music. I must have stayed ‘away’ for quite a few years before stumbling back into it through the goddamn internet. And yet it feels just like yesterday.

I guess it’s true what few have told me, some things do stains real deep and can’t be buried, washed away or forgotten.

In my case, some truly great ‘dark and sinister’ Metal releases are just so good it has stained me forever. Thought it might be good to share them with the anonymous world of blogs. See if anyone gets infected (or perhaps re-infected) as well...

Ancient Rites’s The Diabolic Serenades (1994)

Pentagram’s (Chile) Demo I (1987)

Testament’s Legacy (1987)

Bulldozer’s Day Of Wrath (1985)

The Blog Next Door

If you have a blog of your own, have you ever log off and then try to check out your blog as an outsider? I suppose many bloggers have done that. But have you then also tried clicking on the ‘next blog’ thingy in the navibar above?

I found it to be quite hilarious sometimes.

Just recently found out that there are 2 family-based blogs right next door to my blogs. Full of happiness and laughter and photographs of cuddly cute kids, I can’t imagine a better juxtaposition in the world of blogs.

Fuckin A!!

Wonder who will find me as their neighboring blog...???

Lazy Wet Day

It’s been raining cats and dogs (and cows and elephants etc) all day long. One can’t even go out for a decent doze of alcohol with the blasted rain.

What would be one’s best company in such weather, aside from booze? I suppose a little Raison d'être wouldn’t hurt, wouldn’t it?

Enthraled by a Freaking Rainstorm

Tribute to Blogs - Second Batch

The Haus of Witches (?)

Lemme see, house music can also muck around with spooky themes and images, can’t it? Maybe even slowed-down the sound-mixing tempo as well to add a ‘dark’ tinge to the music? So what do we call it then? Occult Trip? Hell Disco? Heck no, let’s call it Witch Haus. That’s what the genre’s pioneer said wasn’t it? It don’t matter that the guy was just joking around. It’s a catchy pigeon-hole moniker. It’s a catchy marketing buzzword. It makes House music sounds ‘dark’...Now if only we have a whole blog dedicated to this shit....

Witches’ Haus

The Eclectic Bizarre

Is there anyone who is not eclectic in his/her musical preferences? I suppose not many people are monolithic in their taste of music, but those who are eclectic beyond standard expectations are just as rare and bizarre. This blog is -in my view- a perfect example of how bizarre an eclectic taste of music can be. You have a somewhat bewildering mix of mainstream, classic Jazz all the way to neo-classical stuffs, hybrid Darkwave/Jazz/Free jazz stuffs, Black Metal and -hell yes- Grindcore. Anyway, the great informative description of the jazzier-side of things in this blog is quite a treat for a sore mind.

Jazz and Whatnot

The Bygone Days Galore

The word ‘bygone’ might refer to nothing more than OSDM or first/second wave BM for those familiar with the underground extreme music scene. Others might also think of NWOBHM or FWOSHM. However, this time the word goes even farther back in time to the medieval dark ages. Well, maybe not that too far back but I’m still digging in this ‘archaic’ stuff so I could be wrong. Anyway, this blog is -as far as I know- the one and only that focuses on medieval music and the collection is absolutely fantastic.

Gettin’ Medieval on Your @#$

Why Bother?

Lately, I have been thinking about statements that have been repeated over and over again by various bloggers of extreme/uncanny musical art. That is that people looking for downloads should at least have the courtesy of saying something (like a simple thank you) about the post/blog of origin.

I got me no arguments about that, but what I’m wondering is why go to blogs if people are just looking for downloads? Might just as well type in the musician’s name and album in filestube for that, eh??

Is it because people are looking for references? To try and figure out which one is worthwhile downloading or buying?

I’d like to think something else is causing all these indifferent downloaders to search through the blogs. It’s the bloggers’ unique opinions and attitude on anything s/he posted.

So, what if I say that the following musicians are really stupid and that their split EP sucks a lot? Would anybody stupid enough to visit this blog actually bother to check them out afterward?

Yeah, who gives a shit.

oOoOO & White Ring (Download at your own risk)

Filthy Surprises

I never thought the 2000s can still bring forth tasty, filthy, hate-inducing musical marvels as the good ole 90s did. Turns out I’m quite wrong. Here are my four picks of the decade’s end tastiest filth and darkness anyone could ever bite and shred.

2008’s Witchtanic Hellucinations

2010’s Under The Hammer of Destruction

2011’s Doom of the Occult

2010’s Under The Sign Of The D-Beat Mark

Tribute to Blogs - First Three

Black Metal of the Anti-Gravity Kind

As far as I’m concern, there is no limit to what kind of dark and satanic theme Black Metal can incorporate into its fold. Who says evil should only be constrained on this ball of dirt or a Judeo Christian-centered myth anyway? So, it’s definitely nice to see a whole blog dedicated to the less obvious of Black Metal’s legion. I’ve also heard in passing that many North Americans find the subject of UFOs and Aliens far more unnerving than the typical “Satan/Devil” things. Sounds like themes that would fit perfectly with Black Metal.

Space Full of Vile

Hungarian Delight

There is one thing about Hungary that I’ve learnt since the great snail mail & tape trading days: this country never produces mediocre, easy to pigeon hole kind of bands. They always have that bold and original mark of identity even when playing the most obvious of underground clichés. Which is why, a whole blog dedicated to the scene is just too much to pass by.

Tasty Hungarian Treat

Beautiful Dementia

Going home from a long, tedious office bullshit day, trapped in a sea of traffic jam where people are swarming like maggots, one can really conjure some of the most demented pictures in mind. This blog, with all of its haunting and almost ethereal parade of ‘dark’ pictures is a real catharsis for such moments. No words. Just a gallery of morbid thoughts, and maybe some experiences too. I wish this could go on a public exhibition near my hometown. Can’t wait to see the reaction of those self-righteous art-snobs.

A Morbid Stroll

Tribute to Blogs - Prologue

I know there’s a lot of good blogs out there that I have yet to check out. I also know most bloggers put their preference of blogs on a side bar ‘blog list’ or whatever it is supposed to be called. That is how others do it. I’m of course doing it my own way.

The blogs I’m going to list, from time to time, are those I found to be most uncanny, be it from the type/quality of stuffs featured or the extent/coverage it presents. I just think these bloggers have really shown the true meaning of being creative when it comes to music blogging.

Since this is going to be a long post, I’ll probably post it on two-three parts.

Well, maybe four parts.

Then again, maybe five...or six.

I just hope these blogs sticks around long enough for more people to enjoy them.

Mr. Weedick

Can’t really recall where I got that picture from. I’m naming it the ‘Weedick-bear’, just so a good enough reference can be made to the said picture. And what Mr. Weedick is reminding me about (with his handsome attire, green cock and all) is about uncanny music.

Does uncanny means original? Maybe. Maybe it just means being excessively creative, more so than the average underground-Joe. All I know is some underground bands really are as uncanny as you can ever get, to the point of being highly unnerving and I just freakin’ love it when they are so.

Take the Italian Black Metal anomaly, Necromass for example. Their 1994 debut ‘Mysteria Mystica Zothyriana’ is anything but orthodox or mainstream. It sounds as baffling and unnerving now as it was when I first heard it in ’94. This shit is sick and haunting without even pretending to be so.

The unnerving Mysteria

As if that wasn’t weird enough, the underground had also spawned Singaporean Eternal Oath. While their two demo tapes have shown signs of weirdness, their 1998 cassette EP ‘Ar Est Celare Artem’ just put the whole weirdness things to a completely new level....

Sure, there are those ‘normal’ Black metal parts, but then there are also those “Mr. Weedick has a flower up his ass” moments that are just too weird to describe. We’re talking weird clean vocals and an assortment of even weirder keyboard tunes here, plus an out-of-the-blue, freaky choice of South East Asian traditional musical instruments (i.e. goddamn Indonesian bamboo angklung, for crying out loud).

Can’t think of a better soundtrack for a big black bong or Mr.Weedick’s decapitation.

Singaporean weirdness galore

That ‘Perfect’ Sound

Perfection is bullshit. Anyone who has lived long enough ought to know that. However, from time to time you do get to feel that special moment when things just feel almost ‘perfect’.

I know I had some of those fleeting moments and most of it has to do with music. Extreme underground music, no matter the genre, does have those special shits.

For me, it’s when the sound/production of a release (either demo tapes or full lengths) just captures each and every instrument in the right balance, and sort of ‘live-up’ to whatever imagery the musician projects.

Take Disastrous Murmur’s 1992 debut for example. The way the songs sound, from the first until the very last one (as far as I’m concern) really lives-up to the gory imagery portrayed in the album cover.

Heck, I don’t even dig ‘gory’ Death Metal that much, but this one just shreds so much it’s impossible not to like.

Rhapsodies in Meat

Now that is the kind of production that deserved to be called ‘perfect’.

Sweet, Sweet Filth

Sometimes, filth is so good that you just have to have it three times around. For me, ‘filth’ in music is not so much about the grittiness of the recording production it’s also about the whole atmosphere created by the music.

Call it old-fashion, but I just don’t get that kind of vibe much from most of the newer extreme metal bands nowadays.

Anyway, I called it filth when it makes me want to skinny dip into a bathtub full of Jack Daniels’ sweet cocktail, or onto a squeaky bug infested bed with a ‘red-moon’ femme fatale on top.

I might even do way more than that with these great pieces of filth from Gehennah (NO, NOT the American HC ones), Sodom and N.M.E.

Hardrockin Thrash Filth from 1995

1984’s Victims of Filth

Unholy Filth

Yup! It’s time to cut some flesh and vomit a few brain cells out.

Thursday Night Fetish

It’s Thursday night, and I’m always in the mood for some freaky happenings on Thursday. That goes for music also, other than just booze and women. Rather than hearing some tried and tired stuffs I would always challenge myself to something less obvious.

Tonight’s the night for some challenging listens. Starting with the unbelievably far-beyond-its-time dark and haunting musical work of Italian progressive rock band, Jacula. The band is supposedly founded in 1968 in Milan as an experimental project by Antonio Bartoccetti, Doris Norton (a.k.a. Fiamma Dello Spirito), organist Charles Tiring and medium Franz Porthenzy.

Tonight, the band’s debut 1969 album is first on my playlist...a great piece of instrumental soundtrack, for vile deeds and a bloody night out.

In Cauda Semper Stat Venenum (a.k.a. freaky Italian Prog-rock)

Next up is weird-hybrid time by All The Empires Of The World. Hell, I don’t even know how to start describing this one even to myself. I do, however, kind of like the way their label bullshit about it...

“All The Empires Of The World operate on that strange threshold between ambient music and Very Loud Metal Music. They shift effortlessly between drifting atmospherics, cataclysms of downtuned sludge, shimmering clouds of shoe-gaze noise, creeping ur-Sabbath squeals, seismic low frequency jams, single guitar meditations, beautiful post-rock dashes and transcendental riff worship. The live show is crushingly loud, bruising, beautiful and crushingly loud.”

Yeah, sure, something like that will work. It’s free anyway. And, it’s never boring.

Return (....to freaky instrumentals and screams)

Last, but not least, is a little Darkjazz cocktail from The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble. This is one piece of uncanny mixture of styles that I really can dig me fangs into. This is highly recommended for late night stalking, down the sidewalks and maze of alleys, with a cold steel at hand.

From The Stairwell (and into the dark street corners)