I wrote about John Holmes and posted up their final album a while back here, so I am not going to patter on about this awesome bands legacy and lineage again. All you need to know is that El Louso Suavo is a monster of an album. A ugly, crust influenced monstrosity of hardcore smashing its way through Deadguy and The Jesus Lizard style noise rock with a suitably British sense of nihilism.
This originally came out on Flat Earth Records who have recently put their entire back catalogue up for free download. This is a label that introduced John Holmes, Hard To Swallow, Manfat, Ebola, Sawn Off Drop Dead, Witchknot and tons more to my young ears. They made an impression on my musical education.
Writing about the work of Jodorowsky is a task in itself. Everyone has varying opinions on his work. So instead of getting hung up on what its all about lets just enjoy the jazzy, funk, acid trip score to his Surrealist, spaghetti western classic, El Topo.
I really don't know why I am posting this. Its so obvious and known. I recently got a bit nostalgic and went digging through some old tapes and found a few demo's from some very early bands I was involved in. One of them used to cover the track "Deathcrush" and it got me wanting to listen to this record again.
Simply put, you should know this record by now. Its been around some time. Raw, noisy, evil infected black metal made by a bunch of kids who thought they had no future. Shame it panned out so well for them.
Despite the meagre number of followers on here, I can pretty much garuantee that most of you have a pretty good knowledge of music and know something good when you hear it. Of those I pesonally know, sorry, I can pretty much wager that you are going to like this post.
I missed this album first time round, not suprising really, part of the Youth Attack Records stable, limited vinyl release, talked up across the boards and copies fetching upto 200 sheets on Ebay ( Christ!). Despite all this, its done the rounds online and across the blog networks and reached quite a few more people than anyone (including the band) probably intended.
To cut a long story short, Cult Ritual have pretty much found the perfect middle ground between AmRep noise rock, Sub Pop whistle and screech and good old hardcore punk and fashioned an immensly noisy and enthralling album that doesn't hold back in its screaming feedback and broken glass guitar sound while never compromising dynamics or forward thinking. Essental doesn't really do this justice but its far more venomous and angry than a million identikit chugging hardcore bands and posseses more energy and chaos than any number of so called punk rock clones. Cult Ritual are a pretty good definition of genuine hardcore thinking.
Yes. You would be right in thinking that the dude on the far right is indeed that tool from Downtera. Now, I know how well liked Pantera are by most knuckle dragging metal fans but I have no love what so ever for them. Not after paying a small fortune as a teenager to see them be kneecapped on stage by Anselmo's drunken and stoned ranting many years ago. What I do have love for is this album he was involved with back in the late 90's. Necrophagia had been knocking about in one form or another since the early 80's.
As far as I could gather they had actually split up by the late 90's but reassembled with Phil Anselmo ( or Anton Crowley, as he goes under on here) handling all guitars. This line up recorded this album and a couple of Ep's before it all changed again.
This is really the only period of the band that interested me. The band where hitting this sludgy, Autopsy punk like groove and possessed a really harsh guitar sound. This album was released at the same time as a video compilation featuring the current band playing in the infamous House Of Shock. Each track had a different video involving band members. I mean, one look at the cover art tells you where they are coming from cinematically.
As such, there is some complete Fulci/ Bava worship going on here as well as a huge slab of rotting, low budget gore. Witness drummer Wayne Fabra masturbating into the hair of a girl he has recently shot.
See Anton Crowley huff glue and get drunk with a big boobed lady in a graveyard.
See Killjoy sacrifice a woman with a huge fake muff.
All pretty cool. Add to this lot a video paying homage to Fulci masterpiece The Beyond and another track with footage from Jim Van Bebber's classic Roadkill : The Last Days of John Martin and its a pretty creepy, repulsive death metal classic. You can't argue with some of the riffs on here, or the nasty atmosphere it creates.
Learned this morning of Pete Postlethwaite's death after a long battle with cancer. Despite making a few solid gold turkeys in his time he had the same thing Morgan Freeman had in that he brought a level of class and professionalism to everything he did. RIP.
The coolest thing when I was a kid. A dodgy goth guy in make-up. A pretty violent comic book. The Crow was all of these things. It had a pretty sweet soundtrack. Medicine, The Cure, Rollins Band, The Jesus And Mary Chain. Here's the soundtrack.
You all know that band Dead Swans? Well this is what they did before. Good old, straight forward, AN/Boston worshipping hardcore. Fast to the point songs that stick in your head and finish before you even realise it.
"Because we are food for worms lads. Because, believe it or not, each and every one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold, and die."
We ain't had any Clevo appreciation yet on the blog. So instead of posting my favourite Integrity albums ( which I more than likely will at some point) like everyone else does I thought it more interesting to leave you this one. Integrity off shoot, In Cold Blood.
I came across this originally on a Victory Records comp in a record store in Orange County, CA about 10/11 years ago. They had the song "Lost In Doubt", which kicks in after an acoustic refrain with a shredding guitar solo before the bellowing and doom laden guitars start crushing. It made quite an impression on me. I heard this before I was aware of Integrity ( who where also on that comp) or any of the Clevo sound.
You can read all about the history of this band at other places on the Internet so I won't bother, suffice to say if you dig Integrity then you will like this. Its all part of the same sound really. Maybe ICB have a more old school approach to hardcore than Integrity did but still with plenty of lead heavy, metallic muscle to back it all up.
Its all over with inside of 25 minutes. Plenty of solos and fierce breakdowns that put to shame most stuff these days and it ends with a nuclear explosion. Holy Terror lives.
Any in the know hardcore kid nowadays could easily reel of love for Coliseum. Easily. Maybe some would mention Black Cross, Lords, Breather Resist (very soon) and Christiansen. But not many could recall or claim to have heard of the very band that spawned all these musicians and laid the foundations for the rulers of the current Louisville, Kentucky indie scene. Criminally under appreciated by most hardcore kids during there far to short life span and still passing under the radar of most folk nowadays. Here we have a very important album for me, For All Practical Purposes Is Dead by The National Acrobat.
I remember hearing the name mentioned in a few magazines years and years ago when there second Ep, Can't Stop Caspar Adams was released. I really liked the description and stuff I was hearing about this band but could not for the life of me get hold of a copy. Obviously this was before the Internet was as wide spread as it is nowadays. None of the mail order distro's stocked it so I consigned myself to putting it on the list of bands I would never get to hear ( that was a mighty big list back then). Then browsing through Manchester's Vinyl Exchange one day a year or so later and to my barely contained surprise this Ep popped up for 6 sheets. That is what started my love for The National Acrobat.
I could waffle on for ages about the intricacy of the guitar work and forward thinking song structures. How its a nearly perfect fusion of DC math rock, snotty mid west punk and burly east coast muscle. How vocalist Caspar Adams voice draws a line across your opinion or even how cohesive while still pulling in every direction each track is. It would be doing a great disservice to them. You just need to hear it.
Besides the Ep's they released a couple of 7"'s and appeared on a few comps. Initial Records did put out a complete discography some years ago that as far as I know is still available. Its worth the tracking down.
A very recent find. This band don't exist anymore. They recorded this final album and then disappeared, presumed dead. I imagine there is a completely normal reason for this but I like my creepy version instead. Its hardcore but with a massive doom and Entombed obsession. And before you say it, yes. Just like Cursed. A friend described its appeal as "for people that get hard over Cursed". Which is simple enough really. If you miss the Canadian juggernaut then give Worship a toot.
YES! Hellhammer worshipping, crusty, Black Metal inspired dirty hardcore played by punks. Wolvhammer have captured my attention with there sound. So so good. Here is there latest recording which they are giving away free. Sorta like Breach if they grew up on Celtic Frost and BM.
Here we have the final recording of the legendary John Holmes. As important to people as Iron monkey where in my opinion, to people that knew them. Maybe without the media popularity, but the various members histories and presence amongst the Northern UK music scene speaks volumes. True fact : The reason Narcosis started pulling faces was as a mick take of JH bassist Gords. It then obviously took on a life of its own after that. But that is where it comes from.
This album is a lot more stripped back than previous effort El Louso Sauvo. It has a more punk rock approach. When it first came out it took me ages to get into it. I didn't think it was any where near as good as previous efforts but I was very wrong. Give it a whirl.
After quite a bit of hip hop on my previous posts lets have something noisier shall we. Because, like they claim in Empire Records "thats why teenagers are angry these days! Metal and rap.".
Noisy is the best way to describe 90's power violence legends In/Humanity. Bearing from South Carolina and existing for a quite spectacular 6 or so years they put out albums, 7"'s and quite a few compilation appearances. The reason why they are legends? Having a sense of fucking humour and the intelligence and skill to inject there music with it. I'm not talking about stupid jokes and over the top attempts to be whacky ( 90's Fat Wreck anyone?) it was more a humour of pointing and laughing at others, in jokes that only they got. That is why In/Humanity rule hard. Schreeching, chaotic, snarling, discordant anti-social hardcore. This below is the discography CD that came out back in 2000. Its not everything they ever recorded but gives you a great idea and good place to start in getting your head around this awesome band.
It was on the cards but still always sad to hear bad news like this. Guru lost his battle yesterday. Kick back and pay your respects by listening to Jazzmatazz Vol.1.
Childhood favourite. Now as a 28 year old adult ( on paper at least) it is still one of my all time favourite films, and one which kick started my obsession with apocalyptic fiction and film. Here we have the original score composed by Brian May, the Australian composer with a similar name to the other more famous one. Dramatic, haunting and in all honesty far to intense to actually drive to ( as I have found out on the many occasions I have hit the motorway with this blaring).
Also for anyone with as much interest/obsession with the Mad Max universe as I do then its worth having a gander at this timeline some dude called Alex Maddison has compiled. Taking information from the novelisations of the films and various other sources he has compiled a pretty awesome read of how society broke down, the formation of the MFP and how the various characters came through the series. Complete geek stuff but I love it.
Long forgotten about except for people in the know at the time. Canvas where the black sheep of UKHC back at the turn of the millennium. Based on Household Name Records ( back before they jettisoned the whole metal/hardcore angle and pursued easier listening avenues) and possessing a sound far harsher and ear shredding than any of there peers, Canvas progressed from the early Unborn, Slayer and Catharsis influenced screeching metalcore to something altogether different. But more of that later.
For now is the first full release they ever did. Released back in 1998, this self-titled release collects together the first 2 years of the bands adventures in recording land. Culled from demos, splits and releases that never got um...released. Its rough in places but I still love this album. Canvas took metallic hardcore and combined that with death metal, black metal, noise and power electronic influences and threw the results onto tape. It didn't always work but when it did it was pretty forceful and gave you a hint at what was to come.
My love of the original, 1989, Dolph Lundgren starring Punisher film has been well documented on the old blog. It is a far superior version than the shoddy-as-a-shoddy-thing, 2004, John Travolta cursed turkey. They tried, but the softening of the Punisher character just didn't fly with me as did neither Travolta's lumpen acting or Thomas Jane's far to chirpy Frank Castle. So a further Punisher film was made. The Punisher War Zone followed in 2008 under a cloud of studio intervention, rumours and general on set trouble. I did nearly miss this one. No cinema release over this side of the Atlantic meant it slid onto DVD pretty slyly and I kept noticing it for about a year before finally grabbing it up ( at a bargain price of 4 queen heads!) and I regretted not doing so sooner after viewing. It knocks the 2004 version apart from the off. Death, gore, guns galore and in Ray Stevenson a much better suited and believable Punisher than Thomas Jane. He lives in the sewers and actually kills folk with guns! Instantly better. Dominic West is a superb, cartoon villain and the action set-pieces are full of as much gore and bullets as Punisher fans expect. Every aspect of this is infinitely better than the 2004 version. Its actually an 18 Cert as well! I would ramble on about the film but I ain't the best about writing/talking/explaining stuff so I have uploaded this interesting addition to the Punisher library of original stories for download. The Punisher kills The Marvel Universe was a one-shot from 1995 that changed various details about Frank Castle's back story to accommodate the plot. A plot that was pretty off its head but also pretty unintentionally funny. Basically, the Punisher spends the story tracking down and exterminating the entire, super powered, Marvel universe characters. That's right, he shoots them all dead, or blows them up, or melts them, or executes them. Superbly funny stuff.
You will need the Comic Book Reader program. But its free and mega easy to find on the Internet so I won't link you to it or anything, you should be able to manage that one yourself. x
Teddy Pendergrass March 26, 1950 – January 13, 2010
Maybe I'm a bit slow with this one. Only found out last night. Rest in peace you soulful, smooth bastard you. He made his name with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in the early 70's then a solo career that saw him achieve super stardom beyond anything he had done before. He did get caught with a transsexual in a car crash but seeing as he has spent the last 20 + years confined to a wheelchair due to this they let him off with that one. Here's his debut, self-titled album from 1977. Superb R'n'B indicative of the times. And still stands up today. Make sure you brought a spare pair of panties ladies.
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