Mini-Reviews from Around the Toilet Bowl: 10-22-15
This week in bite-sized reviews you can uze…
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With the Dead – With the Dead
Rise Above Records | October 16th, 2015
I had absolutely no idea a project featuring none other than LEE DORRIAN (ex-Cathedral and ex-Napalm Death) alongside Mark Greening and Tim Bagshaw (ex-Electric Wizard) was in the works, and knowing what doom these individuals are capable of conjuring, my Sabbath sense has been tingling for a while now. Enter With the Dead, a record that lives up to the legacy of each of its members and then some. Bass-heavy, fuzzy guitars over pounding drums mixed with Dorrian’s signature shouts aren’t anything terribly innovative, but this is doom we’re talking about here people, and some very high quality doom at that. If you’re a fan of any of the aforementioned bands or the genre in general, give this a spin and grab a copy here. — MoshOff
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Party Cannon – Bong Hit Hospitalisation
Gore House Productions | July 7th, 2015
However you envision a cannon fit for a party, there’s a very good chance the word “fun” will be an apt descriptor for what you’re seeing, and in that regard Bong Hit Hospitalisation is probably a perfect aural match to your (probably filthy) mental imagery. This is one of the more entertaining slam/brutal death/whatever albums I’ve come across in a while. It’s got all your usual elements (pingy snare, pinch harmonics, breakdowns), with a side of technicality and riff chops that put more than a few “real” death metal bands to shame (stringy bass tapping included). Also the guitar tone is unusual for slam in that it doesn’t suck, and the samples and song names are pretty funny. Jam it here and pass the bong around, just be careful where you point that damn thing. — MoshOff
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IRON MOUNTAIN – DURIN’S TOWER
DICKCRUSH RECORDS | JULY 19, 2015
THIS NEW DICKCRUSH ALBUM OFFERS MANY WAYS TO GET YOUR DICK CRUSHED! WILL THE HUGE, TOWERING RIFFS CRUSH YOUR DICK LIKE A BOULDER FLUNG BY THE GIANTS OF THE MISTY MOUNTAINS? WILL THE DRONING FUZZ CRUSH YOUR DICK LIKE A CREEPING NAZGUL FURTIVELY SMASHING YOU IN A MIASMA OF EVIL? WILL THE THUNDERING PERCUSSION CRUSH YOUR DICK LIKE AN ARMY OF MEDDLING ORCS BATTERING DOWN THE GATES OF THE MINES OF MORIA? ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT! PRESS PLAY AND GET YOUR DICK CRUSHED. — W.
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Tanagra – None of This is Real
Independent | February 10th, 2015
The United States epic storytellers of Tanagra started their career with a great Power Metal album. Swirling and morphing, the crunchy guitars flies away from the traditional speed pulsating riffing with melodic acrobacies and vicious solos, without saturating the songs and the softer parts. I felt that the vocals are somewhat restrained in some songs, but in “Antietam” invigorates the ballad moments, and in the second half of the record the chorus gain more punch with the double vocal harmonies. “The Path to Talmor” closes in a grandiose mood the circle and serves as a testament that this band is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned in this style. — Link Leonhart
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Sacrificium Carmen – Ikuisen Tulen Kammiossa
Saturnal Records | October 30th, 2015
Black metal. Review over. Sacrificium Carmen is a Finnish black metal band all the way through. They’ve got corpse paints, buzzsaw-tremolo-riffs, croaked vocal stylings, blasting drums, Satan and all that jazz, except no jazz at all. If I hadn’t received a promo I would never have continued the pre-release track “Pimeän Silmän Goetia“, which in a sense would have been a shame since it does get better than that. “Nemesis”, “Verialkemia” and “Julman Sana” are good-ish bm tracks that show the band has a potential for growth, but overall the album is a bit of a slouch. Even the aforementioned tracks aren’t truly unforgettable; in fact, the best thing about Ikuisen Tulen Kammiossa is the nearly inaudible bass. Once you find it, you’ll notice it’s hypnotic pulse is more akin to the way one would expect a band to utilize keyboards. — Karhu
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Corpse Molester Cult – Benedictus Perverticus
Apostasy Records | October 23rd, 2015
Death metal is a very, very hard to genre to stand out from today. You need to have extremely tight songwriting, catchy riffwork and blistering leads wrapped in goddamn perfection. Or Martin van Drunen. Corpse Molester Cult has neither and it’s called Corpse Molester Cult, seriously. But, Benedictus Perverticus is actually kinda fun and a pretty good four-track EP. It grooves down to the bone, without ever entering the the death ‘n roll territory ,and much of it, “Raped By Seven Zombies” particularly, is quite catchy. Likewise, its bass-heavy production shies away from the sunlight sound, opting for a murkier tone. Vocals are low growls like one would expect, and strong ones at that. So while there’s nothing outright brilliant here, I would be surprised if this band went nowhere. Props for the Ghost-inspired cover-art (Joutsen is a fan, so definitely Ghost-inspired). And for the fact that it took me five weeks to find out Tomi Joutsen is in this band. — Karhu
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Giles Corey – Giles Corey
The Flenser | 2011 / 2015
A Voor’s Head Device is a “hood worn over the head to induce mild asphyxiation and hallucination“. It graces the cover of Giles Corey, which was originally released in 2011, after a suicide attempt by the sole member of Giles Corey Dan Barrett (also of Have A Nice Life and Black Wing). Why cover it now? It’s being given the vinyl reissue treatment by dark experimental label The Flenser, responsible for this year’s excellent Mastery record VALIS, among many others. Giles Corey doesn’t fit neatly into any genre; it falls well inside the boundaries of not-heavy-metal-but-really-fucking-heavy. Led by an acoustic guitar, it’s bleakly melancholic folk with tinges of industrial noise. It’s pained screams meets pretty melodies, choral singing, and out-of-nowhere piano playing – that’s just on the first track! I’m reminded of the brilliant genre mixing of Burial Hex as well as Velvet Underground’s classic “Perfect Day”. Sounds pretty far-fetched, right? It’s no wonder this album developed a cult following after its original release. Giles Corey is a close up, personal examination of the depression that can lead a man to take his own life. It’s pitch-black, surreal, and grossly evocative. This record is a must listen. Check it out on Spotify. — Edward
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General Lee – Knives Out, Everybody!
Basement Tapes Industries/Don’t Trust The Hype/Grains Of Sand | June 15th, 2015
France is the gift that keeps on giving, and there seems to be no shortage of quality music being delivered from within their borders lately. If you think the band General Lee is based on the four wheeled Confederate flag from the Dukes Of Hazzard TV show, you would be correct. On Knives Out, Everybody!’s ten tracks, General Lee puts the keys in the ignition, skids out in a mud puddle and leaves Bosshog’s white suit covered in filth after he just got it back from the cleaners. Their brand of chaotic hardcore is soaked in whiskey and all dressed up with a rock n’ roll swagger. Feedback starts and ends in almost every track as if the band deliberately ignored the recording engineer’s pleas to turn the amps down. Part of the allure of this album is its courage to experiment beyond the borders of the style of music they are playing in. Scattered across the album, you’ll find hand claps (that’s right hand claps), mariachi horns, varying degrees of melodic vocals and some nicely executed female vocals on the album’s closing track to go along with a healthy dose of Botch style noisy guitar passages. Grab that mason jar full of illegal moonshine you just copped, speed away from the police and be sure to sound the General Lee’s goofy horn to add insult to injury when you do it while blasting this. — Ron Deuce
