Obscure-ish down-south grind/ sludge/ hardcore/ death circa 1997. Equal parts Starkweather, Soilent Green, and Acid Bath. Definitely worth a spin if you're unfamiliar.
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
Monday, June 13, 2022
Scala
Ghostly ambient electronica from more or less the exact point where sexiness meets cold pit of the stomach dread... Think HTRK reinterpreted by SPK and you've got a pretty good idea of what to expect here.
I believe the main guy behind Scala is (or was?) also involved with Seefeel and this other project called Locust whose "Truth is Born of Arguments" album is one of my all time favorites within the realms of left-field electronica.
Sunday, June 12, 2022
Anthrax
Woke up with this song stuck in my head this morning which is sort of weird 'cos I don't think I've listened to the album in well over a decade. Great riff and surprisingly on-point lyrics.
The comic nerd in me wonders if that's an Alex Ross painting on the cover, but, as is often the case, I'm way too fucking lazy to google it.
Weekly-ish Roundup #14
Blah Blah:
Still sorta reeling after a rough couple of weeks but I think I might finally be starting to feel the ground under my feet again... We'll see.
In other news, we ran into that friend of ours who ghosted us a while back while we were up at the bottle shop. It was uncomfortable and awkward... Dude didn't acknowledge us or say hey just silently did his thing and left.
Did a quick bit of mental accounting trying to remember if we had done something to offend him but came up nothing so I guess this one falls solidly under under the auspices of "I don't fucking care."
Seriously, at this point I'm "officially" middle aged and I have less than zero patience for bullshit high school "Guess why I'm mad at you" drama, especially from another grown man... I try not to be a dick to anyone, and if I inadvertently hurt someone's feelings I'm man enough to talk about it and apologize if I did something wrong, but if you decide you don't like me out of the blue one day that's your problem, not mine.
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Muzak:
Deinonychus - Deranged suicidal black metal/ doom circa 1995. Membership ties to Bethlehem. I've always had a wicked soft spot for this album.
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Murmuüre - Ostensibly a black metal album, but most of the sound-field here honestly sounds more like the Tim Hecker/ Ben Frost/ Final/ Fennesz brand of distorted ambient music. Awesome.
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Egregore - First Impression is that they remind me of a grindy Morbid Angel with lots of reverb and some spaced out synth parts. Some of the fastest parts remind me of a more melodic/ less unhinged Gravesend. All told I'm really enjoying this, will see if it becomes a favorite.
https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/the-word-of-his-law
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Video Games:
Mario Strikers: Battle League - Reminds me of NBA Jam but soccer and with Mario characters. A little but light on content, but pretty fun if you have someone to play it with.
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Drainus - New horizontal sh'mup with really pretty graphics and a vaguely Ikaruga-style bullet absorption mechanic.
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Reading:
Couple books of Celtic Folklore
Slaine
Andraste
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Tube/ Podcasts:
Cryptonaut Podcast
Euphomet/ Night Drive
Doomed Megalopolis
Ultraman
Kamen Rider
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Friday, June 10, 2022
Alive Or Just Breathing?
Fuck man... This has been a long week. In a long month. In a long year. Here's the Cliff's Notes version to get some of it out of my head and down on paper.
-Lost my uncle Mike recently and it hit hard because he was like a father to me. Only member of my immediate family that ever encouraged my art or music when I was a kid, and that was probably the one of the main reasons I kept on keeping on with any of it.
-Mike was also a totally lovable wild-man that I now realize was a huge influence on my personality and I find myself wishing I could give him a hug and have a cookout with him one more time and just kinda tell him thanks for everything.
-DD collapsed this past weekend and wound up in the hospital it was scary as fuck but after tons of bloodwork and tests it looks like it was nothing particularly serious. Something called a vasovagal syncope which I'm pretty sure is just medical jargon for "I dunno."
-If we hadn't wound up in the hospital on Saturday there's every chance we would have been up on South Street when that mass shooting popped off? 'Cos we were heading that way when she collapsed. Scary as fuck.
-She was down with a headache yesterday, probably 'cos we had a couple late nights in a row and she's still recovering from all the blood they took at the hospital, but it fucking rattled me 'cos all I could think was: "did they fucking miss something?"
-DD is my wife, my bandmate, and my best friend and if she was gone I literally don't know what the fuck I would do... At this point in my life I have no friends, no family, and my world is pretty much just her, a room full of music gear, and a small handful people I email about music every once in a while... The rest of the world feels empty, hostile.
-I was gonna quit doing this webzine because it honestly kind of feels like a waste of time sometimes, but now I'm thinking I might as well keep going because it gives me something to do that takes my mind off the other bullshit.
-I've been missing a lot of dead friends lately. To the point a random memory of playing the Darkstalkers arcade machine with my friend Anthony almost made me cry yesterday.
-All of this shit has hit my sense of well being like a ton of bricks and left me feeling really fucked up and off balance, but I guess I'll just grit my fucking teeth and keep fighting through it.
-One foot in front of the other. Keep Breathing.
Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Weekly Roundup ??? Possibly 13? Who the fuck knows.
Blah Blah:
-Coherence at low ebb, you get bullet points this week.
-DD is home, recovering... Thank fuck.
-We bought an Alesis SR-16 mostly 'cos they're super cheap and pretty much THE weapon of choice for 90's bargain basement industrial metal/ spastic digi-grind/ and one man black metal skuzz.
-Chipping away at the "leftover" Infestation Ritual tracks... I honestly feel kinda bad calling them "leftovers" because the only reason they didn't wind up on the demo was down to time and some sucky family stuff that derailed the recording process.
-Working on a couple tracks that add drums and guitar to our wasteland drone/noise rituals and kind of wind up sounding somewhere between Chu Ishikawa, Emit, Demoncy, Megaptera, Troum, Fabio Frizzi, Legion of Andromeda, Godflesh, and Beherit... And yes, every bit as fucked as that sounds on paper.
-I think I've slept like 14 hours in the past week. My brain is fucking mush right now.
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Muzak:
Uranium - Blackened power-electronic barbed wire machine-rape nightmares. If you survive even the first half of this album you're made of stern stuff indeed.
https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/wormboiler
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Realize - It might be just me but I kinda think realize Sound like the singer of Brawl Park fronting Streetcleaner era Godflesh. Pretty killer.
https://realizeindustrial.bandcamp.com/album/machine-violence
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Pink Turns Blue - Ultra dramatic machine driven post punk from Germany. I'm guessing Eremite probably isn't the first album most people think of when they think Pink Turns Blue, but I think it might be my overall favorite of their records... Super weird and cold sounding. Distant. Wintry. Whacked out.
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Chrome - Unpopular opinion: The later-era Chrome stuff fucking Rules. Totally fucking wrecked psychedelic electro-punk spew.
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Hawkwind - Same deal with Hawkwind, their late era stuff is awesome and super slept on. Chronicles of the Black Sword might even be my favorite of their albums, maybe tied with Choose Your Masques.
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Beherit - Still on a wicked Beherit kick. Was just sitting in the dark with DD, drinking a beer, and listening to Engram while a thunderstorm raged outside, recommended.
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Video Games:
Chop
Drainus
Steel Vampire
SFIII: Third Strike
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Reading:
The Elric Saga Vol.1 by Michael Moorcock
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Tube:
Ultraman
Jigoku
Wolfen
Fear City
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