A New Age

Three of Brazil's wonkiest and most intolerant one-man NSBM bands are featured here on Chaos To Unleash A New Age. Evil, S.A.R., and Thallium have all been featured on the Hearse, all are among my favorite purveyors of South American retardo-black-misanthrope-metal. This 3-way hatefest has exclusive tracks from the bands (including a Brutal Attack cover from S.A.R., and a Graveland cover by Thallium.) The usual Cosmic Hearse caveat about being sensitive to fucked up ideologies applies here.

Hate!

Who Saw Her Die?

Starring one-time James Bond actor, George Lazenby, Who Saw Her Die? chronicles the anguish of sculptor Franco and his estranged wife Elizabeth as they unravel the secrets surrounding the death of their daughter. They uncover a shadowy world of old timey withcraft, twisted Catholicism and a host of bizarre characters. Who Saw Her Die? has a depth of emotion and characterization not generally seen in most gialli. The choice of Venice as a location is beautiful and creates a damp and claustrophobic atmosphere. Add a most unnerving using a children's choir from the master, Ennio Morricone, and you have one of the best non-Argento gialli ever made. Highly recommended. Now get the soundtrack.

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Total Control

More Gai rarities ripped from this awesome reissue CD from Japan's Anarchy Centre Records. This is mainly for Sean and Slobo for providing me with so much killer noise punk, but the rest of you are totally welcome to it as well. Oh, and happy birthday, Matty Luv, wherever you may be.

制御

Womb of Pestilence

Warloghe is yet another stunning Finnish Black Metal band. Womb Of Pestilence is the band's second album. It was released in 2003. Uncompromising, cold, and ancient Black Metal is Warloghe's forte, no progressive wankery, no post-rock influence, no nature-loving hippie bullshit, just occult darkness and arcane pitch black misanthropy.

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Shakin' Street

This one is for my band mate Christy Cather, I know she goes for this kind of thing, but you will too. After leaving the Dictators, but before joining Manowar, Ross The Boss hooked up with some fellow New York musicians and the lovely and enthusiastic Fabienne Shine just off the love boat from France. They formed the band Shakin' Street and made a couple of really fun albums of hook-laden power pop that spot the mildewed record bins of thrift stores all over the US of A. Here is the band's self-titled second album. Every song on here is a gem, but I am partial to "Solid As A Rock" which could be the anthem at the triumphant end of an '80s teen sex comedy where a group of rag tag teenage misfits overcome their differences to beat those snobby rich kids in a boat race, or golf game, or whatever. Sad that something this tasty remains generally unknown, but we're changing that right now, motherfuckers.

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A Call To Arms

The comparisons to Destroyer 666 are unavoidable and not without reason. Gospel of the Horns was formed when former D666 skinsman Ballistic Howitzer jumped ship to play bass and sing in a new band. After a couple of great demos and EPs, Gospel of the Horns released A Call To Arms, their first full length in 2002. It is a fist-pumping, headbanging amalgam of all that is good about Black, Death and Thrash metal, driving riffs, anthemic choruses, and lyrics about war, domination and power. Vicious and proud, Gospel of the Horns are the Australian metal elite, ready throw back a pint with their mates, but just as ready to throw down the gauntlet if necessary.

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Patricia

Doc Corbin Dart, the nasally voiced muckraker of The Crucifucks, released Patricia in 1990, a solo album of dark and tortured almost-pop dedicated to and named for his therapist who was treating Dart for a personality disorder. Apparently she moved her practice, Feeling completely devastated and abandoned, Doc set to writing this painful, and oft-overlooked album. Doc Dart's trademark voice wails brutally candid lyrics describing, with unnerving openness, a mental breakdown, a tortured life, and the anguish he must live with everyday. It's an off-putting listen while also being quite touching. This was originally released by Alternative Tentacles on cassette and LP.

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Guest Poster: Ezra Lux

Today is a very special day around our house, it is Ezra's 8th birthday. In honor of this momentous occasion I have decided to hand the reins over to him to write about any music-related topic he wishes. Ezra chose to write about his five favorite album covers. Happy Birthday, little man.

I like the Iron Maiden cover because it's like Eddie right outside your window and he is hovering over you.

I like the Butchered At Birth cover cause it's gory and R rated

Unleashed In The East is a good cover cause they're clothes are weird and they're rockin' out in steam..

I like Dealing With It by D.R.I because they're fighting with happy faces on TV and they're destroying the house.

Storm of the Light's Bane is a very good cover. It's like doom man on a doom horse in doom land.

Zaaku

You motherfuckers all went nuts over Paul Von Aphid's black acid punk crust noise fuck known as Demon City Reaper, the man was so flattered that he wanted share his Black Metal band Zaaku. It is just the sort of distorted buzzing high weirdness that we crave here at The Hearse. It would seem that Paul's outsider art genius knows no bounds. Thanks again, Mr. Von Aphid.

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Asoka

Here's some excellent Swedish hard prog stuff from 1971. I find myself writing this too often when it comes to these rare '70s rockers, but this was Asoka's one and only album. Enjoy.

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Total Retardation

Hanatarash's 1996 7" EP Total Retardation. Graciously sent to me by a reader whose name I forget. I am totally retarded for not remembering. This is fucking rule!!!

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Flipside Vinyl Fanzine

Being a suburban Florida punker in the '80s I hungered for new issues of Maximum Rock n Roll and Flipside. This was my connection to the greater punk world that existed beyond the flaccid dick shaped state I was stuck in. While MRR was a great resource for finding out about the Japanese and Finnish band's I was obsessed with, Flipside was a bit more light hearted and generally better written. Also their kick ass Vinyl Fanzine compilations made me like Flipside all the more. Released in 1984 on vinyl and cassette, Flipside Vinyl Fanzine Volume 1, like all the great American Punk comps of the time, had some favorites of mine (The Freeze, F, GBH) but it also hipped me to some that would become favorites (Scream, The FUs, Government Issue, AOD.) It also had some crap (ASF, TSOL.) Each band contributes an intro bit in attempt to tie in the whole fanzine theme (Scream's being the most memorable.) Maybe not as important an artifact as Let Them Eat Jellybeans or Rat Music For Rat People, but still worthy.

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Corporeal

I lost touch with my strange friend Shannon. Turns out she up and moved to Baltimore and got married. Even stranger is her and her husband, Dustin, started a Black Metal band exactly the sort Cosmic Hearse goes crazy over. You know, weird, lo-fi, fumbling, mysterious. They decided on the name Corporeal, and Shannon went to work on the logo. When Dustin informed me they were sending a copy of their first tape release my way I was stricken with anticipation. When it arrived I was not disappointed in the least. To those who share my love of raw, peculiar Black Metal recordings I have one word, Corporeal.

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Yogurt Live

Back when I posted the Yogurt tapes I mentioned the short-lived live incarnation of Yogurt of Matty Luv (guitar and vocals,) Chubby (other guitar with one less string and in a different tuning than Matty's and vocals) and myself (children's drum kit from the '50s and vocals). This line up played a handful of shows in the Bay Area in 1999. Here is a pretty quality board tape from a matinee show at Gilman Street. The first song is an IT IS I cover then it goes downhill from there. I'm fairly sure this the show where Matty and I did a ton of Ritalin and I was caught drinking beer by the Albany police department, they were going to arrest me on some outstanding warrants but I used the old jedi mind trick of training my mind on fruit salad, and they let me go. Unfortunately this tape cuts off before we played "the tough guy metal one" which was our song "Real Men Cook Their Heroin In The Belly Of A Goat" which had lyrics stolen directly from Darkthrone's "Paragon Belial." Nothing here is as wonderful as the 4 track recordings Matty did in his room, but might be of interest to the die hard Naked Cult devotee, or anyone interested in bad music played by bad people. I've been sitting on this recording for some time now and felt it was best to get it off my chest and into some earholes. Enjoy. Oh, and that graphic has nothing to do with Yogurt or Ritalin or Jedi Knights, it's from the weirdest schizophrenic christian conspiracy pamphlet I have ever seen titled Prison Penned Comics by Richard McCoslin. Dude at the top is the Phantom Patriot, guy below is The Revelator. I love you.

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Lazarus

Some greasy basement thrash from a crew of Dutch bangers calling themselves Lazarus. This came out in 1991 and shows some acute Death Metal tendencies. This was in a huge box of discarded demos I found about two years ago in San Francisco. While Lazarus isn't going to blow your mind, I imagine you might enjoy this on a road trip or a picnic that involves beer.

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State

State were a hardcore band from Michigan. They only released a killer EP titled No Illusions in 1983, and an LP titled False Power in 1987. I became aware of these guys through the Killed By Hardcore comp which bore the No Illusions cover art. I have heard that the LP was nothing all that special but I'd like to decide for myself, so if anyone has it send it over please.

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Immersed In Darkness

Jammerskrik, another brilliant Norwegian band associated with the Fossbrenna label. While their first tape was good, the second Innlemmet i Mørke, is absolutely beautiful. Comprised of two sprawling songs over 36 minutes, this tape is repetitive without being dull. The songs slowly twist and writhe into vague forms with soft edges. Innlemmet i Mørke is audial morphine. Like floating in a black pool of of forlorn emptiness, or being wrapped in a blanket of dreamy death.

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Rare Scorps!

Some folks been asking if I had this rare Scorpions recording with them doing a couple of Sweet covers in German and some of their early originals, so here it is. I have no idea what year this was recorded or what not. I don't have any artwork so I decided to post this picture that Brandi took of Uli Roth blowing my fucking mind at Annie's Social Club in San Francisco last year.

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Poikkeus

Poikkeus are a Japanese hardcore/crust/whatever band that want so bad to be from Scandinavia, that they have a Finnish name and a logo reminiscent of every European hc band of the 80s. Not terribly original, but this EP is so fucking blazing it's hard for me to care that these guys aren't very imaginative.

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The Somberlain

Surely you don't need me to tell you that Dissection were one of the greatest bands to emerge from Sweden's fertile metal womb. You don't need me to tell you how the band came to a grinding halt during their creative peak due to mainman Jon Nodtveit's extracurricular activities, and subsequent jail sentence. You probably don't need me to tell you how he formed a new line up in 2004 and recorded a lame duck album that threatened to besmirch the Dissection legacy. And you probably don't need me to tell you how Jon ultimately blew his brains out for Satan in 2006. Maybe you needed me to share their awesome debut The Somberlain from 1993 when Dissection ruled the earth and you had no idea. Absolutely mandatory.

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Give Daddy The Knife Cindy

Give Daddy The Knife Cindy is totally authentic retro '60s garage psych mock up done by the clever lads in The Damned under the alias of Naz Nomad and the Nightmares. All the tones and performances are perfect. If you didn't know better you'd think it was the genuine article. It's no secret that The Damned were influenced by this era, and the choice of songs is perfect. A really fun listen and far better than The Damned record that followed it.

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Embalmed Existence

Resurrection's Embalmed Existence is a decent slab of Florida Death Metal that might have gotten more attention if not for the ridiculous spoken word intros between every song, in fact, you might even think they were kidding. Disregard this factor and you will be treated to some well executed American styled Death. Superb (though thin sounding) drum performance by Alex Marquez who went on to bash buckets for Malevolent Creation and Disincarnate. Not nearly as crushing as Deicide or Obituary, but still worth your time. Seriously, what's with the intros?

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Is This My World?

In 1984 this record pretty much was my world. Jerry's Kids ruled. They came from Boston, they were ridiculously fast, and they weren't straight edge jocko retards. Seriously, Is This My World? is one of the greatest '80s hardcore LPs ever, but you chose to ignore it for whatever reason. Like Deicide's first album or Reign in Blood, this album always sounds as potent and delicious as it did upon my first listen, and for that reason still gets regular airplay at my house. I put this on and thrash around the house in an imaginary pit, my girlfriend quickly puts a coat on our son, and gets the fuck out of there, that is my world.

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Raate

Finland's Raate is easily one of the best active Black Metal bands around. I have seen these guys compared to Burzum, and while some of the tones and structures are similar to Varg's work, Raate have taken the influence and injected enough dour Finnish ethos to create something thoroughly their own, mystifying and dark. Here I present their first CD Halki Kuolleen Maan.... Genius.

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Darkness Forever

Turbonegro recorded this quality live disc during two shows in 1998, one in Hamburg and one in their hometown of Oslo. According to the credits on the back of the CD, the Oslo show was "the last Turbonegro show ever" however,the band reformed and continues to this day to release lazy albums of rehashed Stooges, Ramones, and Heartbreakers riffs with more unsavory lyrics about gay sex and nihilism. They continue to play shows, usually to dicks who insist on dressing in the band's trademark denim and sailor hats. Don't get me wrong, I love Turbonegro, really do. Just sometimes it seems that they have outlived their entertainment value. Ass Cobra has yet to be topped and it would seem they aren't even interested in making a "real" record. Fortunately, the choice of material on Darkness Forever is culled from the best of their catalog (Ass Cobra, and Apocalypse Dudes), even if it would have been nice to hear some Hot Cars... and Never Is Forever material revamped into full on coke rock mode. Still sits nicely among greats like Strangers In The Night, or Live and Dangerous as one of my favorite live documents. Are you ready for some darkness?

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Sardonis

Cosmic Hearse reader and super bro, Dirk Noben, saw a band in Belgium that so impressed him, he bought two copies of their crushing EP and promptly mailed one to me. Doing shit like that is why Dirk is a heroic and noble gentleman, and precisely why when he dies he will go to Heaven and meet Jesus, and you will not. The band that inspired such magnanimous altruism from Mr. Noben was none other than the Belgian two piece instrumental sludge/doom band Sardonis. Upon it's timley arrival at my door, I placed this on the turntable, and too was stricken with a sudden feeling of generosity, I withdrew all my money from my savings account and gave it to my weed dealer. Thanks, Dirk.

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Fuckmorgue

Aaron Funk once referred to Winnipeg as "a frozen shithole," and as someone who has been there I can attest that it is a grey, depressing, soul-sucking, well...shithole. Sometimes shitholes provide just enough angst and crushing ennui to produce a few interesting bands. Venetian Snares, Swallowing Shit, and Terry Jacks all called Winnipeg home, but here's Fuckmorgue, a now defunct band from Winnipeg you've never heard of. Fuckmorgue combined punk, sludge, post-hardcore, black metal, and classic death rock into a furious snow flurry of negative vibes and frozen hostility. Corpse painted Canuck crusties death-obsessed and hell bent. Sadly the band only managed to eke out (I think) this one self-released CD titled Down Forever, , and I love this so fucking much If it were legal to do so, I'd marry it. Now you can have all the misery and negativity of Canada's most depressing city without having to go there. Some members of Fuckmorgue went on to form the equally compelling band, Kursk.

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Borgo

Here's an excellent tape of unrefined lo-fi Black Metal from Germany courtesy of Borgo. Some cheap sounding ambient keyboard pieces crop up between the quivering repetitive Black Metal songs. I think there might be vocals mixed way back under the hiss of the guitars but I can't hear them. This is exactly what I want a Black Metal cassette demo to be, obscure, noisy, and full of vague mystery. The sort of thing that sparks more questions than answers. The sort of thing that seems more like it had to be made more than it wanted to.

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Burmese Is Dead

By now you know of my love for the pummeling San Francisco band Burmese, so here's their very hard to find debut Burmese Is Dead. You get a number of snarkily titled Burmese originals and a few covers of material by D.R.I. and The Misfits, showing this band's well documented reverence for the ol' '80s hardcore.

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The Rack

Dude, you like crushing neanderthal Death Metal, right? Good, because I have a treat for you, bro, Asphyx's debut album The Rack from way back in 1991, the year Death Metal was king. Asphyx were Holland's contribution to the budding global early '90s Death Metal scene. Asphyx are purely about blunt force and brutish primitive attack. Martin Van Drunen's trademark voice is not one of a demon or a fetid, gurgling corpse but the voice of a desperate condemned soul making his final descent into a hellish abyss. He sounds winded, barely able to forge on at times and it is the perfect icing on Asphyx's heavy slab of satanicake. As it stands, if you aren't aware of Asphyx you probably see Holland as a serene socialist utopia of weed, windmills, and whores but that is about to change. Asphyx is about to put their wooden shoe right up your ass.

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