Unsilent Hate

Deathchurch hailed from Japan and were sort of like the Black Metal Confuse in the way that they favored an abrasive hiss of white noise to cloak their violent riffs in. Unsilent Hate Anthem, was their final statement and was released in 2007 after they called it quits. This isn't happy Black Metal for weddings and funerals. This is some hectic sarin gas in the subway shit. Fuck You!!!

憎悪

Cemetery Earth

Cemetery Earth were a young Pennsylvanian Death Metal band that had Jack Gannon of Hearse favorites Deteriorate lending his nauseating voice. The band only eked out one disgusting demo in 1992 called Here Rest Remains From Centuries Demise, then they changed their name to the decidedly fruitier Mourn Thy Passing. This is pummeling Death Metal of the mud-caked maggot-ridden corpse variety. No technical wankery fretboard acrobatics here, just bile and filth.

Die!

Deadmen

And speaking of standup motherfuckers who send me cool shit, Carl Byers of Coffinworm sent me a spankin' new 7" by his other band Deadmen, and it is a fucking doozie. Imagine later Entombed meets Dazzling Killmen (remember them?) meets some later Killing Joke, yeah, bitch, it's that good. With Deadmen, the aforementioned Coffinworm, Kata Sarkha, and World Eater, Indianapolis may go from being known for auto racing, drunk driving killer cops, and shitty meth to being the next great scene in the U.S. for dummy pummel sludge metal. Seriously, this fucking kills. Thanks Carl.

Possess

Yog Sothoth

One of the greatest perks of doing Cosmic Hearse is the scores of amazing bloggers I have met as a result. Doug Allison, who runs the consistently awesome Scummified blog is one such individual. The guy is a paragon of good taste as evidenced by his blog's content, but Doug kicked it up a notch when he sat down to create some weirdo Black Metal that seems almost tailor-made for the eccentric tastes of the Hearse, dude even gave the project a Lovecraftian name and some primitive artwork as well, thorough. Thanks, Doug.

Rise!!!

Blowfly's Zodiac

Now I don't believe in Astrology, but that is probably because I am not a girl or an idiot. I DO believe in Blowfly, so when he says by being a Libra, I love to smell toilet seats, who am I to argue? Fuck that Harvey Sid Fisher guy, he don't know shit about pussy.

What's Your Sign?

Kuman!

You couldn't possibly resist that custom rape van fantasy art cover, and then you see the text declaring this to be some sort of "Rock Opera," and right about now you are hoping that it is indeed a Mexican rock opera about a Tarzan-like character named Kuman, with music composed and performed by the premier Mexico City AOR/Heavy Metal/Prog band, Cristal y Acero (Crystal and Steel for our readers that failed Spanish 1.) Well, buddy, it is just that, and it is every bit as awesome as you had hoped. Cristal y Acero was the concern of the Carrion brothers, Ricardo and Eduardo JR., who happen to be the sons of Eduardo Carrion, a member of the immensely popular group Los Hermanos Carrion, the Mexican Everly Brothers. Maybe having a famous padre helped, but Kuman actually came to fruition as play, and enjoyed great success in 1984. Don't believe me? Check out this YouTube clip, it's like that episode of Get A Life when Chris stars in Zoo Animals on Wheels. Now as unappealing as that clip makes Kuman seem, I gotta say, this album has given me much pleasure, and not all of it ironic. Like any rock opera worth a glance, it's a grandiose, inflated work that melds a myriad of styles with little restraint or care for good taste, and I love it. The experience isn't even hampered by the fact that I failed Spanish 1, all the glory of Kuman's epic adventures are evident anyways.

KUMAN!!!

Up The Antons!!!

You had to know that this would end up here eventually. Here's the story: Around 1999 a CDR started making the rounds of a 19 year old Swedish youth named Anton Gustafsson struggling to hit the notes over midi files of classic Iron Maiden tunes. So horrible and endearing, many thought it was a hoax, and the liner notes declaring Anton's love of collecting novelty pencils didn't help. Anton took a lot of flack from Maiden diehards who saw his tribute as insulting, but this didn't stop Anton, the songs kept coming. Anton Maiden, as he was now called, enjoyed the sort of fleeting notoriety that the internet will offer any moderately lovable weirdo. But alas it was all too fleeting and Anton, like many despondent Scandinavians, opted to take his own life in 2003.

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Stargazer vs. Invocation

Two magically odd and extremely kvlt Death Metal bands from down under do battle on this obscure split CD from 1999. First up is Stargazer, their attack is a relentless swarm of pestilential riffing. Invocation (who would later morph into Portal) counter with some excellent, mutant, mid-era Gorguts style death. Both bands kill, I am calling this one a draw, but the winner really is you the listener. This rules and the folks at Bird of Ill Omen just recently had the good sense to reissue this as a beautiful vinyl release.

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Mitä on Drunk

As far as I can tell, the name Maho Neitsyt translates to mean "Barren Virgin." The EP is called Mitä on Punk and it is a scant five-and-a-half minutes of sloppy, drunken Finnpunk with great slurring, wet-brain vocals. Finns have a rep for drinking a bit, and Maho Neitsyt were considered pretty loaded even by Finnish standards. Drink this in.

Panna Humalassa

Eschaton

Eschaton are fantastic Black Metal band from Greece that take a rather traditional melodic approach quite a bit like some of the French bands we love. After a couple of promising demos, and a split with the awesome Burial Hordes, Eschaton unleashed Cause Fortior, their debut full length. Really just a pure example of no-fucking-around Black Metal. Raw and chaotic, but full of beautiful, spindly riffs. Eschaton are one of those bands that comes along every so often and reminds us of what made Black Metal good in the first place. Stunning.

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Troubled

Troubled is an apt title for what you are about to hear. Were the New Creation a band of smiling hippies with guitars and tambourines, and most importantly, a message of salvation and eternal love, or were they a nefarious cult of acid-eating weirdos bent on twisting the gospel to serve their own hedonistic freaklust, or was this merely some awkward piece of evangelism targeting a hip young generation of flower children? Whatever they were, they were fucking creepy, and this fucked up record that sounds like The Shaggs meets The Velvet Underground is unbelievable. For instance, the song "Dig" is an upbeat little ditty denying evolution. On the track "Sodom and Gomorrah" the New Creation cheerfully sing about the sins of premarital sex and the end of the world, "You have been warned." The New Creation kids might seem nice enough when they give you a ride in their van and offer you a meal back at their ranch. One of their flaxen-haired maidens may even catch your eye, but don't take the bait, once the sun goes down and you are even farther from home, their faces distort and their shambling mirthful songs become twisted commands to see the nonbeliever torn asunder. These fucking hippies make the Manson family seem like the Rotary Club. Run for your fucking life.

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The Black Gate Is Closed

Another essential early Swedish Death demo. Grotesque were from Gothenburg and weren't content with the cro-magnon bludgeon of the Stockholm kids, Grotesque wanted to create their own brand of brutal, more precise and thrashing. I want to keep this concise so I won't bother with going into great deal about how influential the various members of Grotesque went on to be. Just get to listening.

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Sucksess

In 1982, Roger Rogerson, the original bassist of the Circle Jerks, curated this punk document for the notorious Mystic Records. He opted to cull twenty-three tracks from ten bands you've never fucking heard of and call the whole shebang You Can't Argue With Sucksess. F-Troop kick things off with three average tunes, nothing memorable. The Crewd are cool, they have some ugly guitar tones, play with gusto, and keep the songs short. Red Beret seem to bite off more they can chew and have an annoying singer. I want to like them more than I actually do, sorry Red Beret, oh and your name sucks, reminds me of that Prince song. Speaking of assy names...next is Nuclear Baby Food, who seem a bit out of place with their polished power pop, but their track "Suburbia" is pretty cool. Mad Society got some attention around the L.A. scene by having a 10 year old frontman. Their three tracks here are my favorite for that reason, primitive wonky punk with the cutest vocals ever. Their EP rules too, if you aren't a dick or a cop maybe I'll post it. Secret Hate are okay, energetic punk. No Crisis aren't super original or spectacular but their typically early So Cal punk is fun and genuine. I remember The Conservatives from the Hell Comes To Your House comp. Like most of the bands here they play quintessentially L.A. proto-hardcore beach punk. Even Worse are the only band featured here not form Southern California, they hailed from New York City, and had a government-hating female singer, but they too sound like they could have come from Los Angeles. So all in all we have a decent, not mind-blowing comp that does a an adequate job of documenting the time between punk and hardcore in Southern California.

Suck It!

Hope Dies

Hoffnungstod, by the German one man band, Wigrid, is easily the best bit of Burzum worship ever created. In fact, I think this album ranks right up there with Varg's best work. Originally the material on Hoffnungstod was released on a very limited demo. Fortunately the whole thing was rerecorded for this official No Colors release in 2002. Hoffnungstod is heart-wrenchingly beautiful washes of melancholic riffs, layers of buzzing white hiss, and muffled cries of absolute despair stacked one upon another. This is the audial essence of isolation and hopelessness. Incredible.

Hopeless

Footsteps

And yet another delightful recording from 1970s Zambia. This time the band is The Blackfoot, The album, The Footsteps. I don't have much info on this one, but if you have been following the Hearse's Zambian Psych posts you have probably stopped reading and hit the download link already.

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Diseased

Okay, so not the most obscure metal record there is by a long shot, but still a fantastic piece of work by an often unremarkable band. Riffs for days and and the signature wail of Joey Belladonna. Play it loud and MOSH!!!

Here

Speak of the Devil

...And speaking of Satan, here's the great beast himself, Aleister Crowley, Father Perdurabo the founder of Thelema, mystic, adept, O.T.O. leader, and muse of Ozzy's greatest song. Dig into his grainy, drug-fueled wax cylinder recordings. The Great Beast prattles on in his eloquent Englishmen's inflection about all sorts of kooky Crowleyisms. Kind of reminds me of Current 93 without instrumentation and recorded in 1910. Listen for the lyrics appropriated by Douglas P. for Death In June's "Runes and Men."

666

Skate For The Devil

These portly Berkeley Skate Hessians wanted to profess their love for skating and Satan, and thus The Boneless Ones Skate For The Devil was born. This is some burly metallic punker sludge that reminds me of when Thrasher still had the Pus Zone. I haven't skated or worshipped Satan much since this came out in '86, but I still enjoy this album. 

Skate!

Safe

The fat guy behind the counter of your local record store, you know the guy with the chili dog-stained NRBQ t-shirt stretched over a slave trader's physique, will wax righteously about the shambling genius of Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, flecks of cheeto dust will fly from his foamy maw as he vehemently lauds that particular album as a monument of avant-tard expression, an unparalleled work of unfathomable importance. Well, fuck that guy. Beefheart's real work of genius was actually his first album, Safe As Milk, and all the cowardly authorities on rock, so afraid to diverge from the popular opinion, will fail to recognize this in their vain attempts to seem erudite and possessing sophisticated taste. Safe As Milk, like Trout Mask Replica has Beefheart's distinct guitar skronk, dustbowl vocalizing, and Dadaist non sequitur lyrics but it also has something that Trout Mask Replica lacks: cohesive songs. Safe As Milk contains songs that swing, and breathe, and bounce, and lurch, with a gritty fumble that seems natural, and not as self aware as the Captain's later work. This is precisely why it should be the Beefheart album getting the attention and accolades of know-it-all music jerks the world over. See for yourself, and don't be surprised if this post gets pulled soon by some crack legal team.

Milk

Black Angels

Oh fuck yeah!!! Can you wrap your head around the rickety youthful Satanic steel of Norway's Black Angels? This roughshod demo is about to steal your heart with its naive approach to just good old fashion Heavy Metal. Also, interestingly enough, the lyrics mention church burning about eight years before Varg arrived at the door of Fantoft with a can of bensen and a book of fyrstikken. And that isn't the only nefarious deed of these teen terrors, over the five minute running time of their signature anthem and mission statement, "Black Angels", the guys also drink blood, kill priests, rape nuns and still make it home in time to have lutefisk with Moder and Far. You'd think that would be enough, but the enthusiastic rosy-cheeked pups slog through another five spirited but clumsy steel sonatas. Kind of a long demo, but I am not complaining. I will never tire of this. We are all Black Angels.

Here

Bootleg

Here's another henstooth of proto-FWOSHM goodness from Bootleg, a peppy pack of Svennes from some bullshit town I am sure. Why the band chose to use their yearbook pictures on this, their one and only release, is beyond me, but that is hardly the most problematic design element on the record's cover. Let's talk about the two songs contained in this enticing package, shall we? Side one contains the brilliant "Dagdrommar," which I assume means "Daydreamer." The song is an infectious hard rocker sung in the native tongue, and more than makes up for the lackluster live recording on side two, "Tankar Om Dej." This record isn't as metallic as that Stitch EP that made our Swedish meatballs tingle last week, but still plenty tasty.

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Blue Fire

What's wrong, buddy? You feeling blue? Well check out the debut from classy Italian doom slingers, Canaan. The band rose from the ashes of the legendary cult Ras Alegethi in 1996 with this stunning debut, Blue Fire. Canaan's doom isn't really of the mammoth, lurching sort, the band favors a more ethereal melodic approach. I would venture to describe Canaan as "gothic" in their approach if that didn't illicit images of corny velvet clad vampire divas and tacky keyboards adorned with halloween superstore candelabras. Canaan is so much more, and every release they have done has been fantastic, but start here at the beginning.

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Jast Last

Jast Last was the second and better EP of Japanese hardcore gods LSD. The band bears some of the trappings of the genre and locale: harsh vocals, flirtations with metal, and fuzzed out guitars, but something about LSD is a bit more subdued than Confuse, GISM, or Gai. They aren't particularly fast, and the intro to "Karen Nash" could actually be deemed pretty. This diversity and bravado make Jast Last a thoroughly satisfying listen, even over the course of a mere ten minutes. Essential Japanoise Punk.

線量の上

Empire of Hate vs. Morthond

Empire of Hate from Australia square off with the American Morthond in a nocturnal battle for kvlt supremacy. Empire of Hate kick things off with their putrid, lo-fi hum. They are everything we want in a Black Metal band, mysterious, distant, and covered in a filthy aural soil. Morthond will have to be pretty great to top this. Morthond is in fact great, melancholy, Black Metal, but the thin recording is almost too low. Empire of Hate edges out the competition, but both bands make for a great split. Oh and that cover...

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Scatology

Coil's first album, Scatology, was my introduction to the seminal electro-cult genius of this important band. To this day it remains the one item in their vast catalogue that I return to most frequently. I always imagine Scatology as a building standing alone in a desolate dreamscape, each track is a room bearing its own atmosphere. To listen to the album is to methodically explore each room, and to be haunted by what may have occurred there in some not too distant past. One room is lonely, another full of anguish, others are bathed in blinding light, while some remain in an impenetrable darkness. Even stranger is the fact that even after 25 years the structure remains as haunting and bleak as it ever did. This record is the place I visit in my nightmares.

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The Exordium

Crematory is my favorite of the lesser-known early Swedish death pioneers. Their brand of brutality was extremely raw and ugly as demonstrated by their second demo The Exordium. Sadly, these Scandinatheists never managed to get a proper full-length record out there, just a series of amazing demos, and an EP called Denial. Some bootlegs and half-assed reissues have surfaced since the band's demise, but none that have really done the putrid genius of Crematory any amount of justice.

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Brigade Internationale

The French synth-wave lust continues here on the Hearse. Brigade Internationale were a rather sullen bunch of art students who managed to release this one and only cassette, Regard Extreme, before disappearing into obsolescence like the keyboards and samplers used to make this recording. Now that cold wave is all cool again, maybe this will resurface as a reissue, but until that day comes you will have to settle for these tiny shrunken digital files.

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Stitch

Another one of my favorite relics of Swedish steel, and this one is absolutely mandatory. Stitch were a young ambitious bunch of bangers from the bullshit town of Södertälje, a town best known for its famous tennis robot, the Bjorn Borg. This single contains (sadly) only two songs, but they drip with a peppy exuberance and a sheer joy of just being young, Scandinavian, and most importantly...METAL!!! This falls into that "If you don't love this something is really wrong with you" category. So good, and maybe exactly what the doctor ordered after posts about people we like leaving the earth.

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R.I.P. Mahk Daniels

Cosmic Hearse never likes to be the bearer of tragic news, but I woke to a phone call from my friend John Clancy telling me that the band Early Graves had been in a horrible van accident that took the life of singer Mahk Daniels. I only met Mahk recently when we did the Streetwise piece for Decibel but in that afternoon it became abundantly clear that Mahk was the real deal. A furious frontman while also being a really genuine and nice dude. I had looked forward to seeing this new friend around the hood, now I guess I never will. This sucks.

Äpärät

Häiriköt Tulee, the first and only real release by Finnish punkers Äpärät was unleashed in 1985, and it remains one of the greatest Finnish punk records of all time. Like many of their contemporaries from the land of cell-phones and reindeer, Äpärät add rather depressive melodic quality to their punk/hardcore hybrid. You won't understand the lyrics about anarchy and the scourge of religion, but what does that matter, you already know that Reagan is a dick.

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Sputum Lunae

Sputum Lunae were a short lived NSBM/dark ambient band from Quebec. The defunct Autistiartili Records released this very limited tape (100 copies) in 2001, titled Quo Usque Tamdem Abutere Patientia Nostra? It displays Sputum Lunae's more mellow side with three tracks of creepy, solemn organ. This one will most likely bore anyone looking for the harsh scraping black noise usually associated with the Quebecois haters, others may opt to dim the lights and enjoy this with some fine wine and misanthropy.

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