Fallen Angel

Blasphemy was the hugely influential Canadian Black Death Metal beast that single-handedly spawned the subgenre of "War Metal." For many, this album is sacrosanct, a bible to be followed to the letter, a blood declaration of war against all that is holy and clean. Sure, go ahead and count me among them. Fallen Angel Of Doom.... is pure, unfiltered chaos. It's easy to see why this blew minds when it was unleashed back in 1990. Sick. Sick. SICK.

Here

Explicit Lyrics/Street Raps

Before becoming a full-time member of The Geto Boys, Willie Dee had a fledgling solo career that spawned this album, Controversy. Many of the songs on this album feature The Geto Boys and many of the songs turned up later on their Grip It On That Other Level album. So Why, besides the puzzling cover artwork, would anyone be interested in this? Well, how about cuts like "Fuck The KKK," "I Need Some Pussy," and my personal favorite, "Bald Headed Hoes"? That's right bald headed hoes, an issue that Willie Dee feels so strongly about he states, "I'm proposin' a bill to Capitol Hill to kill all bald headed bitches at will." This is is the enigma of Willie Dee, rapper, hair lobbyist, and, at one point, professional boxer. That's right, in 1999 after leaving the Geto Boys, Willie Dee had a short career boxing under his real name of Willie Dennis. He won his first two fights by first round knockout, boxed to a four round draw in his third fight, and then was knocked out in the first round by Kevin Butts. This pretty much ended his stint in professional pugilism. Now even though Willie Dee's infamous bald-headed bill never made it to the senate floor Mr. Dee deserves our praise and respect. Oh, and don't forget to vote today.

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Guerra

Oh, hell yeah, motherfuckers. Back when I posted the classic Warfare Noise 1 comp I mentioned that, while Sarcofago might have been the most influential of the hyperspeed Brazilian satanicunts, it was Holocausto's contribution, as well as their war-obsessed third reich schtick that I found most compelling. Their first full length LP, Campo De Extermino is a much maligned classick of chaotic blasting riffery, goofy Portuguese lyrics about warfare, and enough primal teenage shock tactics to earn it's place as your new favorite Brazilian thrash album. Adore o poder do culto brasileiro da guerra!!!

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Dusted

In 1985 YDI followed up A Place In The Sun with The Black Dust LP. Many people were turned off by the slower tempos, longer songs, and even more metallic overtones (mainly in their manner of dress) of YDI at this time. Everything that made YDI and A Place In The Sun so potent are still present on Black Dust, the rage, the skronky wonky guitar tones, and most importantly, the animalistic voice of Jackal. Black Dust is a an arduous beating with a blunt instrument, a beating you've had coming for a long time. Just take it like a man.

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Staub

Here's yet another fucked up demo from another one-man Saarland band. Staub is the work of Machosias who also lends his talents to Old Pagan and Birkabein. Staub has more industrial leanings than the other strange Saarland Black Metal hordes. This tape is called Paranoidies and is a compilation of Machiosas' favorite tracks from previous cassette releases. Is PCP sold over the counter in Saarland? I can't figure out why the place churns out such fucked up black metal. Any ideas?

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Happy Halloween

I know that every blog on the interwebs probably has some special post for Halloween, and why should the hearse be any different? So in the spirit of this day I present Robbie "The Werewolf" Robison performing live at The Waleback waaaaay back in 1964. I'm not real big on folk music or corny outdated jokes, but when it's delivered by a werewolf I can get behind it a hundred percent. Happy Halloween, friends.

Awoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

Wizz

Here we have Wizz, a lost Swedish band named after pee, and their one and only album, Crazy Games. Outside of the ever-present Jon Lordian keys that coat Wizz's sound in a cool retro veneer, it's a fairly average record. However these are some fun songs, and you get a few peak moments from singer, George King (not to be confused with King George who was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from October 1760 until January 1801.) Of course it bears a degree of class and refinement that seemed to be present in many of these early Swedish Metal bands, and lacking in American and British bands from the same period. Kind of reminds me a bit of Rainbow (the band, not the meteorological phenomenon that causes a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere). Come on, take a Wizz.

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환각적인 마녀

Mi가 치졸한 환각제의 세계 달리 아서 이 사랑의 쾌재인 김 Jung에서 1973 년 앨범을 감으십시오. 당신은 이것의 낱말을 이해하지 않을 것이다 그래서 나는 또한 "성교 같이 무언가를 말할지도 모르다 당신 Sarah Palin 의 나락에 있는 북극 곰 형사의 부대에 초크, 암컷"

여기에서, 암컷

Caliginous Romance

When I speak of my fondness for this album, or play it for anyone, they look at me like I am high on bottom shelf brandy. Sure the drum machine is cheap sounding and has little to do with what the lilty guitars are doing, and sure mainman Alex Katurgic's vocals sound like a drunken astronaut, and certainly the clumsy song titles like "Oellidal into Penumbral Mirth" probably don't help its case, but Caliginous Romantic Myth is one of those albums that is so weird, so isolated from everything else in the universe that it bears a certain allure. More bizarro outsider art for your jaded earholes.

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They Walk Among You

New Math were a post-punk band that wasn't generally known outside of their hometown of Rochester, New York. They released a few seven inches and this twelve inch EP titled They Walk Among You. Soon after this release the band changed their name to The Jet Black Berries, opted for a less electronic sound, and landed a deal with Restless Records. They Walk Among You was released in 1982 and it really sounds like it. Reminds me a little of The Stranglers or a darker Wire. I can't imagine being interested in a whole album's worth of New Math material, but this EP is enjoyably maudlin and retro cool for days. Neat little record.

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What Reeks?

Let's party with this one today, alright? Again this is a case of "if you don't know it, you should." Carcass Reek of Putrefaction. Damn, I should have gone and seen them. Anybody happen to get me one of those crazy cool tour 2008 shirts? Oh you did? Cool. Mail that shit soon, people are tired of looking at my gelatinous pale torso, it's grosser than this cover.

Yuck!

Bro

I understand "broness," the act of being a bro, bro-ing down and above all, being a bro when another bro needs you to be. You know who is a righteous bro? Shelby, that's who. Not long ago Shelby stoked us all with his Dino-Metal band Cretaceous, and once again the dude is here to rock us with his other band, Dalton. The name is clearly inspired by Patrcik Swayze's complex antihero from Road House (a movie I have seen more than any other). Dalton (the band) has a kind of moustache arena rock vibe that, like the cover art suggests, celebrates all things American AND badass. Get a gander of that cover, eagles, flags, hot cars, aviator shades, some kind of wild cat, a big ass explosion, and above all freedom, bitch. The freedom to rip your shirt off and party bare-chested, feral, and free with your bestest bros. Despite the obvious ironic novelty appeal of Dalton, the songs are fucking great, and absolutely spot on. Thanks again, Shelby. You are broness personified.

Dude

Les Legions Noire Part Eight: Torgeist

Torgeist, along with Vlad Tepes and Belketre, were one of the better known LLN bands, perhaps because Torgeist played a more traditional style of Black Metal. Again, Torgeist had the prolific Vordb (Black Murder, Brenoritvrezorkre, Dzlvarv, Moëvöt, Susvourtre, Vzaeurvbtre, Dvnaèbkre, and Belketre) in their ranks. Here is their classic Time of Sabbath demo from 1995, the unholy year of LLN.

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The Day The Laughter Died

Isn't show business fucked? One day you're America's favorite racist douchebag, and the next day you are just a racist douchbag. Folks, brace yourself for one of the most uncomfortable 45 minutes ever recorded. Not funny ha ha, not funny strange, just weird, tense, and a bit sad. The death of Andrew Dice Clay caught live on tape. Icky. Thanks to J. Harlow for part two. And thanks to Chaki for part one.

Part 1

Part 2

Mystique

Here's a totally rare, privately pressed, Heavy Metal EP from Canada's Mystique. I know what you're thinking, "So what, it's rare, is it good?" Dude, it's beyond good, it's gooder. Mystique is a bit like the eccentric NWOBHM band Hell. Poorly recorded, but rich in spirit. Delicious archaic keyboards, some tasty guitars, and some awesome fantasy lyrics. It'd be a shame to miss this one.

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Part Animal Part Machine

1986 and Black Flag was on shaky ground. Infighting, relentless touring and swollen egos threatened to rip apart one of the greatest bands of all time. Sensing the end, Henry Rollins assembled a kick-ass band and headed for the studio to record this pink thing called Hot Animal Machine. Part scorcher, part novelty record, Hot Animal Machine is a bit of a polarizing album. The album kicks off with three solid songs: "Followed Around," "Black and White" and "Lost and Found." Then we get "There's a Man Outside" rocking, yet lyrically and musically a bit monotonous. Next is a cover of Richard Berry's "Crazy Lover" which reminds us that Rollins, as well as being angry, has a sense of humor and a bit of a David Lee Roth type showman buried within his anguished persona. "A Man and A Woman" is an angular, discordant piece of skronky jazz which serves as a bed for a Rollins spoken word piece about domestic violence. The title track barrels in and pulls the album back to the intent of the first three cuts. Then two more cover songs, "Ghost Rider" by Suicide and "Move Right In" by The Velvet Underground. The whole thing falls apart rather brutally with "No One," a disjointed dirge that has Henry losing it. It's almost there to, once and for all, let you know that Henry has snapped despite all the fun you may have had with this record. Hard to believe he has a talk show now. Fantastic artwork by Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO.

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On The Wings Of Death

Socrates Drank The Conium were a very talented progressive hard rock group from Greece with a clumsy name. On The Wings was the band's third, and best album. Socrates had some biting guitar tones, and cool songs, but the star here is drummer Yorgos Tradalidis. The guy is a wealth of finessed breaks to die for (DJs,turntablists, and breakbeaters take note). Weird off-kilter rhythms and rhythms collide with gut-punching rock riffs to form a solid album. On The Wings is highly recommended.

εδώ

Dark Endless

Marduk's first album, Dark Endless, was released way back in 1992 when Swedish Black Metal still had some things in common with Death Metal. I could write a thing or two on what I think is wrong with Marduk, but this album would be exempt from my ramble. Dark Endless is just too fresh-faced and eager. I can find no fault in young Marduk. Dark Endless is more of a thinner sounding Swedish Death Metal album than it is a Black Metal one, it even reminds me of the forceful bludgeon of Asphyx at times. Whatever they do now barely interests me, but Marduk's first album is way cool.

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Thrones And Dominions

Earth's third album called Phase 3:Thrones and Dominions from 1995. Gone is Dave Harwell. This incarnation was mainly the work of Dylan Carlson. Perhaps Earth's most overlooked release, it is also one of the most unsettling. Bad trips.

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SCUM

Napalm Death's debut, Scum, is by no means rare, and I'm sure a million other blogs have already shared it, but this album is a personal favorite and you can't deny its importance. I just wanted it to be part of the Cosmic Hearse pantheon. This came out in 1987, but I didn't discover it until around 1990. Scum was like a nail bomb to my young mind. I'd never heard anything so fast and so ugly, but what I also noticed was the lyrics, which seem to come directly from the Discharge school of anarcho-haiku. Pure poetry recited over 250 BPMs. Scum still freaks me out almost two decades later, and multi-national corporations are still fucking dicks.

Scum

Gasmask vs. Coward

This cool little MCR Company split CD collects the recorded works of two very feral and raucous Japanese hardcore bands from the '80s, Gasmask and Coward. Both bands hailed from Osaka, and originally released EPs on the Skeleton label. The Gasmask portion of this CD contains their amazing 7" EP, two live songs, an unreleased track and two collaborations with Coward called Cowmask. On the Coward portion you get their 7" EP (sometimes called Voice), which was posted here way back when the Hearse first rolled out of the garage. You also get two tracks from the Ninngenn Omnibus compilation, some live stuff, and three collaborations with Gasmask called Gasward. Both bands are absolutely crazy great but if I have to declare a victor, I'm giving it to Coward for having a cooler skull on their artwork.

ファック オフ

Black Forest Dark Forest

Gjennom Morke Skogen. There's something very magical about this tape of seemingly improvised, instrumental Black Metal from Norwegian band, Istorn. Istorn is led by Udeth who is also the weird brain behind Unbeing.

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Jud Jud

All I'm saying is if you've heard it, you love it, if you haven't you should.

Jud

Nothing You Will Hear On This Album Is Remotely As Cool As The Cover

Get a load of that cover!!! Some kind of B.C. Rich-wielding barbarian emerging from a fireplace while Emperor Palpatine looks on. Oh, and did I mention the warrior women in thongs who have arrived to either hump that guy or kill him, or both? So how amazing should an album be to deserve such an image? Does the music inside live up to the promise of the cover? No. No it doesn't, unless you get all gushy over bargain basement later Judas Priest worship with dashes of Sunset Strip coke metal to get the party started. And it's a fucking party alright. However, it's the kind of party you go to in Missouri in 1985, not Hollywood. Relax, drink some Budweiser from a warm keg, flirt with a fat chick. Make the best of a bad situation and maybe it'll actually be fun. Besides, Fortress kicks off the party with the big rave up intro of "Metal Meltdown." The song is almost like a metal Mad-Lib with lyrics about liking it loud and fast and warnings to those who might try to impede your path to metal. Ever notice how the ballad (if there is to be one) is often the third track? Well, I have, and Fortress predictably offers up "Into The Night" which starts off with the trite lyric "Just 16..." blah blah, obligatory story of a runaway living fast on the streets. In fact all the lyrics on this album are so generic it's almost unbelievable. The riffs too for that matter.You've heard this album before, even if you haven't. Okay, I'm ready to admit this party sucks.

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Godflesh

No, not Godflesh the band, but rather the first 7" EP from one of Cosmic Hearse's all time favorite bands, Load. I've already said all there is to say about these guys on the other posts about them so without further ado, here it is.

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Hard Stuff

After leaving Atomic Rooster in 1971, John Cann formed Hard Stuff. In almost no time at all, the band was signed to Deep Purple's vanity label, Purple Records. The result was Bulletproof, a total ass-kicker of a hard rock album that, although it didn't receive much attention, is an energetic slab of dirthead riffery with swagger and style in spades. I'm pretty sure you'll go ape shit over this one. Oh, and check out the guy on the top left of the cover...How fucking high is that dude? Nice work, bro.

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Nuisance

Malveillance's third release was the Nuisance tape, it was released in 2004 by Blasphemous Underground Productions. Limited to a scant 222 copies. You all didn't really respond much too my last Malveillance post, but fuck it, I'm going to beat you over the head with this stuff until you get on board. I love this band.

Haine

These Songs Will Always Break My Heart

On this day just six years ago Matty Luv left the earth forever. He was my best friend, my partner in crime, the Huey to my Bobby, the Hall to my Oates. I played music with Matty for a period of almost twenty years, and I can honestly say, without bias, that he was one of the great songwriters of our time. As great as Dylan, D. Boon, Darby Crash or that guy that stabbed himself, can't recall his name. Matty's amazing gift for lyrics and sweet pop hooks was uncanny, perhaps the byproduct of his very restless and tortured inner psyche, perhaps not. In honor of his memory I have decided to share the Yogurt tapes. These are extremely special, when he was alive Matty only gave these to those he deemed worthy of listening to them. I guess that's a little elitist and fucked up, because these songs are so fucking great, it'd be a shame to die without ever hearing them. And people do die, believe me, motherfucker, they really do. I guess a little history of Yogurt is due. Yogurt wasn't really a band. It was the name given to Matty's home 4 track recordings which started around 1993 and continued until his death in 2002. There are countless hours of weird lo-fi little songs, skits, sound collages, trippy layers of loops floating around on oddly labeled cassette tapes, but these songs were the ones that made it on to the home-dubbed editions Matty gave away. Matty always labored to make the package of the tape he was giving away very personal, painting the box and hand writing the song titles (which often changed.) Yogurt features alot of guest performances by whoever would drop by our 24th street flat at the time. Wherever you hear live drums that's me, and Matty had me sing here and there (that's me on "Small Town Boy".) After Hickey broke up in 1997, we formed a live line-up for Yogurt with him singing and playing guitar, me singing and playing drums, and Chubby (Hickey's original bassist) on second guitar. We translated some of our favorite songs from the tapes into live rocking numbers and played them, high as fuck. It was kind of a shambles, the live Yogurt thing though, we were all at our worst in the chemical way, and I felt the more we played live like this, the more we tarnished our already spotty legacy. We did manage to eke out a pretty good 15 minute studio recording with this incarnation, and if anyone is interested I can post that too some time. Anyhoo, I quit, and Yogurt was relegated back to the chord/wire/tape miasma of Matty's closet. Matty made recordings under the banner of Yogurt until his death on October 5th 2002. October 5th, this day will always break my heart.

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Strictly Business

I'm by no means an expert on the hip hop, but I do believe that EPMD's first album Strictly Business is one of the greatest rap albums of all time, and it's probably because they sound incredibly high and Eric Sermon sounds like he has a mouth full of candy. Oh, and the line "I'm as deadly as AIDS when it's time to rock the party" doesn't hurt. Have you ever managed to get the words "AIDS" and "Party" into the same sentence? Didn't think so. Two guys, with about a hundred similes to tell you how awesome they are at what they do. Lazy and stoned, in 1988 this is about as cool as it got.

Chill

Gutted

You may have missed this one back in '94 if you were looking to Tampa and Stockholm to sate your cravings for blood-spattered, boneheaded Death Metal. Gutted was made up of the Ditch brothers from from Toledo, Ohio and their debut Bleed For Us To Live is a grotesque platter of grooved out hooks, sickly vocals, and bad fucking vibes. Listening to this today reminds me of when American Death Metal was played by pimply, downy-moustached stoners from bullshit towns and not by guys who look like they work at Urban Outfitters and listen to Job For A Cowboy.

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Toe Jam

Simon Gould read my post on the Metal Moo Cow comp and answered my plea to hear more material by some of the bands, especially Toe Jam. He so kindly ripped this to one long mp3 and scanned the cover so we could all check this out. Now this isn't as moving as their track on the aforementioned comp, which I described as GISM being fronted by Colin of GBH, but this tape is still quite a worthwhile piece of obscure Texan punk damage. Once again, the readers of this blog come through for us all. That warms my heart. Thanks, Simon, you are rule!!!

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Genesis of a Satanic Race

This album has one my favorite covers of all time, an angel and a nazi in gas masks stabbing Jesus on the Cross with the Spear of Longinus. The idiotic, haphazard genius of this drawing compliments the idiotic haphazard genius of Lust, one war-crazed Canadian going by the extreme moniker of Sabazios Diabolus. Lust is frantic and unrelenting. Sometimes the tempos seem to get out of control and the whole song will crash into incoherence only to return to some sort of recognizable riffing. The vocals are hellish, tortured howls. Together the vocals and music make for a gloriously chaotic stew of hideous war metal insanity. Not to mention the strange between song interludes. So weird, so far beyond any sort of reason, Genesis Of A Satanic Race is a treasure of bizarre outsider metal that needs to be experienced. I imagine this what Blasphemy might have sounded like if they had ingested a goat's skull full of PCP before recording Fallen Angel Of Doom. Mandatory!

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Psychedelic Wunderbaum

When are a staple in the Norwegian avant-garde electronic alterno-psych scene, if there even is such a thing. When is the work of Lars Pedersen and a number of miscellaneous collaborators. The band's beginnings date back as far as 1987 with the Drowning But Learning album. Eleven more albums have since been released. As the '90s drew to a close, When enjoyed a bit of attention due to the endorsements of several Norwegian black metal bands who were themselves heading in a more experimental direction. In fact, the Psychedelic Wunderbaum album (1998) was released through Garm of Ulver's label, Jester. This is my favorite When album and a great introduction to this band. When is hard to describe. The best I can do is to call it psychedelic pop breakbeat acid weirdness. So infectious and bubbly, yet a chord of uneasiness permeates the entire work. In 1999 Psychedelic Wunderbaum didn't leave my discman for weeks. It was absolutely habit forming. Let's see if it has the same affect on you.

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Stand Up And Fight

Quartz were one of the better second tier NWOBHM bands that, sadly, never really got the attention they deserved. While their first couple of releases were a bit clumsy and unfocused, Stand Up And Fight is a minor metal masterpiece of street-tough anthems loaded with hooks and jabs. Some duds here for sure like "Can't Say No To You" which is ripped off from some Boston song I don't know the name of because Boston sucked. There are some standouts as well like "Revenge" with its beautiful breakdown at around the 1:20 mark, that brings to mind UFO's more sensitive moments, and "Charlie Snow," a spirited rocker about the perils of heroin. Stand Up And Fight isn't anything that will profoundly change your life, but still well worth a listen.

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Blood Slut

Broken Talent were kind of like Miami's Flipper. They were noisy, abrasive, and were the non-conformists in a punk scene that prided itself on its non-conformity. They were hated, often booed off the stage, they looked like burnouts, and they were my favorite band growing up, hands down. Broken Talent and T.P.O.S. (bassist Malcolm Tent's label) really created a parallel punk scene in Miami. T.P.O.S. released many great tape comps with some very strange and incredible music. They had their own aesthetic with Broken Talent's frontman, Santo providing his twisted Ralph Steadman-meets-Nick Blinko-drawings. They set up shows and did fanzines and comics. They didn't wait for people to come to them, they made their own scene. To me, at 14, they were more than a band, they were like mentors. I took every opportunity to pick their brains and they were always ready to talk to me about whatever, even though I was a pushy, overbearing, hyperactive kid. It was the band's bassist Malcolm Tent who would turn me on to Hellhammer's Apocalyptic Raids album. They decried racism, organized religion, and society with snarky humor and intelligence rarely seen in a politically-minded punk band.

In 1984 they released the Blood Slut EP on T.P.O.S. Now this thing is a holy grail for punk record collectors but at the time nobody fucking cared except a handful of friends and followers in South Florida. On the title track Santo sings about a woman of loose morals, plasma donation, and the beauty of sex. "My Old Man" has Malcolm singing about his father: "My old man is really mellow/he watches C.H.I.Ps with Poncharello," and the lyric, "He feeds the plant lethal yellow," that means urine if you didn't know. This reference inspired another Miami punk band to name themselves Lethal Yellow. "My God Can Beat Up Your God," some of you might know, it was covered by Antiseen. I still get a kick out of this little record . Now I'd like to share it with you. Thanks to Hodapp for the cover scan.

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Indifference

Bone Awl's second release was the seven inch EP called Night Is Indifferent. It was released in 2003 in a limited run of 400 copies. It's raw, it's primitive, it's Bone Awl. This record is not your friend, it won't help you through a difficult time in your life, it just won't. It's as indifferent as the night of which it speaks. Fuck yourself.

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Rats!

Rattus Norvegicus, The Stranglers' first album from 1978, is so fucking great that I shouldn't really have to tell you about it, but I will. You see, the band started in 1974 and was kind of part of the dreary pub rock scene. They soon outgrew this world and were considered too eccentric and artsy for the Guinness-swilling work-a-day chumps down at the local boozer. It also didn't help that Hugh Cornwell's lyrics were often biting digs at English life, he was a notorious shit-stirrer. The Stranglers landed some gigs opening for The Ramones and from then on they were linked to the punk scene in England. The Stranglers were really only punk in spirit and attitude. Very unhip organs and keyboards swirled around their herky jerky songs and Cornwell's lyrics coated everything in venom. The Stranglers took some heat from feminists for some perceived misogyny. So what if these guys were dicks, this is a classic.

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Have a Little Faith

Cosmic Hearse reader and friend, Nick, hooked me up with another lost Swedish metal rarity that was on my wishlist. Faith released this totally killer seven inch of doomy classic metal in 1986. I think some members were in Stormbringer who appear on the ruling Metal Knights comp. At least one member of Faith went on to join the band Mercy, the pre-Candlemass gig of Messiah Marcolin. This EP has two songs,"Possession" and "Hymn Of The Sinner" I can't decide which I like better, but why would I have to? Seriously, get this. Thanks, Nick.

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Human Condition

Human Condition, the German bootleg released in 1995 is regarded as the best, and most respectful of the gazillions of G.I.S.M. bootlegs. Clearly done by fans, and not as a quick cash in, Human Condition contains all the band's compilation tracks and some pretty good quality live recordings. It came with an eight page booklet with tons of cool art and other G.I.S.M. ephemera.

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Fly People Fly

Maybe when you think of The Scorpions you think of "Rock Me Like a Hurricane," balding krauts, and striped spandex moose knuckle. Maybe you just fell out of your momma's ass too. Maybe you are too young and green to know that before all that dumb shit, The Scorpions were one of the coolest hard rock bands of the '70s. Maybe you don't even know about how they had on their team a foppish Teutonic guitarbarian by the name of Uli Roth who was just a bit fucking loony, but had style and licks and chops for days. Maybe you don't know that this album, Fly To The Rainbow (along with In Trance) is just overflowing with outstanding songs. Maybe nobody ever told you how precious and deep Fly To The Rainbow truly is, and that saddens me.

Here

Oh, and tomorrow night, Uli plays in San Francisco and I am going.

Milan Gets Taken

Back when I posted UFO's live epic Strangers In The Night ,it got folks talking about their favorite live albums, which led to me dusting off Mayhem's Mediolanum Capta Est. This is a recording of the band's 1998 performance in Milan, Italy. Mediolanum contains material from every Mayhem release before '98, but sadly , only contains two songs from their quintessential album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Still it is a spirited performance with some quality between song banter, which is the hallmark of a memorable live recording. For instance when frontman Maniac, with all the snarkiness of a satanic observational comedian, says, "We have the fucking pope here in Italy. The next song I dedicate hereby to the pope, Chainsaw Gutsfuck!" I'm sure the pope was pleased. You will be too. Oh, and my copy is a super limited edition with an embossed and foil stamped jewel case.

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Khmer Pop

Okay, I am a huge fan of the Sublime Frequencies label run by members of The Sun City Girls. Over the last decade the label has released what they call "obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers." This includes folk and pop from Southeast Asia and the Middle East as well as field recordings, radio broadcasts, and ceremonial music from all over the globe. The label's releases are produced in limited quantities (usually 1,000 copies), and are generally not reprinted.

My all-time favorite Sublime Frequencies release would be Cambodian Cassette Archives: Khmer Folk & Pop music Vol. 1. Every song is a charmer, a hook-laden wonderland of primitive pop goodness.

Mark Gergis rescued over 150 Cambodian cassette tapes from the Oakland Public Library's Asian branch. He set about the daunting task of listening, archiving, and culling the best tracks for inclusion in this great compilation. Most of these tracks are from the post Pol Pot genocide, however there are a few numbers recorded before the Khmer Rouge's bloody rise to power. Knowing that some of these performers (like Sim Sisamouth and Meas Samon) probably ended up as skulls in Cambodia's killing fields adds an air of creepiness and sadness to these otherwise playful recordings.

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Considered Dead

Back when I posted Immortal's Pure Holocaust album, I mentioned that it was the perfect introduction to Black Metal for the uninitiated. Well, Gorguts' first album, Considered Dead works in much the same way for Death Metal. With its greasy tones, gross-out lyrics and particularly wonky Dan Seagrave cover, it's almost too perfect an example. Just Death Metal as it was in 1991. Of course we all know that Gorguts grew leaps and bounds as musicians and rewrote the manual on technical Death Metal with their 1998 album, Obscura, but this interests me more. Pure, unadultered, Quebecois viscera.

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The League

Yeah, I know this record isn't super rare, or cult, and is a bit dated, but in the spirit of the League themselves I gotta say "Fuck Off!" It's great fun, it's a drunken night out with your lads where the pints are flowing and the birds are friendly. There may be a fight and the bobbies might come along and kick ya in the bollocks, but so fucking wot? Okay, I'll stop now.

Here, mate.

Dead Screams

Debauchery was basically just Akhenaten of Judas Iscariot trying his hand at a more Death Metal vocal style with lyrics about S&M and fucking. Just sounds like Judas Iscariot to me, which is fine because Judas Iscariot ruled and didn't have enough songs about whipping dicks and banging broads. This EP, Dead Scream Symphony was released in 2003 by Blood Fire Death Records. It fucking slays.

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Don't Look It In The Mouth

Gift Horse was an amazing, but short-lived, instrumental band from San Francisco that featured among its ranks, Doug Hilsinger on guitar, Dana Schecter on bass, and Jeff Whitehead on drums. Doug was a member of Bomb, who may have been the best SF band of all time. Dana went on to play for Angels of Light and later started her own band, Bee & Flower. Jeff went on to be better known as Wrest of Leviathan. Gift Horse released one album only, and here it is in it's entirety. It was recorded live in front of an audience at Klub Kommotion on January 30 1993. I was there. Gift Horse were waaaay ahead of their time which is evidenced by all the attention hipsters give to inferior bands like Pelican today. Gift Horse did it first and better. The rhythm section of Schecter/Whitehead just locks in to a mesmerizing groove in which Hilsingers skyward guitars just wail and scream over the top. This is topnotch musicians wrangling instrumentals that just don't get boring.

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The New Wave Of Cleveland Heavy Metal

When you think of Cleveland...well, you probably don't. Anyways just because you never think about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist, and like a lot of ugly American cities in the '80s it had a pretty fertile metal scene of poodle-haired dirtheads with big dreams of rocking their way out of the Cleve. In 1983 Clubside records released this kick ass regional compilation of the city's most hopeful headbangers, most cleverly titled "Cleveland Metal." Before getting this from the godly §ĬÇҜИ ΛБΘЏИЧ blog, I had only heard of Shok Paris and only remembered them because of their exceedingly assy name. Clearly, none of these bands broke out and hit the big time, some are probably not even known in their hometown today, but that by no stretch of the imagination means that they are bad.

The whole affair starts of strong with Black Death who are believed to be the earliest known all African-American Heavy Metal band. They contribute two great songs (perhaps the album's best) titled "Taken By Force" and "Until We Rock," the latter having one of the worst guitar solos I have ever heard in a metal song. Sadly, Black Death's drummer, Phil Bullard, passed away back in February of cancer.

Sacred Few are up next with the track "Sacred Few." A tinny hard rock number with the smokey bar room vocals of Sandy Rago, who sounds like a female Bon Scott. Sacred Few are kind of lame, but like I find myself saying a lot here, full of spirit and enthusiasm. This is just hopelessly pub band material.

Cerberus just jump out of the speakers with their spunky NWOBHM-esque instrumental "Rampage." Cerberus never released a proper album, which is a shame because the dudes had some skills.

Jagged Edge got me excited. Maybe because their song "Eyes of Fire" is so confusing and wonky, and the singer, Frank Leo, sounds a bit like Bobby Leibling at times.

Mistreater is pretty great too, having more of an early '70s hard-rock vibe to their Metal. Curt Luedy's oversinging gets to be a little much at times but don't fault the guy for trying to do a bit more. Their contribution "Without You" left me wanting to hear more from Mistreater.

I guess Breaker were one of the better known Cleveland bands. They definitely sound more slick and produced then the others here and they were also quite proficient players, but these things are probably why I found this to be less interesting than the other bands. I imagine if these guys had a better singer and didn't look like the guys from the shipping department, they might have enjoyed some commercial appeal and all the cocaine and fake tits that affords.

Shok Paris, like Breaker, seem to have had the chops to rise above the chaff but were plagued with a horrible vocalist and that ridiculously gaytarded name. Jesus, could nobody in Cleveland sing?

Then almost as if to cleanse the palette after those last two duds, "Bloodline" by Sorcerer gallops in on a a greasy steed made of metal and beer, and quickly dismounts to bring forth some tasty wah-wah doom in the song's middle. Sorcerer is the best thing here by a long shot.

Cleveland may not be Stockholm, or London, or The Bay Area but metal knows no boundaries, and regional comps like this remind us that metal was and will always be ubiquitous. They give record nerds that giddy hope of possibly discovering a monumentally cool band that never got the respect they deserved when they were slugging it out in the trenches of their sucky hometowns. Cleveland Metal rules even if Cleveland doesn't, and that is a testimony to the rulingness of metal itself, right?

Oh, and if you are sitting on any recordings by Black Death, Jagged Edge or Sorcerer you should share those with me.

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Stunt Rock

"The Stunts! The Rock!" read the tagline for Brian Trenchard-Smith's epic 1978 film Stunt Rock. He enlisted the talents of a young LA band called Sorcery to play themselves. The plot is rambling and incoherent and is only there at all to bring rock and stunt together. I guess what happens is a stuntman moonlights as a member/pyrotechnician for Sorcery and has some trippy flashbacks about stunts and, um, rock or some shit. Though their official website claims "their stage show made people like KISS jealous!" and "some of the BEST '70s hard rock that ever came out of that era," I find this to be in the category of bad/good. Corny and dated, the kind of stupid idea that could only come about in the '70s. Stunts, Rock, Stuntrock!

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Ahhh, fuck it. Here's the trailer, but I'm only including it because of that awesome wizard.

Indignation

Confuse's first full-length, Indignation, originally appeared on the Japanese scene as a cassette in 1984. Though this was their debut release, the band's earliest recordings from 1983 weren't released until 1987 as the Spending Loud Night EP. If you haven't been paying attention, Confuse were the absolute kings of crazy fuzzy Japanoise punk. Taking the groundwork laid out by Disorder and Chaos UK and tweaking it into abrasive white hiss, Confuse (and their buddies Gai) set the tone for what would be the Japanese noisecore aesthetic. Okay! Fuck! Die! Star of FIVES!!!

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