KLABAUTAMANN Our Journey Through The Woods (self-released) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Second disc from this mysterious blackened outfit, that just so happens to feature members of AQ faves Woburn House, a modern metallic post rock combo, who knocked our socks off with their recent Message To Ourselves Outside The Dreaming Machine record on UK label Paradigms. Where Woburn house took math rock and metallized it, creating a sound much more akin to some unlikely blend of Shellac and Gore, in Klabautamann, they take the buzzing blur of black metal, and add all sorts of melody and strange convoluted arrangements.
The record opens with the crunch of winter footsteps and glistening arpeggiated guitars, a lilting swoonsome introduction to the record proper, which erupts out of the gates as track two lurches into black aktion, manic drumming, buzzing crusty riffage and growled demonic vocals. But that's where any resemblance to traditional black metal ends. The songs buzz and thrash and pound, but it's so much more melodic, with cool little Iron Maiden-y guitar harmonies, strange mathy breakdowns, all sorts of strange guitar parts lurking around and under the main riff, lots of jangle and shimmer, even at its fiercest, there always seems to be some sort of sweet melody lurking underneath. The riffs too are much more rock than black metal, giving the record another strange twist. Lots of parts even sound like a blackened Treepeople, with multiple guitar lines all tangled up into gorgeous melodic knots. So cool and so weird. Could very well be the perfect gateway black metal band for folks who may have been a bit shy about taking the plunge into the dark side. And for the rest of you, whose musical souls are already tainted, this is strange and twisted, mathy, melodic, buzzy and blackened heaven!
MPEG Stream: "Walking Through Twilight"
MPEG Stream: "Der Nock"
MPEG Stream: "Trolldance"

RYOKUCHI Shinsho (S.M.D.) cd ep 14.98
We'd had a couple cd-r releases from Australian math doom trio Fire Witch, so we were super psyched to discover they had an actual cd that came out on a label in Japan, when we finally got the cd, we discovered it was a split with a band we had never heard called Ryokuchi. All it took was one listen to convince us that we loved 'em and needed to hear more!!! So while this is not a full length proper, it is a brand new record from this Japanese bass and drums duo, one thirty minute track, dense with all manner of low end riffing, blown out distortion and convoluted arrangements, mathy breakdowns, melodic drift and dark ambient shimmer. Ryokuchi call what they do "Experimental doom tribal hard core" and that's pretty much what it sounds like.
The track begins as an atmospheric post rock jam, with blooping reverbed bass, and mathy percussion, sounding not unlike a more drum heavy Three Mile Pilot,  but a few minutes in, the distortion pedals kick in and the band lurches into a crazed doomic plod, heavy and chugging, loping and swaying, gradually slowing down to an almost full stop, before bursting back into action, with a bit of complex mathy Ruins-y prog. For the next 10+ minutes these guys wildly careen from dense proggy rhythmic tangles, to huge slabs of slow shifting doom, to blissy stretches of moody slowcore, occasionally peppered with super distorted vocals buried in the mix, everything recorded super hot and in the red, before finally, with about ten minutes to go, the band pulls back, revealing an ominous dronescape behind the curtain, cymbals sizzle and shimmer, low end rumbles sway back and forth, muted melodies drift intermittently amidst the strange bass heavy landscape, when suddenly and dramatically, the band crash back in, and we're off, a pummeling slow motion downtuned doom drenched sludge, plowing along endlessly, interrupted by brief spurts of splattery spastic prog, before terminating in a huge squall of wild drumming and explosive bass feedback. 
Phew. So intense and so amazing. Think the Ruins covering Corrupted, or a doom metal Three Mile Pilot. Or just drums and bass and distortion and doom raining from the sky like some lesser known plague...
Packaged in a cool cd-sized DVD-style plastic case, with a full color, two sided cover, and a little mini full color booklet inside that folds out into a mini-poster and hides a sticker inside.
MPEG Stream: "Shinsho (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Shinsho (excerpt 2)"

RYOKUCHI & FIRE WITCH split (S.M.D.) cd 16.98
Aussie noise rockers the Grey Daturas had been telling us forever about some killer band called Fire Witch, who they played with all the time. It took forever, but we finally managed to get a bunch of copies of their Critter / Kritta 3" cd-r, which of course sold like crazy and was gone before we knew it. We stayed in touch with the band, but had been unable to get anything else until now. The strange thing is we had to go all the way to Japan to get this, a split with Japanese duo Ryokuchi...
It was well worth the wait though. Fire Witch are another band who traffic in the slooooooooow and heavy, but they definitely give it their own twist. Not sludgy like SUNNO))) or their legions of followers, and not really noisy like many of their countrymen. Instead they're some sort of strange downtuned slowcore mathrock. Massive basses (that's right. no guitars!) churn and throb, the drums a crushing pound, over the top, drawn out wailing 'leads', all the makings of a proper rock band, but instead they fuck it all up, gloriously, lurching forward only to pause briefly, allowing the silence and bits of room sound to seep in, before launching back into downtuned action. And they go on like that for ages, never attaining any momentum, instead engaging is some crowd baiting bit of stop start torture, and we love it. A slow motion wall of psych bass thrum and slow shuffling drums.
Here and there, the band reels it in, allowing the drummer to just wander, while the basses squiggle and oscillate, a dizzying warbly soundscape of tangled melodies and sea sick shimmer. They finish off with the brilliantly titled "I Spilled A Lot Of Blood To Get This Meal", a lengthy chunk of abstract soundscaping, reverberating metal, soft swells of feedback, lazy basslines, drifting harmonics, shuffling rhythms, eventually bursting into a dense doomy plod, but laced with all sorts of killer melodies, making it sound like a doomed version of June Of 44 or Engine Kid.
Fire Witch are teamed up here with Ryokuchi, a Japanese duo (what is it with Japan and duos?), also just bass and percussion, who offer up an ultra dense, and relentless onslaught of mathy grinding doom-drenched metallized noise rock. Beginning with strange percussion and fuzzy minimal drones, the band suddenly launches into a massive wall of sludgy pummel, like a more hyper kinetic Eyehategod, or a doom metal Ruins. Relentless and hypnotic, the drums pounding away, the bass a swirling wash of blackened buzz, amidst the chaos duel vocalists howl and shriek. Fuck! And that's just the first track, their second number is way more spread out and sprawling, offering up some stretches of relative tranquility with affected bass and tribal percussion, sounding a bit like a more metal Three Mile Pilot, but the majority of the nearly seventeen minutes is spent furious and chaotic, grinding and crushing, a Tasmanian Devil of sound, going from wild thrashing to slow motion plod and back again in a matter of second. Dense and complex and convoluted and so fucking great!
MPEG Stream: RYOKUCHI "Henjokongo"
MPEG Stream: FIRE WITCH "Villain"