BURZUM Hlidskjalf (Back On Black) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The final Burzum album, another all keyboard affair, recorded in prison and again the sound is mostly atmospheric, swooshing keyboards, some simple drum machine rhythms, a bit of folky filigree here and there. Supposedly evoking the ambience of Nordic forest and Nordic Pride (a barely disguised white pride, as Grishnackh, now Vikernes, discovered his true Nazi self in prison) this is a mostly disposable dark ambient record, for only the true Burzum completists.
BE WARNED! THESE BURZUM LPS ARE EXTREMELY LIMITED!! ONCE THESE ARE GONE, IT'S QUITE POSSIBLE THAT THEY'LL BE GONE FOR GOOD. IF IT ENDS UP WE CAN GET MORE, BE PREPARED TO WAIT PATIENTLY!

BURZUM Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (Misanthropy) cd 20.00
The title roughly translated is "What once was," but Det Som Engang Var is more about what is to come, the perfect bridge between the grim raw primitive Burzum of old and the beautifully bizarre grim blackness / haunting electronic hybrid that Burzum was to become. Originally released in 1994, the year he was sentenced to prison for murdering Mayhem's Euronymous, Hvis is a buzzing droning black metal masterpiece. Which would have probably remained the most essential Burzum document had Filosefem not been released 2 years later.

BURZUM Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (Back On Black) lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The title roughly translated is "What once was," but Det Som Engang Var is more about what is to come, the perfect bridge between the grim raw primitive Burzum of old and the beautifully bizarre grim blackness / haunting electronic hybrid that Burzum was to become. Originally released in 1994, the year he was sentenced to prison for murdering Mayhem's Euronymous, Hvis is a buzzing droning black metal masterpiece. Which would have probably remained the most essential Burzum document had Filosefem not been released 2 years later.
BE WARNED! THESE BURZUM LPS ARE EXTREMELY LIMITED!! ONCE THESE ARE GONE, IT'S QUITE POSSIBLE THAT THEY'LL BE GONE FOR GOOD. IF IT ENDS UP WE CAN GET MORE, BE PREPARED TO WAIT PATIENTLY!

BURZUM Ragnarok: A New Beginning (Aske) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If you don't know the whole sordid story with this guy/band, let us refer you to "The Lords of Chaos" book... Here's some rare demo/rehearsal material from Varg, all early stuff recorded long before his incarceration. Very cult. The demo material is rough and super atmospheric, gloom drone metal supreme. This is the stuff for which the term "necro" was invented. This disc also includes other oddities, such as a rehearsal recording of a seemingly drunken Varg, along with guys from Mayhem, likely equally drunk, singing a Cliff Richard song a capella (this track is really more silly than necro). Then there's a long spooky track with vocals by the late Sveinbjorn Beinfeinsson, head of the Asatru religion, backed by Varg's synths (this might be of more recent vintage than the rest). For true fans. Limited (and numbered) edition of 1000 cds. We only have a few.
RealAudio clip: "Lost Wisdom"

C-AVERAGE Second Reckoning (Kill Rock Stars) cd 13.98
A two-piece band of indie rockers from the Pacific Northwest doing their best to play metal...no, not The Need. It's C-Average -- but these guys might need to think about changing their name, as on this release they've manage to bring their grade point average up a bit! I'd give them a B+ for Second Reckoning, and a little gold star for "most improved". It's way tighter and heavier than their not-so-great debut from a few years back. They still do a lot of covers (this time, "The Witch" by the Sonics and Mose Allison's "Parchment Farm" by way of Blue Cheer), but play them, and their originals, much more convincingly than before. Maybe they'll figure out that with a live bass player, they'd have a chance to be really really good. Punk rock classic rock for fans of Melvins, The (Fucking) Champs, etc.

CAACRINOLAS A Thousand Cries Has The Night cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Members of German avant-jazz outfit Bretzel Killing Machine take their interest in horror films/music a step further by forming this two-man experimental BLACK METAL band! Yes, B.K.M. leader (and solo electronics artist) Bjoern Eichstaedt has finally delivered his his long-promised (threatened?) Caacrinolas project. Keyboardist/vocalist Bjoern, together with guitarist/bassist Larry Luer, and a drum machine, have made a very cult sounding 24-minute cd-r demo ep, numbered and limited to 100 copies. It's just one track (the title song "A Thousand Cries Has The Night") and the truth is, if this is a representative twenty-four minutes of that night, then it has a lot MORE than a 1000 cries, 'cause the screaming on here is voluminous and disturbing. Starting off with Goblin-style horror keyboards and drony atmospherics and then moving into Burzum style riffery and throat-shredding screaming backed by drum machine mayhem, this is pretty scary from the get-go. Then we move into doomy broken-guitar explorations, almost like Esoteric scoring a horror flick. The song continues to take many twists and turns, all dark and droney ones of course.
It's definitely something for fans of Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Abruptum, Nokturnal Mortum, Potentiam, and similar avant-ambient-black-metal trips. Excellent! We look forward to their next recording, which we're told is already underway, entitled "Satan et les légions fantastiques tourmentant le Crucifié"...
RealAudio clip: "A Thousand Cries Has The Night (excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: "A Thousand Cries Has The Night (excerpt 2)"

CAACRINOLAS Caacrinolas 2: Valley of the Dead cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Cryptic and creepy, Caacrinolas is the "black metal" project of German AQ-pal Bjoern Eichstaedt and his colleague Larry Luer, both of whom more typically make music in the realms of avant-garde jazz and experimental electronics. But, inspired by the likes of Burzum and Emperor, Bjoern and Larry created Caacrinolas, whose first, cultish cd-r release "A Thousand Cries Has The Night" was much liked by AQ staff and customers. Now they're returned to terrorize us further with "Caacrinolas 2: Valley Of The Dead". Again, it's a single track, but a longer one, at 36 minutes this time. Again, it's in a limited, numbered edition of 100. The packaging is a bit fancier -- a clear dvd-sized "Super Jewel Box", with a suitably chilling black-and-white cover photo beneath a sheet of blood-red acetate. Nice (and thus, the price is a bit more than before). And again, this is a scary 'lil disc! It does seem like they maybe have less of an overt black metal concept going on this time -- they're really establishing their own style of horror soundtrack jazz vs. metal, seemingly referencing both Bohren & Der Club of Gore and Cradle of Filth, Fantomas and Morricone, Bernard Herrmann and Sigh!
This disc's journey of darkness begins with classical strings and malevolent petrodactyl squawks, seguing into a Bohren-esque, noirish jazz-drone soundscape with zombie monk vocals in the background. But sudden changes will constantly catch the listener unawares -- lurking at every turn there are bursts of jagged metalcore riffing with roiling drums, passages of doleful organ, blasts of noise and distortion, dark and droney Tangerine Dream synth-work, and, as the disc concludes, pensive, pretty piano a la David Shire's soundtrack for The Conversation. Yep, it's good! (and evil.)
RealAudio clip: "excerpt 1"
RealAudio clip: "excerpt 2"

CAACRINOLAS Vargtimmen (self-released) cd-r 11.98
It's been over FIVE years since we last heard from German duo Caacrinolas and their strange brand of constantly changing black metal weirdness. The two were fixtures in the avant garde jazz / experimental electronic German underground, fronting the group Bretzel Killing Machine, but the two became fixated on black metal, and horror movies and decided to do something about it. Their debut, A Thousand Cries Has The Night, was a brief black assault, with buzzing riffage, sweeping black ambience, and some of the most intense wailing vocals we'd ever heard. We compared the music on the disc to groups like Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Abruptum, Nokturnal Mortum, Potentiam, bands who took black metal and shaped it into something more unique, and often more disturbing. The duo returned soon after, with a second salvo, the ominously titled Valley of the Dead, another lengthy single track, but the black buzz was pulled back to reveal a haunting Goblinesque soundworld of lugubrious dark crawls, and Bohren like blackjazz slowcore. Granted, the record was like a haunted house, with creeps and starts lurking around every corner, but the focus was a long droning black drift (btw, both of those were SUPER limited so don't try to order 'em...)
Now here we are 5 years later (although most of this was recorded in 2003 and '04), and Caacrinolas take up just where they left off, creating a gorgeous epic creepscape of drifting pointillist pianos, long drawn out minor key chords, whispery ghost like voices, dark cavernous drones, and streaks of fuzzed out ambience, all smeared into ominous, yet strangely lovely stretches of cinematic tension. Hard not to hear Bohren, and again Goblin, but also Stars Of The Lid, and even bits of Tim Hecker, Aidan Baker, and other subtle sound sculptors... Most AQ drone-heads are already in love with this kind of sound and it only takes a minute or two before those folks are ready to close their eyes and drift off... but not so fast....
About halfway through the opening track, some keening distorted high end guitar, begins to repeat, over and over, like some lonely distant minor key siren, until they're joined by some downtuned low slung slow motion riffage, that buzzes and crawls, over a warm warbly bed of synths... it never explodes into black action though, instead, it slowly twists and turns, the various layers of keyboard and synthesizer, getting all tangled up and drifting darkly above a swirling sea of subtle black drone.
The second track follows a similar pattern, a slow building horror movie ambient epic. Keyboards drone and shimmer, muted melodies drift right beneath the surface, bits of percussion pepper the Niblockian blur, the tension builds, the production crackles and hisses, a strange textured underlayer to the near static drone, until a mournful strummed guitar surfaces, and the track transforms into some strange lonely lament, drifting, drifting, drifting, until the band suddenly launches into full on rock mode, crunchy riffage, eighties synths, simple propulsive drumming, and the band is squarely in Goblin (or Zombi) territory, weaving a tense soundscape, dramatic and a little over the top, eventually, becoming -slightly- black metal with some super brittle high end insectoid buzz and some blasting double kick buried in the mix, like a black metal Goblin scoring one of those scenes where the terrified girl in her nightgown is running through the midnight forest, being chased by a mysterious maniac. Eventually, the band settles back down into a haunting slithering creep, but now with mysterious female voices mumbled beneath the buzzing synth, the sizzling cymbal swells, the spidery sad guitar melodies, and the slow motion downtuned riffing, until it all fades to black. Awesome!
Like the other discs, this one is also limited to only 100 copies, so we're not sure how long we'll be able to keep these in stock. If people freak out over this one the way they did over the first two, probably not long. But UNLIKE the other ones, which were packaged in slimline jewel cases, 3 is super elaborate, housed in a gold metallic hinged box (like those old Chain Reaction releases), with the artwork silkscreened directly onto the metal, the cd affixed to a metallic nub on the inside, and a printed black on black insert with all the liner notes tucked inside.
MPEG Stream: "Vargtimmen"
MPEG Stream: "En Un Espacio"

CADAVER Necrosis (Candlelight) cd 14.98
A few years ago, the once-defunct Norwegian death metal act Cadaver reactivated themselves, morphing into a blackened, industrial-tinged monster dubbed Cadaver, Inc. whose album was a brutal comeback indeed, in the vein of their comrades Satyricon.
Now they've dropped the Inc. and become plain old Cadaver again (perhaps because their amazing Cadaver, Inc. website, which was done to look like that of a fake corpse-disposal crime-scene cleanup company, was getting more attention than the actual band). They've got their old logo back and with it a more old-school death/black metal approach to the music: as the first track is titled, they are indeed "Necro As Fuck". Instead of Satyricon, now they're sounding more like Celtic Frost. Extremely aggro, raw stuff with gruff, too loud vocals. As fierce as it is, there's definitely some weird parts in the songs too that reward careful listening. And the cover art is lovely by the way.
MPEG Stream: "Evil Is Done"
MPEG Stream: "Goatfather"

CADAVER EYES The Acquisition Of Power Over Fire / No Time To Haste (Heart & Crossbone) cd-r 12.98
We listed an amazing record a while back from a band called Barabara, from Israel, who sounded to us a bit like a black metal Hella! So here we have the newest record from a band called Cadaver Eyes, which just happens to be the solo project of Barbara drummer David Opp, who in Cadaver Eyes also plays drums, but the twist here is the drums trigger samples, so it's a seriously self contained one man band, just one guy singing and whipping up a huge grinding metallic shitstorm with his drums. Pretty impressive. Sounds like some of the samples must be crusty Napalm death / Carcass style guitar riffs, while others are rumbling super distorted bass. The end result is a sludge-y grinding thrash attack that would be right at home on Earache or Peaceville circa late '80's. All sung in Hebrew, with some songs peppered with random bits of found snippets, traditional Israeli folk songs, media bites and other random sonic interference. This should also hit the spot for folks into the grind-sludge of Burmese, UK crusties Doom, Texas scuzz merchants Rusted Shut as well as anyone into crushing spastic chaotic musical mayhem!
MPEG Stream: "Dive Into The Abyss"
MPEG Stream: "Scandal Shaaruriyah"
MPEG Stream: "Powerless Emperor"

CADAVER IN DRAG Raw Child (Animal Disguise Recordings) cd 12.98
Ok, let's start adding 'em up. This band gets point for their name, first off. 'Cadaver In Drag' is both disturbing and humorous enough to be worth a nervous chuckle (it's even funnier if you imagine that they know something about the Swedish death metal band Cadaver that we don't know). And their knack for names extends to album and song titles too, especially that of track two, "Fuck This Place". Could be an anthem for folks sick of living in, say, Kentucky (from whence Cadaver In Drag hail). Plus, they get points for this being released on the Animal Disguise label, run by one of the guys from Mammal, whose recent album was an Aquarius Record Of The Week, last week. That certainly piques our interest. And also then there's more points for this being picked, before it was even released, as an Album Of The Month (October 2007) by pagan pope Julian Cope on his Head Heritage website, which puts 'em in league with such past heavy AQ faves as Harvey Milk, Orthodox, Om, Death Comes Along, Vincent Black Shadow, The Heads, SUNNO))), and others. As always, we recommend reading his reviews.
So, before we even heard this, Cadaver In Drag had already run up the score pretty high in their favor. And now that it's here, and blasting on our stereo, the verdict is: hella more points!! For being a totally fucked, mesmeric mash of doooomic sludge metal and shrill psychedelic noise rock... part Khanate, part Wolf Eyes (or Mammal), and, as Julian Cope sez, part Les Rallizes Denudes. Nasty, noisy, nauseous. Early on in both the first two of this disc's three tracks, some angsty, wretched screams carry on about something or other, but those are quickly forgotten as Cadaver In Drag concentrate on their plodding, powerful instrumental raison d'etre: monomaniacal repetitive riff-bashing, each track an extended, distorted, metallic, trebly throb, crashing and clanging, staying more or less the same for up to 19 minutes in the case of the first and longest cut, the aptly titled "Walking Through The Gates Of Hell". However, subtle, simple shifts in sound do occur, almost as if they're playing their own destroyed dub versions of these compositions. It's like Skullflower covering Super Roots 3 (or 5) by the Boredoms, if you can imagine that sort of sickeningly hypnotic hybrid. Or Eyehategod and Hair Police (a member of whom contributes synths here) locked in a minimal march to death, freaking out with as few chords as possible, but plenty of FX. Or Cavity vs. Harry Pussy... Yowza. And it must be said that Cadaver In Drag does mellow the fuck out for the almost melodic, calm-in-comparison album closer "Secession '61". Nice. Points for that too.
MPEG Stream: "Walking Through The Gates Of Hell"
MPEG Stream: "Secession '61"

CADAVER IN DRAG Raw Child (Animal Disguise Recordings) lp 14.98
Ok, let's start adding 'em up. This band gets point for their name, first off. 'Cadaver In Drag' is both disturbing and humorous enough to be worth a nervous chuckle (it's even funnier if you imagine that they know something about the Swedish death metal band Cadaver that we don't know). And their knack for names extends to album and song titles too, especially that of track two, "Fuck This Place". Could be an anthem for folks sick of living in, say, Kentucky (from whence Cadaver In Drag hail). Plus, they get points for this being released on the Animal Disguise label, run by one of the guys from Mammal, whose recent album was an Aquarius Record Of The Week, last week. That certainly piques our interest. And also then there's more points for this being picked, before it was even released, as an Album Of The Month (October 2007) by pagan pope Julian Cope on his Head Heritage website, which puts 'em in league with such past heavy AQ faves as Harvey Milk, Orthodox, Om, Death Comes Along, Vincent Black Shadow, The Heads, SUNNO))), and others. As always, we recommend reading his reviews.
So, before we even heard this, Cadaver In Drag had already run up the score pretty high in their favor. And now that it's here, and blasting on our stereo, the verdict is: hella more points!! For being a totally fucked, mesmeric mash of doooomic sludge metal and shrill psychedelic noise rock... part Khanate, part Wolf Eyes (or Mammal), and, as Julian Cope sez, part Les Rallizes Denudes. Nasty, noisy, nauseous. Early on in both the first two of this disc's three tracks, some angsty, wretched screams carry on about something or other, but those are quickly forgotten as Cadaver In Drag concentrate on their plodding, powerful instrumental raison d'etre: monomaniacal repetitive riff-bashing, each track an extended, distorted, metallic, trebly throb, crashing and clanging, staying more or less the same for up to 19 minutes in the case of the first and longest cut, the aptly titled "Walking Through The Gates Of Hell". However, subtle, simple shifts in sound do occur, almost as if they're playing their own destroyed dub versions of these compositions. It's like Skullflower covering Super Roots 3 (or 5) by the Boredoms, if you can imagine that sort of sickeningly hypnotic hybrid. Or Eyehategod and Hair Police (a member of whom contributes synths here) locked in a minimal march to death, freaking out with as few chords as possible, but plenty of FX. Or Cavity vs. Harry Pussy... Yowza. And it must be said that Cadaver In Drag does mellow the fuck out for the almost melodic, calm-in-comparison album closer "Secession '61". Nice. Points for that too.
MPEG Stream: "Walking Through The Gates Of Hell"
MPEG Stream: "Secession '61"

CADAVER INC. Discipline (Earache) cd 14.98
Formed out of the ashes of Swedish 90's Earache deathmetal act Cadaver, the 21st Century Cadaver (Inc.) is an-all new "post-black-metal" beast, drawing upon bandleader/guitarist Anders Odden's experiences contributing to recent Apoptygma Berzerk (Swedish techno!) and Satyricon albums. The band is filled out by former members of such notable Nordic black metal acts as Aura Noir, Dimmu Borgir, and Dodheimsgard. And, providing a spoken word segment from his jail cell, is ex-Emperor dude Faust.
RealAudio clip: "Primal"
RealAudio clip: "Point Zero"

CADAVER YELLETH AT AMBER TOWER Code: Algeria (Res Adversae Productions) cd ep 12.98
From the same mysterious Russian otherworld that brought us the blackened genius of Ithdabquth Qliphoth comes the amazingly monickered Cadaver Yelleth At Amber Tower, which as far as we can tell is one of the many side projects that IQ mainman AL-LA-ShT-ORR employs to explore some seriously twisted and esoteric sounds.
And it doesn't get much more esoteric than this. Falling somewhere between the mysterious shortwave broadcasts of the Conet Project, and the disembodied ghostly blacknoise of Prurient, Code:Algeria is a strange sonic artifact, a manufactured lost transmission from the abyss, voices from some recovered black box recorder, broadcast from some other dimension, travelling through the atmosphere, gathering strange distortions and interference as it goes, a dizzying assemblage of beeps and hiss and warm buzzing textures, the voices speaking French? Arabic? Russian? Hard to tell, distorted as they are, 3 voices, 4 voices, the cadence and interplay almost musical, interrupted by bursts of hiss and sonar like pings, by the second track, some woozy warbly organ has joined the mix, the hiss sounds more scuplted, stuttering and skittering almost rhythmically, still wound around those strange voices, and the hiss taking on an almost Sunroof! like melodiousness, but those voices, continue to haunt and perplex, is it a military exercise? Is it something more sinister? Definitely sounds like it. Whatever it is, it's fantastic, and enthralling, and like the Conet Project, transcends its parts to become melodic and musical and surprisingly listenable. For field recording freeks too, especially ones into EVP and the Ghost Orchid and the like...
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

CADAVERIA The Shadows' Madame (Scarlet) cd 14.98
This Italian metal band is hard to figure out: visually, they look kinda Marilyn Manson-eque with big boots, devil-locks and black vinyl trenchcoats. So we expected some sort of vampire industrial goth thing, maybe with female vocals...well it's got female vocals, but not your usual variety! This band actually plays a weird hybrid of mid-tempo pounding black metal and catchy classical/folk riffage. Singer Cadaveria (ex-Opera IX) teamed up with members of Italian black thrashers Necrodeath for this new band that combines her unique vocals (a melodic but throaty rasp, sometimes venturing into sweeter, higher register) with majestic riffs on keyboard and guitar that really sound like Slough Feg or Hammers of Misfortune parts. Way more "heavy metal" than we'd expected at first glance. And way more original, fully of tricky twists you won't expect. We like! A kick ass surprise metal discovery for sure.
RealAudio clip: "Circle Of Eternal Becomings"
RealAudio clip: "Black Glory"

CAINA I, Mountain (God Is Myth) 3" cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is the first in a super limited series of 3" cd-r's dedicated to H.P. Lovecraft. This inaugural installment comes from UK one man black metal horde Caina, whose debut record indeed bore a passing resemblance to AQ faves, Lurker Of Chalice, the weirder side project of Leviathan's Wrest, but managed to be it's own strange black beast.
And if anything, I, Mountain is even stranger, with barely any black metal, in fact there's very little here that might be considered metal at all. But that in no way means this isn't dark, or mysterious or subtly heavy.
I, Mountain is an instrumental interpretation of Lovecraft's At The Mountains Of Madness, and is an intense sonic journey.
The first five minutes are a blissy dreamy drift, muted acoustic guitars, glistening and shimmering, it's not until five minutes in that the tenor becomes ominous, with haunting crumbling production and mysterious minor key ambience. Then it's about halfway through before we get the first hint of anything resembling metal, and even then, it's thick clouds of noxious distortion, drifting in the background, a sort of black ambience, but this quickly gives way to a churning doomy sludge, downtuned guitars, thick waves, layer after layer, slowly shifting and pulsing.
Finally, with only minutes to go, the metal kicks in, but it's no black blast, instead a propulsive metallic dirge, thick guitars, and pounding simple drums with the occasionally splattery fill, trudging resolutely forward before the drums drift off, leaving dense peals of processed guitar to swirl and shimmer ominously before the dark ambience fades to black.
I, Mountain is tracked as a single 20+ minute track, although in the booklet, the sections are separated into movements. Packaged in a slim jewel case, with a 4 panel booklet and a thick card insert with a photo of Lovecraft on one side and an essay on the other. Nice!
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! We got 20, and it's already out of print, so when we run out, we will not be able to get more...
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"

CAINA Mourner (Profound Lore) cd 12.98

MPEG Stream: "Waves Engulf A Pier"
MPEG Stream: "Hideous Gnosis"
MPEG Stream: "I Reeled In Heaven"

CAINA s/t (Universal Tongue / Bubonic Productions) cd ep 12.98
Latest from this one man UK avant black metal outfit, whose Temporary Antennae record on Profound Lore we raved about a while back, a four song ep that like Temporary Antennae, and most of the other Caina records, veers all over the place, taking seemingly disparate sounds and parts, and weaves them all together into something cohesive and compelling, mysterious and a bit bizarre.
The record opens with some sunshiney post rock, all warm sun dappled synths, simple drums, whooshing major key shimmer, epic and majestic and pretty, which only makes the second track that much more menacing, with it's overdriven crumbling guitars, its growled demonic vokills, its weird spaced out arrangement, more doom than black metal, until the song revs up and blasts blackly before slipping into something much more abstract, the vocals remain, but the music transformed into something more jangly and poppy, the sound once again shifting back toward something blown out and blissy, a soaring emotional coda that does not at all match the song's ominous beginning.
The third track is the most fucked up of the bunch, beginning with some plodding, weirdly melodic depressive black metal, before everything drops out leaving just the guitars, to unwind some folky fluttery melodies, over subtle bass throb, and warm synth swells, eventually dropping out completely, leaving just some sampled voices, which just so happen to be Jim Jones from the People's Temple recorded in Guyana, creepy and fucked up for sure, the music shifts to match, a lurching start stop that sounds a bit like the recent Funeral Mist.
The final track begins with some almost-cheesy Goblin-y soundtracky synth, laid over some simple shuffling drumming, spidery minor key guitar, post rocky and drifty and dreamy. About halfway through, some warped metallic chug gradually builds into a pounding math metal workout, again all very major key and epic sounding, gradually becoming less and less epic, as the sound shifts slowly toward a more raw and blasting blackness.
Cool stuff, definitely twisted and confusional, but we're beginning to think that's precisely why we dig Caina so much...
MPEG Stream: "Drilling The Spire"
MPEG Stream: "To Pluck The Night Up By Its Skin"

CAINA Some People Fall (God Is Myth) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The first we heard about this UK outfit Caina, was that they sounded a bit like Lurker Of Chalice, Wrest from Leviathan's more experimental black metal side project. And if you're anything like us, which we're thinking in matters Leviathan you most definitely are, then that was pretty much all we needed to hear. And it does definitely share some sonic similarities, although it is most definitely it's own mournful, melancholy blackened beast.
The opening track doesn't prepare you at all for the rest of the disc, it's a strange and murky, shimmering ambient soundscape, rich swells of epic sound, like an instrumental post rock Constellation band run through some sort of Jeck / Basinski / Tim Hecker filter rendering everything smeary and gloriously indistinct. Distant drums, bits of percussive skitter, all drifting below a sun baked expanse of glistening soft focus drone. Quite lovely. And the rest of the record is lovely too, just in a much more bleak and blackened way. The opening track has a definite shoegazer vibe that manages to stretch out and settle over all the tracks here. Thick reverby guitars, super primitive practice space drums, arpeggiated minor key melodies, strange little guitar leads spun out into the ether, ultra raw vocals way up in the mix, huge guitar chugs, lilting sort of sea sick rhythms, bizarre convoluted song structures, blast beats that seem to just sink into the mire, long stretches of caliginous dark ambience, gorgeous slabs of simple hypnotic guitar, the whole record wreathed in a dense funereal sonic fog. Dark and creepy and pretty but still so bleak and black. Lurker / Leviathan fans need this for sure. As does anyone into weird damaged blissed out black metal. And if you love stuff like My Bloody Valentine, Jesus & Mary Chain, M83, Phillip Jeck, Tim Hecker and the like, but can't really imagine what all those bands would sound like in a black metal context, look no further...
MPEG Stream: "The Validity Of Hate Within An Emotional Vacuum"
MPEG Stream: "Black End Tyme Collapse"
MPEG Stream: "Satanikultur Pessimis"

CAINA Temporary Antennae (Profound Love) cd 13.98
We were super into the first couple records from UK black metal outfit Caina, especially their entry in the HP Lovecraft 3" cd-r series, but then after that we sort of lost interest, not sure what it was exactly, the records started sounding more acoustic, more folky, not that we're opposed to that, it just wasn't doing it for us. So we almost skipped this new disc completely, but boy are we glad we didn't. Another instance that has us wondering what the hell we were thinking, and giving us cause to go back and see if maybe we just weren't way off the mark.
Because Temporary Antennae is really something else. Heavy, and folky, and creepy, and pretty goddamn weird. Beginning with some rumbling black ambience, assembled from what sounds like chants and guttural vocalizations, culminating in an incredibly freaky processed voice, leading us into the first song proper, a killer start stop blackened groove, that almost sounds like Led Zeppelin mixed with Lurker Of Chalice. We had compared Caina to Lurker way back when, and it still sort of applies. If you consider Lurker to be the gothier doomier creepier less distinctly black metal side of Leviathan. The sound her is definitely black, but not buzzy and blasty, instead, the guitars almost jangle, the voice is deep and dramatic, and the arrangement is more epic, almost post rocky, with haunting majestic melodies, warm reverb drenched ambience, all very moody and dour, another black metal band that seems to be leaning heavily toward old school slowcore. But filtering in all sorts of doom and folk and various other unlikely elements.
And so it goes with Temporary Antennae, simple skeletal drum machine rhythms beneath glimmering fx laden shimmer, haunting operatic vocals, all giving way to a super slow, but surprisingly not 'heavy' funereal doom, rife with clean guitar, and fucked up bellowed vox, atonal off kilter blasting blackness stutters into a lurching arrangement that makes it sound more like Ved Buens Ende than anything more traditionally black, and again, shot through with moody mathy clean guitar, crooned vocals, processed shoegazey guitars, and out of the blue drum machine throb and pulse, there's even what sounds like some eighties FM radio new wave, all synthy and poppy and jangly, which gradually transforms into something much heavier, like Jesu or Nadja, the same sort of M83 fuzziness, and then suddenly the record will shift again into a brooding gothic pop, all mournful melodies and spare drumming, guitar harmonics and distant hazy shimmer, only to change gears again moments later, taking the shape of a sort of melancholic sadcore jangle, like Mazzy Star or The For Carnation, and for the next few songs, the sound shifts, continually slipping from jangle to shimmer to drift, but never really returning to anything remotely metal, but by that point, you don't really want it to, you're in some sort of blissed out trance state, which is precisely the point.
Only the most adventurous and pop savvy metalheads are gonna dig this. Even at its heaviest, things are still pretty fuzzy and jangly and pretty, but if you've been digging stuff like Alcest and Amesoeurs, then this might just hit the spot.
MPEG Stream: "Ten Went Up River"
MPEG Stream: "Willows And Whippoorwills"
MPEG Stream: "Tobacco Beetle"

CALIBAN The Opposite From Within (Abacus) cd 13.98
Brand new release of inspired Slayer-worship here, courtesy of one of the forerunners of the fertile German metalcore scene, Caliban, who share that distinction with contemporaries and split-release partners Heaven Shall Burn. On this, their fourth full-length, Caliban is as heavy, if not heavier than ever, with the artillery salvos of the double-kick drums during the breakdowns being particularly lethal. Stay away from the pit when these guys steamroll through town or you're likely to get a good baker's dozen worth of kickboxers kicking, flailing and otherwise directly assaulting your person. They're also incorporating more melodic singing in parts a la Deftones, making them a definite recommendation for fans of Atreyu, Between the Buried and Me, Avenged Sevenfold and of course, Converge.
MPEG Stream: "Goodbye"
MPEG Stream: "Senseless Fight"

CALIBAN Vent (Lifeforce) cd 13.98
These German hardcore kids play metal better than most American metalheads. Caliban (along with Heaven Shall Burn) seem to be leading the new wave of metalcore, where almost every trace of hardcore has been eliminated, leaving nothing but METAL. Vent starts with acoustic guitar and howling wind like all great metal records, but by track two Caliban are tearing heads off with a full on Slayer-esque metal assault, until they break it down to half time, that's when they are absolutely crushing: some sort of sinister metallic march, punctuated by rib rattling riffs and Reign-In-Blood licks. Ominous and pulverizing and completely metal.
RealAudio clip: "Fire Of Night"
RealAudio clip: "Love Taken Away"

CALIBAN VS. HEAVEN SHALL BURN The Split Program (Lifeforce) cd 12.98
German metalcore showdown! Two of the best metalcore bands around (both German, and both so metal it's sort of selling them short to not just call them metal) face off on this split cd. Caliban spit out Slayer style west coast death metal complete with chugging riffs and with plenty of I-can't-believe-it's-not-Swedish furious metallic mayhem but throw in some emo earnestness. Heaven Shall Burn mix East Coast metalcore (Converge, Coalesce) with furious black metal riffing and mix in the occasional bizarre breakdown. This is a good introduction to both bands, but believe us, both full lengths (which we also carry) are essential for anyone who likes it hard and heavy.
RealAudio clip: CALIBAN "Assassin Of Love"
RealAudio clip: CALIBAN "A Summerdream"
RealAudio clip: HEAVEN SHALL BURN "Suffocated In The Exhaust Of Our Machines"
RealAudio clip: HEAVEN SHALL BURN "No Single Inch"

CALIBAN VS. HEAVEN SHALL BURN The Split Program II (Lifeforce) cd 13.98

CAMBODIA Weight Of Ages (self-released) cd-r 12.98
It's been a while since we were knocked on our asses by a random cd-r that just showed up in the mail. But this debut disc from a band called Cambodia did just that. We got a copy of this disc almost six months ago and it's take the band until now to get us enough copies to list, but holy fuck was it worth it!
Huge mournful riffs, that manage to be heavy and sludgy, but super emotional and minor key. Almost like someone took some sadcore moperock riff and dipped it in some SUNNO))) then rolled it in some Boris. The riff just hovers, all by it's lonesome, for almost three minutes before the drums kick in, and then the vocals. Woah, the vocals, an insane menagerie of growls and hysterical shrieks, sort of reminiscent of Bathtub Shitter. Dueling howls and screeches. But it's all about the loping metallic mope. Massive, lumbering, and intense. You can almost imagine some sort of Katatonia style clean vocals happening, but this is a whole different beast, a much harsher and brutal beast. But it's that main melodic refrain that makes this such a keeper. No matter who's howling, or what the drums are doing, or if there's ten tracks of chugging guitars, when that melody surfaces in a sea of sludge, it immediately grabs you and gives you that weird hairs standing on end feeling. If only most heavy bands could come up with these kinds of melodies.
Just to be clear, this is definitely some sort of slow motion sludgy doom, but it's got that special something that keeps it from being just another boring doom metal band. Instead it's almost more like the heaviest harshest indie slowcore band ever. Only more metal. VERY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Weight Of Ages"

CANCER CONSPIRACY, THE The Audio Medium (Big Wheel Recreation) cd 14.98
Didn't care too much for CC's first record. A little too much jazzy-instrumental-Tortoisey-post-rock-wankery. But this new record is something else entirely. Well, not entirely. There are still elements of jazz and post rock, and it -is- instrumental, but it gets way more metal and prog and space-y and experimental. And the songwriting is so much more focused. Intense and emotional. Even the playing seems better. Cancer Conspiracy fall somewhere between Don Caballero, recent Cave In and maybe Pink Floyd, but with moments of blissed out space rock, crushing metal, noodly meandering post rock, gorgeous piano driven melodies, and some complex Voi Vod-ish parts. Really intense and really great. It's always exciting when a band takes a lifeless genre and completely turns it inside out and makes it their own. Fans of AQ fave Feuhler, Don Cab, Cave In may have found themselves a new favorite band!
RealAudio clip: "...To Sleep"
RealAudio clip: "Broken Heartbeats Gathered And Rebroadcast"

CANDIRIA 300 Percent Density (Century Media) cd 16.98
Third album of crazed hardcore metal-meets-fusion from these Brooklynites. Their singer is at home with both brutal death metal grunting and Wu Tang-esque rapping but never at the same time. Don't worry, it's not nu-metal Limp Bizkit stuff, it's way more intense and bizarre and jazz-damaged.

CANDIRIA Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Too Damn Hype) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
OK, if you can imagine ultra-technical death metal with brutal but almost-rap vocals, bizarrely juxtaposed with sublimely cheesy 70's jazz-fusion explorations, then you've got an idea of what Candiria sound like. Absurd, yes, but actually quite amazing. It's a case of "hey, you got your Pantera in my Return To Forever"...you know the rest. They should get together with Tom Jenkinson, as some of this stuff does approach a Squarepusherish density.

CANDIRIA Process Of Self-Development (MIA) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This Brooklyn band has been perplexing metal fans for years with their unlikely mix of brutal death metal, jazz fusion, and hip hop, and they keep getting better and better. The metal is stop and start, brutal and growling. The fusion is straight up Return to Forever (so good it even fooled jazz/fusion obsessive Josh from the Champs). The hip hop is dark and skewed, a kind of Kool Keith/Tribe Called Quest hybrid. They don't ever really mix genres (although some jazzy structures are evident in the metal), but the elements, no matter how disparate, really gel to make this a really weird and amazing record.

CANDIRIA The Coma Imprint (Lakeshore Records) 2cd 17.98
Candiria are extraordinary for so many differnt reasons. They play a mix of stop/start death metal, hardcore, hip hop, and jazz fusion which is weird enough. They do it well, which is even more weird. And strangest of all, they have managed to become fairly popular playing this obtuse hybrid. Especially since most metalheads don't like hip hop or jazz fusion. And vice versa. And Candiria don't play "hip hop metal", their hip hop shit is REAL, as is their jazz fusion. They are fronted by a vocalist as comfortable howling his guts out as he is flowing on the mic. And this band has some of the most serious chops EVER. Think Naked City stop-on-a dime, switch-genres-every-10-seconds kind of chops. The fusion shit they spit out is SO REAL, it's almost cheesy, like Mahavishnu Orchestra or Stanley Jordan. But at heart, they are a metal band. And a pretty unbelievable one. Fans of Meshuggah and other super technical death metal will have a field day with the ridiculous time signatures and insane song structures. But like I stated earlier, an open mind is a must 'cause you never know when the metal will drop out and a funky hip hop groove will take over, or a horn section and some skittery 7/8 jazz licks will take the spotlight. A few things have changed this time around. On earlier records, the hip hop tracks were completely separate from the metal tracks, but on a few tracks here, there is some rapping on the metal tracks which brings them dangerously close to 'nu metal' territory at times. And their jazz-fusion obsession is in full effect, with at least two thirds of the tracks sporting some crazy skittery fusiony breakdowns (as well as some full on metal-free fusion tracks). And in the process Candiria come up with some occasional totally wacked death-metal-vocals-over-fusion-rhythm-workouts. Crazy! Disc two is 6 tracks of hip hop/electronica, 2 straight up hip hop jams, with the other 4 running the gamut from jazzy drum and bass to trippy skittery noodly ambience. Weird but pretty cool. Definitely a difficult band, and certainly an aquired taste, but I think most Aquarius customers are up to the challenge.
RealAudio clip: "Year One"
RealAudio clip: "Bring The Pain/Multiple Incisions"
RealAudio clip: "Peel This Strip And Fold Here"
RealAudio clip: "Faction"
RealAudio clip: "Blue Suede Timbs"

CANDIRIA What Doesn't Kill You... (Type A) cd 14.98
Fifth album from our favorite hip hop meets death metal meets jazz fusion band!! Seriously. Read one of our other reviews of them if you're curious -- all their records are pretty darn good (if, like us, you like their weird blend of styles).
MPEG Stream: "The Nameless King"
MPEG Stream: "Blood"
MPEG Stream: "9mm Solution"

CANDLEMASS Death Magic Doom (Nuclear Blast) cd 15.98
They certainly aren't, y'know, lowering expectations with a title like that (unless you were looking for twee indie pop or something else non-metallic). And if anyone could call a record Death Magic Doom it's Candlemass bassist/mastermind Leif Edling and his not-so-merry band of spooky Swedes (and one Texan). Last list we highlighted The Devil You Know, the magnificent reunion album of Ronnie James Dio and Black Sabbath under the Heaven & Hell name, and mentioned in our review that we didn't think any other attempts at epic doom this year could compete. However, a decent runner up has to be this latest slab of heaviosity from Swedish doom veterans Candlemass! They offer up their tenth studio album, also their second full-length with vocalist Robert Lowe (of Texas doomsters Solitude Aeturnus), who has already proved himself to be the best (and maybe only) choice to replace Candlemass's iconic '80s singer Messiah Marcolin at the mic. If you liked Lowe's 2007 Candlemass debut King Of The Grey Islands, you'll like this one too!
More classic soaring vocals, chugging guitars, Sabbathy riffs, depressive atmosphere, frantic soloing... this is heavy, heavy (but melodic) metal! The album starts off fairly uptempo with the storming "If I Ever Die"... but if that's too fast for you, you'll be relieved to be crushed by the lumbering next track, "Hammer Of Doom" in all its bell-tolling glory. It's as if the first track saw the second one coming and just wanted to hurry up and get the heck out of the way. Other faves here include "The Bleeding Baroness" (with a catchy refrain that's a bit bizarre to have stuck in your head), and "House Of 1000 Voices" (the album's longest track at 7:50, and thus most epic epic). We should also mention "Demon Of The Deep" which is a song about a sea monster. Somehow Lowe's dramatic, fist-clenched vocals combine with the subject matter to transcend from the ridiculous to, if not the sublime, at least the quite doomfully entertaining!
In some ways, this review is superfluous. I mean, what doomfan isn't gonna want a record called Death Magic Doom by freakin' Candlemass in their collection??
NB. this version includes "Lucifer Rising" as a bonus track.
MPEG Stream: "Hammer Of Doom"
MPEG Stream: "The Bleeding Baroness"

CANDLEMASS Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (Candlelight) 2cd 14.98
Essential debut from these classic epic '80s doomsters!! Includes bonus live disc.

CANDLEMASS From The 13th Sun (Music For Nations) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"This album is dedicated to the greatest band of all time -- Black Sabbath." So it says, quite rightly, in the liner notes of this release. This is the second effort by the reformed (not reunited) Candlemass, the Swedish metal legends who in the '80s almost single-handedly established the genre of "Epic Doom Metal."
The *new* Candlemass, tho, harkens back earlier in time, wallowing fully in the early '70s heaviness of the gods Sabbath. Gone are the high pitched operatic vocals of their old singer, gone are the shred guitar leads of their old axe-slinger (not that there was anything wrong with those things...) Instead, the band's massive riffs are supported by dirgy, Ozzy-like vox and spacy, psychedelic electronic effects. There's even sounds of rain and bells to complete the Sabbath homage. The abstract song titles ("Arx/Ng 891", "Cyclo-F") and sometimes mysterious atmospheres make this its own record though, kind of a timeless art-doom for the nineties.

CANDLEMASS King Of The Grey Islands (Nuclear Blast) cd 17.98
The black-as-sabbath, epic metal majesty of Sweden's doom veterans Candlemass returns, with the follow-up to their well-received self-titled reunion album from 2005. That reunion was short-lived, as their signature '80s vocalist Messiah Marcolin has (again) left the band. In his place, though, is perfectly acceptable, equally talented substitute, with impeccable doom credentials: Robert Lowe of cult Texan epic doomsters Solitude Aeturnus, a band that's essentially the US answer to Candlemass anyway. (Lowe still sings for SA, who also have a new album out this year, which we have in stock as well.) True, Lowe doesn't boast a hefty 'fro or wear monk's robes like Messiah, but his classy, regal pipes are perfect for soaring gloomily over the lead-weight riffage meted out in classic fashion by Candlemass' distorted 'n downtuned guitars. And speaking of guitars, the unfettered soloing on here is choice, reminding us that metal (with long hair, loud guitars, fantasy imagery) is, in some ways, essentially the extreme evolution of '60s psychedelia, in the case of doom bands like Candlemass, tending towards the bad trip side of things!
While they last, we've got the nice import digipack version with two bonus tracks, both of 'em redoings of Candlemass classics ("At The Gallows End" and "Solitude") with Robert Lowe at the mic, just to further prove he'd be worthy to wear those robes if he wished.
MPEG Stream: "Emperor Of The Void"
MPEG Stream: "Man Of Shadows"

CANDLEMASS Lucifer Rising (Nuclear Blast) cd ep 10.98
Of all the sub-genres of metal there are, one of our favorites, one of our specialties you might say, is doom metal. And even doom metal breaks down even further into many, many sub-sub-genres. While we sell a lot of the sludgier stuff, the more cleanly-sung, epic brand of doom is something we absolutely love as well. Bombastic, almost operatic, this variety is based in large part on the Dio-years Sabbath template, and was perfected in the late '80s/early '90s by the likes of Sweden's Candlemass and Texas's Solitude Aeturnus. So, who better than a rejuvenated Candlemass, with the vocalist from Solitude Aeturnus at the mic, to bring us exquisite new examples of this timeless style of doom metal today?
Following on from their excellent King Of The Grey Islands album last year, the current Robert Lowe-fronted version of Candlemass has released a full-length "ep" consisting of 2 new songs ("Lucifer Rising" and "White God"), one old Candlemass classic re-recorded ("Demon's Gate"), and a nine-song live recording from Athens, Greece in 2007, on which you'll quite often hear a horde of excited Greek doom freaks singing along.
So, fans get their money's worth here. Lowe is really one of the few people who could have taken over from iconic Candlemass vocalist Messiah Marcolin, and handles their old songs superbly. The new stuff is great too, fully in the glorious, gloomy Candlemass tradition of grandiose, depressive dirges and heavy metal headbanging. And like we said in our review of King Of The Grey Islands, there's definitely a dark, psychedelic aspect to the guitar soloing...
MPEG Stream: "Lucifer Rising"
MPEG Stream: "Mirror, Mirror (Live In Athens, 2007)"

CANDLEMASS Nightfall (Powerline) 2cd 16.98

CANDLEMASS s/t (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98
It's nightfall again, time to dream ancient dreams of the epicus doomicus. Yes, it's a NEW album from '80s Swedish doom metal legends Candlemass. It's been a few years...
The classic line-up has re-united at last, so heavy metal monk Messiah Marcolin is back at the mic, and guitar solos flow again from the fingers n' fretboard of lead axe wielder Lasse Johansson. No true metaller can be unmoved. Though bassist/riffmaster Leif Edling kept busy in recent years with some other projects and even did a couple records with variant line-ups of Candlemass (1999's From The 13th Sun, the last album to bear the Candlemass name, is actually one of our favorites in their discography), fans have been wanting to hear more from the same band that gave 'em old faves like Nightfall and Ancient Dreams, back when they could claim to be "the heaviest band on the planet" (amazing but true). So they did it. And Messiah's powerful pipes are as good as ever, while Leif & Co. churn out the Sabbath-riffed epicks like it's 1987. I don't think too many old Candlemass fans will be disappointed. Not already a fan? Well, if you don't have any of their records, it might be strange to start with this one and not already have one of their '80s classics in your collection, but then again this sure will give you a fine idea of what their sound is all about. For the most part though, we imagine this release is meant for those whom the name "Candlemass" already means a lot. Indeed, that's probably why the cover of this simply self-titled return is blank white except for their gothic logo and a small cross! Worshippers note, this is the import digipack version with bonus track "Mars and Volcanos".
MPEG Stream: "Seven Silver Keys"
MPEG Stream: "Witches"

CANINUS Now The Animals Have A Voice (War Torn) cd ep 7.98
We know you've been waiting for this one. At least judging by the rabid (tee hee) reaction to the recent 7" by the band Hatebeak, a death metal outfit fronted by a parrot. Well now, along comes Caninus to up the stakes. Sure, the parrot in Hatebeak is able to squawk up a storm, and his maniacal screechings fit perfectly amidst the churning riffs but a parrot on its own is hardly a scary proposition. But with Caninus, you've got the same crushing, downtuned metal juggernaut, only this time the vocals come from the drooling fanged mouths of Budgie and Basil, two snarling pitbulls! That's right, pitbulls. Thankfully, barking is kept to a minimum, and instead Basil and Budgie spend most of the time growling furiously, their guttural grunts and grrr's WAY more evil than even the scariest of death metal vocals. Unlike some big fat long haired metal guy doing his best cookie monster grunt, who at the most could drink you under the table, these two canine vocalists could literally rip your guts out, and maybe even would given the chance. When Budgie and Basil, spittle flying, and teeth bared, growl ominously over huge downtuned riffs, it is genuinely pants-shittingly scary. The way metal should be. The booklet has the lyrics and liner notes on each track from the dogs themeselves! "Are we owned by you, or are YOU owned by us? Let's see, you pick up our shit, take us for walks, buy us food, feed us everyday, drive us around, wash us, take us on trips...looks like YOU are OUR SLAVES. Sleep tight tonight, maybe I'll wake you up if I smell smoke. maybe I won't. Remember WE own YOU!" Not all of the liner notes are so downright hostile. Some of them are pretty cute, as the dogs detail their rescue from the shelter, and discourage breeding and teaching dogs to be violent. Plus the slogan "Go Vegan" is displayed prominently on the sleeve as well. The cd has two tracks not on the 7" (both demos of songs NOT on the record) but 7" buyers get spiffy colored vinyl. Guess you gotta get both! PITBULL GRINDCORE!
MPEG Stream: "Bite The Hand That Breeds You"
MPEG Stream: "Fear Of Dog (Religious Myths)"

CANINUS Now The Animals Have A Voice (War Torn) 7" 4.50
We know you've been waiting for this one. At least judging by the rabid (tee hee) reaction to the recent 7" by the band Hatebeak, a death metal outfit fronted by a parrot. Well now, along comes Caninus to up the stakes. Sure, the parrot in Hatebeak is able to squawk up a storm, and his maniacal screechings fit perfectly amidst the churning riffs but a parrot on its own is hardly a scary proposition. But with Caninus, you've got the same crushing, downtuned metal juggernaut, only this time the vocals come from the drooling fanged mouths of Budgie and Basil, two snarling pitbulls! That's right, pitbulls. Thankfully, barking is kept to a minimum, and instead Basil and Budgie spend most of the time growling furiously, their guttural grunts and grrr's WAY more evil than even the scariest of death metal vocals. Unlike some big fat long haired metal guy doing his best cookie monster grunt, who at the most could drink you under the table, these two canine vocalists could literally rip your guts out, and maybe even would given the chance. When Budgie and Basil, spittle flying, and teeth bared, growl ominously over huge downtuned riffs, it is genuinely pants-shittingly scary. The way metal should be. The booklet has the lyrics and liner notes on each track from the dogs themeselves! "Are we owned by you, or are YOU owned by us? Let's see, you pick up our shit, take us for walks, buy us food, feed us everyday, drive us around, wash us, take us on trips...looks like YOU are OUR SLAVES. Sleep tight tonight, maybe I'll wake you up if I smell smoke. maybe I won't. Remember WE own YOU!" Not all of the liner notes are so downright hostile. Some of them are pretty cute, as the dogs detail their rescue from the shelter, and discourage breeding and teaching dogs to be violent. Plus the slogan "Go Vegan" is displayed prominently on the sleeve as well. The cd has two tracks not on the 7" (both demos of songs NOT on the record) but 7" buyers get spiffy colored vinyl. Guess you gotta get both! PITBULL GRINDCORE!
MPEG Stream: "Bite The Hand That Breeds You"
MPEG Stream: "Fear Of Dog (Religious Myths)"

CANINUS / HATEBEAK Wolfpig / Bird Seed Of Vengeance (Reptilian) 7" 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Oh crap. It's here. It was indeed only a matter of time. A canine / avian metal meeting. Or something. On the one hand/paw/claw/side, there's Hatebeak, the grinding death metal juggernaut, fronted by lead vocalist Waldo, who just so happens to be a parrot! On the other, there's Caninus, a thuggy, metalic hardcore mosh pit bull of a band, fangs bared, leashes swinging, ummm, tails wagging. Yep, Caninus is fronted by tag team vocalists Budgie and Basil, both of whom happen to be pitbulls. If there was EVER a record made for AQ customers it's this one!!! Caninus is in full grind mode on this split, with spastic hyperspeed drum machines, buzzing lightning bolt guitars and Waldo's unmistakabe squawk. Caninus counters with some serious moshworthy metallic hardcore, bordering on death metal, with HUGE downtuned riffs, blasting drums, and a wicked array of snarls and growls and barks. And if there was ever any doubt, both bands ostensibly being joke bands, these guys are definitely true metalheads as the whole release is steeped in metal injokes. The Caninus cover art is Napalm Death's Scum album cover, except all of the people in the original are now dogs! The Hatebeak side is titled Bird Seeds Of Vengeance, named after the Nile album Black Seeds Of Vengeance, the cover depicting Hatebeak vocalist Waldo facing off against a bust of King Tut, the whole cover surrounded in Egyptian filligree. And then on the inside there is a photo of Waldo perched on what they purport to be the Spear Of Longinus, the actual spear that a Roman soldier used to stab Jesus in the side when he was on the cross! And then there's the Caninus lyrics, dense with metal / hardcore parody and written from the point of view of a dog (obviously)! Hatebeak declare "Avian Victory!" while Caninus proclaim "Go Vegan" as well as "Fuck You New York Post and New York Times" and in their thanks list give props to PETA, an animal shelter and even a pet supply store!! THE ANIMALS ARE NOW THE (METAL) MASTERS!!

CANVAS SOLARIS Penumbra Diffuse (Sensory) cd 14.98
Second album (we never reviewed the first, but it was great!) from this all-instrumental, uber-technical, quasi-death metal act. We say quasi 'cause Canvas Solaris are NOT all about being brutal. Yeah, a lot of this is pretty aggro. But then a lot of it is quite calm and delicate too. What they ARE all about is demonstrating some jaw-dropping chops and songwriting complexity. Dizzying, stop on a dime stuff. Fretboard frenzies matched only by the inhuman drumming. So, if you're into shred for shred's sake, they've got what you want! Conversely, if words like "progressive" and "technical" and "fusion" turn you off, forget about this... And it's definitely not all metal-sounding. Amidst all the brain melting million-notes-per-minute heaviness there are tracks based entirely on ethnic, acoustic instrumentation, or on synthesizer generated atmospherics. That makes Penumbra Diffuse more, well, diffuse than their previous release. But no less intricate, creative, or dissonant! More ambient, however. That is, if you can actually say that something that mostly sorta sounds like The Fucking Champs meet Meshuggah is at all 'ambient'!
MPEG Stream: "Panoramic Long-Range Vertigo"
MPEG Stream: "Horizontal Radiant"

CANVAS SOLARIS Sublimation (Tribunal) cd 15.98
Whoah! Amazing instrumental aggro tech metal from Georgia.

CAPHARNAUM Fractured (Willowtip) cd 14.98
Meshuggah, Theory in Practice, Cryptopsy, if you know those names you're probably a geek for technical death metal, a sub-genre that's just as brutal as the usual DM but takes the already-impressive instrumental abilities and compositional complexities of regular death metal musicians / music up a notch or twelve if you can believe it. Now you can add Florida's excellent Capharnaum to the list of tech-death bands name-checked above. For reasons not known to us, they're monikered after a town in Israel where Jesus once lived -- chances are He moved away because of the racket. Severe neck sprain guaranteed if you attempt to headbang along to any of this. Very deathly, very metal (you've gotta be ok with cookie-monster vocals and shred-guitar leads) and also very amazing if you can even try to imagine playing this stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Ingrained"
MPEG Stream: "Machines"

CAPRICORNS River, Bear Your Bones (Candlelight) cd 14.98
This English instrumental act (NOT the lo-fi Casiotone-pop duo of the same name, from the Bay Area a while back) return at last with another heavy, atmospheric onslaught of their undefinable metallic post-rock/math-rock riffage. Their previous album, 2005's Ruder Forms Survive was quite interesting (and rockin'), full of cryptic historical allusions (in the song titles), stretches of soundtrack-y ambience a la Zombi, and a one-song-only vocal performance from Oxbow's inimitable Eugene Robinson. Coming from ex-members of various stoner/sludge/doom/punk combos, it was suitably heavy but also surprisingly strange. River, Bear Your Bones continues that tradition, once more a dark and moody affair, though without any vocal cameo this time. The instruments do all the talking, speaking a language that's both proggy and stonery... much of the time Capricorns' riffs come quick and jagged, these tracks sometimes soaring melodically, or viciously spiralling with sharp-edged aggressive energy. Elsewhere, an eerie not-so-calm pervades. The album's closing track, and longest at 10:55, "Drinking Water From The Skull Of A Hanged Man", starts off as an unusually relaxed, lo-fi psychedelic jam, with spacey guitars, looser and more laidback than most of the rest of the disc... but heavies up quite a bit before it's through! And once more there's more going on here concept-wise than you might immediately discern, as apparently all the tracks are "about" the River Thames (Capricorns being from London).
One of a couple releases reviewed this week proving the vitality of the instrumental, guitar-oriented heavy rock genre (the other being Serpent Throne). Again, for fans of the likes of 5ive, Zebulon Pike, Pelican, Hey Colossus... and good ol' AmRep noise rock, which a lot of this also reminds us of.
MPEG Stream: "Broken Coffin Of The Venerable King"
MPEG Stream: "Owing To The Frogs"
MPEG Stream: "The Bell Rang Backwards"

CAPRICORNS Ruder Forms Survive (Rise Above / Candlelight USA) cd 15.98
We were immediately intrigued by this disc's wonderfully grotesque shotgun suicide cover art, that's about as morbidly psychedelic as a black-and-white pen and ink drawing can be. So what's the album all about? Well, the UK's Capricorns, featuring ex-members of such heavyweights as Iron Monkey and Orange Goblin, are a bit of an enigma, not easy to peg genre-wise (stoner rock? sludge? post-rock? metal? avant-garde?). As if to keep their secrets to themselves, they're an instrumental band -- except for track three here, which is graced by the unmistakable vocal stylings/wailings of guest singer Eugene Robinson from Oxbow -- another point in their favor, since we're big Oxbow fans!
The song titles offer little beyond what seem to be cryptic historical references (ok, "1066: Born On The Bayeux", we get it, but what about "1440: Exit Wargasmatron"?). Capricorns are sometimes eerily atmospheric, slow and moody, at others lead-riff heavy and rockin'. Lead-off cut "1977: Blood For Papa" sets the headbanging pace... Eugene's "The First Broken Promise" (the only song without a date attached) takes a detour into Oxbow's unique world of woe. "1946: The Last Renaissance Man" is a post-rock dirge that segues nicely into the epic Viking vibe of closer "793AD: The Harrying Of The Heathen" (as you can see, the track list isn't exactly in chronological order, historically speaking). Overall, you get the sense that they're halfway about the heavy riffage, halfway into soundtracky darkness. Fine by us, we like the mystery, we like the darkness, we like the rock! Again, hard to peg, but we'd venture to say that this could appeal to those into, say, Isis, Zombi, Zebulon Pike, old Kyuss, Oxbow (natch), Sonic Flower, 5ive, Darediablo -- not that this sounds a whole lot like any of those. Also, Kerry our resident astrologer says as long as you're not a Aries or a Libra you'll probably be compatible with this Capricorns record (Allan says that just goes to show that astrology is BS 'cause he's a Libra and digs this anyway...).
MPEG Stream: "1977: Blood For Papa"
MPEG Stream: "1969: A Predator Among Us"

CAPTAIN BEYOND Dawn Explosion (Friday Music) cd 15.98
Third album circa '77 from these psychedelic prog stoner heavies... Different singer, pretty much for completists though.

CAPTAIN BEYOND s/t (Capricorn) cd 12.98
This isn't really a new cd, just an old favorite that we thought we'd list for the first time 'cause the name sometimes comes up in our reviews of present day heavy psych/stoner rock bands: LA's legendary Captain Beyond. This cd reissues their classic 1972 debut LP. Psychedelic hard rock from ex-members of both Deep Purple (their original vocalist) and Iron Butterfly. One of Allan's all-time faves, and one of the essential documents of '70s heavy hippy rock, with plenty of swaggering vocals, trippy lyrics, quirky time changes, and of course some memorable, weighty acid guitar riffs. Just don't expect Black Sabbath, as these California boys were still all about '60s stuff like flowers and beads and bellbottoms, not Satan and metal and doom.
RealAudio clip: "Mesmerization Eclipse"

CARCASS Choice Cuts (Earache) cd 14.98
Ask Andee or Allan who their favorite death metal band is, ever, and while you might find them momentarily heming and hawing over Morbid Angel, what they're ultimately gonna tell you is: Carcass. The British inventors, pretty much, of both the genre of gore-core and, as their career progressed, the whole melodic death metal thing that so many Swedish bands have taken to the bank. So this new "best of" compilation comes highly recommended. It spans their career from the early days of absurd vocal extremity and misused medical terminology to their more technical and tuneful later productions. Unlike so many other cookie-cutter, cookie-monster death metal bands, these guys had personality, and most importantly, great songs. Instantly memorable stuff. This comp, selected with the input of Carcass drummer Ken Owen (who, happily, has recently recovered from a long, quite serious illness, which he discusses among other Carcass related things in an interview in the cd booket) hits on the highlights of their career of carnage. Indeed, we probably would have picked most of the same songs. So, a fine introduction to their ouvre. And for those of you already well-versed in Carcass, this comp is still a good purchase because it also includes eight tracks from two early Peel sessions! Amazing to think of it, but Carcass (along with Napalm Death) was championed early on by veteran BBC DJ John Peel. So don't be the last on your block to experience the crepitating cadaveric necroticism of Carcass!
MPEG Stream: "Corporal Jigsore Quandry"
MPEG Stream: "Crepitating Bowel Erosion (Peel Session)"
MPEG Stream: "Reek Of Puterfaction (Peel Session)"

CARCASS Heartwork (Earache) cd 12.98

MPEG Stream: "Heartwork"
MPEG Stream: "Buried Dreams"