KNUT Terraformer (Hydra Head ) cd 13.98

KNUT untitled (Hydra Head) cd 10.98
Knut are an intense Swiss metalcore band from Switzerland that seem to have found the perfect home on Hydra Head, their sound having much in common with Isis, Old Man Gloom and the like. This is their newest e.p. and teaser for their upcoming full length. Knut combine huge downtuned riffs, roaring vocals, pounding percussion all with a decidedly non-metal, almost indie rock feel to them. Makes the songs more interesting and infinitely more listenable. Dynamic and heavy but kind of melodic at the same time. Think Neurosis, Sepultura, Deadguy, Kiss It Goodbye. Big favorites around here! Allan and Andee like to think of Knut as one of those 'heavy indie rock bands' that heeded Andee and Allan's advice, and just went ahead and played metal. Great.
RealAudio clip: "Dissolve"

KNUT Wonder (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
It's been a while since we've heard from Swiss heavies Knut, who we've always loved, their sound a head caving hybrid of mathy crush and epic post metal majesty, they were exploring Neurosis / Isis slow burn big blowout metallic post rock territory long before it became the flavor du jour. But the real appeal was that they could craft these expansive dirgescapes and then explode into noise rock freakouts, or super complex mathy grooves, and if anything, on Wonder, it sounds like Knut have moved way further into mathy noise rock territory, which we're actually pretty psyched about, heck, the world has enough long songs that build slowly into epic metallic heaviness, and yeah, okay, maybe the world has enough gnarled grinding math metal juggernauts, but we think not.
And Knut are indeed masters, putting most other heavies to shame, really in the space of a single song. "Leet" explodes in a frenzy of churning riffage and pounding chaotic drumming, bellowed vox, a deft chugging stuttering lurching start stop convoluted mathy workout, but infused with little bits of melody, some super cool, weirdly obtuse breakdowns, a relentless math metal freeforall that practically out-Don-Caballero-s Don Cab themselves.
There are a few tracks, where the bands reel in their insane time signatures and frenzied riffing, letting their sound ooze and sprawl, droning and buzzing, where they unfurl epic brooding heaviness, much like the above mentioned post metal, but even those moments are peppered with little mathy bursts, little gnarled and convoluted twists, there are a few interludes too, more sort of droned out guitar ambience, before they finish off with the 8+ minute "Wonder/Daily Grind", the first half of which is a gorgeously lysergic dronescape of layered slow motion chords and thick psychedelic guitar smolder, it does eventually lurch into some lumbering chug and pound, but just as quickly it slips back into some minimal ambient buzz and drone.
Some seriously awesome heaviness.
MPEG Stream: "Leet"
MPEG Stream: "Damned Extroverts"
MPEG Stream: "Ultralight Backpacking"

KOHOUTEK Expansive Headache (Music Fellowship) cd 15.98

KOLP The Covered Pure Permanance (Temple Of Torturous) cd 12.98

KOLP The Outside (Temple Of Torturous) cd 14.98
The Outside is the second full length from this Hungarian black metal duo, who initially kick things off with some pretty fierce, but ultimately straight forward black buzz. It's a sound we seem to never tire of, so a wall of furious fast picked guitars, and furious blastbeats like this definitely still pushes all our BM buttons, but there's a lot more going on here than straight black buzz. In fact that opening salvo barely lasts two minutes before the sound splinters into a weird doomy crawl, with some sick, raspy vokills, before launching into a churning midtempo, almost post rocky sounding lope, fuzzed out bass, spare driving drumming, the guitars offering up little bits of melodic filigree here and there, but ultimately the band lock into some seriously tranced out mesmer, before finally returning to another stretch of epic buzzing blackness.
The rest of the record delivers a series of buzzing epics, heavy on the creeping atmosphere, the core still being a raw blasting black metal, but with much of the group's time spent locked into downtuned dirges, and doomy lumbers, the guitars spiraling into woozy tangled harmonies, clouds of chiming harmonics over the motorik rhythms, at times sounding like some blackened strain of hypnorock (check out "Drowning"), and when the the black metal does kick in, it's fierce and majestic, soaring and utterly epic, sometimes, though, the band drops out, and those tell tale buzzing guitars begin to build momentum, but then instead of bursting into blasting blackness, the drums emerge as a doomy slow-mo pound, creating a weird sort of blackbuzz/doomdirge hybrid. And so it goes, the sound shifting from blackened churn, to furious buzzing frenzy, from surprisingly minimal melodic blackened gloomrock (a la Khold), to raw black buzz and back again.
Super striking, black and white, digipak style packaging too.
MPEG Stream: "There Was No Place To Hide"
MPEG Stream: "The Initial State"
MPEG Stream: "Drowning"
MPEG Stream: "Completion"
MPEG Stream: "The Outside"

KONGH Shadows Of The Shapeless (Trust No One) cd 21.00

KONGH Sole Creation (Agonia Records) cd 16.98
Latest clutch of epic psychedelic doom heaviness from these Swedes, four sprawling tracks that shift easily from chugging, churning riffiness, to soaring, super melodic heaviness, the sound epic, the production massive, The roots of their sound obviously reach back to Neurosis and Isis, and beyond to classic old school doom, but with the clean vocal choruses, the majestic melodies, makes much of this have an almost Soundgarden / Alice In Chains vibe, which is not a bad thing at all, just means that for every sprawl of roiling, downtuned dirgery, there's some serious hookage and a chorus most non-doom bands would kill for. And sure, the vocals often slip into death metal growls and glass gargling rasps, on "Tamed Brute" in fact, the sound slows to a crushing creep, maybe the heaviest point on the record, the sort of tarpit sludge groove that we can't resist, but on the title track, there's lots more melody, even some cool stretches of cool loping post rock, with chiming melodies, tribal drumming, squalls of feedback, and again, those soaring vox, makes for something super psychedelic and sorta trance-y. And the main riff, while definitely doomy, is also a killer, especially when the two guitar harmonize, totally epic, and then when the stomp boxes are stomped, and the song proper kicks in, it's a crusher for sure.
The second half of the record finds the band doing more of that heavy/poppy mix and match, with some almost Agents Of Oblivion style slithery swagger, wedded to some seriously chugging doom, and more grinding chug. The last track is a slow burn, slow build epic, the first half all spaced out and ethereal, softly psychedelic, shuffling drums under spidery distorted melodies, and fuzzed out bass rumble, it's not until about halfway through that things kick off, and again, we're getting a huge AoO vibe, which we love! Surprisingly soulful and emotional doom-ed heaviness, that slips once again into some tripped out psych-doom drift, before building to a finale that's like a more doomy Godspeed, all swirling distorted shoegaze guitar, detuned metallic chug, tribal drum bombast, all gradually fading into a haze of gauze-y distortion, and blissed out psychedelic shimmer.
MPEG Stream: "Soul Creation"
MPEG Stream: "Tamed Brute"

KONGH Sole Creation (Agonia Records) lp 22.00
Latest clutch of epic psychedelic doom heaviness from these Swedes, four sprawling tracks that shift easily from chugging, churning riffiness, to soaring, super melodic heaviness, the sound epic, the production massive, The roots of their sound obviously reach back to Neurosis and Isis, and beyond to classic old school doom, but with the clean vocal choruses, the majestic melodies, makes much of this have an almost Soundgarden / Alice In Chains vibe, which is not a bad thing at all, just means that for every sprawl of roiling, downtuned dirgery, there's some serious hookage and a chorus most non-doom bands would kill for. And sure, the vocals often slip into death metal growls and glass gargling rasps, on "Tamed Brute" in fact, the sound slows to a crushing creep, maybe the heaviest point on the record, the sort of tarpit sludge groove that we can't resist, but on the title track, there's lots more melody, even some cool stretches of cool loping post rock, with chiming melodies, tribal drumming, squalls of feedback, and again, those soaring vox, makes for something super psychedelic and sorta trance-y. And the main riff, while definitely doomy, is also a killer, especially when the two guitar harmonize, totally epic, and then when the stomp boxes are stomped, and the song proper kicks in, it's a crusher for sure.
The second half of the record finds the band doing more of that heavy/poppy mix and match, with some almost Agents Of Oblivion style slithery swagger, wedded to some seriously chugging doom, and more grinding chug. The last track is a slow burn, slow build epic, the first half all spaced out and ethereal, softly psychedelic, shuffling drums under spidery distorted melodies, and fuzzed out bass rumble, it's not until about halfway through that things kick off, and again, we're getting a huge AoO vibe, which we love! Surprisingly soulful and emotional doom-ed heaviness, that slips once again into some tripped out psych-doom drift, before building to a finale that's like a more doomy Godspeed, all swirling distorted shoegaze guitar, detuned metallic chug, tribal drum bombast, all gradually fading into a haze of gauze-y distortion, and blissed out psychedelic shimmer.
MPEG Stream: "Soul Creation"
MPEG Stream: "Tamed Brute"

KOROVAKILL Waterhells (Red Stream) cd 13.98
After a long absence, here's a new, third album from these former Napalm Records recording artists, the sometimes very weird Austrian black metal outfit Korova, now rechristened Korovakill. They've always been one of our favorites, playing unclassifiable epic metal with baroque keyboards and downright bizarre male and female vocals (too silly for some, it must be said) that on their first album even reminded us of the Sun City Girls! The album after that dabbled in electronica, ending up even stranger than some of Arcturus' experiments, but with this disc they rely on more standard, blasting black metal techniques, making for probably their most "accessible" release, but definitely still one for fans of the weird in black metal, along the lines of the aforementioned Arcturus, Borknagar, Enslaved, etc. We haven't had this disc long enough to fully comprehend the watery concept at play here, but "Waterhells" seems to refer to a mythology of the sea that ties together the songs (interesting subject matter for a band from the Alps).
RealAudio clip: "Into The Underwhirls"

KORPBLOD Vardens Fard (Nordvis) cd 13.98

KORPERSCHWACHE Evil Walks (Crucial Blast) cd 13.98
The first appearance on the aQ list by these Texas based guitarnoise terrorists, was a recent collaboration with Irish doomdronedirge outfit To Blacken The Pages, but this is the first proper record of theirs we've managed to get enough of to list. And it's a doozy.
Previously a one man band, and previously more of an oozing blacknoise Skullflower psychguitar buzz drone dirge freakout-fit, the band has expanded to a duo (unless the new member is just the drum machine), either way, the sound has definitely shifted gears, less abstract, less noisy, and more industrial, with proper songs; a lurching, lumbering, downtuned chunk of miserable abject slo-mo heaviness. The programmed beats minimal and robotic, the guitars murky and crusty, the vocals a super reverbed and heavily effected demonic croak, the songs, creeping and crawling, haunting and harrowing, shades of the Swans, Godflesh of course, the label compare their sound to Loop crossed with Abruptum, and we can definitely here that in places.
The sound is way less caustic than in the past, and more psychedelic and hypnotic, "Ouroboros: First Lesson", for all its croaked vocals and grim guitar buzz, locks into a looped mesmer and gets downright psychedelic, like Spacemen 3 covered by some basement black metal band, it's pretty bad ass. And a bunch of the tracks follow a similar path, building to a lurching groove and then getting all spaced out hypnorock. Then there's tracks like "The City Of Lost Girls", that are downright pretty, the guitars smoldering, laced with piano, mournful and melancholy, drifty and droney and dreamlike. And even in the harsher jams, hidden amidst all that crunch and pound and howl are strange melodies, unlikely hooks, gorgeous textures, all woven into a dense industrial tinged, blackened psychedelia, that will most likely have lots of you scrambling for all those Korperschwache releases you missed.
Includes a link for a download to a companion record, featuring early/alternate versions and a handful of unreleased tracks.
MPEG Stream: "There Is A Certain Smell Attractive To Wolves"
MPEG Stream: "Ouroboros: First Lesson"
MPEG Stream: "The Rearing Elephant"

KOSMOS s/t (The End) cd 12.98
Kosmos is the new group from Michel Langevin (aka Voivod's drummer Away!) deeply inspired by '70s instrumental space prog and vintage sci-fi movies. For the most part it's a cleanly executed journey, but occasionally treads along -- but never into -- the aggressive, thrashy outer limits of Voivod. Even then, Kosmos' wild guitar and keyboard acrobatics maintain a defined trajectory. Kosmos are at their best when exploring cosmic (natch), cermonial-sounding, krautrock-inspired instrumental vistas... they even do a track called "Krautrock" (no, not a cover of the Faust song). That stuff should appeal to fans of Zombi, ferinstance. Unfortunately there's a few less successful tracks marred by vocals, the band rockin' out for fans of some less hip prog styles of the past... groovy, grungey prog Quebecois isn't totally our thing. So you might hit 'skip' on a track or two, but this definitely has its moments.
MPEG Stream: "Psycho"
MPEG Stream: "Indu Kush"

KOWLOON WALLED CITY Container Ships (Sea Of Droids Music) cd 10.98
This recent Record Of The Week is now available on cd, housed in swank, letter pressed mini sleeves - and for all you cd folks out there, it is in fact Record Of The Week again!
Full length number two from these SF heavies, and while they haven't sacrificed any of their Teutonic crush, or noise rock heft, they do display a surprisingly melodic side on Container Ships, a soft white sonic underbelly that was hinted at on their recent split 7" with Thou, on which they covered a Low track, and it feels like much of the sensibilities that not only drove that choice, but determined what they did with it as well, are all over Container Ships. And while nothing here is quite as darkly delicate, the band do definitely dial back the heaviness, letting the sounds linger, letting clean guitars spread out and set the mood, and when the hammer does fall, the sound this time around is much more crisp and lush, even when the guitars are downtuned, churning and chugging, they ring out, the sounds reverberant and rich. The debt to the Unsane and Helmet no longer so obvious, at least not all the time. On the opener, which might be the prettiest song here, the band offer up their own sort of slowcore minimal math rock / noise rock sprawl, subtly nuanced, and super melodic, another big change on display here is frontman Scott Evans' vocals, which have transformed from a gruff bark, to a serious croon, still rough around the edges, but way more emotive and the perfect match for the band's ever developing sound.
But fear not, get an earful of the second track, "50's Dad", which is all loping, chugging noise rock crush, Evan's vocals higher than on past record, which definitely changes the vibe throughout, and makes even the heaviest tracks here, less of a knuckledragging vibe, and more of an emo edge, which again totally suits them, especially when the band lock into a weird loping groove, and Evans sings himself ragged, his voice rough and raw and impassioned. Not to mention the burst of tangled psychedelic guitar leads that are wrapped around the middle of the track.
The guys have been busting their asses for years now, and we always sort of wondered why they weren't huge, but goddamn if this record doesn't change all that nothing will.
The whole record is a sort of push and pull between the muscled mathy noise rock of the early records, and this desire to make beautiful music, even if it's dark, mean, ugly, hard and heavy beautiful music, which this most certainly is, and it's that balance that makes this record, and these guys so good. The title track here is a dirgey doomy drag, the chords ringing out, the vocals carrying all the melodic weight, and transforming a dirgey chugfest into something epic and intense, the song revealing a grasp and mastery of dynamics that was most definitely underutilized on past records, but gets a serious workout here.
"Cornerstone" is about as poppy as these guys get, and again, they not only mange to pull it off, they also make it this hook heavy noise-pop fit seamlessly into the way heavier rest of the record, not to mention demonstrating another element the band have in their arsenal but obviously choose to employ very judiciously. The record finishes off with the 9 minute epic "You Don't Have Cancer", which again reveals their slowcore proclivities, and demonstrates their ability to subsume that sound into their own, the resulting hybrid another sprawling, gut wrenchingly emotional, crushingly heavy, surprisingly melodic epic, that would, and does, put most other heavy bands to shame.
MPEG Stream: "The Pressure Keeps Me Alive"
MPEG Stream: "50's Dad"
MPEG Stream: "Beef Cattle"
MPEG Stream: "You Don't Have Cancer"

KOWLOON WALLED CITY Container Ships (Brutal Panda) lp 16.98
Full length number two from these SF heavies, and while they haven't sacrificed any of their Teutonic crush, or noise rock heft, they do display a surprisingly melodic side on Container Ships, a soft white sonic underbelly that was hinted at on their recent split 7" with Thou, on which they covered a Low track, and it feels like much of the sensibilities that not only drove that choice, but determined what they did with it as well, are all over Container Ships. And while nothing here is quite as darkly delicate, the band do definitely dial back the heaviness, letting the sounds linger, letting clean guitars spread out and set the mood, and when the hammer does fall, the sound this time around is much more crisp and lush, even when the guitars are downtuned, churning and chugging, they ring out, the sounds reverberant and rich. The debt to the Unsane and Helmet no longer so obvious, at least not all the time. On the opener, which might be the prettiest song here, the band offer up their own sort of slowcore minimal math rock / noise rock sprawl, subtly nuanced, and super melodic, another big change on display here is frontman Scott Evans' vocals, which have transformed from a gruff bark, to a serious croon, still rough around the edges, but way more emotive and the perfect match for the band's ever developing sound.
But fear not, get an earful of the second track, "50's Dad", which is all loping, chugging noise rock crush, Evan's vocals higher than on past record, which definitely changes the vibe throughout, and makes even the heaviest tracks here, less of a knuckledragging vibe, and more of an emo edge, which again totally suits them, especially when the band lock into a weird loping groove, and Evans sings himself ragged, his voice rough and raw and impassioned. Not to mention the burst of tangled psychedelic guitar leads that are wrapped around the middle of the track.
The guys have been busting their asses for years now, and we always sort of wondered why they weren't huge, but goddamn if this record doesn't change all that nothing will.
The whole record is a sort of push and pull between the muscled mathy noise rock of the early records, and this desire to make beautiful music, even if it's dark, mean, ugly, hard and heavy beautiful music, which this most certainly is, and it's that balance that makes this record, and these guys so good. The title track here is a dirgey doomy drag, the chords ringing out, the vocals carrying all the melodic weight, and transforming a dirgey chugfest into something epic and intense, the song revealing a grasp and mastery of dynamics that was most definitely underutilized on past records, but gets a serious workout here.
"Cornerstone" is about as poppy as these guys get, and again, they not only mange to pull it off, they also make it this hook heavy noise-pop fit seamlessly into the way heavier rest of the record, not to mention demonstrating another element the band have in their arsenal but obviously choose to employ very judiciously. The record finishes off with the 9 minute epic "You Don't Have Cancer", which again reveals their slowcore proclivities, and demonstrates their ability to subsume that sound into their own, the resulting hybrid another sprawling, gut wrenchingly emotional, crushingly heavy, surprisingly melodic epic, that would, and does, put most other heavy bands to shame.
MPEG Stream: "The Pressure Keeps Me Alive"
MPEG Stream: "50's Dad"
MPEG Stream: "Beef Cattle"
MPEG Stream: "You Don't Have Cancer"

KOWLOON WALLED CITY Gambling On The Richter Scale (The Perpetual Motion Machine) cd 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now on cd! Packaged in super sweet, hand screened origami style sleeves...
More and more every day we miss that brief period in the nineties when rock music was heavy, and noisy, and LOUD. Not necessarily metal, although to some ears it probably sounded like metal. It was more about BIG riffs, lumbering tempos, huge pounding drums, throat shredding vox. Think: Unsane, Halo Of Flies, Today Is The Day, Tad, Killdozer, Tar, Helmet, Lubricated Goat, Karp, Unwound, we could go on and on, but you understand what we're talking about.
There are very few modern bands who can channel the same sort of sonic energy without being retro, and typically, the heavier they are, the more they get lumped in with some metal subsect. But goddamn if there doesn't seem to be a bit of a modern noise rock scene brewing, bands popping up here and there, pushing all those noise rock buttons, and totally hitting the spot.
Which brings us to local boys Kowloon Walled City, whose recent Turk Street ep knocked us on our asses with it's noise rock / doom sludge hybrid. Weirdly enough, with this here debut full length, Gambling On The Richter Scale, the band somehow sound WAY heavier, but at the same time way less metal. Tapping into the rich noise rock history, and creating a disc that's both intense and punishing, melodic and heavy, and yeah, still a bit metallic here and there..
Opener "Annandale" is a churning hook filled noise rock jam, with big guitars, some killer melodies, harsh vox, wild dense drumming, some awesomely soaring high guitar parts, as well as the occasional burst of super melodic almost indie rock, before lurching back into the chug and crush. The sound definitely veers closer to a band like Torche or Floor than Neurosis or Eyehategod.
The second track though totally reminds us of the Unsane, with its roiling distorted bass, looped churning riffage, and weirdly mathy arrangement, some cool dynamics and some stop / starts that definitely had us in math rock heaven. But even here, the band inject some clean guitars, and some downright pretty melody before getting all aggro again.
It's a pretty relentless record, but thankfully KWC mix it up, changing up tempos, letting the drums breath here and there, giving riffs space to ring out and decay once in a while, stretching out into spaced out slowmo ambient drifts, pulling tracks apart into almost groovy sounding doomy dirges, slipping in plenty of subtle pop, heavy hooks galore. The title track is a monster, beginning with some clean guitar strum, minor key and tense, before lurching into a fierce chugging plod, with some Maideny guitar harmonies, plenty of palm muted guitar throb, an impossibly heavy downtuned chorus, and subtle melody mixed in throughout.
The record finishes off with the 6+ minute "More Like The Shit Factory", a sprawling slowjam, the guitars droning out in long streaks, peppered with bursts of downtuned crunch, the drums never really kicking in, the guitars all intertwined and layered, beating against each other, a cloud of swirling overtones, while the vocals howl, the drums sporadically pound, eventually everything dropping out entirely, leaving just a blown out psychedelic dual guitar drone, which crumbles and gradually fades out over the last minute, although. we'd have been perfectly happy had they let those guitars drone endlessly and fill up the rest of the record. Next time maybe.
So yeah, if you're in the market for some heavy, catchy as fuck, NOISE ROCK, okay, maybe call it metal, then Gambling On The Richter Scale is IT, and by the sounds of this record, they probably destroy live. On that same label that that brought us Catalyst, another bad ass noise rock band well worth checking out.
MPEG Stream: "Annandale"
MPEG Stream: "Diabetic Feet"
MPEG Stream: "More Like The Shit Factory"

KOWLOON WALLED CITY Gambling On The Richter Scale (The Perpetual Motion Machine) lp 10.98
More and more every day we miss that brief period in the nineties when rock music was heavy, and noisy, and LOUD. Not necessarily metal, although to some ears it probably sounded like metal. It was more about BIG riffs, lumbering tempos, huge pounding drums, throat shredding vox. Think: Unsane, Halo Of Flies, Today Is The Day, Tad, Killdozer, Tar, Helmet, Lubricated Goat, Karp, Unwound, we could go on and on, but you understand what we're talking about.
There are very few modern bands who can channel the same sort of sonic energy without being retro, and typically, the heavier they are, the more they get lumped in with some metal subsect. But goddamn if there doesn't seem to be a bit of a modern noise rock scene brewing, bands popping up here and there, pushing all those noise rock buttons, and totally hitting the spot.
Which brings us to local boys Kowloon Walled City, whose recent Turk Street ep knocked us on our asses with it's noise rock / doom sludge hybrid. Weirdly enough, with this here debut full length, Gambling On The Richter Scale, the band somehow sound WAY heavier, but at the same time way less metal. Tapping into the rich noise rock history, and creating a disc that's both intense and punishing, melodic and heavy, and yeah, still a bit metallic here and there..
Opener "Annandale" is a churning hook filled noise rock jam, with big guitars, some killer melodies, harsh vox, wild dense drumming, some awesomely soaring high guitar parts, as well as the occasional burst of super melodic almost indie rock, before lurching back into the chug and crush. The sound definitely veers closer to a band like Torche or Floor than Neurosis or Eyehategod.
The second track though totally reminds us of the Unsane, with its roiling distorted bass, looped churning riffage, and weirdly mathy arrangement, some cool dynamics and some stop / starts that definitely had us in math rock heaven. But even here, the band inject some clean guitars, and some downright pretty melody before getting all aggro again.
It's a pretty relentless record, but thankfully KWC mix it up, changing up tempos, letting the drums breath here and there, giving riffs space to ring out and decay once in a while, stretching out into spaced out slowmo ambient drifts, pulling tracks apart into almost groovy sounding doomy dirges, slipping in plenty of subtle pop, heavy hooks galore. The title track is a monster, beginning with some clean guitar strum, minor key and tense, before lurching into a fierce chugging plod, with some Maideny guitar harmonies, plenty of palm muted guitar throb, an impossibly heavy downtuned chorus, and subtle melody mixed in throughout.
The record finishes off with the 6+ minute "More Like The Shit Factory", a sprawling slowjam, the guitars droning out in long streaks, peppered with bursts of downtuned crunch, the drums never really kicking in, the guitars all intertwined and layered, beating against each other, a cloud of swirling overtones, while the vocals howl, the drums sporadically pound, eventually everything dropping out entirely, leaving just a blown out psychedelic dual guitar drone, which crumbles and gradually fades out over the last minute, although. we'd have been perfectly happy had they let those guitars drone endlessly and fill up the rest of the record. Next time maybe.
So yeah, if you're in the market for some heavy, catchy as fuck, NOISE ROCK, okay, maybe call it metal, then Gambling On The Richter Scale is IT, and by the sounds of this record, they probably destroy live. On that same label that that brought us Catalyst, another bad ass noise rock band well worth checking out.

MPEG Stream: "Annandale"
MPEG Stream: "Diabetic Feet"
MPEG Stream: "More Like The Shit Factory"

KOWLOON WALLED CITY Turk Street (self-released) 10" 11.98
Pretty much every metalhead in SF went to see Carcass at the Grand Ballroom the other night (in fact, we were joking that a well placed incendiary device could have wiped out the entire scene in one fell swoop). And yeah, of course Carcass destroyed, but the very same night, all the way across town, a band called Kowloon Walled City were faced with the daunting task of laying waste to a room not exactly full of the few metalheads who for whatever reason were not at the Carcass show.
And listening to this, the debut release from this SF foursome, we'd be hard pressed to say that the folks at Carcass, ourselves included, didn't miss out on something serious. Thankfully, unlike Carcass, KWC are a going concern, so we'll get another chance, but until then, get a load of this five song ep, of fierce, furious, crushing heaviness. Think Unsane, old Helmet, the Melvins, Buzzov-en, Neurosis of course, this is some seriously heavy shit. The guitars massive and downtuned, a relentless sea of roiling chug and churn, the drums dense and pounding, the vocals a throat shredding howl. The AmRep vibe is all over these songs, the sound incredibly thick and corrosive, the rhythms alternatingly pounding and lurching, most often settling into a lumbering almost-groove, the melodies buried amidst the crunch and rumble, sometimes surfacing as the band slips into something more dynamic, letting the guitars moan and keen, the drums getting all spacious, sheets of Eyehategod style feedback, a weirdly doomy sort of abstract sludge, before slipping back into a furious grinding metallic crush. Pretty fucking excellent, and definitely has us looking forward to finally seeing what we missed that fateful night.
The vinyl is limited to 300 copies, and is pressed on cool swirled red and black vinyl. The cd-r is limited to 100 copies, packaged in super nice, silkscreened cardstock style sleeves with a printed insert, each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "Another Corporate Takeover"
MPEG Stream: "Turk, Taylor, and Jones"

KOWLOON WALLED CITY Turk Street (Howling Mine / Feast Of Tentacles) 10" 11.98
Finally repressed and available again (on black and red swirled vinyl), the crushing debut from these local heavies, here's our review from when we first listed this way back in 2008:
Pretty much every metalhead in SF went to see Carcass at the Grand Ballroom the other night (in fact, we were joking that a well placed incendiary device could have wiped out the entire scene in one fell swoop). And yeah, of course Carcass destroyed, but the very same night, all the way across town, a band called Kowloon Walled City were faced with the daunting task of laying waste to a room not exactly full of the few metalheads who for whatever reason were not at the Carcass show.
And listening to this, the debut release from this SF foursome, we'd be hard pressed to say that the folks at Carcass, ourselves included, didn't miss out on something serious. Thankfully, unlike Carcass, KWC are a going concern, so we'll get another chance, but until then, get a load of this five song ep, of fierce, furious, crushing heaviness. Think Unsane, old Helmet, the Melvins, Buzzov-en, Neurosis of course, this is some seriously heavy shit. The guitars massive and downtuned, a relentless sea of roiling chug and churn, the drums dense and pounding, the vocals a throat shredding howl. The AmRep vibe is all over these songs, the sound incredibly thick and corrosive, the rhythms alternatingly pounding and lurching, most often settling into a lumbering almost-groove, the melodies buried amidst the crunch and rumble, sometimes surfacing as the band slips into something more dynamic, letting the guitars moan and keen, the drums getting all spacious, sheets of Eyehategod style feedback, a weirdly doomy sort of abstract sludge, before slipping back into a furious grinding metallic crush. Pretty fucking excellent, and definitely has us looking forward to finally seeing what we missed that fateful night.
MPEG Stream: "Another Corporate Takeover"
MPEG Stream: "Turk, Taylor, and Jones"

KOWLOON WALLED CITY Turk Street (self-released) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Pretty much every metalhead in SF went to see Carcass at the Grand Ballroom the other night (in fact, we were joking that a well placed incendiary device could have wiped out the entire scene in one fell swoop). And yeah, of course Carcass destroyed, but the very same night, all the way across town, a band called Kowloon Walled City were faced with the daunting task of laying waste to a room not exactly full of the few metalheads who for whatever reason were not at the Carcass show.
And listening to this, the debut release from this SF foursome, we'd be hard pressed to say that the folks at Carcass, ourselves included, didn't miss out on something serious. Thankfully, unlike Carcass, KWC are a going concern, so we'll get another chance, but until then, get a load of this five song ep, of fierce, furious, crushing heaviness. Think Unsane, old Helmet, the Melvins, Buzzov-en, Neurosis of course, this is some seriously heavy shit. The guitars massive and downtuned, a relentless sea of roiling chug and churn, the drums dense and pounding, the vocals a throat shredding howl. The AmRep vibe is all over these songs, the sound incredibly thick and corrosive, the rhythms alternatingly pounding and lurching, most often settling into a lumbering almost-groove, the melodies buried amidst the crunch and rumble, sometimes surfacing as the band slips into something more dynamic, letting the guitars moan and keen, the drums getting all spacious, sheets of Eyehategod style feedback, a weirdly doomy sort of abstract sludge, before slipping back into a furious grinding metallic crush. Pretty fucking excellent, and definitely has us looking forward to finally seeing what we missed that fateful night.
The vinyl is limited to 300 copies, and is pressed on cool swirled red and black vinyl. The cd-r is limited to 100 copies, packaged in super nice, silkscreened cardstock style sleeves with a printed insert, each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "Another Corporate Takeover"
MPEG Stream: "Turk, Taylor, and Jones"

KOWLOON WALLED CITY / FIGHT AMP / LADDER DEVILS Lose Lose Lose (Brutal Panda) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Killer 3 way vinyl split of extreme heaviness, starting off with SF's own Kowloon Walled City, who by now really have to be one of the best and one of the most criminally under-hyped heavy bands in the city, super brutal and intense, their sound dense and crushing and epic, equal parts modern metal and old school AmRep style noise rock, a hybrid few can pull off as well as these guys, yet outside of a select few, it seems these guys have yet to be discovered by the world at large, but with every record, it seems like they can't remain a secret much longer.
And here they bring the noise (rock) big time, their first track a lurching stop/start mini-epic, the guitars corrosive and downtuned and THICK, driven by some seriously kick ass thumping drum damage, the vocals a frenzied (but still melodic) yowl, the arrangement strange and super dynamic, the whole thing hooky as hell, one of those tracks that had it come out in 1997 as a single it would probably be one of your most treasured 7"s. Their second track is totally different, reigning in that wanton bash and crush for something a bit more low slung and brooding, a weird sort of Neurosis / Killing Joke hybrid, super melodic, dark and moody, but with no shortage of extreme sonic crush.
We had never heard (or heard of) Ladder Devils before, but they're a pretty good match for KWC, they too have a sort of noise rock thing going on, their take a bit more punky and grungy, still hyper rhythmic and heavy as fuck, but way more loose, some awesomely howled vocals, thick syrupy low end, chugging guitars, hooky riffs, both tracks rule, even recorded evoking wild and sweaty live cub destroying chaos. Definitely psyched to hear more.
And finally Jersey metallic post rock sludgelords Fight Amp, who are only now making their first appearance on the aQ site, even though a few of us have been fans for a while. Fight Amp have a sound not all that far removed from folks like Baroness, Kylesa and the like, a sort of Southern sludge via slow brooding Neur-Isis style heaviness, and their two tracks here offer up a seriously heavy heaping helping of just that, churning and thick and epic, a little groovy, WAY downtuned, a little mathy and proggy too, giving it a sort of Voivod feel, albeit quite a bit more crusty and sludgey, but it's a pretty killer combo, and again, a pretty perfect match for both Ladder Devils and Kowloon Walled City...
Killer packaging too, a thick PVC style jacket, hand silkscreened, housing a printed folded sleeve, the back half of the sleeve cut away to reveal the clear vinyl and the printed images beneath it. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!

KOWLOON WALLED CITY / THOU July (Hell Comes Home) 7" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What more do you need to know, than this is two of our favorite heavy bands, doing killer (and WAY unlikely) covers, on by Low, and one by Soundgarden? OK, how about the fact that this was a super limited installment of a subscription only series, really the only way to get your hands on one of these was to subscribe, unless, the guys in KWC offered us a little handful of their copies, the LAST copies in fact, so you should know what that means by now, grab one before they disappear.
KWC tackles Low's "July", and besides cranking up the guitars, and adding some downtuned crunch, stay pretty true to the original, and wisely got a guest vocalist, Lisa Papineau, who we had never heard of before, but who has sung for Air, M83, Farflung and others, but who is the perfect fit, here vocals emotional and powerful, darkly tinged, one of those rare, practically perfect covers, where the cover manages to be as good as the original, different enough to be interesting, but faithful enough to make not singing along impossible.
Thou take on Soundgarden's "4th Of July", and like KWC, stay sort of faithful to the original, changing it up a bit, like with the KWC track, via the vocals. In place of Thou's usual throat shredding shrieks, the band unveil some seriously powerful crooning, a kick ass voice that definitely has us wondering what these guys would be capable of if they chose to go in that direction. But fear not, not only is the main riff an oozing, downtuned creep, but after that first verse, the more recognizable Thou vocals come in, but instead of replacing the clean vox, they team up, for a really bizarre duet, and some twisted not-quite harmonies, the song itself, unfurling as a lumbering, surprisingly still super melodic, dirge doom monster.
Rare that we dig both sides of a split this much, but both these tracks totally KILL. And again, super limited, we have about 15 copies, these are the last ones we'll be able to get. Not sure you can even still sign up for the subscription series, so probably better to get one now, before you're kicking yourself later. Insanely gorgeous cover art / design as well!
MPEG Stream: KOWLOON WALLED CITY "July"
MPEG Stream: THOU "4th Of July"

KRABATHOR Dissuade Truth (System Shock) cd 14.98

KRABATHOR Unfortunately Dead (System Shock) cd 14.98
Czech death metal vets Krabathor's new disc continues their brutal career, never letting up on the heaviness or the crazy Morbid Angel-ish guitar solos. They've drafted American death icon Paul Speckman (ex-Master) into their ranks, but that thankfully did not impair their wonderful English as a second language song titles: "They Are Unfortunately Dead", "The Eagles You Can Have", "Living On The Threat Of One Finger"...

KRALLICE Dimensional Bleedthrough (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
Nice. Black Metal supergroup Krallice return with record #2, and much like the first self-titled album, Dimensional Bleedthrough is full of nonstop, dizzying musical virtuosity that will send your jaw dropping to the floor. This stuff sounds IMPOSSIBLE to play, which for most mortals, it would be. But Krallice count among its ranks avant indie-metal guitar gods Mick Barr (Crom Tech, Orthelm, Ocrilim, etc.) and Colin Marston (known usually for his bass duties in groups like Dysrhythmia and Behold the Arctopus), as well as the hot-shit drumming skills of Lev Weinstein and the burly basslines of Nick McMaster. It's cool to hear what many people would have written off as a side project really take off into new territory where the music is allowed to shine through instead of hiding behind a facade of what black metal should be. In the end, Krallice effortlessly lay waste to so much of the black metal out there these days. The complexity of these songs is pretty unbelievable, but luckily things remain very musical throughout. The songs are forceful but super melodic and catchy, and listening to Krallice is like taking off on a mind altering journey. The vocals here are great and classically black metal, and anyone familiar with Barr's high pitched shrieking days in Crom Tech might be a bit surprised to hear him passing the test with flying colors. Soundwise, Krallice adhere to the template perfected by groups like Weakling and Wolves In The Throne Room, but they definitely put their own unique spin on things. Things get a bit proggy here and there, but not in a bad or dorky way at all. This is really the sound of dudes who know their way around their instruments like few others, and they have combined their talents to deliver hands down one of the most impressive metal records this year.
MPEG Stream: "Dimensional Bleedthrough"
MPEG Stream: "Autochthon"

KRALLICE Dimensional Bleedthrough (Gilead Media) 2lp 22.00
Hey! Now on vinyl!!
Nice. Black Metal supergroup Krallice return with record #2, and much like the first self-titled album, Dimensional Bleedthrough is full of nonstop, dizzying musical virtuosity that will send your jaw dropping to the floor. This stuff sounds IMPOSSIBLE to play, which for most mortals, it would be. But Krallice count among its ranks avant indie-metal guitar gods Mick Barr (Crom Tech, Orthelm, Ocrilim, etc.) and Colin Marston (known usually for his bass duties in groups like Dysrhythmia and Behold the Arctopus), as well as the hot-shit drumming skills of Lev Weinstein and the burly basslines of Nick McMaster. It's cool to hear what many people would have written off as a side project really take off into new territory where the music is allowed to shine through instead of hiding behind a facade of what black metal should be. In the end, Krallice effortlessly lay waste to so much of the black metal out there these days. The complexity of these songs is pretty unbelievable, but luckily things remain very musical throughout. The songs are forceful but super melodic and catchy, and listening to Krallice is like taking off on a mind altering journey. The vocals here are great and classically black metal, and anyone familiar with Barr's high pitched shrieking days in Crom Tech might be a bit surprised to hear him passing the test with flying colors. Soundwise, Krallice adhere to the template perfected by groups like Weakling and Wolves In The Throne Room, but they definitely put their own unique spin on things. Things get a bit proggy here and there, but not in a bad or dorky way at all. This is really the sound of dudes who know their way around their instruments like few others, and they have combined their talents to deliver hands down one of the most impressive metal records of 2009.
Gatefold double vinyl via Gilead Media, the cd version released last year was on Profound Lore.
MPEG Stream: "Dimensional Bleedthrough"
MPEG Stream: "Autochthon"

KRALLICE Diotima (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
Thee latest blast of confusional sonic chaos from this sort-of black metal supergroup, featuring avant outsider axeman Mick Barr (Orthrelm, Ocrilim, etc.) and bass shredder Colin Marsten (Behold The Arctopus, Dysrhythmia, etc.) is Krallice album number three, the follow up to the awesomely titled Dimensional Bleedthrough, and it's pretty much another opus of epic, soaring and majestic, yet convoluted and confusional black metal as only these guys can play it. There are moments, where you might, MIGHT think this could be some other black metal band, but those moments pass, and before long, when the band lock into their blazing blasting fury. As with the other records, the real surprise is how melodic Krallice can be, judging from the pedigree, one might be forgiven for assuming this would be incredibly difficult, and it is, in some ways, but it's also weirdly catchy, a pretty good mix of classic black metalisms, and the player's obtuse and obviously idiosyncratic take on the genre. The sound this time around actually seems a lot cleaner, and arrangements a bit more straight ahead, and the melodies much more pronounced, and it definitely suits them, but just when we begin to think that, the song we're listening to will fracture into some impossible tangle, or some super tripped out sort-of guitar lead, before slipping right back into more soaring buzzing melodic black metal. Which is just fine with us. Be sure to check out the epic closer, which is maybe the most melodic thing they've done, with some impossible hooks, and some subtle poppiness, all woven into the buzzing and blasting, almost like Krallice channeling Alcest AND some sort of epic post rock!
MPEG Stream: "Inhume"
MPEG Stream: "The Clearing"

KRALLICE Diotima (Gilead Media) 2lp 25.00
NOW ON VINYL, destined for the turntables of all appreciators of leftfield black metal genius. Here's what we said about the Profound Lore cd version from earlier this year:
Thee latest blast of confusional sonic chaos from this sort-of black metal supergroup, featuring avant outsider axeman Mick Barr (Orthrelm, Ocrilim, etc.) and bass shredder Colin Marsten (Behold The Arctopus, Dysrhythmia, etc.) is Krallice album number three, the follow up to the awesomely titled Dimensional Bleedthrough, and it's pretty much another opus of epic, soaring and majestic, yet convoluted and confusional black metal as only these guys can play it. There are moments, where you might, MIGHT think this could be some other black metal band, but those moments pass, and before long, when the band lock into their blazing blasting fury. As with the other records, the real surprise is how melodic Krallice can be, judging from the pedigree, one might be forgiven for assuming this would be incredibly difficult, and it is, in some ways, but it's also weirdly catchy, a pretty good mix of classic black metalisms, and the player's obtuse and obviously idiosyncratic take on the genre. The sound this time around actually seems a lot cleaner, and arrangements a bit more straight ahead, and the melodies much more pronounced, and it definitely suits them, but just when we begin to think that, the song we're listening to will fracture into some impossible tangle, or some super tripped out sort-of guitar lead, before slipping right back into more soaring buzzing melodic black metal. Which is just fine with us. Be sure to check out the epic closer, which is maybe the most melodic thing they've done, with some impossible hooks, and some subtle poppiness, all woven into the buzzing and blasting, almost like Krallice channeling Alcest AND some sort of epic post rock!
MPEG Stream: "Inhume"
MPEG Stream: "The Clearing"

KRALLICE Orphan Of Sickness (From The Nursery) 12" 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

KRALLICE s/t (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
It has come to this. Just as we somehow suspected. And desired. Underground guitar maestro Mick Barr, he of such monomaniacal hypershred mosquito-like guitar and drums (or drum machine) bands as Orthrelm, Octis, and Ocrilm, has finally unleashed the bona fide black metal album that we always knew he probably wanted to do. And should do. After all, in our review of the last Ocrilm album, Annwn, released earlier this year on Hydra Head, we'd said that not only did Barr's guitar buzz remind us of black metal music, but that if it were a black metal album it would be one of the best (and most fucked up, too) of the year.
So, now Barr and equally tech-y cohorts guitarist/bassist Colin Marston (that's right, of mathy mindbogglers Behold...The Arctopus!) and drummer Lev Weinstein (Bloody Panda) have started the utterly blackened Krallice, releasing their self-titled debut on the respected Profound Lore label. And the rest of the USBM scene should take notice, these guys mean business. Sure, anybody with a MySpace page can have a black metal band, make a cool unreadable, thorny logo (like Krallice's) and come up with song titles like "Wretched Wisdom", "Timehusk", "Energy Chasms", and "Forgiveness In Rot" (as Krallice have done) but probably not that many can actually back up all those black metal signifiers so seriously with their MUSIC, music of such sheer power and perfection that we find here. Wintry winds are blowing here (i.e. it's not hot air), as majestic melodies ride the crests of tsunami-sized waves of distorted, buzzing guitar. The six mesmerizingly lengthy tracks found on this Krallice disc are quite technically complex, and buzzingly relentless, much as you'd expect from Barr and Co. It's a blasting blizzard, with raging vokills and hyperspeed drumming but most importantly, shreddingly gorgeous guitar leads, densely woven, that build and build always to new forbidden plateaus of melancholic, misanthropic triumph. Imagine maybe the epick grimnity of Weakling or Wolves In The Throne Room, already badass in the guitar department, with an extra dosage of divebombing fretboard squiggle, interstellar energies continually released in the form of six string shred... yes, Krallice certainly "bring it" as it were, and should appeal to both fans of Barr's previous quasi-metallic, mathy mindfucks as well as those looking for quality USBM, advanced structures or not. (Although, in regards to neo-classical shred, they haven't quite unthroned the true Yngwie's of USBM, the late lamented Windham Hell.)
MPEG Stream: "Wretched Wisdom"
MPEG Stream: "Energy Chasms"

KRALLICE s/t (Gilead Media / Profound Lore) 2lp 22.00
NOW ON (GATEFOLD) VINYL!
It has come to this. Just as we somehow suspected. And desired. Underground guitar maestro Mick Barr, he of such monomaniacal hypershred mosquito-like guitar and drums (or drum machine) bands as Orthrelm, Octis, and Ocrilm, has finally unleashed the bona fide black metal album that we always knew he probably wanted to do. And should do. After all, in our review of the last Ocrilm album, Annwn, released earlier this year on Hydra Head, we'd said that not only did Barr's guitar buzz remind us of black metal music, but that if it were a black metal album it would be one of the best (and most fucked up, too) of the year.
So, now Barr and equally tech-y cohorts guitarist/bassist Colin Marston (that's right, of mathy mindbogglers Behold...The Arctopus!) and drummer Lev Weinstein (Bloody Panda) have started the utterly blackened Krallice, releasing their self-titled debut on the respected Profound Lore label. And the rest of the USBM scene should take notice, these guys mean business. Sure, anybody with a MySpace page can have a black metal band, make a cool unreadable, thorny logo (like Krallice's) and come up with song titles like "Wretched Wisdom", "Timehusk", "Energy Chasms", and "Forgiveness In Rot" (as Krallice have done) but probably not that many can actually back up all those black metal signifiers so seriously with their MUSIC, music of such sheer power and perfection that we find here. Wintry winds are blowing here (i.e. it's not hot air), as majestic melodies ride the crests of tsunami-sized waves of distorted, buzzing guitar. The six mesmerizingly lengthy tracks found on this Krallice record are quite technically complex, and buzzingly relentless, much as you'd expect from Barr and Co. It's a blasting blizzard, with raging vokills and hyperspeed drumming but most importantly, shreddingly gorgeous guitar leads, densely woven, that build and build always to new forbidden plateaus of melancholic, misanthropic triumph. Imagine maybe the epick grimnity of Weakling or Wolves In The Throne Room, already badass in the guitar department, with an extra dosage of divebombing fretboard squiggle, interstellar energies continually released in the form of six string shred... yes, Krallice certainly "bring it" as it were, and should appeal to both fans of Barr's previous quasi-metallic, mathy mindfucks as well as those looking for quality USBM, advanced structures or not. (Although, in regards to neo-classical shred, they haven't quite unthroned the true Yngwie's of USBM, the late lamented Windham Hell.)
MPEG Stream: "Wretched Wisdom"
MPEG Stream: "Energy Chasms"

KRALLICE Years Past Matter (self-released) cd 14.98
That pesky 'dimensional bleedthrough' thing has happened once again, with the buzzing, super-teched out sounds of whatever weird astral plane wherein Krallice dwell making it all the way to our humble ears here on Earth, causing much headbanging and more mindboggling. Yes, indeed it's the fourth album of epick black metal shreddness from this NYC unit, which features the inhuman guitar chops of both Mick Barr (Orthrelm, Octis, Ocrilim, Oldest, Crom-Tech, etc.) and Colin Marston (Dysrhythmia, BeholdÉThe Arctopus, Infidel?/Castro!, etc.).
Once again, if you want blasting majesty and grim complexityÉ you got it!! Just press play and give yourself up to the numbing force of these intense exercises in extremity, an hour's worth of Krallice's controlling chaos.
All we can say is, for this precise (and it is precise) style of black metal - music that's as difficult to play as most black metal logos are to read - at this point Krallice have nothing left to prove. And very little competition.
We've currently got the digipack cd version, self-released by the band this time rather than on Profound Lore like the three previous (on account of how PL's release schedule was a bit backed up), with the double vinyl version on Gilead Media on the way to us sometime in October 2012, maybe.
MPEG Stream: "IIIIIII"
MPEG Stream: "IIIIIIII"
MPEG Stream: "IIIIIIIIIIII"

KRALLICE Years Past Matter (Gildead Media) 2lp 25.00
NOW ON VINYL!!!
That pesky 'dimensional bleedthrough' thing has happened once again, with the buzzing, super-teched out sounds of whatever weird astral plane wherein Krallice dwell making it all the way to our humble ears here on Earth, causing much headbanging and more mindboggling. Yes, indeed it's the fourth album of epick black metal shreddness from this NYC unit, which features the inhuman guitar chops of both Mick Barr (Orthrelm, Octis, Ocrilim, Oldest, Crom-Tech, etc.) and Colin Marston (Dysrhythmia, BeholdÉThe Arctopus, Infidel?/Castro!, etc.).
Once again, if you want blasting majesty and grim complexityÉ you got it!! Just press play and give yourself up to the numbing force of these intense exercises in extremity, an hour's worth of Krallice's controlling chaos.
All we can say is, for this precise (and it is precise) style of black metal - music that's as difficult to play as most black metal logos are to read - at this point Krallice have nothing left to prove. And very little competition.
MPEG Stream: "IIIIIII"
MPEG Stream: "IIIIIIII"
MPEG Stream: "IIIIIIIIIIII"

KRIEG Blue Miasma (No Colours) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Final black and bleak missive from metal misanthrope Imperial and his black metal horde Krieg. Practically an institution, Krieg spew a particularly hateful and depressive strain of black metal, falling somewhere between the old school (Judas Isacriot) and the new school (Xasthur) of US black metal. A buzzing chaotic blur, mostly plodding midtempos, guitars a droning hypnotic whir, the drums a splattery framework way down in the murky swirl, the vocals squirming tentacles of howl and shriek, tangled amidst the buzzing riffs and the careening rhythms. Not nearly as harsh as past efforts, this final album is downright melodic at times, some classic sounding thrash riffs surface here and there, huge expanses of droning doom metal share the spotlight with the grim black thrash, the melodies minor key and truly sorrowful sounding, some tracks trail off into ambient stretches of white noise guitar, sounding a bit like Total or Hototogisu here and there. Blue Miasma is hate fueled and harrowing, harsh but weirdly mournful and melancholy, even the ultra fast parts end up sort of blissing out into droning doomy miserablism. Fucking Awesome.
Word of warning, Krieg and Imperial have been know to espouse truly abhorrent views, political, racial and otherwise, sort of comes with the black metal territory a lot of the time. It's a personal choice, whether you can enjoy the music and ignore the politics of its creator. You have been warned.
MPEG Stream: "The Great Beast Trembled In Nightmare"
MPEG Stream: "Who Shall Stand Against Me"
MPEG Stream: "The Blue Mist"

KRIEG Destruction Ritual (Red Stream) cd 15.98

KRIEG Patrick Bateman (HCB) cd ep 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is about as raw as black metal can get. Overblown, superdistorted, chaotic, thrashing buzzing brutality. Vocals so loud that at their peak they overload the speakers, and begin to crumble, pushing all the other sounds out of the way. Very creepy and disconcerting. This is supposedly the last Krieg record ever, and what a way to go. An homage to Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, and the Patrick Bateman that lives in all of us, bloodlust, greed, selfishness and violence. Two dense tracks of head splitting ultraviolence, one which splinters into a creepy militaristic march, with heavily reverbed drums, and the most anguished howls of fury imaginable. The other three tracks are samples taken from the movie of American Psycho, which seems to be Krieg's perfect filmic muse.
MPEG Stream: "II"
MPEG Stream: "IV"

KRIEG Rise Of The Imperial Hordes (Blood, Fire, Death) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

KRIEG The Black House (Red Stream) cd 13.98
We're so used to seeing Scandanavian black metal records with photos of forests, and fjords, and burning churches, and Viking ships, or corpse painted guys lurking in the dark with torches, or huddled over a fire. All the things that are part and parcel of the Nordic pride / black metal package. So what would be the image or images one would associate with American Black metal? Until now it's been mostly ghastly gory paintings or European woodcuts depicting demons or some borrowed Nordic imagery. But the new Krieg album, The Black House, perfectly encapsulates the darkness and depression of American black metal with a stark black and white cover image of a dilapitated house beside a leafless tree under a dark and forboding sky. You see thousands of houses like this all over the United States, but every one of those houses represents some sort of misery or depression or tragedy. Which is what black metal is all about. And what Krieg has been all about for the past nine years. Along with this perfect image comes what is probably the best Krieg album yet. A suffocatingly dark and depressive masterpiece. From crushing midtempo dirges to buzzing melancholy waltzes to crushing nightmarish blasts of frosty black metal, to a surprising cover of the Velvet Underground's "Venus In Furs", handled quite deftly, keeping the original's droning hypnotic jangle, but adding more darkness and despair through extra ambient sounds and unholy demonic vocals. The result is surprisingly effective and emotionally charged and adds a some surprising depth to Krieg's already ultra personal and truly grim black metal onslaught. NB although the album doesn't have any overt Nazi-ish stuff on it, you might want to do some research on your own if you're worried about the political views of your black metal purchases...
MPEG Stream: "Deconstructing The Eternal Tombs / Deviant"
MPEG Stream: "Nemesis"
MPEG Stream: "Venus In Furs"

KRIEG The Isolationist (Candlelight) cd 14.98
Krieg are like a USBM institution. Going on 15 years now, with an insane number of lineups, and close to 30 releases, yet they somehow remain so much more underground than their USBM brethren, Krieg are indeed, truly KVLT. Krieg mainman Imperial's public persona definitely got a bump recently with his involvement in the black metal supergroup Twilight, and some of that band's experimentalism has definitely bled into Krieg, a little, and the new line up reflects that, with Leviathan's Wrest on bass and Woe's Chris Grigg on drums, not to mention Sanford Parker of Minsk (among others) on "grinding synthetic nausea. With that sort of roster, you might in fact be expecting some tripped out psychedelic blackness, or some sort of droned out grim blacknoize, but Krieg remain TROO and offer up some seriously grim and buzzy blackness, furious blast beats, howling hellish vokills, and some dense gnarled riffage, the sound grimy and gritty and filthy, the way true black metal was meant to sound.
Sure there are moments that deviate a bit from the black path, "All Paths To God" is practically poppy, a moody and melancholy dirge with a surprising hook, there's the tripped out spaciness of "Depakote", and the blown out glitchy staticky dronefield that finishes off "And The Stars Fell on" as well as a couple shorter tracks that ditch the buzz and blast altogether, offering up instead stretches of moody melancholic meander, and the last track blasts wildly until it seems to slow down, melting into a droning black morass, but for the most part this is Black. Metal. Heavy on the black. And heavy on the metal. Dense, and dark, black and buzzing, ominous and sinister, harsh and hateful, brutal, grim and fucking awesome.
MPEG Stream: "No Future"
MPEG Stream: "Photographs From An Asylum"
MPEG Stream: "All Paths To God"
MPEG Stream: "Ambergeist"

KRIEG / BAEL The Church / Bleeding For Him (Akedia Rekordz) picture disc 16.98
Super limited (500!) picture disc reissue of these two slabs of black brutality. One side features Bael, who spew forth an ugly, super blown out, ultra distorted black thrash, furious and so fast it often slips into a black blur (reminds us a bit of Diamatregon). Super lo-fi and recorded way too hot (in a good way), all the levels in the red, you can practically feel the evil seeping through the speakers. Originally released in 2003, features a bonus track with Imperial from Kreig on vocals! The flipside features the mighty Krieg, and it's a vinyl reissue of The Church mini cd from way back in 2001. Mega murky and also extremely lo-fi, but where Bael are blasting and blinding, Kreig are muddy and murky and mournful. Plodding midtempo depressive black metal, blasting drums over fuzzed out riffs, hateful and harsh. Also includes an exclusive bonus track, a cover of Earth's "Charioteer" which is awesome. Clean guitars picking out a majestic melody, a spare melodic dirge, meditative and hypnotic, with creepy snatches of conversation mixed in, not heavy as in huge guitars and pounding drums, but heavy like ominous and subtly dark. Cool. Weird that Nachtmystium covered the same Earth track as a bonus track on a recent cd. Hmm....
Black and white picture disc, one side is a blurry washed out photo of some ruins or old church, the other side features a creepy diseased hand.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

KRISIUN Ageless Venomous (Century Media) cd 13.98
Look out, it's the fifth album from Brazil's most deadly death metal band (you know 'em, you love 'em). Rollercoaster, lightspeed guitars and drums (mixed a little too loud, unfortunately) in the service of Satan!
RealAudio clip: "Ageless Venomous"

KRISIUN AssassiNation (Century Media ) cd 12.98
Another blast from these Brazilian death metal lunatics!!

KRISIUN Bloodshed (Century Media) cd 11.98
The Brazilian death metal maniacs are back. Not exactly with a new full-length album though...this is more of a mini-album's worth of new tracks, but additionally stacked with some out of print early stuff. There's eight over-the-top tracks from 2004, plus four raw rarities from the band's Unmerciful Order ep of 1993. Makes a nice package for Krisiun fans, eh? As with all their recordings, this is a hyper-speed roar-de-force that should conjure visions of machine guns firing full-auto and shark feeding frenzies and moshpits named Yngwie. Between the 1993 and 2004 material the biggest difference is the latter's improved production. And we also love the droneily ambient outro track, which proves that they don't *always* sound like Morbid Angel on 45.
Is it making fun of poor English skills to note that it says here "All recording here are 100% analogous"? That's great news for reviewers like me, who'd like to drawn an analogy between these Krisiun tracks and...uh...well let's say that Krisiun is to regular death metal what Michael Jackson is to ordinary eccentric millionaires. No, no, no, I'm not saying that Krisiun are pedophiles, just that they're really...extreme.
MPEG Stream: "Ominous"
MPEG Stream: "Servant Of Emptiness"

KRISIUN Conquerors Of Armageddon (Century Media) cd 14.98
Brazilian death metal madmen Krisiun return with their first domestic release (fourth album overall). Those who saw them play here on their last tour tell me that Krisiun are perhaps the fastest and most insane death metal band ever. Certainly they take the instrumental portion of the death metal experience to the extreme that all bands in the genre really should aspire to; it's like they're the Nitro of death metal (Nitro being the uber-epitome of LA glam glass-breaking screamin', hyperspeed guitar soloin' hair metal who were so laughable yet so amazing that even today they have a cult following). Fans of the baroque brutality and sinister speed of Morbid Angel (whose guitarist Eric Rutan produced this rippin' disc) must hear Krisiun!

KRISIUN Southern Storm (Century Media) cd 13.98
Maybe you remember the good old days. Obituary's Slowly We Rot, Morbid Angel's Blessed Are The Sick, and - of course - Sepultura's Beneath The Remains. THOSE good old days. The days when metalheads could look each other in the face and say things like, "Dude, Scott Burns fucking rules," and it would mean something. Maybe even one tattooed tear would drop. Earthdogs worldwide would only consider purchasing longsleeve versions of their favorite band's shirts. When the only guy in the band allowed to have short hair was the drummer. Guitar solos were mandatory. Well, Brazil's Krisiun have managed to continually exist within that realm. It seems that for them the only difference between then and now is heightened production value. Their music remains heavy, tight, and fast. You're getting zero corpsepaint, no buzzing guitars, and absolutely no art-school-esque Banks Violette collaborations. Metal dudes weren't wearing makeup and crying about how they hate people, because they were too busy trying to kick ass. Death metal, no bullshit necessary. We're not even sure if they know that black metal has taken the spotlight in "extreme metal" for like, oh, almost 15 years now. Make sure to bang your head in a circular motion, even while listening to their cover of fellow Brazilians Sepultura's "Refuse/Resist."
MPEG Stream: "Slaying Steel"
MPEG Stream: "Origin of Terror"

KRISIUN Works of Carnage (Century Media) cd 14.98

KRISTIANSEN, JON Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries (Bazillion Points) book 42.00
Holy shit! SIX POUNDS OF METAL. There are certain things, that as metalheads, one feels might just be utterly essential, something every self respecting metaller NEEDS to own, and this friends is one of those things, the long in the works hardcover book compendium of every single issue of long running (25 years!) Norwegian metal magazine Slayer. You might remember not long ago we reviewed the ultra deluxe hardcover version of the final issue of Slayer Magazine, which went out of print in a flash, that's included here too, but more on that in a second.
Bazillion Points, who also released the equally amazing and almost overwhelming Touch And Go zine compendium, not to mention Hellbent For Cooking,The Heavy Metal Cookbook, Tom Gabriel Fischer's Only Death Is Real Hellhammer / Celtic Frost book, and Daniel Ekeroth's Swedish Death Metal book, phew, has really outdone themselves with this Metalion book. It really does weigh SIX POUNDS, and is gorgeous, super striking front and back cover, printed in foil stamped red metallics. Inside you'll find EVERY one of the zine's twenty issues (nearly every page too, minus some edited/excised material, some ads, record reviews, etc.), but that's not all, it's also, as the title suggests, a diary/memoir of sorts, kept by Slayer Mag mastermind Jon Kristiansen, all about the magazines, the story behind each issue, as well as his life in metal. It also includes the pre-Slayer zine Live Wire, of course tons of rare photos, and like that out of print Slayer Magazine issue XX. While the outside is super swank, the inside is total classic cut and paste old school zine style, lots of drawings and cartoons, different typefaces, photos, no efforts made to smooth the edges, to hide the bits of tape or the staples that might have show up in the photocopies, total DIY, kvlt metal zine, just fancied up and presented in book style. And over the course of 20 issues and 25 years, the magazine featured pretty much every metal (and metal beloved) band that mattered: Watain, Morbid, Whiplash, Bathory, Sadus, Kreator, Master's Hammer, Sadistik Exekution, Funeral Mist, Nifelheim, Destroyer 666, SUNNO))), Grotesque, Savage Thrust, Medieval, Invidious Deathrash, Obscurity, Nocturnal Graves, Pagan Altar, Strid, Mayhem, Emperor, Slayer, Nihilist, Celtic Frost, Cathedral, Entombed, Morbid, Napalm Death, Metallica, Opeth, Cradle of Filth, Sadus, Satyricon, Enslaved, Pentagram, Jarboe, Immortal, Possessed, Overkill, Ulver, Dark Angel and more more more.
Also included are multiple forwards from publisher Ian Christie, SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley, Fenriz of Darkthrone, Tomas Lindberg from Grotesque, Chris Reifert from Death/Autopsy, and Erik Danielsson from Watain.
We've barely cracked the book and we're already totally captivated and will no doubt get sucked further in. Kristiansen is a great writer, his interviews are funny and cool, the bands really open up, and it's really interesting to read interviews with all these bands from the last two decades, and Kirstiansen's life story is pretty amazing, he's self deprecating, includes lots of embarrassing photos of himself as a child and a teen and at every stage of his metal evolution, and the way he tells his story is a pretty great read on its own, and the magazines are way more enjoyable now, with Kristiansen offering context and history and all the drama and various tales behind the assembly of each issue. Needless to say, this is metalhead nirvana, and even if you never read it, it'll look amazing on your coffee table, but odds are you won't be able to resist, and like us you'll get sucked in, and lost in 25 years of METAL.
Be warned, mailorder folks, this book is MASSIVE, and HEAVY, and we don't mean heavy like metal, we mean heavy like SIX POUNDS, so this book will be shipped by weight, not by the usual per-item flat rate price, but it's SO worth it...

KROHM A World Through Dead Eyes (Moribund) cd 16.98
We first discovered Krohm after Wrest from Leviathan suggested we check them out, if we were in the mood for some super dirgey, cold and miserable, almost doom-like suicidal black metal. When aren't we? And whaddayaknow? He was right. Nortt, Xasthur, even some Leviathan are the main touchstones for Krohm's super mournful doomic black metal. Nary a blast or furious riff to be found. Instead this is midtempo buzzing blackness. Like Malefic from Xasthur, Numinas from Krohm, weaves a bleak depressive instrumental back drop, all fuzzed out guitars, simple martial drumming, thick slabs of bass rumble, above which he drizzles haunting and heart breaking guitar melodies, peppered with his way down in the mix howls. This is a sea sick drift across a pitch black sonic ocean. Lurching and loping, riding the gentle swells, each track a sort of sea sick waltz, or a death march across a muddy swamp, trudging head down, eyes cast Earthward, body racked with sorrow, a sky full of cold rain. A soul as black as your broken heart, dead and done beating forever, walking and wandering and waiting for the ground to swallow you whole. So awesome.
Essential for fans of Xasthur and Nortt and all manner of depressive black doom...
MPEG Stream: "I Suffer The Astal Woe"
MPEG Stream: "A World Through Dead Eyes"

KROHM Slayer Of Lost Martyrs / Crown Of The Ancients (Moribund) cd 16.98

MPEG Stream: "Veneria's Call"
MPEG Stream: "Crown Of The Ancients"

KROHM The Haunting Presence (Moribund) cd 15.98