NEBULA Charged (Sub Pop) cd 15.98
Another new Nebula record. Definitely their best record although not a whole lot has changed. These ex-Fu Manchu folks play fuzzed out, drugged out, groovy stoner rock and play it well. And just because this is nothing new, doesn't mean it isn't still loads better than 90% of stoner rock. 'Cause it is.
RealAudio clip: "Do It Now"

NEBULA Dos EPs (MeteorCity) cd 13.98
This collects the two eps (duh, dos eps) from the preeminent fuzzed out stoner rock combo, Nebula. This includes their Meteor City ep and their split with Lowrider as well as 3 brand spanking new tracks. Overblown, super fuzz guitar, drawling lazy stonerboy vocals and big b i g B I G drums. Sounds as good as ever. Cruisng through the desert with the top down kind of lazy hazy summertime RAWK.
RealAudio clip: "Rocket"
RealAudio clip: "Long Day"
RealAudio clip: "Anything From You"

NEBULA To The Center (Sub Pop) cd 11.98
Attention, all you stoner-rock freaks (man, we need a new name for this stuff): ex-Fu Manchu (and better-than-Fu Manchu) dudes Nebula have a new album out. Maybe this is Sub Pop's way of veering back into "the new grunge"? Anyway, just from the cover shot of the band's equipment stacked out in a desert somewhere, this looks like it'll meet your rawk requirements.

NECHOCHWEN Azimuthus To The Otherworld (Bindrune) cd 12.98
Very original and yet very metal stuff here, on the always interesting and out-there Bindrune label...
Along with the gorgeous washed out ambient nature doom of Celestiial, and the epic outsider black metal mystery of the most recent Blood Of The Black Owl comes this, another new release on the cult Bindrune label, the first record from amazing one man band Nechochwen, a black metal act of sorts, whose intent is to explore Native American Indian heritage, through sound, but this is a strange hybridized exploration of Native American culture for sure.
Beginning with classical guitar, tribal hand drums, ominous spoken word, streaks of keening high end guitar, wailed emotive wordless vox, it definitely sounds a bit Native American, until the band launch into some seriously blasting full on metal, thrashing blackened riffage, pounding drums, with flurries of double kick, growled gruff vokills, rife with sprawling arrangements and epic melodies. It's thematically focused on the tribes that dwelled in the Ohio River Valley nearly two millennia ago, not that you'd necessarily know that from just listening, but it definitely infuses the sound with a unique vibe, that you're unlikely to find in much music, let alone black metal. Acoustic guitars, simple loping drumming, and chantlike vocals, in fact much of the record is acoustic, darkly melancholic, lush and warm and hauntingly beautiful, with fluttery flutes, hand drums, sitar like steel string buzz, occasionally erupting into blasting blackness, or twisted bits of rhythmic churn, or plodding ambient doom, or creepy black ambient drone, masterfully exectued, an expansive, incredible exploration of history through blackened folk flecked sound. Like those other Bindrune releases, not quite like anything else.
MPEG Stream: "Allumhammochwen: The Crossing"
MPEG Stream: "At Night May I Roam"
MPEG Stream: "Gissis Mikana"
MPEG Stream: "Red Ocher"

NECKTARIUM Dreamblur (Khrysanthoney) 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.
From the same label that brought us the most recent Clair Cassis ep, and the Velvet Cacoon Dextronaut reissue, comes this, the gorgeous hazy, shoegazey depressive black drone pop debut from Pakistani one man band Necktarium, whose sound is just barely black metal, sure, there's plenty of buzz, and some hellish vokills, but those elements are buried in billowy layers of gauzey fuzz, and washed out shimmer, woozy melancholy melodies, and tinkling pianos, all cloaked in blurry Burzumic thrum, the tempos lazy and laid back and a little waltzy, the sound lush and warm and rife with clean spidery guitars, whirling chordal swells and lovely field recordings. Burbling brooks and bird calls drift beneath a haze of translucent glimmer, soon buried beneath an avalanche of blasting blackness, but that blackness is burnished and glows with a strange warmth, wrapped in tendrils of swoonsome melody, everything indistinct and otherworldly, even at its fiercest, Dreamblur manages to be both, dreamy and blurry, like an even more washed out and druggy Velvet Cacoon, Necktarium paints gorgeous landscapes of abstract sonic drift, black metal rendered in shades of blues and greys, moon lit and obscured by flickering shadows, the sound shifting from murky muddy churn, to hushed chiming ambience, from melancholy lullaby to creeping, lumbering sorrowful blackdoomdrift, from gorgeous crystalline atmospheric minimalism, to lo-fi in-the-red blackblur bliss.
Totally fantastic, and absolutely recommended for anyone into dreamy depressive blackness, washed out shoegazey buzz and dreamy droney blurred and bleary blissiness, and tragically LIMITED TO ONLY 50 COPIES!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Fogdance Blue"
MPEG Stream: "Arfte Meridiem"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Pale Fingers"

NECRITE Sic Transit Gloria Mvndi (The Flenser) cd 9.98
Local label Flenser is quickly becoming the Bay Area's primary bastion of blackened buzz, with a seriously stellar first batch of releases, Bosse De Nage, Ghast, Palace Of Worms, Panopticon, Skagos and now the first proper full length from West coast USBM-ers Necrite, whose sound is really only loosely black metal, instead, these guys traffic in creeping, crawling, atmospheric dirgery, as much about atmosphere and texture as blasting riffs.
The sixteen minute opener sets the stage with a haunting skeletal guitar party, all spidery and minor key, a chilling sonic refrain that sort of drifts over spaced out mathy drums and inhuman hellish shrieks, that sometimes slip into belching death metal grunts, or even now and again almost Tuvan sounding humming vocal buzz. But fear not, these guys definitely offer up some ferocious blackness, bursting into face melting stretches of woozy blurred blast beating and frenetic insectoid riffing. In the case of the first track, the blasting subsides leaving some strange abstract post rocky ambience, crumbling abject atmospheres rife with creepy vocal mewls, and all manner of buzz drenched noise, only to explode again into some seriously intricate noisy blackness, infusing it with all manner of twisted melody and gnarled rhythmic weirdness.
The next three tracks follow a similar pattern, the band deftly slipping from super abstract ultra doom creep, to soaring Norwegian style raw and primitive black buzz, to tangled mathy post rock blacknoise psychedelia, plenty of ambience, lots of intricate melodies, even some sort of guitar leads weaving lush harmonies over and within the proceedings. All of this is wound into some super twisted arrangements, and the weirdly cavernous production only adds to the fucked up feel.
Then there's the nearly half hour title track, the majority of which is hushed blackened ambience, reverbed streaks of blackened shimmer, rumbling vocal murmurs, shards of guitar melody, building to a huge almost static wall of glacial crumbling black buzz, spare doomy drumming, it's not even until more than halfway through that the band offer up some buzzing blasting blackness, and even then, it soon splinters into weirdly tangled heaviness, before fading into some gorgeous minimal droney drift.
Which leads directly into the final track, "Worship The Sunn ((O))", which as you could probably tell from the title, is a sprawling chunk of SUNNO))) worship, but Necrite make it their own, adding mysterious chant like vocals, roughing up the guitars a bit, adding church bells and other ambience, the superdistorted riffing is not as static as it would seem, constantly undulating and squirming, making for a gorgeously bleak and ultra heavy bit of blackened and tangled ambient guitardrone.
MPEG Stream: "A Mass For The Harvest Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "Bathing Open Wounds With Shards Of Glass"
MPEG Stream: "Worship The Sunn ((O))"

NECRO DEATHMORT Music Of Bleak Origin (Distraction) cd 12.98
We made the debut from the awesomely named Necro Deathmort our Record Of The Week way back in January of 2010. As we mentioned in that review it was pretty much a no brainer, the band name to begin with, the album title (The Beat Is Necrotonic), but then the sound, heaving walls of SUNOO))) like heaviness wedded to skittery beats, blackened drones wrapped around low slung rhythms, a sort of SUNNO)) meets Squarepusher electro-metal-blackened-dubstep, beat flecked slo-mo doom bliss wreathed in hazy spaciness, all drifty and mesmerizing, psychedelic, hypnotic and HEAVY.
If anything, this new one, record number two, even more evocatively titled Music Of Bleak Origin, is exactly what you would hope for as a follow up. In some ways, the gimmick of the first record was almost enough, sludgey metal guitars AND beats, granted, those two elements, not usually good bedfellows, were deftly woven into something special, heavy enough for the metalheads, but atmospheric and rhythmic enough for everyone else, but here, it's like that first record reimagined, and re-engineered, sonically, compositionally, it's heavier, more melodic, the songs are more catchy, more actual proper songs, the beats are bigger too, with much of the record REALLY sounding like a metal dubstep record, with the sound shifting easily from doomy skitter, to lurching electronics laced lumber, at its heaviest, definitely worthy of any self respecting metalhead's attention (adventurous metalheads we might qualify), but those heavy moments are not JUST heavy, their tangled up with squelchy synths, spaced out effects, keening vocals way down in the mix, almost like they decided to add space rock to their already eclectic palette, and when they're more concerned with beats, that heaviness, and doominess, and bleak origin, seeps into every beat, every twisted loop, or fuzzy buzzy synth.
The brief opener is the perfect intro, a stuttery beat, pelted with squelches, laid over thick undulating bass, all wrapped in thick layers of buzz and long streaks of high metallic skree, a perfect chunk of electro metallic dirgery. It's not until the second track that NdM really get to let loose, starting out with a super skeletal beat, draped with fragmented melodies, hushed muted effects, a sort of spacerock Portishead, but then the big guitars come crashing in, and then the sound becomes a churning psychedelic doom, lumbering, lurching, the thick crumbling guitars wrapped in swirling synths, the vocals heavy with effects, a sort of metalgaze spacedoom that RULES.
Which makes the next track even more of a surprise, "Temple Of Juno" is straight up dubstep, like it could have been yanked off some Hyperdub 12", until the music swings in, changing the vibe to low slung and again sorta doomy, but riff with woozy synths, wordless vocals, another dirgey bit of psychedelic electro doom, that builds and builds until again, the guitars are massive, roiling and churning, now strapped to buzzy dubsteppy synths, and so it goes swinging from dubbed out metallic lumber to spacey synthy drift and back again.
"Uberlord" is total blackened guitardrone, wall of crumbling buzz, but again, liberally does with swirls of static, fractured FX, and shinnery synths, the result way more spaced out and psychedelic that heavy, which gives way to "For Your Own Good", which starts out all murky and muted and heroin house-y, gradually getting more and more dubbed out, the beats building in intensity, more buried vocals, it's not until about halfway through that the beat splinters into a way more propulsive rhythm, still motorik but more muscly, all wreathed in a synth spacey haze, hypnotic and dreamily blissed out.
"Devastating Vector", unwinds a stuttery techno beat, and some glitchy synths, and lays them out over a dense layered sprawl of ominous low end rumble and buzz, which transforms into some undulating buzzed out bass, the song a sort of dubbed out techno flecked dirge, until it gets SERIOUSLY electro, the sound wrapped in zig zagging synth melodies, dizzying and almost housey, but still the beat and the low end churns along relentlessly, it is actually sort of funky, but in a way that manages to kick ass, not what you would expect from 'funkiness' in this context at all. And of course it's Necro Deathmort, so halfway through, the song explodes in a burst of static, only to come out the other side all thick and buzzy and sludge, the bass blown out and blackened, the beat a lumbering lurch, the whole thing oozy and melty like the whole thing is some huge black mass pouring from your speakers. "Blizzard" sounds like part two of "Devastating Vector", less funky and more plodding, the synths set on swirl, lots of crunch and distortion, moody and murky and woozily washed out, the song rife with subtle melody, the vibe sort of melancholy.
"The Heat Death Of Everything" starts out all big booming beat, and keening high end drones, sounding like Jesu or Nadja or something, and then the hammer falls, and by hammer, we mean massive, thick, sludgey downtuned riffage, about as metal as these guys get, a death march trudge, all howled distorted vocals, pounding drum pummel, squealing feedback, almost industrial / mechanical, but with a Moss / Bunkur sort of ultradoom vibe as well, the sound eventually begins to glow, with subtle color, and buried melody, eventually transforming into a swirl of washed out shimmer and gauzy droned out drift, only to lead straight into the final track, "Moon", a haunting hushed outro, all muted moaning melody, and echo drenched skeletal rhythms, like a doomdronedirge Portishead, total druggy, late night chill out minimal electro-doom slowcore drift.
Fucking awesome, AGAIN. Anyone who bought the first one is DEFINITELY gonna want this one too, and anyone who somehow missed out on these guys the first time around, here's another chance. Absolutely contender for fave record of the year, metal, electronic, otherwise or BOTH.
Super swank packaging, a massive, gorgeously illustrated fold out poster sleeve, housed in a stickered PVC plastic sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Jaffanaut"
MPEG Stream: "In Binary"
MPEG Stream: "Temple Of Juno"
MPEG Stream: "Uberlord"

NECRO DEATHMORT The Colonial Script (III) (Distraction) cd 14.98
When we first discovered Necro Deathmort, they were recommended to us as sounding like Squarepusher style electronica fused to SUNNO)))-like sludge, and that was actually not far off the mark, with most of the record sounding precisely like that, thick crumbling distorted guitar buzz laced with all manner of stuttery skittery beats, and then the second record, found the band seeming to focus that sound, relying less on the electronica-meets-metal thing, and instead creating songs that just happened to be both electronic AND heavy, and while it wasn't as quirky or fucked up as the debut, it was definitely a better records, with proper songs, and one that does get plenty of repeat play even still (although so does the first one, which we still love), but we were super excited to discover there was yet another NdM record, a brand new one called The Colonial Script, and we knew from the second we put it on, we were gonna dig it as much as the first two.
For folks new to NdM, just check out the first two sound samples below to get a feel for what these guys are all about, which on the Colonial Script, definitely hews closer to the second record but does feature some seriously metallic moments.
Opener "Imperial" starts of all skeletal and spaced out, and when the drums drop, it's like the heaviest, darkest dubstep you've ever heard, the beats pounding away over thick buzzing rumbles and whirring low end, all wreathed in swaths of hum and thrum, and super dynamic, with the track stopping to creep along like some industrial doom, before gradually building back up again, the second half of the track super melodic and melancholy, all minor key and midtempo, a sort of true doom electronica if that makes any sense, building and building to a final few minutes blow out of metallic industrial pummel, which leads directly into "Led To The Water", which is all blown out metallic dirgery, the guitars thick and corrosive, the beats all Godfleshy and mechanical, the vocals a howled feral wail, the vibe is somewhere between black metal, Neurosis and Godflesh or Neurosis, the churning heaviness underpinned by all sorts of subtle melodic shimmer, the metal sort of peeling away, leaving a stripped down skeletal lumber, that fades out, the sounds growing more and more brittle before disappearing in a dubbed out haze. Hard to resist, another one of those bands that we sort of always wished existed and now does. This is some dancefloor destroying heaviness, the sort of stuff that no proper DJ in their right mind would drop, but if they did, people would lose their shit.
Much of this record plays out more like some blackened industrial metalscape, not electronica so much as programmed beats driving big riffs and grim atmospheres, but that can change when you least expect it, like on "Endless Vertex", when another sprawl of downtuned lumber gradually shifts into a gorgeous glimmery bit of beat heavy skitter, or the sort of DJ Shadow-ish blackened hip hop of "Shadows of Reflections of Ghosts Past", or even the sort of droned out krautrock shuffle of "Starbeast", that track adding swirls of synth, and thick undulating low end, resulting in a fantastically broody slab of low end beat driven minimal mesmer.
But again in between those instances of overt electronica, NdM are a seriously heavy outfit, trafficking in the sort of effects drenched programmed drum driven doom, that will have Nadja obsessives losing their minds.
As always, WAY recommended! For folks into electronic music, heavy music, or obviously both, and like the other two records, a shoe in for end of year top ten lists, even though it's only May. Packaged in a cool super black 6 panel digipak.
MPEG Stream: "Imperial"
MPEG Stream: "Led To The Water"
MPEG Stream: "Endless Vertex"
MPEG Stream: "Wretched Hag"

NECRO DEATHMORT This Beat Is Necrotronic (Distraction) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This record seemed like it was custom made for aQ. They're called Necro Deathmort, the record is called This Beat Is Necrotronic, they've been described as SUNNO))) meets Squarepusher, it's heavy, it's skittery, it's dark, it's like a metal dubstep record, or a grim electronic laced doomdrone record, some of the tracks are stuttery and rhythmic, others are grim and ominous and intense, all of them are heavy, the sound veers from spaced out and downtuned, to skeletal and psychedelic, to thick and caustic, to big beated and bassy.
Thanks to aQ customer Mark for introducing us to these guys, we've been listening to it nonstop since we got it in. It's definitely a tough one to pin down, a little all over the map, but no matter what's going on, the various sounds and vibes and moods are definitely connected, joined by a thick grim black thread.
"Spilth (Spill Your Filth)" starts things off with a lumbering electro jam, all squiggles and squelches, glitches and buzzes, but underpinned by some serious speaker destroying bass, fuzzed out and thick and rumbling and very very prickly, like the heaviest dubstep bassline you've ever heard, cranked even higher. "Hurt Me I'm Bored" is where the band get serious, spreading out a serious chunk of smoldering electronic flecked doom, haunting and propulsive, the drums simple and stripped down, the main riff minor key and a little bit woozy, all around the main groove, clouds of static and hiss swirl and spark, the low end again thick as hell, the guitars gradually growing more and more metallic until, the track is full on doooooooom, but still peppered with little squiggles of distorted leads and various shards of electronic detritus.
"I Can See Through Time" is all washed out whir and hushed shimmer, looped and chopped sounds smoothed into a droney almost pop ambience, which quickly gives way to "Return To Planet Atlas", a sort of trip hopped slowcore jam, all big beats, and thick gnarled woofer shredding low-end, surrounded on all sides by streaks of high end, and all manner of swirling effects. The beats are definitely reminiscent of Scorn, even Bomb The Bass (remember them?), but a bit amped up and a lot heavier: "Necro Effigy" is another strange beat driven groove, with strange voices, croaking frogs, fractured glitched out crunch, and stuttery stop start beats, "Broadcast" is a dreamy interlude, sampled voices, looped bass notes and distant drone-y rumbles, dreamy and ethereal, which leads right into "I Fought The Law And The Law Won" which sounds like Portishead, all smoke-y and late night, or maybe a more beaty Bohren, creepy crawly, mysterious and weirdly pretty, "Technicolour Minstrel Show" begins with a SUNNO)))-y wall of crumbling blackened sound, only to give way to a whirring soft focus dreamscape, while "Origami Werewolf" is a dark loping jam, all throbbing beats, sheets of blown out guitar, keening feedback, and some serious industrial riffage, and finally, the record closes with the nearly 13 minute "Ultimate Testament", a gorgeous super minimal slowcore crawl, the beats skeletal and spaced out, the guitar raw and distorted, thick and noxious, but the melodies epic and majestic, it sounds like it might build to classic post rock crescendo, but instead, everything drops out except for the drums, and the last few minutes are a strange minimal beatscape, booming, pounding, crashing, but with tons of space, the beats echoing into the blackness before winking out, only to be replaced by another beat, until there's nothing left.
This shit is amazing, so dark and heavy and unlikely. Gorgeously packaged too, in a super swank fold out six panel sleeve, adorned with some garish woodcut style illustrations, and be sure and check out their Myspace page as well, tons of other music that didn't make it onto the cd, including a killer reinterpretation of an old Nirvana song, that gets all Necro'd. So Rad. And just for the record, January is in no way too soon to start picking records for your best of 2010 list... just so you know...
MPEG Stream: "Hurt Me I'm Bored"
MPEG Stream: "Spilth (Spill Your Filth)"
MPEG Stream: "I Fought The Law And The Law Won"
MPEG Stream: "Technicolour Minstrel Show"
MPEG Stream: "Origami Werewolf"

NECRO SCHIZMA Erupted Evil (From Beyond Productions) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Does the name Hellhammer mean anything to you? The raw, Venom-worshipping, Melvins-inspiring cult metal band that later morphed into Celtic Frost? Well it meant A LOT to the guys in Necro Schizma, a Dutch doom band whose 1989 demo tape has just now been rescued from obscurity and released on cd. Vocalist Cronald, guitarists Bert and Pulle, and drummer Barney recorded their "Erupted Evil" demo for $100 in three hours, but the results are, for true doomheads, utterly priceless and timeless. Slow, simple, crawling, distorted guitar and agonized vocal retching -- stuff that's all the better for being played as primitively, and recorded in as lo-fi a fashion as this was. Necro Schizma almost make their heroes Hellhammer sound pro and polished. Wow. If you're into current practicioners of slow, scary heaviness like Corrupted and Khanate, you should check this out.
In addition to the six tracks from Necro Schizma's demo tape that appear here, there's another seven tracks recorded at a live gig in 1990. They do a cover version of Hellhammer's classic "Triumph of Death" both live and on the demo, and it easily could be one of their tunes (except maybe it's a little *faster* than their own stuff!).
Aside from Hellhammer, they also list as inspirations Venom, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Manowar, Angel Witch, Messiah, Judas Priest, and Slaughter (we're pretty sure that'd be the Canadian thrash act, not the the American hair metallers). They don't mention Saint Vitus, but boy does the guitar sound like vintage Dave Chandler!
Doom. Pure doom. Made by fans back in the day, luckily unearthed for fans today. We only have a few copies, and may or may not be able to get more, so if you think you want one, be quick. Thanks to Greg Anderson (Southern Lord/Goatsnake/SUNNO)))) for turning us on to this!
RealAudio clip: " Bestial Lust"

NECROBUTCHER Schizophrenic Noisy Torment (Nuclear War Now!) cd 9.98
Holy shit is this amazing. Everything ever recorded by this eighties Brazilian blacknoize / thrashgrind / primitive death metal horde, whose sound was a sick hybrid of downtuned doom filth, blurts of caustic grinding noise, swaths of blackened buzz, and hyperspeed blackened grind, all of which is gloriously lo-fi, blown out, totally in the red, the production as warped as the sounds, plenty of tape drop outs, weird shifts in tone and timbre, the drums super loud, sounding like a primitive drum machine gone haywire one second, some strange industrial jackhammer the next, but always sounding as if they're being transmitted through a transistor radio, the bass is tangly and detuned, the guitars a smeary blur, a chugging droned out churn, everything wreathed in a thick gauze of crumbling distortion, the vocals for the most parts, almost white noise shrieks, staccato bleats that sound equal part demonic and animalistic.
The whole sound stumbling and damaged, lurching from wild chaotic blasts, to drunken doomic lumber, peppered with blurts of trash can cymbal clatter and noise guitar freakouts, the sound often blurring into almost pure noise, but just as often coalescing into some raw primitivistic punk bashing, or knuckle dragging metallic crush. Most of the songs are less than a minute long, some a mere matter of seconds, although the band do lock into some serious riffing, and some kick ass head shearing blasts of black metal like noise, but it always seems to devolve into some sort of glorious, strangely psychedelic, ear shredding, Satanic metal noise chaos. Fans of outfits like Anal Cunt, Sore Throat and other noisecore killers will flip, as will metalheads who like their metal raw, and primitive, noise drenched and seriously fucking twisted and tweaked. If the late great Faxed Head were not a joke band (wait, what?!??!?), they might have ended up sounding a lot like this...
MPEG Stream: "Christ Psychic Butchery"
MPEG Stream: "Hell"
MPEG Stream: "Cerebral Disturbance"
MPEG Stream: "Death To Posers"
MPEG Stream: "Mrs. Death"
MPEG Stream: "Bullshit Infestation"
MPEG Stream: "Brutal Diarrhoea"
MPEG Stream: "N.P.N.S."
MPEG Stream: "Schizophrenic Christianity"

NECROFROST Blackeon Lightharvest (Total Holocaust) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's been 8 long years, but German black metal weirdos Necrofrost have resurfaced with a brand new record. Their 2000 / 2001 one two punch: In A Misty Soar And On Its Swampy Floor and Bloodstorms Voktes Over Hytrungas' Dunkle Necrotoner, pretty much set the bar around here for fucked up freaked out supremely damaged and fractured outsider black metal. There's probably not an aQ favorite black metal record that didn't get compared to Necrofrost. And until very recently we just assumed that Necrofrost were indeed dead and gone, laying forever dormant beneath that swampy floor where dead things go to rot and fade away.
But Blackeon Lightharvest proves otherwise, finding the dreadful duo of Seirim and Fimbulraven offering up another glorious collection of sick, murky black filth. Not too much has changed soundwise since the last bit of necro frost, the songs are still woozy and midtempo, stumbling and buzzy, the vocals harsh and hellish, the songs simple and stripped down, locked into long stretched of furious blurred blackness, with the occasional chunk of more lurching doominess.
If anything, the band sound better. More polished, but not obviously so, unless you're super familiar with the other two records. Where those records sounded fucked up, and almost retarded at times (a compliment btw), here the weirdness seems more an organic part of the whole. The songs are simple, but dense and textured and layered, the recording is still bizarre, some songs super in-the-red, others muddy and muted sounding, and all kinds of tape drop outs and blasts of too-much-distortion that cause the levels to fluctuate, but much like Faxed Head, those bits of fucked up production only add to the mood and vibe, making a weird record sound even more weird.
Some might be disappointed by the inclusion of a band photo, showing Fumbulraven as a normal looking sideburned guy wearing a knit cap and Seirim as a pretty average looking metal dude, but the band photo is labeled "The Checkered Forest Sofa", um, okay, and the guys are credited with "space signals and vector echoes" as well as guitars and drums, and there are still awesome song titles like "Your Flesh Is My Convenience", "Steel Forests Of My Deserted Dreams", and in a bid to describe their sound, "Ugly Misanthropic Metal". Plus Sin Nanna of Striborg contributed to the record's intro somehow, supposedly. Needless to say, this all adds up to some good old Necrofrostian weirdness, and thankfully, the record lives up to all that, a seriously skewed chunk of surprisingly melodic, but WAY damaged black buzz.
First there's the intro, which does indeed remind us of Striborg, trash can drumming, over blurred sheets of mournful minor key guitars, and a super harsh rasped vocal, but that quickly gives way to a dirgey, almost punky bit of raw midtempo old school black metal. Definitely melodic, and sort of loping and lumbering tempo wise, but with some fractured more frenetic breaks, and some wild squiggly guitar bits, all very cyclical and hypnotic, and the sound very muddy and lo-fi, which leaves you pretty unprepared for "Steel Forests" which just might be our favorite track on the disc, a furious blast of super charged buzz drenched guitars, a wild insectoid main riff, wild blasting drums all but buried in the mix, the vocals also pretty buried, all wound into a tight, seriously blistering black metal frenzy, and hooks galore, too, that main riff will stick in your had like mad, and then when the track shifts gears, and gets all dynamic, that's when the levels go haywire, the sound shifting from overblown saturated tape blur, to muted underwater thrum, with some awesome off kilter edits and breaks, might just be BM jam of the year.
And of course the next track switched gears again, with a cool almost post rock crunch chug, with little flurries of harmonics, before lurching into and almost D-beat pound, which makes the long piano part in the middle all the more unexpected, a pretty, moody, minor key vamp, replete with shimmering dramatic strings. Huh? Well, it is Necrofrost after all.
The title track offers up so more weirdness, beginning with backwards processed guitars before launching into a plodding groove, the buzz and pound laced with tangled almost NWOBHM guitar harmonies, and then comes "Ugly Misanthropic Metal" which is indeed all those things, a raw, almost doomy blackened dirge, the vocals extra harsh, the guitars super tense and dramatic, which is followed by a weirdly keyboard heavy jam, which sounds like a Black Sabbath outtake slowed waaaaay down and smeared in black filth, before exploding into a super intense blast, complete with more of those guitar harmonies, before finishing off with a track of haunting creeped out ambience, all chittering insects, whirring New Age synths, deep ominous rumbles and soaring guitar leads.
The first few times we listened to Blackeon Lightharvest, we were convinced it was not nearly as weird as the other two records, but now we're not so sure, like we mentioned above, the weirdness seems to be just less obvious, instead, it lurks inside every note and riff and melody, so even when on the surface, it seems just like classic blasting black metal, it's really not. At all.
No surprise really, considering that Necrofrost is definitely in our black metal pantheon, but this is quickly becoming one of our new favorite BM records.
MPEG Stream: "Your Flesh Is My Convenience"
MPEG Stream: "Sacral Arrival Of Elitist Light"
MPEG Stream: "Steel Forests Of My Deserted Dreams"

NECROFROST Bloodstorms Voktes Over Hytrunghas Dunkle Necrotroner (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Oh, how we have been waiting for this! Finally, after years of being unavailable, both records by the mighty Necrofrost are available again. If you've been paying attention to the AQ list, you will probably recognize the name Necrofrost from citations in various reviews of damaged, demented, freaked out fucked up black metal. Striborg, Dead Reptile Shrine, Detsorgsekalf, Hidden, The One. It's pretty much impossible to talk about bizarre black metal without mentioning Necrofrost. And here's why:
Okay, we know that black metal is a serious and GRIM business. There is no place for humor or frivolity. No smiling or laughing and definitely no smirking. Just bitter bleak misanthropy. Suicidal despondency. Utter frosty misery. But absurdity is a whole 'nother story. We've championed some truly absurd/damaged/demented metal in the past, Benighted Leams, Abruptum, Vondur, and of course last week's record of the week Meads Of Asphodel. But I think Necrofrost just might take the cake. This is one of the most fucked black metal records we have ever heard. Start with the titles. The record is called Bloodstorms Voktes Over Hytrunghas Dunkle Necrotroner! Some of the song titles: "Carcass Carried By The Crawls Of Titanbats", "Me The Tundra", "Slaughtered In A Misanthropic Intent", "Nostalgia Freeze The Norse Reaper", and on and on and on. The record starts off with grunting and growling and mewling, like a legion of just birthed demons, struggling to awaken and crawling up through the murk and the mire, inexplicably accompanied by some jaunty renaissance faire minstrels! Weird. The band then launches into some buzzing stumbling, chaotic, ultra grim lo-fi black metal. Struggling blastbeats, caterwauling guitars, midtempo dirges and some truly necro grunts. But suddenly the song breaks into a bizarre acoustic/country tinged breakdown, complete with warbly wicked witch vocals shrieking and squealing above the din and later, creepy keyboards evoke some long lost Z grade horror movie, while out of tune guitars emulate some sort of scary circus music. Weird! While the core of Necrofrost's sound is definitely ultra frosty, uber grim, lo-fi black Black BLACK metal, even their metal is damaged and demented. Super spastic drumming, retarded guitar, ridiculous mixing, tape drop outs (a la Faxed Head?), vocals that threaten to overwhelm the mix and occasionally do, becoming a Merzbowian blur at full shriek, baritone chants weaving in and out of ear shredding high end blur, muffled blast beats underpin, pretty arpeggiated guitar melodies while the vocalist speak/sings a litany of evil, in his best grumpy grandma moan. There's just too much weirdness to really do this record justice in a review. You just gotta hear it. A frosty, hellish mud covered, grim chunk of brilliantly skewed outsider avant black metal!
MPEG Stream: "Carcass Carried By The Crawls Of Titan Bats"
MPEG Stream: "Me The Tundra"
MPEG Stream: "Slaughtered In A Misanthropic Intent"

NECROFROST Bloodstorms Voktes Over Hytrunghas Dunkle Necrotroner (Aphelion) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Okay metal vinyl fanatics! Here's your one chance to own this killer slabe of freaked out, ultra damaged black metal brilliance on lp! But these are super limited, only 500 copies, each one hand numbered, not sure if we'll be able to get more when we run out so best act fast...
If you've been paying attention to the AQ list, you will probably recognize the name Necrofrost from citations in various reviews of damaged, demented, freaked out fucked up black metal. Striborg, Dead Reptile Shrine, Detsorgsekalf, Hidden, The One. It's pretty much impossible to talk about bizarre black metal without mentioning Necrofrost. And here's why:
Okay, we know that black metal is a serious and GRIM business. There is no place for humor or frivolity. No smiling or laughing and definitely no smirking. Just bitter bleak misanthropy. Suicidal despondency. Utter frosty misery. But absurdity is a whole 'nother story. We've championed some truly absurd/damaged/demented metal in the past, Benighted Leams, Abruptum, Vondur, and of course last week's record of the week Meads Of Asphodel. But I think Necrofrost just might take the cake. This is one of the most fucked black metal records we have ever heard. Start with the titles. The record is called Bloodstorms Voktes Over Hytrunghas Dunkle Necrotroner! Some of the song titles: "Carcass Carried By The Crawls Of Titanbats", "Me The Tundra", "Slaughtered In A Misanthropic Intent", "Nostalgia Freeze The Norse Reaper", and on and on and on. The record starts off with grunting and growling and mewling, like a legion of just birthed demons, struggling to awaken and crawling up through the murk and the mire, inexplicably accompanied by some jaunty renaissance faire minstrels! Weird. The band then launches into some buzzing stumbling, chaotic, ultra grim lo-fi black metal. Struggling blastbeats, caterwauling guitars, midtempo dirges and some truly necro grunts. But suddenly the song breaks into a bizarre acoustic/country tinged breakdown, complete with warbly wicked witch vocals shrieking and squealing above the din and later, creepy keyboards evoke some long lost Z grade horror movie, while out of tune guitars emulate some sort of scary circus music. Weird! While the core of Necrofrost's sound is definitely ultra frosty, uber grim, lo-fi black Black BLACK metal, even their metal is damaged and demented. Super spastic drumming, retarded guitar, ridiculous mixing, tape drop outs (a la Faxed Head?), vocals that threaten to overwhelm the mix and occasionally do, becoming a Merzbowian blur at full shriek, baritone chants weaving in and out of ear shredding high end blur, muffled blast beats underpin, pretty arpeggiated guitar melodies while the vocalist speak/sings a litany of evil, in his best grumpy grandma moan. There's just too much weirdness to really do this record justice in a review. You just gotta hear it. A frosty, hellish mud covered, grim chunk of brilliantly skewed outsider avant black metal!
MPEG Stream: "Carcass Carried By The Crawls Of Titan Bats"
MPEG Stream: "Me The Tundra"
MPEG Stream: "Slaughtered In A Misanthropic Intent"

NECROFROST Dark Fog Hovers Near The Wooden Caves of Uldrakhilan Bloodforests (Aphelion) 10" 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
With a title like Dark Fog Hovers Near The Wooden Caves Of Aldrakkiian Bloodforest, it's gotta be Necrofrost, easily one of our favorite fucked up outsider black metal hordes. Quite possibly THE favorite. They might just be one of the most referenced bands on the aQ site, since whenever we need to describe a band that is warped and confusional and baffling and freaky and fucked up and damaged and retarded, well, Necrofrost is pretty much the gold standard.
Dark Fog Hovens Near The Wooden Caves Of Aldrakkiian Bloodforest is Necrofrost's legendary 1998 demo, so limited we had never even heard of it until we heard about this reissue, available on vinyl for the first time ever, and of course crazy limited. And while most of the songs here were re-recorded later for the albums proper, here, they are, and we never thought it could be possible, EVEN MORE fucked up and amazing.
Beginning with some strange synth and strings and tympanis sort of classical intro, the band launch into some of the sickest, most frenzied and furious black buzz EVER. Super blown out and in the red, the guitars so distorted they threaten to crumble into pieces, the drums a relentless pound, and the vocals, you thought they were sick before, here they're super high in the mix, LOUD, and inhuman, and super effected, the howls and screams nearly swallowing up the rest of the music. And that music, weirdly melodic, but plenty buzzy and black, with woozy super alien sounding tinny leads all over the place, the overall sound so distorted and weirdly recorded that it almost sounds avant, especially when the guitars and vocals lock into weirdly convoluted lurching bursts of fragmented buzz. So goddamn good. Anyone who owns the other Necrofrost records NEEDS this, and if you've never heard these guys before, then this will either blow your mind completely, or send you running off in terror. Either way, this fucking RULES.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each one hand numbered.

NECROFROST In A Misty Soar And On Its Swampy Floor (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We love Necrofrost. The ultimate in damaged weirdo outsider black metal. Managing to be completely bafflingly bizarre but still grim and cult and black and heavy as fuck. This is one of two long overdue reissues, this one from 1999, and still sounding as amazing and as fucked as ever. It's called In A Misty Soar And On Its Swampy Floor after all, and features some of the best black metal song titles EVER: "Slaughtered With Misanthropic Intent", "Rapacious Forests In Ultimate Sleep", "The Return Of Animalian Bloodlust", "Bloodthrones And Legionwoods"...
And while the sound is appropriately black and buzzy, it's ultimately filtered through Necrofrost's cracked and distorted metal sensibility and ends up being some of the coolest weirdest black metal you will ever hear. At its core, this is a loping midtempo, slightly doomy, buzz drenched black metal. But Necrofrost take that sound and drag it kicking and screaming, bloody and battered through some haunted forest, into a cave and down into the pits of hell. While not as completely wacked as their other record Bloodstorms Voktes Over Hytrunghas Dunkle Necrotroner, In A Misty Soar And On Its Swampy Floor is more subtly fucked, its dementedness demonstrated less by bursts of renaissance faire folly or country banjos and more by some inherent, intangible what the fuck vibe that seems ooze from every recorded second.
After a weird, horror movie piano intro, with minor key strings, sounding like some Morricone spy thriller, the band lurch into black action. Sheets of blasting buzz, howled demonic shrieks, over a stumbling chaotic blast beat, the tempos ever shifting, bizarre atonal Greg Ginn guitars playing tangled angular leads, strange doom breakdowns, almost jaunty polka style rhythms, twisted and tweaked circusy guitar melodies, albeit all doused in grim blackness, thick washes of medieval keyboards, haunting minor key arpeggiated guitars, these are all part of Necrofrost's sinister sonic world, but ultimately, their grim black blasts are fucked enough, the perfect black metal gateway, luring you with blast and buzz, grimly sucking you into their strange sonic underworld, and maybe once you have successfully traversed Necrofrost's Misty Soar and Swampy Floor, you'll be ready to brave their Bloodstorms...
Essential for all fans of Striborg, Dead Reptile Shrine, Detsorgsekalf, Hidden, Benighted Leams, Furze, Urfaust, The One and other practitioners of the dark and damaged black arts...
MPEG Stream: "Slaughtered In A Misanthropic Intent"
MPEG Stream: "Grimm Of Decembers Mailune"
MPEG Stream: "Wonders That On My Rotten Cabin Pounders"

NECROFROST In A Misty Soar And On Its Swampy Floor (Northern Silence) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on ultra necro and frosty vinyl!! Limited to 500 copies, each one hand numbered, and with slightly different artwork. Got a handful and will most likely not be able to get more (unfortunately, due to the ongoing lps vs the postal service battle, the covers are all slightly less than perfect, with most having some sort of slight imperfection or slightly bent corners). Here's what we had to say about In A Misty Soar And On Its Swampy Floor, one of our favorite weirdo black metal records ever, back when we reviewed the cd:
We love Necrofrost. The ultimate in damaged weirdo outsider black metal. Managing to be completely bafflingly bizarre but still grim and cult and black and heavy as fuck. This is one of two long overdue reissues, this one from 1999, and still sounding as amazing and as fucked as ever. It's called In A Misty Soar And On Its Swampy Floor after all, and features some of the best black metal song titles EVER: "Slaughtered With Misanthropic Intent", "Rapacious Forests In Ultimate Sleep", "The Return Of Animalian Bloodlust", "Bloodthrones And Legionwoods"...
And while the sound is appropriately black and buzzy, it's ultimately filtered through Necrofrost's cracked and distorted metal sensibility and ends up being some of the coolest weirdest black metal you will ever hear. At its core, this is a loping midtempo, slightly doomy, buzz drenched black metal. But Necrofrost take that sound and drag it kicking and screaming, bloody and battered through some haunted forest, into a cave and down into the pits of hell. While not as completely wacked as their other record Bloodstorms Voktes Over Hytrunghas Dunkle Necrotroner, In A Misty Soar And On Its Swampy Floor is more subtly fucked, its dementedness demonstrated less by bursts of renaissance faire folly or country banjos and more by some inherent, intangible what the fuck vibe that seems ooze from every recorded second.
After a weird, horror movie piano intro, with minor key strings, sounding like some Morricone spy thriller, the band lurch into black action. Sheets of blasting buzz, howled demonic shrieks, over a stumbling chaotic blast beat, the tempos ever shifting, bizarre atonal Greg Ginn guitars playing tangled angular leads, strange doom breakdowns, almost jaunty polka style rhythms, twisted and tweaked circusy guitar melodies, albeit all doused in grim blackness, thick washes of medieval keyboards, haunting minor key arpeggiated guitars, these are all part of Necrofrost's sinister sonic world, but ultimately, their grim black blasts are fucked enough, the perfect black metal gateway, luring you with blast and buzz, grimly sucking you into their strange sonic underworld, and maybe once you have successfully traversed Necrofrost's Misty Soar and Swampy Floor, you'll be ready to brave their Bloodstorms...
Essential for all fans of Striborg, Dead Reptile Shrine, Detsorgsekalf, Hidden, Benighted Leams, Furze, Urfaust, The One and other practitioners of the dark and damaged black arts...
MPEG Stream: "Slaughtered In A Misanthropic Intent"
MPEG Stream: "Grimm Of Decembers Mailune"
MPEG Stream: "Wonders That On My Rotten Cabin Pounders"

NECROMANDUS Orexis of Death & Live (Rise Above Relics) cd 17.98
Another labor of proto-metal love reissue here from the folks at Rise Above, who brought us the Steel Mill listed last list, and the Bang box before that. If you liked Steel Mill in particular, Necromandus is worth checking out too. Like Steel Mill, it's got a bit of left-field progginess mixed in with its proto-metal heaviness... or maybe the other way around. Really, on paper, you'd think this would be super heavy. First off, the name Necromandus sounds rather metal and evil doesn't it? As does the album title, and songs with names like "Homicidal Psychopath" and "A Black Solitude". And, this album, recorded in 1973 and intended for release on Vertigo (which ultimately didn't happen), was in fact produced by none other than Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi! He even contributes a guitar solo on the title track.
The album starts off with the striking of a gong, followed by a brief atmospheric instrumental intro, then, wham, does indeed get pretty darn Sabbathy with the galloping "Night Jar", a definite proto-metal classic as good ('n heavy) as anything by Jerusalem, Bang, Dust, Lucifer's Friend, Night Sun, May Blitz, Leaf Hound, etc. But after that, Necromandus suddenly take a turn and get all jazzy/proggy on us for the rest of the record, sounding more like Yes than Sabbath, really, which is ok by us as well. Good stuff, and definitely not altogether mellow! In fact, a lot of it is rather ripping. You'll still hear echoes of Sabbath, who had their proggy side too, after all. But folks looking for pure proto-metal / doom might be confused. Although we'd say "Night Jar" alone is worth the price of admission for them, anyway!
Plus, for this deluxe reissue (which comes in a slipcase, with lavish booklet, like the Steel Mill), Rise Above have added 9 bonus tracks, a good, raw recording of the band kicking ass at a live show from '73, featuring a bunch of the album tracks and more.
Too band Necromandus didn't "make it", hard to understand why not, they were definitely a talented group and you'd think their connection with Sabbath would have helped (they even momentarily formed Ozzy Osbourne's original solo band when he first left Sabbath in '77, before returning to do Never Say Die). Probably had they actually been more metal... but we like what they got up to here, regardless.
MPEG Stream: "Night Jar"
MPEG Stream: "A Black Solitude"
MPEG Stream: "Judy Green Rocket (live)"

NECROMANTIA Crossing The Fiery Path (Black Lotus) cd 15.98
Greek black metal classic reissued w/ bonus track.

NECROMANTIA IV: Malice (Black Lotus) cd 14.98
Allan's favorite Greek black metal band.

NECROPHAGIST Epitaph (Relapse) cd 14.98
We've been waiting for this for a long time. The return of the one and only Necrophagist. Yes you've already guessed from the name that they're a death metal band. But not just any death metal band. No sir. These are the guys -- or more properly, guy, as until recently Necrophagist was a one-man outfit -- who brought us the incredible Onset Of Putrefaction album back in 2000. A disc that we considered to be THE ULTIMATE technical death metal lead guitar album EVER. Seriously, we were bowing down and worshipping from the moment we first heard it. Necrophagist made some of the most over-the-top, complex, fast and brutal metal music we'd ever heard, especially in the guitar department. The kind of stuff that we at AQ know even our non-metal customers need to hear, and couldn't help but be impressed and entertained by. So insane, so ridiculous. So, does Epitaph top Onset? Well now guitarist/mastermind Mohammed Suicmez is joined by a full band, all just as superhuman musically as he is. That's not a drum machine anymore! Somebody's actually playing that on a real drum kit. And dude's guitar playing, if anything, has gotten even more incredibly, jawdroppingly Yngwie-ized. Squiggly soloing and harmonies and arpeggios and sweep picking and all that. Plus stop on a dime performances/songwriting (songwriting that's catchier than the first album too). And did we mention the insane drumming? There's also some tasty bass playing for the prog/fusion four-string fans among you. Plus Mohammed's requisite cookie-monster vocals have an irresistable chocolate/peanut butter effect when combined with his deft, delicious, delicate guitar filagree.
A friend of ours shot a (hilarious) home video of '80s guitar shred master Michael Angelo (of Nitro fame) teaching a guitar clinic at a music store in suburban Maryland last year...among the highlights were Mr. Angelo playing his trademark double necked axe, and also getting into a heated argument with a 12 year old boy ("You're a cocky little guy", "What are you doing that's so awesome right now?!"). At one point in the video, Michael Angelo says something about how if Mozart, at age 5, could come in the store right then and sit down at one of the keyboards and play, he'd "rip your face off". This album somehow reminds me of both Michael Angelo and that statement. The whole record is like one big quasi-classical techie metal orgasm. C'mon, we KNOW you love this stuff. How can you not? Enjoy it ironically or not, we don't care (it's your secret). Yep, so even if you don't have cds by the likes of Morbid Angel, Krisiun, Cryptopsy, Meshuggah or Windham Hell in your collection, we figure that we've done well enough selling albums by bands like The Fucking Champs and Earl Shilton to a wide spectrum of AQ customers that a lot of you would want this and if this didn't deserve to be Record Of The Week this time around, then honestly nothing did. Now we await Willowtip's rumored upcoming release of the first album, re-recorded with the full band lineup! Available on cd or limited edition 180 gram vinyl.
MPEG Stream: "Diminished to b"
MPEG Stream: "Only Ash Remains"

NECROPHAGIST Epitaph (Relapse) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've been waiting for this for a long time. The return of the one and only Necrophagist. Yes you've already guessed from the name that they're a death metal band. But not just any death metal band. No sir. These are the guys -- or more properly, guy, as until recently Necrophagist was a one-man outfit -- who brought us the incredible Onset Of Putrefaction album back in 2000. A disc that we considered to be THE ULTIMATE technical death metal lead guitar album EVER. Seriously, we were bowing down and worshipping from the moment we first heard it. Necrophagist made some of the most over-the-top, complex, fast and brutal metal music we'd ever heard, especially in the guitar department. The kind of stuff that we at AQ know even our non-metal customers need to hear, and couldn't help but be impressed and entertained by. So insane, so ridiculous. So, does Epitaph top Onset? Well now guitarist/mastermind Mohammed Suicmez is joined by a full band, all just as superhuman musically as he is. That's not a drum machine anymore! Somebody's actually playing that on a real drum kit. And dude's guitar playing, if anything, has gotten even more incredibly, jawdroppingly Yngwie-ized. Squiggly soloing and harmonies and arpeggios and sweep picking and all that. Plus stop on a dime performances/songwriting (songwriting that's catchier than the first album too). And did we mention the insane drumming? There's also some tasty bass playing for the prog/fusion four-string fans among you. Plus Mohammed's requisite cookie-monster vocals have an irresistable chocolate/peanut butter effect when combined with his deft, delicious, delicate guitar filagree.
A friend of ours shot a (hilarious) home video of '80s guitar shred master Michael Angelo (of Nitro fame) teaching a guitar clinic at a music store in suburban Maryland last year...among the highlights were Mr. Angelo playing his trademark double necked axe, and also getting into a heated argument with a 12 year old boy ("You're a cocky little guy", "What are you doing that's so awesome right now?!"). At one point in the video, Michael Angelo says something about how if Mozart, at age 5, could come in the store right then and sit down at one of the keyboards and play, he'd "rip your face off". This album somehow reminds me of both Michael Angelo and that statement. The whole record is like one big quasi-classical techie metal orgasm. C'mon, we KNOW you love this stuff. How can you not? Enjoy it ironically or not, we don't care (it's your secret). Yep, so even if you don't have cds by the likes of Morbid Angel, Krisiun, Cryptopsy, Meshuggah or Windham Hell in your collection, we figure that we've done well enough selling albums by bands like The Fucking Champs and Earl Shilton to a wide spectrum of AQ customers that a lot of you would want this and if this didn't deserve to be Record Of The Week this time around, then honestly nothing did. Now we await Willowtip's rumored upcoming release of the first album, re-recorded with the full band lineup! Available on cd or limited edition 180 gram vinyl.
MPEG Stream: "Diminished to b"
MPEG Stream: "Only Ash Remains"

NECROPHAGIST Onset of Putrefaction (Noise Solution) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Who would have thought that this little cd, an insane one-man Carcass/Morbid Angel hybrid, released on a tiny European label, would cause such a stir here at Aqaurius even among non-metalheads? And after running out of the 5 or 6 copies we were able to get, who would have realised that it would take Andee months and months of emailing -the- Necrophagist dude himself, as well as a small French distributor, to track down more copies of this little gem? But it all paid off, so those of you who missed out last time, don't blow it again. Here's what we wrote about it the only time it was listed (in Andee and Allan's top records of 2000 list!):
Putrefaction. I love that word, especially how it's spelled. Anyway, despite the generic death metal band name, album title, and lyrical content, Necrophagist is by no means your run of the mill generic death metal band!! No sir. First off, it's one guy (German, I think) playing the guitar, grunting the vocals, and programming the drums. Bedroom home studio metal. The main thing, tho: playing the guitar. This might be the ultimate crazy squiggly guitar lead album ever, outdoing even Morbid Angel and Krisiun in the extreme guitar soloing sweepstakes. It's insane, really. As brutal as the music gets, there's guitar shredding wedged into every available moment of music. As mentioned, this is one guy, probably recording at home. Well, I don't know about that for sure, but there must have been a long ProTools session involved in this!! 'Cause there's no way anybody could do this live. So, as a death metal record, pretty great indeed. Ignore the death metal aspect (if only the dude who did this would have!) and you've got an avant-garde guitar shred fest for John Zorn fans. It would make Buckethead weep. And supposedly there IS a new record on the way, this time a FULL band, that's fully capable of pulling this stuff off live. Just hope they manage to make it over here. In the meantime, just sit back and enjoy the onset of putrefaction.
RealAudio clip: "Foul Body Autopsy"
RealAudio clip: "Mutilate The Stillborn"
RealAudio clip: "To Breathe In A Casket"

NECROPHAGIST Onset Of Putrefaction (Willowtip) cd 14.98
We made a huge deal out of the most recent Necrophagist, and rightly so, quite possibly the most insane ridiculous and of course great death metal record ever. But before that, came THIS. Onset Of Putrefaction, the entire thing recorded by the then one man band Muhammed Suicmez, playing all the instruments and programming the drum machine allowing for the ridiculously impossible, inhumanly fast and absurdly convoluted song structures. So finally Onset gets the reissue treatment. New artwork, remastered, two bonus tracks from the demo, but most importantly, NEW DRUM TRACKS, supposedly performed by a live drummer! Seems impossible, and many around here think it so, but who cares. This is absolutely one of the most dizzingly intense records ever. Here's what we had to say the first time around when it was a much harder record to track down. (Kudos to Willowtip for seeing exactly what we saw, twisted fucking genius!):
Putrefaction. I love that word, especially how it's spelled. Anyway, despite the generic death metal band name, album title, and lyrical content, Necrophagist is by no means your run of the mill generic death metal band!! No sir. First off, it's one guy playing the guitar, grunting the vocals, and programming the drums. Bedroom home studio metal. The main thing, tho: playing the guitar. This might be the ultimate crazy squiggly guitar lead album ever, outdoing even Morbid Angel and Krisiun in the extreme guitar soloing sweepstakes. It's insane, really. As brutal as the music gets, there's guitar shredding wedged into every available moment of music. As mentioned, this is one guy, probably recording at home. Well, I don't know about that for sure, but there must have been a long ProTools session involved in this!! 'Cause there's no way anybody could do this live. So, as a death metal record, pretty great indeed. Ignore the death metal aspect, and you've got an avant-garde guitar shred fest for John Zorn fans. It would make Buckethead weep. So just sit back and enjoy the onset of putrefaction.
MPEG Stream: "Foul Body Autopsy"
MPEG Stream: "To Breathe In A Casket"
MPEG Stream: "Mutilate The Stillborn"

NECROPLASMA My Hearse, My Redemption (Satanic Propaganda) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is not a new record, but we have been dying to review something, ANYTHING, by these terrifying Swedes, and this is as good a place to start as any, their debut full length from 2002. Folks familiar with Swedish black metal will probably at least have a rough idea of what they're getting into, Watain, Marduk, Kill (in fact Kill and Necroplasma share a member or two), you know, fast and furious and frenzied and fucked up, but you'll doubtfully be prepared for just how intense and heavy and utterly soul crushing Necroplasma really are.
Beginning with a weird fuzzy Brainbombs-ish bassline, the band almost immediately launch into an impossibly blasting onslaught, lightning fast blastbeat, super blown out distorted bass (which is probably what makes this sound so fucking heavy, most black metal records have ZERO bass), wild insectoid guitar buzz, inhuman throat shredding demon vokills, only the occasional breakdown, where just the main riff is unfurled only to be obliterated seconds later by the band lurching into yet another frenzied attack.
Within all this blasting and buzzing, there is some seriously twisted shit going on too, within the title track there are some strange stretches of muddy muted tribal weirdness happening, "Heavens Above" is a fucked up lurching dirge that sounds almost like an entirely different band, until the sound suddenly launches into a hyperspeed blast, the opening riff for "Blessed By Him" is a dead ringer for Bastro's "Shoot Me A Deer", the same sort of muted damaged chug, but none of that stuff is what Necroplasma are all about, those are merely drops of black blood in NP's sonic cauldron of crusty filth and sick buzz, a fantastically fucked up and utterly relentless black metal assault that makes the music of most of their compatriots sound downright tame in comparison.
MPEG Stream: "Abyssic Infernum"
MPEG Stream: "Shallow Voices"
MPEG Stream: "My Hearse, My Redemption"

NECROS CHRISTOS Doom Of The Occult (Ajna) cd 14.98
Latest full length from this long running German black death horde, and even more than their previous outing, Doom Of The Occult is a sprawling, ambitious epic, that takes the sound of classic death metal (Autopsy, Incantation, Hellhammer, etc.) and fuses it to the gnarled blackness of newer bands like Deathspell and Katharsis, and creating a stunning songsuite of mid paced blackened death metal, that is black enough to appeal to the true grim hordes for sure, the riffing thick and twisted, the drumming intricate and powerful, the vocals a reverbed demonic bellow, verging on gurgling DM growl, perfectly matching the tenor and energy of the music.
At first glance, there seem to be an insane number of tracks, but the band has woven multiple interludes and sonic experiments into this record, and that's on top of various intro and outros, all the various non metal pieces super varied sonically, ranging from droned out ambience to hauntingly Middle Eastern sounding arrangements of choirs and synths, but it's the metal obviously that's the focal point here, and it's the sort of black death we can't get enough of, thick and cacophonous, doomier and mid paced, the sound churning and roiling more than thrashing and blasting, the sound surprisingly melodic, those melodies often very Eastern sounding, giving much of NC's sound a mystical exotic vibe, not to mention that they don't shy away from infusing their metal with chanted crooned vox, or swirling synths, the result is a surprisingly melodic, blackened death that is coming dangerously close to being one of our new favorite metal records.
MPEG Stream: "Baal Of Ekron"
MPEG Stream: "Hathor of Dendera"
MPEG Stream: "Invoked from Carrion Slumber"
MPEG Stream: "Descending Into the Kingly Tomba"

NECROS CHRISTOS Doom Of The Occult (Ajna) 2lp 27.00
Latest full length from this long running German black death horde, and even more than their previous outing, Doom Of The Occult is a sprawling, ambitious epic, that takes the sound of classic death metal (Autopsy, Incantation, Hellhammer, etc.) and fuses it to the gnarled blackness of newer bands like Deathspell and Katharsis, and creating a stunning songsuite of mid paced blackened death metal, that is black enough to appeal to the true grim hordes for sure, the riffing thick and twisted, the drumming intricate and powerful, the vocals a reverbed demonic bellow, verging on gurgling DM growl, perfectly matching the tenor and energy of the music.
At first glance, there seem to be an insane number of tracks, but the band has woven multiple interludes and sonic experiments into this record, and that's on top of various intro and outros, all the various non metal pieces super varied sonically, ranging from droned out ambience to hauntingly Middle Eastern sounding arrangements of choirs and synths, but it's the metal obviously that's the focal point here, and it's the sort of black death we can't get enough of, thick and cacophonous, doomier and mid paced, the sound churning and roiling more than thrashing and blasting, the sound surprisingly melodic, those melodies often very Eastern sounding, giving much of NC's sound a mystical exotic vibe, not to mention that they don't shy away from infusing their metal with chanted crooned vox, or swirling synths, the result is a surprisingly melodic, blackened death that is coming dangerously close to being one of our new favorite metal records.
MPEG Stream: "Baal Of Ekron"
MPEG Stream: "Hathor of Dendera"
MPEG Stream: "Invoked from Carrion Slumber"
MPEG Stream: "Descending Into the Kingly Tomba"

NECROS, THE Tangled Up / Live Or Else (Restless) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Gun"
MPEG Stream: "Blizzard Of Glass"
MPEG Stream: "Big Chief"

NEETZACH True Servants Of Satan (Sublife Productions) cd 15.98
Straight up, Satan lovin' black metal here from previously obscure necro Norwegians Neetzach, who piqued our interest 'cause they've got drummer Dirge Rep in the band, he who previously pounded the skins for AQ fave Viking-prog kings Enslaved (and some other bands too, like Gehenna and Gorgoroth). That's a fair assurance of quality, and these True Servants Of Satan don't disappoint, if it's a grim and violent, raw thrashing black metal buzz (and buzzing) you're after. Blurring blasts and noxious rasps emanate from this disc like fumes from a toxic tomb, the old-school atmosphere enhanced by some slower, sea-sick riffage and the way Dirge's drums beat on your skull. Good Satanic stuff for fans of Gorgoroth, Mayhem, Darkthrone and the like.
MPEG Stream: "The Glorious Days Are Over"
MPEG Stream: "Quill Of Cain"

NEFANDUS The Nightwinds Carried Our Names/Behold the Hordes (Total Holocaust Records) cd 14.98

NEGATIVA s/t (Prodisk) cd 7.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
No band will ever match the insane no-wave freaked out death metal what-the-fuck of Gorguts' Obscura album. An impossibly chaotic blast of tangled guitar lines, obtuse drumming, bizarre songwriting, atonal melodies, fractured rhythms, all whipped into quite possibly, one of the greatest, weirdest death metal records ever as far as we're concerned. But if any band was to come close, it sure as heck would be Negativa, for the obvious reason that it's the work of Gorguts mastermind Steeve Hurdle, along with some of his likeminded pals from other techmetal combos like Ion Dissonance and Augury. The opening track blows out of the gate a perfect post-Obscura grinding chugging masterpiece. Not quite as dense and freaked out as anything on Obscura, a little more linear, but all the stuff we love is there. The guitars are baffling, not just riffs and licks, they scrape and grind and keen and shriek and rrooooar, pick slides everywhere, the drums a chaotic blur beneath, it's absolutely dizzying. This is the stuff that makes us fall in love with death metal all over again. But it's the second track that really blows our minds. Imagine Obscura era Gorguts playing downtuned doom metal, a weird death sludge, guitars so slow, they slither and crumble, over the top, other guitars clang and wail, mournful melodies drift by, bits of percussive crunch, the drums stumble and plod, it's like some fucked up version of diSEMBOWELMENT. The band does kick it up a notch and blows into some midtempo death metal before splintering into a near ambient stretch of Tool-like bass, scraping steel strings, huge plodding doomdrums and lots and lots of space. Super abstract and doomy, before building into a loping atonal minor key groove. Hard to explain other than to say it's fucking AWESOME! The third and final track is more of what we go in track one, another brain melting burst of avant death metal, guitars and drums and bass so convoluted and fucked up, we can barely manage to headbang. But goddamn if we're not loving it.
Short stuff, three songs in twenty minutes, but as with Gorguts, there are more notes and parts than most bands can jam into a whole 60 minute full length. We're already dying to hear more, especially off that fucked up damaged death doom. Bring it on!
MPEG Stream: "Chaos In Motion"
MPEG Stream: "Rebellion"

NEGATIVE PLANE Et In Saecula Saeculorum (Ajna) cd 16.98
A couple people asked us/told us about this before we got it... apparently word-of-mouth among cult black metal mavens was strong early on! And all their hushed queries and whispered expressions of awed enthusiasm are well deserved, we discovered, once we heard it ourselves. This is definitely NOT just another run of the mill black metal album. Negative Plane somehow have captured something more ancient and strange than usual in their music. They have a real "old school" mystique about them, that Venom / Celtic Frost / Bathory feel, yet at the same time this is infused and infested further with an especially alien weirdness, a bit of the same vibe as Nordic avant-gardists Ved Buens Ende. The album is drenched in effects, rendering the rasping vocals into an internal, infernal dialogue with themselves due to the amount of reverb, echoing in collusion with the music to make extra-effective what's otherwise indecipherable.
And though so seemingly raw and olden, there's a lot more "going on" here than with some of the dronier black metal efforts we've heard -- these tracks are full of complex runs, twisting turns, sudden changes. And sheer atmosphere is not neglected. Neg Plane's doomy vibe, their church organ tones and eerie melodies, are one important aspect of this record -- lashed with tons of FX to their other aspect, raging riffage, you've got an underground cult already established, the duo of Nameless Void (guitar/vocals) and Bestial Devotion (drums) requiring servitors rather than mere fans. Very special.
MPEG Stream: "Staring Into The Abyss"
MPEG Stream: "A Church In Ruin"

NEGATIVE PLANE Et In Saecula Saeculorum (Ajna) 2lp 19.98
The first album from this very special (read on) black metal outfit, orginally issued on cd in 2006 and lp in 2007, now reissued again on wax. Packaged in a nice gatefold sleeve like the original vinyl version, but without the large poster that came with that first pressing.
So, you might already be part of the Negative Plane cult. But if not, here's what we had to say about this, their debut, back when we first reviewed it:
A couple people asked us/told us about this before we got it... apparently word-of-mouth among cult black metal mavens was strong early on! And all their hushed queries and whispered expressions of awed enthusiasm are well deserved, we discovered, once we heard it ourselves. This is definitely NOT just another run of the mill black metal album. Negative Plane somehow have captured something more ancient and strange than usual in their music. They have a real "old school" mystique about them, that Venom / Celtic Frost / Bathory feel, yet at the same time this is infused and infested further with an especially alien weirdness, a bit of the same vibe as Nordic avant-gardists Ved Buens Ende. The album is drenched in effects, rendering the rasping vocals into an internal, infernal dialogue with themselves due to the amount of reverb, echoing in collusion with the music to make extra-effective what's otherwise indecipherable.
And though so seemingly raw and olden, there's a lot more "going on" here than with some of the dronier black metal efforts we've heard - these tracks are full of complex runs, twisting turns, sudden changes. And sheer atmosphere is not neglected. Neg Plane's doomy vibe, their church organ tones and eerie melodies, are one important aspect of this record - lashed with tons of FX to their other aspect, raging riffage, you've got an underground cult already established, the duo of Nameless Void (guitar/vocals) and Bestial Devotion (drums) requiring servitors rather than mere fans. Very special.
MPEG Stream: "Staring Into The Abyss"
MPEG Stream: "A Church In Ruin"

NEGATIVE PLANE Stained Glass Revelations (Ajna) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hmmm, we must have done something to obtain Satan's approval, since he has recently rewarded us with releases from two of our absolute favorite cult black metal bands, and both exceedingly idiosyncratic ones at that. There's Inquisition's highly anticipated and indeed amazing Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm opus, which we'll be reviewing next time (we ran out this week!), and this, the equally eagerly-awaited 2nd album from Negative Plane, whose 2006 debut caused us to describe them as "very special", a band so underground and cult that they require the devotion of "servitors rather than mere fans". As such, we bow and praise, for five years later, this second strike is another slab of antiquarian, abyssic genius.
Doomy, dramatic, delirious black metal that's so thick with true old school feeling that after a few spins, the only thing you can follow it with are crackly vinyls by '80s and early '90s underground overlords like Bathory, Venom, Celtic Frost, Possessed, and Mayhem. Yet their artistry is directed down their own path, not that of retro nostalgia, even if they stir up the same Satanic vibrations as those ancient ones.
Negative Plane are masters of mystique, their music a masterful combination of atmospheric (and not only that, but also interesting) interludes, that evoke eerie olde silent film musick, and much more metal onslaughts, that emerge intricately from the hissing murk with pounding drums, swarms of guitar, and raw guttural vokills. Field recordings, bells, cello, piano, organ, and some female vocals are all woven into the mix, creating something quite unique and effective.
These rumbling, rollercoastering compositions, with their sepulchral production and strangely classical motifs, are all cloaked in weird, haunting ambience, it's like they recorded with Leyland Kirby or Indignant Senility in the producer's seat. If it's truly possible for metal to not just be about the occult, but actually BE occult, the reverby rituals recorded by Negative Plane are, and leave us with a Lovecraftian "indescribable" to add to this review.
Vinyl version to be unleashed in March, FYI.
MPEG Stream: "The Fall"
MPEG Stream: "Lamentations And Ashes"
MPEG Stream: "Angels Veiled Of Bone"

NEGATIVE PLANE Stained Glass Revelations (Ajna) 2lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's a "now on vinyl!" we know a lot of you have been waiting for, the 2nd album from black metal cult Negative Plane, at last unleashed on double vinyl. We listed the cd version back in January, here's what we said about it then:
Hmmm, we must have done something to obtain Satan's approval, since he has recently rewarded us with releases from two of our absolute favorite cult black metal bands, and both exceedingly idiosyncratic ones at that. There's Inquisition's highly anticipated and indeed amazing Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm opus, which we'll be reviewing next time (we ran out this week!), and this, the equally eagerly-awaited 2nd album from Negative Plane, whose 2006 debut caused us to describe them as "very special", a band so underground and cult that they require the devotion of "servitors rather than mere fans". As such, we bow and praise, for five years later, this second strike is another slab of antiquarian, abyssic genius.
Doomy, dramatic, delirious black metal that's so thick with true old school feeling that after a few spins, the only thing you can follow it with are crackly vinyls by '80s and early '90s underground overlords like Bathory, Venom, Celtic Frost, Possessed, and Mayhem. Yet their artistry is directed down their own path, not that of retro nostalgia, even if they stir up the same Satanic vibrations as those ancient ones.
Negative Plane are masters of mystique, their music a masterful combination of atmospheric (and not only that, but also interesting) interludes, that evoke eerie olde silent film musick, and much more metal onslaughts, that emerge intricately from the hissing murk with pounding drums, swarms of guitar, and raw guttural vokills. Field recordings, bells, cello, piano, organ, and some female vocals are all woven into the mix, creating something quite unique and effective.
These rumbling, rollercoastering compositions, with their sepulchral production and strangely classical motifs, are all cloaked in weird, haunting ambience, it's like they recorded with Leyland Kirby or Indignant Senility in the producer's seat. If it's truly possible for metal to not just be about the occult, but actually BE occult, the reverby rituals recorded by Negative Plane are, and leave us with a Lovecraftian "indescribable" to add to this review.
3 sides of music, plus booklet, in jacket.
MPEG Stream: "The Fall"
MPEG Stream: "Lamentations And Ashes"
MPEG Stream: "Angels Veiled Of Bone"

NEGATIVE QUEEN s/t (Linear B) cassette 4.50
Longtime readers of the aQ list might remember Myles Of Destruction, fronted by long time aQ pal Myles Donovan. A kick ass trio of drums, bass and violin, a little bit metal, a little bit grind, a little bit gypsy stomp, an unlikely cross between Amps For Christ, Warlock Pinchers, Emperor and Magnetic Fields maybe. Well Myles is back with a new band that's a bit darker and a whole lot doomier, the evocatively monikered Negative Queen, which we initially surmised came from the Pansy Division song, but according to the liner notes is actually something someone said to Donovan at one point, oh and it might be worth pointing out at this point then Negative Queen are purveyors of QUEER DOOM. And while we weren't sure what to expect sonically, would it be ultra blown out sludge, or downtuned metallic plod, we were pleasantly surprised to discover it was neither, instead, something more spare and sparse, more moody and melodic, tapping into a sort of swampy apocalyptic creep more than anything, hints of Woven Hand and Nick Cave, a sort of gothy grim moodiness that wreathes the minimal drumming, the spidery minor key guitars, the warm low slung bass, and the deep dramatic croon. And while it's definitely heavy and dark enough that metalheads should give this a chance, it definitely sounds like something that would be way more at home alongside the darkwave and slowcore in your collection. Did we mention Swans? The Swans vibe is huge too. The sound lush and layered, hauntingly atmospheric, just instead of pounding and pummeling, it creeps and slithers, drift and plods, dark and doomy for sure, but also strangely dreamy.

NEGATIVE REACTION The Orion Chronicles (Game Two) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Slow and sludgy doom metal from New York, simple but effective. Their basic approach seems to be a repetitive riff played at an agonizingly slow pace with some throat-tearing vocals and NASA samples thrown in, plus some spacy fx. These guys seem obsessed with astronauts and outer space (the cover art features pyramids on the Moon), it's not surprising that the bonus track is a Hawkwind cover.

NEGATIVE REACTION Under The Ancient Penalty (Dark Reign) cd 16.98

MPEG Stream: "Lost"
MPEG Stream: "Loathing"

NEGATIVE REACTION / RAMESSES split (psycheDOOMelic) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Negative Reaction is the New York sludge combo. Ramesses is the band formed by the (drunk, stoned) guys that quit Electric Wizard.

NEGATOR Old Black (Remedy) cd 15.98
This isn't new really, but we've been dying to review this blast of black frost for ages, and we were only recently able to get enough to list.
This German horde are not fucked, or bizarre, or damaged, they're really not all that weird actually, but man does not live by weird alone, sometimes, all it takes is a huge heaping dose of ultra blazing, super intense, grim and frosty black metal. And Negator are indeed that.
This is blurry, buzzy, dizzying and epic, majestic and mournful melodies, insane technical riffing, incredible blast beats, and a killer production that does away with the lo-fi buzz of bedroom black metal and replaces it with HUGE heaviness, a swirling black cloud of blizzard like brutality. Speaking of blizzards, Old Black is probably the frostiest, fastest, grimmest slab of icy blackness to come our way since Immortal's legendary Blizzard Beasts record. Which is saying a lot, but damn if this hasn't become one of our most listened to BM discs of late.
In fact, we hear so much ultra personal bedroom black metal, and damaged stumbling outsider black metal, and don't get us wrong, we LOVE that stuff, but it's sort of refreshing to hear some real, true, fierce and furious, classic sounding black metal. Think Immortal, Emperor, Mayhem, Dissection, Dimmu Borgir, 1349, if these weren't young guys from Germany, you'd definitely be forgiven for thinking this was some slab of blackness from Norway circa 1995. And that's a very good thing.
All bow before the new Blizzard Beasts....
MPEG Stream: "Science Of Nihil"
MPEG Stream: "Free Bird"

NEGURA BUNGET 'N Crugu Bradului (Code 666) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The return of Romania's avant black metallers Negura Bunget, who were best known around these parts for their last record, which sounded remarkably like SF black metal legends Weakling. NB have progressed, or regressed, or at least moved on, so now they truly sound like nobody else. Four epic tracks clocking in at almost an hour, and sonically all over the place. Dark, ambient rumbles evoke the spirits of the forest before the first track kicks in sounding a bit like Don Cab, with spastic drums, way up in the mix while grainy guitars saw wildly away. Eventually BIGGER riffs come tumbling down like a black metal avalanche and the whole thing becomes a swirling, bloodied whirlpool of octopus-armed drumming, possessed keyboards and buzzing mosquito riffs. Occasionally the metallic fury abates allowing gently strummed acoustic guitars and field recordings to weave simple melodic soundscapes in the lulls. Really strange breakdowns are peppered throughout, like a drum/keyboards/clean-vocal part that sounds like an ultra raw Killing Joke or Sisters Of Mercy, ambient passages with howling wind and far away wails, a loping black metal waltz, buzzing and swaying drunkenly, and a closing drone that rumbles and whirs and sounds as good as any Jonathan Coleclough record. While there are moments of black metal familiarity here and there, there's just so much strangeness, even just in the way instruments sound or how they play certain parts. There's a definite post rock vibe in the song structures especially in a lot of the drum parts. Strange production with quiet guitars and LOUD guitars and occasionally LOUD drums. But it all makes for a really unique record. Some seriously twisted, rhythmically bizarre, completely damaged, grandiose and melancholy black metal supposedly inspired by "Romanian mysticism". And, it comes in a really beautiful oversized cardstock sleeve that unfolds sort of like a map and contains an actual twig from some Romanian tree!
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

NEGURA BUNGET 'N Crugu Bradului (Code 666) cd 16.98
The fancy oversized "digibook" version of this cd has been out of print for many months now, a total shame as this is one of our favorite black metal records of recent memory... At long last, however, it has now been reissued in a normal cd case (sans twig).
Here's what we had to say about this amazing record the first time we listed it:
The return of Romania's avant black metallers Negura Bunget, who were best known around these parts for their last record, which sounded remarkably like SF black metal legends Weakling. NB have progressed, or regressed, or at least moved on, so now they truly sound like nobody else. Four epic tracks clocking in at almost an hour, and sonically all over the place. Dark, ambient rumbles evoke the spirits of the forest before the first track kicks in sounding a bit like Don Cab, with spastic drums, way up in the mix while grainy guitars saw wildly away. Eventually BIGGER riffs come tumbling down like a black metal avalanche and the whole thing becomes a swirling, bloodied whirlpool of octopus-armed drumming, possessed keyboards and buzzing mosquito riffs. Occasionally the metallic fury abates allowing gently strummed acoustic guitars and field recordings to weave simple melodic soundscapes in the lulls. Really strange breakdowns are peppered throughout, like a drum/keyboards/clean-vocal part that sounds like an ultra raw Killing Joke or Sisters Of Mercy, ambient passages with howling wind and far away wails, a loping black metal waltz, buzzing and swaying drunkenly, and a closing drone that rumbles and whirs and sounds as good as any Jonathan Coleclough record. While there are moments of black metal familiarity here and there, there's just so much strangeness, even just in the way instruments sound or how they play certain parts. There's a definite post rock vibe in the song structures especially in a lot of the drum parts. Strange production with quiet guitars and LOUD guitars and occasionally LOUD drums. But it all makes for a really unique record. Some seriously twisted, rhythmically bizarre, completely damaged, grandiose and melancholy black metal supposedly inspired by "Romanian mysticism".
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

NEGURA BUNGET CD Box (Bestial) 3cd 32.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally re-pressed and back in stock but not sure for how long!!!
We sold SO many of the last Negura Bunget album 'N Crug Bradului and for good reason. It was one of the coolest weirdest black metal records we had ever heard. So when we found out about this triple cd set collecting all of their earlier long out of print releases we knew we had to have it (and figured you probably did too)! We described Negura Bunget so well the first time around, I'm not sure how we could do it any better. So here's what we said about this mysterious Romanian black metal band:
"Dark, ambient rumbles evoke the spirits of the forest before the music kicks in sounding a bit like Don Cab, with spastic drums, way up in the mix while grainy guitars saw wildly away. Eventually BIGGER riffs come tumbling down like a black metal avalanche and the whole thing becomes a swirling, bloodied whirlpool of octopus-armed drumming, possessed keyboards and buzzing mosquito riffs. Occasionally the metallic fury abates allowing gently strummed acoustic guitars and field recordings to weave simple melodic soundscapes in the lulls. While there are moments of black metal familiarity here and there, there's just so much strangeness, even just in the way instruments sound or how they play certain parts. Some seriously twisted, rhythmically bizarre, completely damaged, grandiose and melancholy black metal supposedly inspired by 'Romanian mysticism'."
Wow! They sound pretty good huh? Well, they ARE that good. This box compiles the first three Negura Bunget albums dating from 1995 to 2000, including their first demo from when they were still called Wiccan Rede. The albums are: Sala Molska, Zirnindu-Sa, and Maiastru Sfetnic, each in a jewel case and all bundled in a cardboard slipcover, all with amazing new artwork. The sound on these earlier recordings isn't quite as polished and fully realized as on 'N Crug Bradului, it's actually a lot rougher and simplistic, but perhaps because of that, it's also a whole lot weirder, grim and creepy but damaged and freaked out. Keyboards play a much bigger part, huge swaths of buzzing melody laid over the thrashing metallic onslaught. Probably the most interesting aspect is how much Negura Bunget sometimes sounded like SF black metal legends Weakling. Whether it's the agonisingly wailed vocals, or the epic droning riffage, you know that sounding even remotely like Weakling is a REALLY good thing. We get these direct from Romania and as always we can't be sure how long they'll be available so don't miss out on these again!
MPEG Stream: "Vremea Locului Sortit"
MPEG Stream: "In-Zvicnirea Apusului"

NEGURA BUNGET From Transylvanian Forest (Lupus Lounge) cd 15.98
Finally, the older earlier records from our favorite Transylvanian black metallers are getting their due, some super swank deluxe reissues packed with extras. For the longest time, we carried the cd box, which we got direct from the band in Romania, which contained Negura Bunget's first three albums and an ep. Lots of long time aQ list readers no doubt have that box, as it's some of the most essential black metal we've ever heard. But for years now, we've been unable to get those boxes back in, and now we know why. Lupus Lounge has decided to re-issue all of those records, with extra tracks, and in the case of a couple of them, extra discs containing whole extra alternate mixes of the records proper. Also, the new versions are now housed in super nice multi panel full color digipaks.
We have all four (one of the original three, was split back up into its original two separate parts) in stock, in very limited quantities, have a look at the 'in stock, not yet reviewed' section, if you want to go nuts and get all of them (and why wouldn't you?!) but for now, we're gonna list/review From Transylvanian Forest first, and get to those other ones later. And this is as good a place to start as any. An ep from 2000, which was in fact a remixed and remastered version of a demo by PRE Negura Bunget outfit Wiccan Reed, before they changed their name, but already, their unique sound was fully formed.
For those new to Negura Bunget, here's how we described the band on more recent releases: Dark, ambient rumbles evoke the spirits of the forest before the music kicks in sounding a bit like Don Cab, with spastic drums, way up in the mix while grainy guitars saw wildly away. Eventually BIGGER riffs come tumbling down like a black metal avalanche and the whole thing becomes a swirling, bloodied whirlpool of octopus-armed drumming, possessed keyboards and buzzing mosquito riffs. Occasionally the metallic fury abates allowing gently strummed acoustic guitars and field recordings to weave simple melodic soundscapes in the lulls. While there are moments of black metal familiarity here and there, there's just so much strangeness, even just in the way instruments sound or how they play certain parts. Some seriously twisted, rhythmically bizarre, completely damaged, grandiose and melancholy black metal supposedly inspired by 'Romanian mysticism'.
On From Transylvanian Forest, and all of these older records in fact, the sound isn't quite as polished and fully realized as on the newer records, it's actually a lot rougher and simplistic, but perhaps because of that, it's also a whole lot weirder, grim and creepy but damaged and freaked out. Keyboards play a much bigger part, huge swaths of buzzing melody laid over the thrashing metallic onslaught. Probably the most interesting aspect is how much Negura Bunget sometimes sounded like SF black metal legends Weakling. Whether it's the agonisingly wailed vocals, or the epic droning riffage, you know that sounding even remotely like Weakling is a REALLY good thing.
WAY WAY recommended. As are all four of the reissues!
MPEG Stream: "Vallachorum Tyranorum"
MPEG Stream: "Transilvanian Fullmoon Vampirism"

NEGURA BUNGET Inarborat Kosmos (Code 666) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is not brand new, but instead is an ep from right before the most recent full length Om. But until recently we were never able to get more than a handful of copies. But finally, we have enough to list, but we're not sure how long we'll have these in stock, so don't dawdle if you want one.
Negura Bunget, one of our favorite avant black metal bands, hailing from Romania (okay, Transylvania!), a band who weave dense black soundscapes incorporating lots of traditional black buzz, but also mystical folk, haunting ambience, and whatever other sonic strangeness is part of their twisted black vision. And who even at their most 'metal' and most 'traditional' still sound weirder than almost any of their contemporaries.
The opening track begins with thick washes of super dramatic keyboards, and mysterious monklike chants, as well as all sorts of traditional percussion and hand drums, before some killer blackened riffing joins in and the band launch into a twisted black journey, along the way blasting briefly beneath majestic keyboard swells, weaving through some convoluted Voivod riffage with some crooning clean singing and finishing up with some seriously mathy rhythms beneath more keyboards and tangled blackened guitars.
The second track is some haunting forest ambience, long stretches of droning rumble, strange rhythms over swirling misty keyboards, bizarre vibraphone like melodies, and all manner of creepy creaks and unidentifiable sounds. Track three is the centerpiece of Inarborat Kosmos, a mostly midtempo atmospheric black jam, with super strange (and unbelievably catchy) riffing, dense tangled rhythms, huge swaths of epic keyboards, and about a million different parts, a song that seems to constantly shift and change shapes without ever losing cohesion or direction. Occasionally the keyboards become so dense and massive that they overpower the rest of the instruments and the song becomes a weird high end drone, at least briefly. A head spinning blast of baffling blackness for sure.
The final track is another swath of foresty black ambience. Long slow drawn out keyboard drones, and thick clouds of crumbling distortion, but most notably, all manner of strange and guttural, creepy and almost monstrous vocalizations, howling and growled, tortured and anguished, sounding like some ancient clan, gathered around a fire, performing some strange rite or ritual.
Which, when you get right down to it, is how Negura Bunget always sound, like some mysterious ancient clan, performing all manner of forest flecked black metal rituals. So great.
Also included two live videos viewable on your computer.
LIMITED TO 734 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Wordless Knowledge"
MPEG Stream: "Uprising Follow"

NEGURA BUNGET Maiastru Sfetnic (Lupus Lounge) cd 15.98

NEGURA BUNGET Om (Code 666) cd 14.98
Latest disc from bizarre Romanian black horde Negura Bunget, now available as a single cd (minus the DVD that came with the more expensive, now out of print, deluxe version). One more chance for anyone who missed out the first time around, to pick up this killer slab of black beauty. Here's what we had to say about the disc first time around:
Brand new record from unconventional Romanian black metallers Negura Bunget, who began life as a buzzing Norwegian style shrieking black metal beast, sonically quite reminiscent of legendary SF horde Weakling, but who quickly developed into a super unique, folk flecked avant metal combo, mixing their buzzing blackness, with traditional folk melodies, plenty of ambient drone, and with Romanian lyrical themes well outside the prescribed satanic and evil norms of their black brethren.
On this, their latest record, they spread their wings even further, letting songs and parts of songs, develop slowly, build even more gradually, or bliss out into long stretches of droning buzz.
Following a similar path as Enslaved, the band continue to incorporate more and more distinctly un-black metal elements, in the process becoming more and more proggy, with extended song structures, lengthy convoluted instrumental passages, LOTS of keyboards, multiple vocals and unlikely harmonies, dense rhythmic workouts and thick fuzzy almost-postrock. Quite weird, so much so that it sometimes doesn't feel like a black metal record at all. More of a super heavy, atmospheric rock record, with little bits of thrash and prog and blackness mixed in.
Om is most definitely the most moody and atmospheric of NB's releases. Plenty of time is definitely spent buzzing and blasting blackly, but it feels like more of the record is split between loping midtempo jams, long stretches of ethereal space rock ambience and gorgeous bits of dreamy dronefolk drift.
A few folks we spoke to found the new NB a little too out there, too melodic, and not nearly black enough, but as far as we're concerned, Om is plenty black, it's just surrounded by various shades of grey (even some light blues and browns), which, if you're like us, and you like your black metal unpredictable and confusional, then that's exactly what you want. And need!
The sinlge disc version comes packaged in a jewel case, with super cool, pagan Wickerman / Jan Svankmyer style artwork.
MPEG Stream: "Tesarul De Lumini"
MPEG Stream: "Conoas Terea Tacuta"

NEGURA BUNGET Om (Enucleation) lp 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally available on vinyl, this amazing slab of beautifully bizarre Romanian blackness. Thick vinyl, super deluxe gatefold jacket with printed inner sleeves. Limited of course, and most importantly, an exclusive vinyl BONUS TRACK not on the cd version! Here's our original review:
Brand new record from unconventional Romanian black metallers Negura Bunget, who began life as a buzzing Norwegian style shrieking black metal beast, sonically quite reminiscent of legendary SF horde Weakling, but who quickly developed into a super unique, folk flecked avant metal combo, mixing their buzzing blackness, with traditional folk melodies, plenty of ambient drone, and with Romanian lyrical themes well outside the prescribed satanic and evil norms of their black brethren.
On this, their latest record, they spread their wings even further, letting songs and parts of songs, develop slowly, build even more gradually, or bliss out into long stretches of droning buzz.
Following a similar path as Enslaved, the band continue to incorporate more and more distinctly un-black metal elements, in the process becoming more and more proggy, with extended song structures, lengthy convoluted instrumental passages, LOTS of keyboards, multiple vocals and unlikely harmonies, dense rhythmic workouts and thick fuzzy almost-postrock. Quite weird, so much so that it sometimes doesn't feel like a black metal record at all. More of a super heavy, atmospheric rock record, with little bits of thrash and prog and blackness mixed in.
Om is most definitely the most moody and atmospheric of NB's releases. Plenty of time is definitely spent buzzing and blasting blackly, but it feels like more of the record is split between loping midtempo jams, long stretches of ethereal space rock ambience and gorgeous bits of dreamy dronefolk drift.
A few folks we spoke to found the new NB a little too out there, too melodic, and not nearly black enough, but as far as we're concerned, Om is plenty black, it's just surrounded by various shades of grey (even some light blues and browns), which, if you're like us, and you like your black metal unpredictable and confusional, then that's exactly what you want. And need!
MPEG Stream: "Tesarul De Lumini"
MPEG Stream: "Conoas Terea Tacuta"

NEGURA BUNGET OM (Code666) cd+dvd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Brand new record from unconventional Romanian black metallers Negura Bunget, who began life as a buzzing Norwegian style shrieking black metal beast, sonically quite reminiscent of legendary SF horde Weakling, but who quickly developed into a super unique, folk flecked avant metal combo, mixing their buzzing blackness, with traditional folk melodies, plenty of ambient drone, and with Romanian lyrical themes well outside the prescribed satanic and evil norms of their black brethren.
On this, their latest record, they spread their wings even further, letting songs and parts of songs, develop slowly, build even more gradually, or bliss out into long stretches of droning buzz.
Following a similar path as Enslaved, the band continue to incorporate more and more distinctly un-black metal elements, in the process becoming more and more proggy, with extended song structures, lengthy convoluted instrumental passages, LOTS of keyboards, multiple vocals and unlikely harmonies, dense rhythmic workouts and thick fuzzy almost-postrock. Quite weird, so much so that it sometimes doesn't feel like a black metal record at all. More of a super heavy, atmospheric rock record, with little bits of thrash and prog and blackness mixed in.
Om is most definitely the most moody and atmospheric of NB's releases. Plenty of time is definitely spent buzzing and blasting blackly, but it feels like more of the record is split between loping midtempo jams, long stretches of ethereal space rock ambience and gorgeous bits of dreamy dronefolk drift.
A few folks we spoke to found the new NB a little too out there, too melodic, and not nearly black enough, but as far as we're concerned, Om is plenty black, it's just surrounded by various shades of grey (even some light blues and browns), which, if you're like us, and you like your black metal unpredictable and confusional, then that's exactly what you want. And need!
Includes a DVD, that has amazing stop motion animation menus, with an old frayed rope, that squirms and slithers depending on your selection. Two videos, the first is a series of gorgeous landscapes, forests and slow moving clouds, intercut with some impssobily mind bending shots of forests and waterfalls, super processed and affected so it almost looks like animation, a sort of dizzying water colored 3-D effect. Or something. So beautiful, but so confusing to your brain it's almost impossible to not look away. The other is quite similar, but a bit more lo-fi, with various shots of the band members in a moonlit forest, back lit trees and thick storm clouds as well as some arty shots of faces superimposed on flowing magma, hands in water, lots of washed out abstract images, all on different film stocks, from super high definition to super grainy 16mm. Three live clips, each super arty, one all smeary and indistinct, washed out colors and artful blurs, the other two are all super distressed black and white, with the film shimmying and shifting along with the music, like some old nickeloddian. Pretty cool.
Extras include an interview with the band, a short promo video with more breathtaking images of the Romanian countryside, a slideshow set to music, as well as another live clip and some appropriately arty credits.
Packaged in a super deluxe 8 panel digipak, with super cool, pagan Wickerman / Jan Svankmyer style artwork.
MPEG Stream: "Tesarul De Lumini"
MPEG Stream: "Conoas Terea Tacuta"

NEGURA BUNGET Sala Molksa (Lupus Lounge) 2cd 17.98