Stumbling around the interwebs, I found some news that over at your friendly neighborhood UVTV, footage from an entire recent live Earth Crisis show has been posted online. And just our luck, the video happened to be gnar-embeddable, so you lazy bums don't have to travel too far to get your hungry meathooks on the vid... Oh, and say what you will about EC, their politics, or the vegan/straight edge movement in general, but there is no denying they had some fucking sick records back in the day. Who can deny that live cut of their cover of Cream's 'Sunshine of Your Love' from The Oath That Keeps Me Free? That shit fucking slayed tenfold... Honestly, I haven't delved into their newest record yet, so I don't have an opinion on where I stand with this current reformed Earth Crisis, but I'm adding it to my to-do list as we speak... jerks. So anyway, if you're a fan or even just mildly interested, pull up a chair, pop some popcorn, and enjoy the entire show while you floorpunch to your heart's content in the comfort of your own home or office.
Here's the setlist, in case you wanna be a dick and fast forward to your faves:
1. Against The Current 2. All Out War 3. Forged in the Flames 4. Wrath of Sanity 5. No Allegiance 6. Forced March 7. End Begins 8. To Ashes 9. Gommorah’s Season 10. Born from Pain 11. To The Death 12. Firestorm
Also, click thru to UVTV's site for the info to download this footage from iTunes... If that's your thing. Dirty fucks.
Tonight, there shall be distortion... And it was good.
The night in question was last night at Gramercy Theater (Blender Theater, if ya nasty)... Beards aplenty filed into the Manhattan club to boogie down with chaos engineers The Chariot, along with Arsonists Get All the Girls, Horse the Band... (and *sigh* Norma Jean)... After waiting in line outside the venue in the fucking freezing cold, stupidly wearing just fingerless gloves as my only winter accessory, I took a seat in the Old Man Section in the back of the club to rest my frail, aging bones and to get a bird's eye view of the audience in attendance. One thing I instantly noticed was the noticeably noticeable harsh divide of the crowd: either late-twenties-ish bearded and flannel-clad gentlemen or 14 year old scenester co-eds in neon-splashed graphic tees, graphic hoodies, and skinny jeans, with noses buried in their cellphones, no doubt twattering nonstop about how the show is going to be the most epically massive "evar"... I wept silently within... but not in a goth way... in a man way.
Anywho, it didn't take long into the show to see who these children were here for... judging by their attention to the Arsonists set that opened the night, they were definitely Horse/Norma fans. Don't get me wrong, I'm not here to shat on the headliner of the night or their direct support (I just honestly think someone shoulda stuck with their original vicious blueprint while someone else needs to start expanding on their schtick... respectively). In other words, these two will not be discussed here. Only the two I traversed midtown to go see...
(Arsonists)
As mentioned before, AGATG kicked off the night... and they did so with fuckin fire. This is only the second opportunity I have been able to catch these cats, and it has been a long time coming. The first time being at the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival two or three years ago when they were only a mere "I've heard a few decent things bout these guys, maybe I'll give them a passing listen for a song or two" blip on my radar. And ever since have grown into an act that always seems to find its way into my listening rotation, thoroughly pummeling my ear canal in some of the most wonderful ways possible... See the track "Shat Shart Tart" if you need an example... Anywho, their set paraphrased: ridiculously awesomely abrasive. My only slightly negative comment would be that they seemed cramped as hell up there with six members and what looked to be all the bands' gear for the rest of the night. But regardless, they still delivered the wallop, though I noticed they seem to be drifting in a more accessibly brutal direction, I hope which continues to be a positive thing rather than detracting.
(The Chariot)
And then it was time for the main event... Well, the main event in my personal opinion... And boy howdy, did they ever fucking bring the ruckus. Fucking A right, The Chariot NEVER cease to amaze me live. It just seriously never gets old. They fucking wail, and they're a cavalcade of cacophony, hellbent on obliterating every notion of a nice, calm rock show... Instruments thrown, abrasive lighting, alienating feedback, dizzying ragdoll antics by the members, and general disregard for any kind of structure or even fuckin safety, are all par for the course with the ones they call the Chariot... If you can't tell, I'm kind of a fanboy for these guys. They're like my little underdogs. Momma's special little guys... It was somewhere between the jarring mash of feedback and samples and the whipping around of a workshop hook lamp that I realized I wasn't going to do this set or any set of theirs any justice through verbally trying to describe it. You just have to do yourself a favor, tuck in your balls, and go see these delightfully damaging little scamps when they blow through your town... And do like I did, make sure you venture out of the Old Man Seats for these guys, cuz it's just a tiny bit better when a guitar neck narrowly misses clipping your ear. It always is.
And to send you packing with a smile, a splendidly beautiful representation of why The Chariot is one of the most INFUCKINCREDIBLE live bands ever... Go see for your damn self, ass:
The Chariot - Unofficial video for "Teach" (sick live montage):
When I first got my grubby hands on this 7", I was happier than a frat guy with a garbage can full of jungle juice. Disfear is one of my favorite bands, and Doomriders never disappoints. Bellions, this is a marriage than can not go wrong.
The split contains one song from each band, and both are top notch. Disfear delivers a little number called "Fear and Trembling," and it is one of the best songs I have heard from the band. The Swedish D-Beat group decided to add a good amount of melody to this track, and it adds a new dimension of emotion that sits pretty with the usual urgency these guys are known to project in their music. Fantastic song on all counts. Any fan of the band needs to hear it.
While Disfear represents with ONE of the best songs they've ever written, Doomriders presents THE best song the band's ever written. "Crooked Path," which is also available on their latest release Darkness Comes Alive, is everything you could possibly want from these fellows. It too introduces a bit more melody than usual, but keeps the same edge you would expect. The first time I played this song, I had to listen again. Then I listened one more time. I'm sure this will rank in your top three Doomriders jams. If it doesn't, the Spleen will mail you ten bucks.
This record is a limited pressing, so pick it up as soon as you can. You can thank me later.
Disfear playing "Fear and Trembling" live:
Doomriders "Crooked Path" with a picture of the 7". (I hate it when people do this.)
When I first listened to Wolfbrigade's Comalive, I thought to myself, "Can an album be this fucking gnarly? Is it possible?" Yes, friends, it is possible, and I thank Satan himself for such greatness and for allowing us to rage this hard. I thank Wolfbrigade, too, but not as much.
Known as Wolfpack before the late 90's, these Swedes have continuously pumped out righteous D-Beat crust for our listening pleasure, and Comalive does not disappoint in the least. I seriously cannot stop listening to this record. Expect to see it show up on many "Heavy Rotations" to come, assuming we actually start writing them again. I suppose I just can't get enough of the pure speed and sonic mayhem, the crunch of the guitars that just beg for fist-pumping and generally debauchery, or the vocals that make me want to yell along until my throat feels like sandpaper (with blood on it, of course).
D-Beat and crust punk is not about technicality and precision, but leaving those things behind opens the door for straight-ahead rock and roll. Wolfbrigade embraces this and delivers an album that just shreds the hell out of everything around you. Seriously, I just looked at my bed, and the whole thing was shredded. The beer can next to me? Shredded. The cats? Shredded to bits. The letter Wolfbrigade sent me saying they weren't sorry for shredding the fuck out of all the shit in my room? Completely destroyed. (It was shredded.) Don't get me wrong, this album isn't sloppy or something like that, it just doesn't pull any punches for masturbatory noodling. It's in your face like a zit in seventh grade. This album fucked your mom.
Buy this, but make sure to remove anything you want to keep in good condition from your house.
Check out the video for "Ride for a Fall" on Comalive below:
It's been a while since the last GnarVideo, but fret not... we still love you. This week's installment of our column masquerading as a finger on the pulse of the music video scene comes from the swaggeringly vicious LA boys in The Bronx. Though their latest self-titled album, unofficially referred to as The Bronx III, had the kids divided, I still will always give these bruisers the benefit of the doubt. Also, anyone that's seen them live can attest to their devotion to the sound... the energy... the power... the heart... the sexiness... the sleaziness... and the violence. So arguments about the quality of the latest album aside, we bring you their video for the single entitled "Knifeman".
This is the second video from III, though I personally consider it the first... Since their first one was just a song over some weird wrestlers in S&M-ish Tron outfits and shit. And frankly, I consider any video that doesn't have the band in it (either just acting out a narrative or pantomiming rocking the fuck out) as a serious cop-out (with the only exception being that Pearl Jam/Todd McFarlane animated video, which was the tits... The video, not the band or the song). Anywho, this latest one, like almost all their videos prior, has a very clever catch to it. This time being: the band rocking the fuck out underwater, in a pool, with their instruments and whatnot... Yes. That simple. Yet it totally makes me smile like a grin like a fuckin dummy dumdum, and I hope you do to. Have fun.
I am seriously beyond jazzed after seeing this massive bit of news... Honestly, I had no idea how last year was going to be topped with the ridiculous line-up they had (Pig Destroyer, Napalm Death, Brutal Truth, Magrudergrind, The Red Chord, Trap Them, Rotten Sound, Weekend Nachos, Cephalic, Victims, Kill the Client, Venomous Concept, Bolt Thrower, Cattle D, Phobia, Birdflesh, etc etc ... just off the top of my head). But it seems the MDF braintank deserves yet another gold medal for bill-filling again this year, as the flyers below clearly show... Rhymes.
Last year was also the first to have indoor and outdoor stages, which helped a lot with not having to be velcro'd between two giant sweaty mouthbreathers in Pestilence and Mayhem shirts for 11 hours straight... so hopefully that stays the same. But holy sharkfuck, even the "pre-party" the night before is insane! All hail the 18 second song!
UGH... I'm seriously counting down the hours... Where to even begin??? Converge, Entombed, Capitalist Casualties, Total Fucking Destruction, Verbal Abuse, Magrudergrind, Trap Them, Birds of Prey, Iron Lung, XBRAINIAX, Pretty Little Flower??? I already have a grind/crust/violence/fastcore/hardcore boner. And it is good.
We here at BFoH love some good old brutality, and we assume you do to. Because of this, I have a prepared a short list of insanely brutal jams to bash your head to. These might be heavy from start to finish, have crazy breakdowns, or just be so fast your they'll make your ears bleed. Of course there are many more intense songs out there, so these are just some off the top of my head, presented in no particular order. So have fun with these bad boys, ladies and gentlemen.
The Acacia Strain - Demolisher From start to finish, this track with fuck your shit up. Not to mention, the breakdown is one of the best I've ever heard.
Carnifex - The Diseased and the Poisoned This one will leave your body mutilated when you leave the pit.
Destroyer Destroyer - Horse Drawn These guys are just completely insane.
Cephalic Carnage - Endless Cycle of Violence Technical and fast as balls, this jam will make sure your brain doesn't work for the next 48 hours.
Ion Dissonance - OASD Super technical. Super mathy. Super heavy.
See You Next Tuesday - In the End Slow and monstrously heavy.
Me and Him Call It Us - Innocent Bystanders Watched in Horror as Peter Jennings Drew His Murder Weapon Controlled chaos? Um, sort of...
Ani DiFranco - Red Letter Year My friends, it doesn't get more brutal than trying to listen to this. Trust me.
I feel bad for sitting on this one for so long. At the beginning of October, Small Brown Bike announced they were getting back together. Not only do they have some shows scheduled, but they also said they are putting together new music, and to prove it, released a 7” with two new songs on it entitled “Composite, Volume One.” The lineup is the original members, so we should all expect the great music we loved from the band before they broke up.
Behemoth, one of Poland’s best known metal bands, started out as what would be considered a more straight-forward black metal group, but that’s changed over time. Nowadays these fellas deliver a blackened death metal sound, which is fine by me, because I can still get my rage on to it.
Overall, I think this release is pretty solid. There are some songs that I think are great, and there are some songs that I could do without. Musically, Behemoth gives you a big, fat dose of what you’d expect from a blackened death metal band. Generally, everything is at a super fast tempo, and while bludgeoning, the listener still gets the opportunity to hear the amount of talent everyone has. Inferno is fantastic with his drumming, and all guitar work is pretty intense. Behemoth uses a lot of Middle-Eastern influences throughout the compositions, and although they don’t use it nearly as much as a band like Nile, it opens up a certain amount of dimension in a genre that can lead to extremely similar sounding bands. Lyrically, it’s no surprise that most subject matter deals with the occult, and the vocals are kept in a growl.
“Ov Fire and the Void” and “Lucifer” are the standout tracks in my opinion. The others on the album are all good, but they can suffer from starting to sound the same after awhile. I’m not necessarily saying the album gets boring, however; I’m more or less pointing out that you can forget a new song has started.
I would definitely recommend this to someone who’s interested in black metal, death metal, or blackened death metal, but I would slap a disclaimer on there that it’s not going to be the best out there.
Alright, I’m sure some of you out there are asking why Dopesmoker is coming up as an Old Timer, since it was released in 2003. First of all, I would like to point out that when we first started Old Timers, we explained that we weren’t positive how old something would need to be in order to qualify. So, this album was released six years ago, and since I’m an editor for the site, I say that’s fine.
But wait! Like an amazing infomercial, there’s always more. Turns out, this album has a past some may not know about. It was released in a slightly different form under the name Jerusalem as a bootleg and then officially in 1998 and 1999 respectfully. The label carrying Sleep was causing issues, and the band didn’t want to edit any portions. However, since the song was already tracked and whatnot, it ended up getting released as said bootleg split up into sections instead of the 105 minute single song as the band intended, and then was later picked up by a label. So technically, this bitchin’ tune goes back to the 90’s. The version I am yapping about in this post is the 2003 release put out the way the band had always wanted.
So now that I got all that information out of the way, you can set your dicks to hard and get ready for the actual reasons this record is getting a post. The main reason, of course, is that it’s fucking awesome. If you want to get into stoner metal or doom metal, this is a great place to start, and if you’re already into said genres and haven’t heard this, ask your mom to bring you to the mall to pick this shit up. The version going as Dopesmoker contains the epic title track and another called “Sonic Titan,” which is recorded live. “Sonic Titan” is much shorter and a bit faster paced, but it’s not the real reason to grab this record. It’s all about “Dopesmoker.”
Listening to over an hour and a half of metal is always gnarly as balls, especially if it’s uninterrupted. Although slow, “Dopesmoker” remains super heavy, and Sleep makes sure you’ll be nodding your head like a hippie at Woodstock. Plus, while the main structure is fairly repetitive, things are broken up nicely with guitar acrobatics and musical lulls in order to keep the listener interested. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll probably zone out from time to time, but that’s the point isn’t it? Every time you return to this behemoth you’ll remember why you’ve been listening to it for so damn long, and you’ll certainly be ready to continue on.
I definitely think this is an album to revisit or check out if you’ve never given a listen. Put it on in the car with your grandma; she’ll love it.
