Ahlzagailzeguh Tools
Of The Trade
(Collapsed Hole; 3” CDR
(limited to 30); 7 tracks; 20 minutes 44 seconds)
(File
under : Heavy heavy heavy scary noise)
I like to
receive stuff when I’m not prepared to and especially when you like what you
receive and getting this 3” by New York’s Ahlzagailzeguh was certainly a very
intense surprise. This small 3” is certainly one of the best noise record to be
released in the underground noise scene in the year 2003 and the proof is that
I ask them to do a split right after the listening of his two 3”. The concept
is not new, some very disturbing noises assembled in a very chaotic way and
succeeding each others but the way they are played are certainly made to let
you taking a shit in your pants. I really don’t know how to describe you more
of this, but this is 100% heavy noise in the way I guess you should give a
listen to know what is harsh noise if you don’t… Promising project…
http://www.geocities.com/collapsedhole
Collapsed Hole/Ahlzagailzeguh
Cycloape s/t
(self-released; 3” CDR; 4
tracks; 11 minutes 02 seconds)
(File
under : When the space travel turns bad…)
This
is a big mysterious release that Patrick Beck from Malpa sent me. This small
release is a collaboration with Pat Malpa (pioneer of the primate electronic
genre) and My Brother The Cyclops (that I never heard of). This is more of
something strange because I was thinking of a more straight-forward noise like
Malpa but it sounds like some “space sounds” or maybe some sounds from Star
Trek meeting some very dangerous people and decide to kill them off. The first
track begins with some of these space ambiance and then at the second track the
noise begin, now there’s the Malpa vibe. Sincerely that’s pretty scary. These
high sounds at the third minute of the second track for example are very very
damaging for the ears. The vast sounds of the third track is very scary too
since the loops are integrated with some of these space sounds and some 80’s
sci-fi robot sounds like if they martyr captain Picard with some flesh eating
robots. The last song sounds more like the rest of the crew in another room
waiting to be tortured and hearing Captain Picard far away being tortured. Go
figure, but sincerely it’s a very promising meeting. The disc is in a small
slipcase and there’s no info so I had to write Pat to know more about it. So
the small length of the release is small and I really don’t know how many
copies are available, but I hope there’s a label to release a pro full length
of this project since it’s really good. Promising.
http://www.geocities.com/malpape/ Primate Electronics
The End Within Dividia
(Relapse; 8 tracks; 33 minutes
36 seconds)
(File
under : New generation of metalcore of death)
Just
by the cover presentation of this record you know Relapse expect to make this
band one of their best bands. And this CD plays you see that Relapse should
make The End one of the most important band of the label. I sadly never heard
much the first CD, I just heard it once I guess, but I knew I had to check this
record out… The interesting part of this is the guys behind this recording, it
was recorded at Wild Studio by Pierre Rémillard, so go figure but everything
the went out of this studio is awesome shitte (think of Misery Index’
Retaliation and Anonymus & Mononc’ Serge’s Académie Du Massacre and the new
Kataklysm was recorded there too.) So
the production is still in the vein of this crazy studio work. The End recorded
there and made a very awesome record. Unless what I was expecting, this album
is really death metal. The band that reminds me more of this is Lab Of God, but
without the thrash parts and the sludge parts. So just remains the technical
parts. The very rational squary sound reminds me a little bit of Suffocation’s
glory days but at the influence of bands like Lamb Of God and Meshuggah. The
vocals of the singer is screamingly crazy. An interesting track is the seventh
one who is more in the vein of Isis’ progressive loudness, some other tracks
feature some short parts like that too, but the seventh track is a long
progression culminating with the singer singing after 5 minutes of loudness.
The album is a short one and there’s really no place for boringness. As I said
before the presentation is very beautifull, that’s a digipack with four panel
with old scenery pictures and there’s a very beautiful 10 x 10 inlay sheet with
the same aesthetic. I don’t know, but I saw so much Relapse release in my life
that there’s so few bands on the label that got a so beautiful presentation. I
saw the band live recently too and let’s say that they are very cool live too.
I hope that this band is here to stay because they are very nice and young.
They are absolutely among my list of favourite bands nowadays…
http://www.relapse.com Relapse
http://www.allchaos.net/ The End
Ion
Dissonance Breathing
Is Irrelevant
(Willowtip; 9 tracks; 32
minutes 08 seconds)
(File under
: Extreme technical metalcore)
Okay
dudes, get a shelter right now… This debut full-length from Montreal’s new
metal sensation is sure to kick a million asses. Ion Dissonance was formed for not that long I guess and plays
technical metal like bands like Gorguts took years to generate. I mean maybe
it’s the evolution of the style, but what we got here is a fine quality with
standard that makes long running bands for amateur. Ion Dissonance really
reminds me of Gorguts’ very intense technical magicianship guitar mixed with
new metalcore rhythmic and aggressiveness. For this high fury destruction you
need a vocalist à la hauteur. And what more do you want than a fierce as
hell screaming vocals (that guy was in a black metal band called
Unquintessence, sadly I never heard them, but it interest me to…), that guy
should not have throat anymore, he scream too much. This is truly one of the
most crazy debut record I’ve heard. The fact also that this is a band from
Quebec on a very important label like Willowtip can help for the export of this
band because sometime when Quebec bands releases records on Quebec label maybe
they mostly stay in Quebec. The cover of the album is a very beautiful one, the
image of the band seems to be a very scary one, like there’ some dark places
with sunlight coming to window and ether machine on the cover and fits really
the aesthetic of the band. Songtitles are really weird and the lyrics are as
crazy as them. Man, as a great dialectician, I just can be impressed by a song
with binary codes as title and other one such as that Stalin quote “the death
of one man is a tragedy, the death of 10000 is a statistic” beginning with
lyrics like “you’re not important, being unique is a concept! Yeah, it’s
you! Who are investing way too much time, over the uselessness of the self, the
guinea pig…” and so, go figure, that’s very direct, very intense. Maybe
competing the force of the music is equal to the heaviness of the vocals and
lyrics. I hope the band will expend their destruction campaign since this debut
record is a very awesome one maybe some electronic element can expand the
craziness. So you want technical violence, don’t looks further and check this
one… Another Willowtip bomb…
http://www.iondissonance.com Ion Dissonance
http://www.willowtip.com Willowtip
Luasa Raelon As
Above, So Below
(Cipher; 2 tapes boxed set; 4
tracks; around 40 minutes)
(File
under : My noise valhala)
You know me, you read me, you know how
much I love Luasa Raelon. And when I heard that Australia’s awesome label
Cipher Record was about to release this boxed set I already got tongue in cheek
for this. The result : genius… This is a very beautiful box with tons of flyers
inside that are more than you want one with the info on all the discography of
the Ohio’s project, other are like cartoons and some with more abstract
contents. There’s music also in this box. As you know maybe Luasa Raelon, you
know that some of his records are very conceptual and this one goes among some
aspect the sound of Luasa Raelon explored through the past. The part called As
Above is mainly based on the sound exploration about the sky. I don’t really
feel if David ever explored that kind of sounds but it’s frankly interesting.
It sounds more vast and wide than what I ever heard in the Luasa Raelon
creation. I like how does Luasa Raelon always try to make some concept and
translate them in noise with a very big similitude with the way you can imagine
things, with this part of the boxed set, you actually fell like you fly. The
second tape was more of an exploration of the ocean deep sounds. Something
Luasa Raelon brilliantly explored on the 5 Miles Deep records a couple of years
ago. This time it seems that the return to the deepness of the ocean seems a
way better. The level of high energetic hydro-claustrophobia is very
interesting. The simulating effect is pretty good here. So this should be a
not-to-miss release from the Ohio genius, the problem is that this box is only
limited to 20, so I don’t know if it’s already sold out, so contact Chris of
Cipher to know, but get it if you like Luasa Raelon and as more and more people
like them, they should be sold out as I talk about it here… So maybe the next
step is that a pro label can be interested in releasing a proper pro
full-length, since there’s so much loser band that are released on pro CD in
the noise scene, maybe some justice to one of the best project in noise can be
done…
http://www.iheartnoise.com/cipherproductions/index.html Cipher
Production
http://www.iheartnoise.com/luasaraelon/index.html Luasa
Raelon
Premonitions Of War Left
In Kowloon
(Victory; 12 tracks; 26 minutes
18 seconds)
(File
under : Extreme metal as I like how it’s played…)
Victory
continues on their awesome heavy records release with the release of maybe what
will be my favourite record of 2004 : Premonitions Of War’s Left In Kowloon.
Being introduced by this band by my best friend who sport proudly one of their
shirt with a big FUCK OFF AND DIE in front of it (common, you can’t hate a
relative reference to Voïvod, well, maybe it’s not a Voïvod reference, but
anyway) I was very interested in the coming up of this records. And when I saw
that Erik Rutan (of Hate Eternal & Morbid Angel) produced this, my metal
head smiled. And that’s a pretty awesome production, sharp razor to make your
ears bleed for metal. There is always a band that you’re the only one who like
to death and that you got everything and when they disband you are the only one
who cries, well mine was Coalesce. When I heard the voice of Premonitions Of
War’s singer I was so happy to see that it sounds like Sean Ingram’s own that I
already tagged this album best record of 2004 (we were still in 2003).
Musically this album seems to be constructed in a weird structure, beginning
with very abrasive and short songs that plays in the genre of mix between
Coalesce and Knut mixed maybe a more grindy band like Pig Destoyer and
Discordance Axis and the noise factor is always impressive. Then suddenly in
the middle of the record you enter a sort of eye of the hurricane with two long
6 minute track that sounds like an old Neurosis or Godflesh with kind of tribal
circular repetitive drumming and lots of guitar and noise the second of these
track is made with electronically processed drums and vocals. then it’s a
return to a more direct style but in a more sludgy guitar way, remembering me a
lil’ bit of Soilent Green, well at least with Sabbathy riffs. So go figure,
with all the name I just drop you’re not into real 2004 metal I guess. So
Victory release so gentle metal these days, you should be scare… The artwork
was made by Aaron Turner. What is interesting with Turner’s work is that
artwork is not only for cover artwork but with the whole presentation and this
one is very dark. Well guys to present me a more destructing force of metal in
2004 you better know that my standard starts very high… This is heavy shitte…
http://www.victoryrecords.com Victory Records
http://www.premonitionsofwar.com Premonition of War
Phrank What’s
Your Pleasure
(Future Sounds/GMR; 14 tracks)
(File
under : Industradance with some Neubauten vibe)
Wow,
a guy with a pentagram tattooed on his shoulder with a horse head, how can you
hate a band like that. Phrank is a quartet from Sweden in the pure tradition of
old Einsturzende Neubauten industrial. There’s one guy playing with power tools
and metals, one drummer and one guy on keyboard and synth. That make their
label mate Spyke looks like 12 years old suckers. The basic structure of their
track is really far from being original, can even remember commercial bands
like Orgy or Rammstein, but this lack of originality in the basic of their song
structure can be forgotten in the texture of the track. All track is very
textured with some power tools, metal banging, synth or weird metal
manipulation that can make them a very interesting band. I guess playing this
mess live should be hard since there’s a lot of sounds over here. I guess
following this mechanical industrial way should be better for them than playing
commercial track to get success, in the end people should respect them more.
They also do a cover of PIL’s This is Not A Love Song and there’s a
single for this track with 5 remixes of this track. In a way this is not that
bad, but it’s not really my piece of pie. For better fucked up manipulation
like that go with Napalmed I guess, but I’ll be very interested in hearing more
from them.
http://www.gmrmusic.se GMR music
http://www.phrank.nu Phrank
Quixo/NxFxTxEx/Chefkirk 3-way
split
(Legion Sudan; CDR; 12 tracks;
63 minutes 19 seconds)
(File
under : DIY noise at it’s most radical presentation)
In this
world there’s something called popular music. There’s some sort of less popular
music but known music called alternative music. Then of those more obscure
there’s the underground music, where the people who refuse any sort of cultural
standard goes. But if you taste is to be more than a specimen of the unknown
there’s an alternative underground made of a dozen of people in contact
together and releasing few dozen copies release and they know all of those who
own their records and what they think of it. The advantage of the noise genre
is that this kind of release are often decent recordings with decent artwork
and very original sounds compared to all the shit-grind or DIY hardcore with
cardboard drum that was popular when your older brother was still wearing
sweatpants and came with this deche-charge tape. Now the CDR technology and the
access to easier recordings process make that kind of release. And what is one
of te best purveyor of that kind of release than Denmark’s own Legion Sudan
records where the motto is Quantity, Not Quality. Sounds isolationists will get
more of the most sick under-underground records for the most crazy price in the
world. This record is one that I got form month, due to the ugliness of the
artwork (apparently make of a Xeroxed toilet paper) I put it in the maybe
someday I’ll take a listen bin… But as Label-owner Eli Gudnason told me about
the greatness of the Quixo project that is on this 3-way split, a decent
listening was due. Quixo is from the USA and plays a very shiny power
electronic with static delivery and volume abuse. Sometimes more quiet,
sometimes with guitar manipulation, these quiet moments, are a kind of
preparation for the sonic turmoil of the rest of the track. The very first
track smell the scent of an electrocution and the weird loops of the third one
made me crazy. There’s a kind of musical approach too like there’s a kind of
keyboard sound in the fifth track. Eli was really right, Quixo is a very nice
project. I don’t know if I’d me able to handle more but it’s actually a pretty
nice part of the split. NxFxTxEx come to this split with a very different
approach. I don’t know, but now and you may see by the amount of review I did
of the Danish project, but I really don’t know what to expect for every release.
For the more mellow HuuHuuuuuuuuu EP and the Cannibal Hologram tape to the
unlistenable sound collage of the early works and the more diverse and worked
release of the Delusion Nag the sound of NxFxTxEx is always a mystery to me.
This one begins with a very weird loop of sound sounds that reminds me the
early songs of the Delusion Nag CDR (that was release on my own label, get it
or die!!!) and it seems that even the way to create mindfucking loops evolved.
There’s some distortion to the repetitions and there’s panning and other nice
effects, unfortunately the succession between the tracks is cheap. The second
track is ore of a feedback with some statics and some spacey sounds that
reminds me of a bike race on Saturn or a kid playing with these kind of gizmo
doing some bomb sounds that was on the market years ago. There’s also some more
mind disturbing noises. In a way it gives a good 9 minutes of noise mood. The
third rack of the NxFxTxEx part of the split begin on the same spacey path,
sounding like a distorted theremin and then goes in a very dense for of solid
noise with some invocative passage of more muscled noises. The third
participant of the split is Chefkirk for North Carolina I guess. The first
track is more of an anxious repetition of some noise layers with some looped
screams and high passage. Very nice noise to finish this split, playing more in
a conceptual side of noise, like composed with experiments parts, I’d really
like to hear more of it since it really sounds good to my ears. The problem I
got here with that kind of split is this on, when you listen to a split with
three band, there’s always the third one you’re not able to hear since the
split is too long… But Chefkirk hooked me a lot with their noise… That’s a
pretty interesting
Http://www.legionsiudan.cjb.net Legion Sudan
Spyke Divine
Decandence
(Future Sounds/GMR; 12 tracks;
46 minutes 41 seconds)
(File
under : That’s too boring to get a name)
Okay,
answer me please, how can you expect to get respected when you’re band is
called Spyke and your whimpy mascara-eyed face appears on the cover of your
records? Well these guys are really far from what I expect from a band that
looks cool. And something worst than on the cover of the disc, there’s music on
this record… Well what can you expect from a mascara-faced quintet, the worst
industrial music that even the devil’s toilet cleaner won’t listen to. They
claim as the press release says to be a cross between 70’s glam, 80’s synth pop
and 90’s industrial. That stupid comparison interested me until I put that CD
on my player… That music is in the like of Marilyn Manson but make me realise
that Marilyn Manson is a genius… That shitty keyboard with some dance beats
that reminds me of that brit band called Republica that release some albums in
the mid 80’s but without that cute
chick. I don’t bother at the lyrics since the singer sing like a guy who never
get a girlfriend outside his wet dream and feel sad since his wet dream
girlfriends left his wet dream… I should be ashamed being the record company
that produced this records and even more having my face on the cover of this
record. Sorry dudes, you suck… Leave Sweden for death metal and crust punk.
http://www.gmrmusic.se GMR music
http://www.spyke.net Spyke
Watchmaker Kill.Fucking.Everyone
(Willowtip; 19 tracks; 29
minutes 56 seconds)
(File
under : Real fucking extreme fucking metal)
Hey dudes,
get ready to wear you studded gauntlet and your bulletbelt because Watchmaker
want you dead and you should defend yourself. What can you expect from a band
who named their album kill.fucking.everyone with skulls bayoneted with
pentagram around the skulls? Well this album is I guess what should be thrash
in 2004, like an evolved version of the 80’s standard with the destructive
effects of metal’s speed, imagery and sounds at the standard of today. Common,
leave Sodom playing their old tune and play thrash for today. Watchmaker do
that perfectly with thrash beat at the speed of light, ultra-screamed vocals,
chaotic production and guitar woks, etc. The first time I hard this album the
raw factor irritated me a little bit, but at the second listen, my ear knew
what to expect. The experience was really great. Well I don’t know but if you
really want an extreme vibe to your
music go ahead with Watchmaker since they are maybe the world’s most extreme
metal band around… Thrash is always the essence of metal and go figure why it’s
still true today. I figure that listening to old thrash in the 80’s was as
extreme as this nowadays. True metallers should get this…
http://www.watchmaker666.com Watchmaker
http://www.willowtip.com Willowtip
