Thursday, October 29, 2009

R.I.P. Chuck Biscuits 1965-2009

HAHAHA BIG FUNNY HOAX! AHAHAHA OOPS!...
It's not too often that drummers in the punk world make a lasting and deeply influential mark on the world. Chuck Biscuits was definitely one of the few that did. Playing in the Canadian DOA, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Danzig, Social D and probably a shit ton of others, Chuck was definitely THE hardcore drummer. Dude is a pleasure to watch on the kit. Youtube any of his shit with the Circle Jerks or Danzig. It's infectious.

Chuck, you were the man and will be missed.


Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Tracks of the Week (In no particular order)

New ones up

Last weeks tracks:
* St. Vitus - White Stallions
* Weedeater - Gimme Back My Bullets
* Om - Inerrant Rays of the Sun
* Sleep - Aquarian
* Fukpig - Cunt Hive
* Wellington - The Toilet Bowl of Life
* Void - Organized Sports
* Tank - Biting and Scratching
* Pisschrist - Same Old Shit
* Nausea - Johnny Got His Gun

There Is Nothing Better Than Eyehategod.

There, I said it. There is nothing better than Eyehategod. I said it again. Last night's show was one of the most amazing, unreal, unholy, violent, awesome, beautiful fucking shows I have ever seen. Shit was like watching a hurricane. Amazing. Sadly or happily my camera was all out of batteries so I was forced to actually have a good time and stop worrying about shit for the entirety of their 2 hour set. Internet's loss, my gain. Go see Eyehategod. There's a reason they're the best.

Strong Intention, Tombs, Howl, and Unearthly Trance all killed it last night too. Fucking amazing all around.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Tafkata - "Worker & Parasite" and "Demo"




Blake, endless source of the gnarliest heavy shit I never listened to before but am slowly growing to crave, has supplied me with yet another fucking gem. A gem made out of addictive, sludgy, brutal but massively riffy fucking sweetness. A while back, Blake and I were shooting the shit about how I basically listen to Eyehategod a fuck load. He, in his own significantly more understated way, was like, "You're a fucking pussy. Put the fucking manpants on and listen to this Enewetak shit. Shortly after followed Unruh and Suicide Nation and blah blah blah. It will fuck your dog, beat your sister, and abscond with your Spawn action figure collection all in the same night." Well, maybe not exactly that but you know, literary fucking license n'all. Anyways, I listened to "Onward to Valhalla" and was converted to the ways of west coast evil fucking grind sludge.

Turns out that the singer and bassist of Enewetak went off after that band died and formed this band Tafkata (who according to Brendan, sounds like some Swahili word. He also thinks Enewetak sounds like a Swahili word... I'm calling the fucking wobblies on you son.) who are basically like the stoner-sludge side of the Enewetak coin and BOY AM I FUCKING EXCITED. This shit ripped me a new one straight from the beginning of the first song on the demo to the last song on the album. It's seriously like perfect doom/sludge riffs, with just the right amount of screamy grindy vocals, followed by great straight ahead hardcore breakdowns and pretty much every song clocks in at like 2 or 3 minutes so it doesn't drag ass.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

CLICK THE PICTURE FOR THE LINK.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Now For Something Completely Different



Thanks Metal Injection

Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder




If you read the last post, you'll noticed I mentioned that I had TWO heavy hitters to put up today as tribute for my lack of posting albums recently (Kinda like the Yom Kippur of metal or something). Thus, I now follow through with my most awaited album of the year. By far.

Shrinebuilder, as every metal website in the world has said, is a supergroup made up of Scott Michael Kelly (of Neurosis) Al Cisneros (of AsbestosDeath, Sleep, and OM), Scott "Wino" Weinrich (of basically every classic doom band ever including The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, and most recently Wino), and Dale Crover (Drummer of the Melvins). Basically, a legendary doom gathering of the tribes/minds/spirits/whatever.

When it comes to supergroups, I will almost always be the first one to set my expectations super, super fucking low. Hype through the roof + the reality of them being side-projects of other already amazing bands + my usual completely over the top ridiculous hyperbolic tendencies = total fucking let down with the end product most of the time. Shrinebuilder completely blows that shit away.

If I were to sum up my first couple of listens in middle school science terms, Shrinebuilder is a beautiful heterogeneous compound. In other words, when you put sugar in water it becomes the homogenous "sugar water," but when you put sand in water, it's still water and still sand. You can see both of the component parts. In Shrinebuilder, you can definitely pull out each player's contribution to the group. Not just like, "Hmmm... this song sounds a lot like Neurosis..." or whatever, but even parts of songs. I guess the most visible example of this is in "Pyramid of the Moon." You can definitely feel the Wino and SMK lead in the beginning of the song and as it progresses, the whole song pulls a slow shift towards Al Cisneros's lead until he kicks it full gear in to a Sleep/OM style drone for the 2nd half of the song. Each riff shows the fingerprint of the person who wrote it. Most riffs gotta lotta fucking fingerprints though.

Usually when a band sounds so strongly like it's components, it almost always fails at sounding like a comprehensive whole. Somehow, probably because every person involved in this project is a fucking genius when it comes to doom, Shrinebuilder feels whole. No song feels out of place, no section feels jarring or confused, no tone or note doesn't belong. That's what really makes this album interesting to me. How unbelievable the balance between the parts and the whole is from start to finish. Just listen and tell me I'm wrong.

All of this being said, Shrinebuilder is surprisingly different than what I expected, but not different than what I hoped for. I was kind of expecting Dale's tribal, crushing, war drums to be driving a Dopesmoker bassline with Neurosis uber delayed guitars and Wino singing. What I got was a whole shit ton of Wino/SMK guitars and atmosphere mixed with some OM droning and driving, Dale acting as an anchor for the band to swirl around, and everyone takes turns on the mic. It's fucking cool.

Fuck this, I've said too much. Listen to the album and tell me I'm wrong. I could talk about this band for another fucking decade man. I am so stoked to see them next month at Poisson rouge with Rwake.

Get tix now kids.

Skeletonwitch - Breathing the Fire



To atone for my lack of new jam postage, today I will not only provide you with Vitus/Saviours goodness, but I will also, for no additional fees or agreements, give to you two of NGNV's most awaited heavy hitters of the last year. The first is none other than Skeletonwitch's Breathing the Fire. Although I haven't really written much about them since Scion in like March or something, long time readers know that I fall under the "I stand for thrashing black sorcery" camp. Skeletonwitch are, first and foremost, fucking awesome musicians. The dudes have mercilessly sledgehammered out their own niche in the metalworld by throwing classic thrash with modern black metal in a way that doesn't come off as fucking cheesy camp crap (...well not all the time...) and it doesn't come off as lame, underchopped not-quite-thrash-not-quite-black-not-quite-good garbage. Secondly, these dudes put on one of the most killer live shows around. It's like a wall of be-haired thrashing meat, relentlessly bearing down upon you with the fury of over a combined century of life lived in Ohio. Pretty fucking heavy man.

Anyways, "Beyond the Permafrost" was on pretty heavy rotation when I first found it, but after a while the thin production kinda fell out of favor. It wasn't for lack of killer songs or anything, just the album didn't really translate just how fucking heavy these guys get on stage. Thankfully, Breathing the Fire takes care of that shit with... uh... aplomb. I guess... Basically, it sounds fucking great, the songs thrash like a motherfucker, Chance's vox have that great 90's black wail, the guitar riffs have me fiending like Rush for oxy, and the songs never really lose their balls. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely stand out's among the crowd but as a whole, this album makes for a great listen. Grab this shit and feel the demonic black shredpocalypse.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Joys of a Fibrously Evil Diet



470 Flushing, beware...

In honor of yesterday's post

In honor of yesterday's post, somebody sent me The Black Oven.

I don't remember who sent this but thanks. So-called Black Oven Megan, this is for you

Impaled Northern Moonforest

(NOTE: Sorry about the fucking delay, computer has been in deththrows of inverted moltenpaced grim black abazagothian slowness of frostbitten grim dooming blasphemy all day.)

(OTHER NOTE: It's really hard to stop describing shit in the blackest of abazagothic inverted blasphemers frostbitten grim goatslaughtering black metal terms once you start. Don't try it.)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

KVLT BAKKINGK

The latest installment in Black Metalers doing zany stuff.

BIG FUCKING CHANGES MAN!

Hi all, so as you might be able to tell, mad shit's goin on behind the scenes around here. I'm proud to announce the addition of the N.G.N.V. show's calendar (check the side bar ya dolts) to keep you up to date on stuff I think is worth seeing around the greater NYC area. If you hear of a show, please please please send me the details and I'll put it up. Yes, that includes your own bands kids. Get that shit to me please. The more the merrier.

Also, you may or may not notice that the site feels a little different for some reason you can't put your finger on. I finally figured out how to make it a little bit wider. Yes, I admit it. I'm a rookie and clueless but I'm learning so FOAD. Anyways, if for some reason you find it's fucking your shit up or not working lemme know so I can change it back or fix it some how.

Last but not least, I'm about half way through swapping all my files from Rapidshare to dropbox (which is why I haven't been posting a lot of albums lately. It just makes the process slower. Many apologies for that guys. They'll be back soon enough.) Anyways, it seems like everyone likes this whole dropbox thing so I'ma stick with it.

As always, if something is broken or not working on your comp lemme know. I'll make it all better. Allllllll bettterrrrrr

Lol...?

Monday, October 12, 2009

Tracks of the Week

New Tracks of the week up.

Last weeks:

* Fukpig - As The Bombs Fall
* Euclid - Gimme Some Lovin'
* Rorschach - Checkmate
* Swankys - Knife Will Not Open Because Of The Rust
* Infernal Stronghold - Thrashed Empire
* Disclose - Nuclear Explosion
* Hellbastard - The Pylons
* Sabbat - A Cautionary Tale
* Municipal Waste - The Art Of Partying
* Aura Noir - Schitzoid Paranoid

Lemme know if you want any of them.

It's Coming...







OM & NAAM @ Europa. Oct 11th, 2009

OM - Rays of the Sun/To The Shrinebuilder Pt. 1 @ Europa Oct 11th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.



OM - Rays of the Sun/To The Shrinebuilder Pt. 2 @ Europa Oct 11th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.



OM: Cremation Ghat I @ Europa. Oct 11th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.









A few weeks ago I reviewed OM's new album, "God Is Good." As you might have figured out, I wasn't overly stoked with it as a follow up to Pilgrimage/Innerant Rays of the Sun. As a follow up to Gebel Berkel it was definitely an improvement but on a whole, I like the earlier shit better. Despite the lukewarm reception to the new album, I still love that band live so I got tix to see them at Europa with Brooklyn favorites Naam. Lichens and 6 Organs of Admittance also opened for them. Naam, as always fucking killed it and are sounding tighter and tighter every day. Robert, aka: Lichens played the delay pedals in a chair. Probably cool on album, definitely good for high people live. Somewhat boring as he just sat still with a microphone and a loop box throat singing into feedback loops for 30minutes. Pass the pipe please.

As for 6 Organs of Admittance... wrong bill. Stick to coffeehouses. If members of the audience are shushing other members so they can hear the band, you're at the wrong club, with the wrong crowd, and definitely on the wrong lineup. Go elsewhere. Probably would have been good if they were playing through a shit load of amps at a crushing volume with some sort of a rhythm section. On two acoustic guitars it sounded like the shit I used to hear the less retarded hippies try (significantly less well) to play at college. No thanks.

OM on the other hand. On fucking point from minute one. Started with To the Shrinebuilder and crushed songs from each one of their albums. Could have used a little more volume on Al's bass but other than that I'd say it was pretty fucking spot on.

Om with Emil is definitely a different beast all together. I meant to ask Al and Emil about this and the new album but never really got around to it. Busy times man. Anyways, for lack of a better term, I'd say Emil is a way more extroverted drummer than Chris Hakius. Where Chris really focuses on relentlessly hammering down the groove with no regard for fills or frills, Emil is all over the kit. Fills, rolls, beat changes, whatever. Unfortunately, it tends to be really distracting from the overall vibe that Chris was so heavy on setting up and holding down. Also, hombre really needs to remember the value of a change in dynamics.

Long and short: Dude kinda drums like an adorable yet overenthusiastic puppy. You know man, you like him, it makes you happy, he's a friendly little guy with a good heart that's in the right place but too noisy for the hunt. But, for this job, old yeller kicking around on the porch just chilling is the mutt for the job in this case.

Oh yeah, almost forgot one minor detail. OM now has three members. Robert of Lichens was doing all sorts of crazy shit like PLAYING FUCKING GUITAR! Yes, OM now has a guitar, a keyboard, some tambourine percussiony stuff, and a shit ton of delay effects. It's cool I guess. Again, somewhat distracting but really not too bad. I'm more of a minimalist though when it comes to my post-Sleep stoner drone doom.

Ok, now that I've gotten all the nitpicky annoying shit out of the way, this show layed it the fuck on. Thick. In the best way possible. It fucking ruled.

Al and Emil and Rob fucking barreled into the set and did what they do best. Play music to headbang slowly to. The audience and the band were totally on the same page, Al didn't miss a note, the new effects dude added some interesting new sections on to old songs that I wasn't expecting and definitely wasn't disappointed with. At one point between the last 2 songs of the set before the encore I actually heard Emil say to Al, "Man let's play more, the vibe is perfect in here." or something to that effect. All the songs were a little heavier and just barely faster than I remember them and it felt fucking good. Yesssss.

Next time though, Emil, dude, leave your pants on and stay behind the drumkit, you're harshing my mellow brah.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Weedeater Is God



Yup, the play count just keeps fucking climbing. More addictive than codeine cough syrup.

Shredpocalypse

Junkies Vs. Nazis in Japan. Whoa.

Insect Warfare in London

My boys Jim and Alex from London had the pleasure of experiencing Insect Warfare at their finest.











To see more sick shots (including a wet t-shirt contest) go to Alex's Webpage

When I met Jim he looked something like this:


Here's the video he shot.



Hail.

EYEHATEGOD, EUROPA, MONDAY OCT 26TH $15

With Unearthly Trance, Tombs, Howl, and Strong Intentions.

Fucking be there.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Oh Those Zany Norsemen

Just look at their crazy antics now...

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Tracks of the Week (In no particular order)

New ones up.

Last weeks tracks
* Motörhead - Killed By Death
* Motörhead - Bomber
* Weedeater - Monkey Junction
* Weedeater - God Luck and Good Speed
* Bongzilla - Greenthumb
* Electric Wizard - Return Trip
* From Ashes Rise - Uniforms
* DS-13 - Youth Crew Über Alles
* Hawkwind - Orgone Accumulator
* Fondlecorpse - Pillage Burn Kill

Friday, October 2, 2009

Whoa, Grisly.

Foul Play Man

Advice for the day

Listen to Tragedy & don't be a dick.

Fukpig - Spewings From A Selfish Nation



I know I posted about this album being on Abattoir666 the other day but shit is just too good to not post. Know how most of the time when somebody tries to combine a million different awesome things in to one package it usually turns in to some sort of cluttered, way to self-aware, annoying, steaming pile of shit? Yeah, well not Fukpig.

If you can get past the name, this band is one of the best fucking things I've listened to in ages. 2 of the dudes from Anaal Nathrakh got together and basically threw Tragedy, World Burns to Death, English grind, 2nd gen black metal, Motörhead and a huge helping of Swedish death metal into the fucking blender and Fukpig is what poured out. Un. Real.

When I first grabbed it off Abattoir666 I was expecting something along the lines of super straight ahead, grinding, snarling death metal. Within about 3 seconds my expectations were smashed as the D-beat/Entombed guitar/Tragedy Meows (you know, that like meeeee meee mmeeeee meeee meee meeeeeoooooowwwww thing Todd does with his guitar all the time? Yeah, that's officially been dubbed the "meow." Fucking deal with it.) dove straight out.

I'd break down every song for you but fuck it. Just listen to this shit and try to tell me I'm wrong. This album definitely works best when listened to as a whole though. It'll definitely be one of the best 30min of the day.

EDIT: OK so I say if you like Disfear and old Swedish Death Metal you'll fucking love this. Blake says it's like a more black metal Nasum. Opinions?

CLICK THE PIC FOR THE ALBUM.