Ritual - Naisha

From British band Ritual's Valley of the Kings album.  If this was what ancient Egypt was like, I need me a time machine pronto.

Legend - Fröm the Fjörds

Cult, cult, cult heavy metal from 1979.  Key tracks include The Destroyer and the amazing drum solo during Iron Horse.  Fucking drummer goes off!!

From the Fjords

Imperial Crystalline Entombment - Apocalyptic End in White

You fuckers take care and try not to slip in some I.C.E.

Snowpacalypse

Candlemass - Nightfall

One of the best doom metal records ever featuring the indomitable Messiah Marcolin on vox!  Go ahead and stretch out those hammies, cuz you're gonna be doing some serious doom dancing to this one. Little tidbit on the video, the infamous Dead from Mayhem is one of the "Bewitched" (Long blonde hair right behind Messiah), pretty awesome metal history right there!

Nightfall

Shaft In Africa: OST

This one's sure to warm them cold winter bones...just like Shaft warmed his in those sweet jungle fuck huts.

Shaft In Africa

Belfegor - In the Kingdom of Glacial Palaces

Yeah, it's a real ice palace out there today.

Fucking Ice Palace

Return To Forever - Where Have I Known You Before

On these cold nights, you want the hottest most athletik jazz you can find...

...in this galaxy at least.

Where Have I Known You...

Frozen Shadows - Hantises

More fuckin' cold weather...freezin' my hantises off over here!!

Hantises

Khors - Cold

Goddamn it is fucking Cold out there!!

Cold

Time to heat things up

This is some insane stuff.  I would think he'd have to be on a whole bunch of somethin' or other to withstand that kind of pain.  KaBOOM!!

Immortal - Blizzard Beasts

Only seems appropriate on the coldest day of the year.

Blizzard Beasts

Blood Revolt - Indoctrine

Blood Revolt?  More like Spud Revolt. Irish gangster AA Nemtheanga croons wildly over a backing band of Canadian badasses...some sort of high falutin' concept about death and destruction during the potato famine. There's a lot to like about this album, beginning with the seemingly incongruous mix of clean singing and the hotter than hell Revenge style blastathon (with a heavy dose of Sacramentary cum Axis plodding doom).  It works for the most part, only occasionally veering into war metal karaoke (not a bad idea for a bar theme night, eh?). If these folks take another stab at it, I'd like to see the Primordial production treatment given to the instrumentation of Vermin and Read. I think with a more expansive (less dungeoness) sound, this beast will really sprout wings and soar. Until then, my interest remains piqued.

Indoctrine

Creation Is Crucifixion - Automata

Anti-tech Tech-grind (how's that for irony) with a real spare production...half of it is electronic glitches, the other half is pummeling riff awesomeness galore.  Fucking get it.

Automata

Hyperborean Desire - ...v kruhu veskerenstva

Bizarre riff combinations harmonize with early Borknagar like keyboard work producing an enchantingly menacing atmosphere that places ...v kruhu veskerenstva well within the boundaries of weirdo Czech Metal tradition.

...v kruhu veskerenstva

Lunatic Gods - Ante Portas

Terrific Slovak band that runs the gamut from Voivod to Rotting Christ to Lykathea Aflame and back.  They have also produced one of the most badass music videos I've seen recently.  Enjoy the Avant-Garde Tech Gypsy Metal Supreme!!

Ante Portas

Psychopath - The Soul Personification Demo 1990

Found this gem at the Lockjaw blog the other day, and what can I say other than this is some real hotshit! Psychopath's Making the Transition should be held in the highest esteem by those who love idiosyncratic thrash magick.  These demos represent the first half of that album almost note for note; wrapped in that raw demo charm. ...so I guess the question is - how much charm can you take?

The Soul Personification

Victor Wooten - Soul Circus

Good ol' Vic Tooten Wooten. Buck-toothed bassist extraordinaire lets his inner funkadelic shine through. You can tell Vic absolutely adores Bootsy Collins. This is a straight up fun album, although there are few cringe-worthy moments, especially the so awful its brilliant "Cell-Phone". Vic is like a man possessed on that fretboard.  Get him and Buddha Dickens in a room together and see what happens.

Hell-Phone

Vedervärdig - Demons

Pretty wild sounding post-apokalyptik power elektronix noize jazz from Sweden.  You will have to crank this to 11.

Demons

Enslaved - Eld

Just look at Grutle sittin' there thinking he's Astor's plush horse...well, on Eld he was, and so was Ivar, and so was the new drummer Harald Helgelson (who replaced the almighty Trym).  

Enslaved basically took 3 years off between Frost and Eld, and they came back with a little bit more spit and a tiny bit more polish.  I can't say that they matured, because Enslaved were always mature songwriters (Vikingr Veldi is waaaay sophisticated shit!), but these boys never would've been able to write a song like 793 unless they spent some time meditatin' beneath that elusive Bodhi tree.

Eld is expressive and lush, a departure from the alienating iciness that was the charm of Frost. The guitars have a wonderful static roll to them that lap over you like waves on a longboat...Ivar's riffs remain strange, as if he was trying to figure out how to play Voivod riffs, couldn't quite get there, and let them mutate into his own Viking headspace. No one will ever call his git playing flashy, but listen to the challenging riffs in Alfablot, and you'll begin to understand...Grutle is both berserker and yeoman (as always), but on Eld he really outdoes himself, displaying a passion that can only come by being totally convinced of the superiority of your material (and yourself, why aren't any other band members on the cover?) 

Drummer Harald's style is flat out unusual with super creative fills, unorthodox blasts, and toms reminiscent of kettle drums--all of which he uses to lay down some serious battle percussion. He may not be my favorite Enslaved drummer (that honor goes to Mr. Dirge Heep) but I can't imagine anyone else drumming on Eld. 

As with any great album, it's about the little moments that become engraved in your mind. For me it's the 2 harmonically picked bass notes played before the opening riff of Forgotten (Glemt). This is just so sweet..the tone of the notes right before this amazing riff always gets me...When people talk about epic metal, the discussion needs to begin and end with Eld.  Enslaved would go on to release other fantastic records (Monumension being a favorite) but this is a pinnacle that might go unmatched.

Eld

Gower - Baneful Apparitions of the Thicket

Yowzer, it doesn't get much more lo-fi than this.

Baneful Apparitions

Famulus ab Satanas - Sacred Assembly Beneath Unholy Sacristy

Primitive and cyclic ritual black metal from Finland

Sacred Assembly Beneath Unholy Sacristy

Octinomos - On the Demiurge

I'd love to see this airbrushed on the side of a van somewhere. Blasting and surprisingly memorable black metal with some twisting riffs, slight trash influence and awesome neoclassical interludes.  The lesson here?  Dodgy photoshop work ≥ nifty black mottle!

Demiurge

Cardiacs

Cardiacs were a founding group of the British pronk scene of the '80's.  First known as Cardiac Arrest in the early part of that decade, they expanded to a 5 piece and made some incredibly strange music. Like fellow pronksters Uz Jsme Doma, Cardiacs were accomplished musicians and quite technical in their approach.  Witness the video of ringleader Tim Smith crooning unbelievably while handling guitar duties with aplomb (where's the fucking dog!?!).  Ironically, Mr. Smith recently suffered his own cardiac arrest, effectively knocking him out of commission from Cardiacs.  One hopes that he recovers and they someday play again, because this is some great stuff.


Awhile back I tried to learn the guitar solo to Day is Gone.  Tough Stuff!!  The links are for compilations of Cardiacs material; Archives being early stuff, while Various is later material, and a tribute.

Archives                    Various                    Tribute

Skull Fuck - Boner Appetite

Sheer Brilliance recorded at the infamous DeLuxe Studios

Boner Appetite

Octagon - The Spectacles Held So Dear

"Singular to the very last, this is warring esoteric metal of the highest order:  Labyrinthine angularity, effectively fleeting bouts of lucid melodicism, black/death/doom/war/goat-contortionism with an added, profound poignancy, chaotically, self-combustible but loose'n'logical all the same, alchemical metallurgy defined - without hyperbole, you need to hear this band right-fucking-NOW" ...from Nathan Birk's wonderful Apokalyptik Raidz column Jan '05 issue of the now sadly defunct Metal Maniacs...I just wanted to get it cuz the title made it sound like it was about a very special pair of reading glasses...maybe a Rosebud type of situation. Notwithstanding all that, this is a very unique album which to my ears sounds like a mix between Canadian culters Rites of Thy Degringolade and the Dirty South sounds of Nawlean's Acid Bath...an intriguing proposal.

The Spectacles Held So Dear

Forest Gates - Syroe Dyhanie Tumanov

Russian Black Doom with a unique volkish-reptile twist. Reminds me of the ruff'n'rugged Old West.
Real slimy stuff.

Syroe Dyhanie Tumanov

Bull Moose Jackson - Bad Man Jackson

If you like your music raunchy and accompanied by a dirty, honkin' sax, then BMJ is the man for you.  How can you not like a guy that comes up with songs like Moose on the Loose...Nosey Joe...Sneaky Pete...I Want A Bow Legged Woman...Big Fat Mammas Are Back In Style Again...and Big Ten Inch Record (later covered by Aerosmith).  Raw and Ribald R&B!

Bad Man Jackson

Nav' - The Wolf Sun

Sinful and slimy, an all out thrash attack. Definitely the best Russian black metal...

The Wolf Sun

Chick Webb - The Little Big Man

Chick with Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman

Chick Webb was a legendary jazz swing drummer who was well known for battle of the band type stunts and headlining the famous Savoy Ballroom in Harlem during the 1930's...he is perhaps best known for discovering singer Ella Fitzgerald.

Chick and Ella

Chick was only about 4 and a half feet tall because of a painful spine condition, but still retained normal adult sized limbs and hands.  In this collection of his recordings, there is a nice creepy atmosphere (the kind that seems to accompany all old jazz recordings).  Chick seems to be a master at letting the song shine and not showboating too much, although there are a few solos that will have you scratching your head asking yourself "How in the hell does he do it?"

Chick Webb...Beast of