Arthur Brown - The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown

The ineffable Arthur Brown --- Evil pyromaniacal occult hippy musick

...and certainly a bigtime influence on the Norwegian corpsepaint aesthetic

cool poster from catesatomicgarden 

The Crazeee Woild

Psyche Out: Don Bradshaw-Leather - Distance Between Us

Dark Psychedelia will be the name of the game around here for a little bit, and I wanted to start things out with an enigmatic album that I just recently stumbled upon: Don Bradshaw and a gal named Leather's soul-occult psyche freakout from '72. It's difficult to even describe this. I can only say it is haunting, powerful, horrific, insane, beautiful....I could go on but I think I'll stop right there. Do some research on this guy, it's fascinating the conjecture and mythology that people go into. Does no one actually know who this was?!? Anyway, I've been listening to these youtube clips the past few daze and I advise you to do the same. No link, but music this ephemeral should not sit on your computer anyway, it should settle deep in your mind only to come alive during those darkest moments when surreality can offer the only escape.

Harptallica - Harp'Em All

Do you like Metallica? Do you like Harps? Well your dreams have just come true then mutherfuckers. Seems like these two talented string plucking vixens are having lots of fun reworking the classics...Hopefully the follow-up Ride The Lyreing is already in the works.

Harp'em

Ornament of Disgrace

I think if this demo would've come out nowadays it would go over huge. OOD's brand of technical murky Incantation/Portal type death metal is on the uprise, but back at the turn of the century, it was definitely not de rigueur. These 5 songs are actually pretty great, interesting riffs with a trebly guitar tone and drumming that at times can get super abstract (really cool cymbal work), which helps give everything an avant-garde ritualistic type of vibe. I actually designed a logo for this band.  It was fuckin' tight with lots of spikes and snakes, but they went with this lame ass logo instead. No accounting for taste I suppose.
PS this is not the demo listed on Metal Archives...I got this in 2001 or thereabouts.

Ornament of Disgrace

Loits - Vere Kutse Kohustab

Not too many other bands of note coming out of Estonia these daze, cept maybe for these goofballs or these goofballs. So give it up for some excellent Militant Flak'n'roll, let's hear it for Loits!!

Vere kuste Kohustab

Corneus - Teufelschmand

Dangerous Keyboard-driven blackness that employs an angry-ass pit bull for vocals...a must listen!!!

Teufelschmand

Ferocity - Puzzled Into Various Spaces

Ferocious...puzzling...spacey....all worthy adjectives to describe this incredibly obscure '97 German tech death/jazz dream. This is some unsettling shit all built around Cynic/Atheist style guitar acrobatics with an atonal avant-garde edge that places it on the weirder side of Pestilence's oft-maligned (but incredible nonetheless) Spheres. This is somehow even more "out-there" than any of those bands...if you don't believe, make sure to check out the incredibly fucked and un-fuckable with 10 minute closer "Yellow Puzzle"...it is fantastic, and addicting with half-sung vocals incoherently riding over unintelligible death growls, clean guitar passages and jazz bass fucking with your mind...ridiculous abstract/poetic lyrics about nature. I can't say enough good things about this demo....the only thing this band released by the way. Some members would go on to play with Necrophagist right around the release of Onset of Putrefaction...but I prefer Puzzled to anything by them. A technical masterpiece abstracted and reassembled by psychos. I can't recommend this enough!!

Puzzled Into Various Spaces

Stone - No Anaesthesia!

Stone were a great Finnish thrash band that pumped out some gems in the late 80's/early 90's. No Anaesthesia! was their sophomore release and is definitely my favorite, sounding like an even more melodic Ride The Lightning era Metallica...but instead of writing songs about Kt(h)ulu these guys penned an epic 10 minute song about...a dentist appointment?!

How do you want it?
No anaesthesia
He's the dentist, you are a patient in pain
No anaesthesia
You're a special client so he locks the door
Please dear doc, drill my hole with
No anaesthesia
Let's see what you can take 'cos he's no fake

FUCK YEAH!! This is thrash just hows I like it, and if you've got a thrashing bone in your body you'll be banging to these tunes in no time.

No Anaesthesia!

Chastain - The Voice Of The Cult

An absolutely essential heavy metal masterpiece released on Leviathan Records back in 1988. Dark, melodic, technical and featuring the fantastic vocals of Ms. Leather Leone...

The Voice Of The Cult

ALF Projekt - Melmac Rock

You had your brain blown by RALF Projekt, now how bout a little ALF Projekt?!!...maaaan that Gordon Shumway could blow, but we all know he was just trying to impress that nosy bitch Raquel.

Melmac Rock

link courtesy of http://sluggisha.blogspot.com