Secrecy - Art In Motion

Technical German thrash that at it's best recalls the Baroque chordal sensibility of Blackie era Root (I'm especially reminded of Black Seal for some reason), setting this band apart even further are the Buddy Lackey-esque vocals of Peter Dartin. I love love love the solos on this album!

Art In Motion

Hyperspeed

FUUUUUUCCCCCKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!

UzJD on WFMU

Live Uz Jsme Doma...the best of Czech! Since when did Miroslav turn into the blonde Gallagher?...and speaking of Gallagher, any updates on that melon crackin' son of a bitch?

Shinjuku Thief - The Witch Haven

Bombastic ambiance that borders on martial industrial at times, but retains just enough of the drone influence to keep everybody happy. I've been cranking this when I've been doing P90X...strangely good workout musick.

The Witch Haven

Xynfonica - A Feast For Famished Ravens

Tardcore has been ramped up a notch brothers and sisters. Improvised guitar-synths, after hours jazz and creepy growled intonations. Put out by the always solid Hekaloth. Handle with cares.

A SLoppy Feast

Za Frumi - Za Shum Ushatar Uglakh

Ha haha this band is crazy! You think Summoning is obsessed with LOTR, this band takes it to a whole nother level! The vocalizations are a highlight as it's all in orcish complete with wildass orc intonations. Hilarious, mesmerizing and delightful!

Za Shum Ushatar Uglakh

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.

Cro Magnon - Zapp !

Sometimes you just gotta get your RIO skronin'-groove on. FUckin' loooooove this album....so come on, get Zapped!

Zapp !

Gloomy Grim - Life?

If one were to take an LSD fueled boatride down Disney's It's A Small World exhibit (or maybe even Epcot's Imagination Land), Gloomy Grim should most likely be your soundtrack of choice...that Figment character always struck me as quite grim anyways.

Life?

X-Panda - Flight Of Fancy

Prog mastery from this young and curiously named band that hails from Estonia of all places!!

Flight Of Fancy

Lunatic Invasion - Totentanz

Some more of that peculiar brand of German grunge death that everybody + their mom's been diggin' on...Equal parts Incubator weirdo-doom, Vaccuum atmospheric-death and Desalin idio-tech thrash. How's that for some obscure references??

Dance O'Death

Pyogenesis - Ignis Creatio

Gargantuan atmospheric death metal...rockin' when it wants to, soulful when needs be, and epic fuckin' always.

Ignis Creatio

Obscura - Omnivium

Even better than Cosmogenesis...Grosseman is an absolute machine on this album, and golden boy on bass is superb as usual. One of theeee best rhythm sections in contemporary death metal.

Omnivium

Formloff - Adjø Silo

Surreal Nordic metal that'll have your toes tapping and your dog's barking (especially during Vaskebjoernen A.l.e.k.s.). Imagine Sculptured's back-catalogue being remixed by that Cornelius mutherfucker from Solefald...real fun stuff!!

Pup'n'fresh

Root - The Temple In The Underworld

I can think of no better album to cap off Czech Madness Month than Root's magnificent 3rd full-length from '92. This is where the band really started branching out of black metal into more classical metal territory. Big Boss crooned as never before...Blackosh slowed things down, sometimes into doom (I don't think a song like Aposiopesis happens without the influence of a band like Citron)...and perhaps most significant was the addition of a crackerjack young drummer name of Rene "Evil" Kostelnak, the drummer from Blackosh's incredibly powerful death/black/atmospheric side project Crux. Evil added such creativity to this squad of visionaries that he just pushed them over the edge into sublime waters. This may not be as complete an album as The Book or Black Seal...but the band were perfecting their craft by that point...here they are still young and hungry, biting at the chain. Hell, Big Boss still had hair!!
P.S. I've included the bonus song Prohibition in this link...one of the most kick-ass Root songs ever!!

The Temple In The Underworld

Už Jsme Doma - Uprostřed Slov

Although I've only recently gotten into these guys, they have quickly become one of my all-time favorite bands. 1990's Uprostred Slov perfectly displays their mastery of Gypsy-avant-pronk-RIO-inflected Wagnerian-ska!!

Uprostred Slov

Sad Harmony - Somnabul

What an underrated band!! Their full-length from 2006 reminds me of a more psychedelic version of Cale's magnificent alt-rock album Uncommon Excursion; which makes sense because they were made around the same time and share the vocal talents of Skunky, who is in fine form as always. This one's good for those chill Friday evenings after work when all you want to do is kick back and relax. Go ahead and pour yourself that Krusovice tmavé...Skunkers would approve.

Somnabul

Lykathea Aflame - Elvenefris

A further development on the tenderness v. strength proposition that was developed in their Appalling Spawn daze, but this time featuring upstart drum superstar Tomas Corn...so the percussion is much tighter and adventurous this time around. I'm actually not as high on Elvenefris as a lot of people seem to be...it is long-winded at an hour and some change (honestly, most tech-death albums wear out their welcome after about 30 minutes), but there are truly breathtaking moments sprinkled throughout (To Give and Flowering Entities springing instantly to mind); not a perfect album but brilliant in it's own audaciousness.

Elvenefris

Silent Streams of Godless Elegy - Themes

Themes combines chamber RIO with pop song structures and wraps it all in a warm gypsy death metal tortilla. It seems like it shouldn't work, but SSOGE pull off the production with great finesse and aplomb. Just listen to Winter Queen or Lovin' On The Earth if ya don't believe...this is some seriously catchy stuff!!

Themes

Root - Black Seal

This is a highlight in Root's discography. Never before had they been this dark and technical in their approach.  A superb mixture of hellish atmosphere and progressive thrash (actually quite a few of the riffs remind me of Hell Awaits). No one can beat those wide open slightly atonal Blackosh guitars...the man is a master, how he can turn those Voivodian chords into a baroque, gothic nightmare is beyond words, and beyond me! Big Boss goes off (as usual), and special mention has to be made of Evil's drumming. I can't say enough good thing's...he's just in the pocket and oh so creative (especially during Theriak, holy shit!!) A wonderful album that reveals itself to be a true masterpiece after repeated listens.

Black Seal