By Steve Earles

Once upon a time, not so long ago, before the internet turned much of the western world’s population into isolated recluses, the tape-trading network was the lifeblood of the underground metal scene. In this spirit, Darkness Shade Records has produced three fine cassette releases.

The first, Orbis’ Forest Illuminations is a dark ambient affair. Much ambient music is simply an excuse for the talentless to indulge in aural torture and deem it art. However, Orbis are an exception, their sound perfectly capturing the darkness and light of the forest. As a man who appreciates the mirror of the soul a walk through the forest can be to those who are open to it, I very much enjoyed this.

Next is a limited edition (only 100 copies! Hurry!) of Old Corpse Road’s The Echoes of Tales Once Told. Now, Old Corpse Road are a band I’m very much familiar with, having interviewed them for Zero Tolerance magazine, Live4metal webzine and Bad Acid CD/DVD/Magazine. They are a band with all the positive attributes of black metal and none of its negatives.

Having had the pleasure of reviewing this fine demo in it’s original three-track CD format, I have no hesitation at declaring that OCR are one of the most intelligent, original and exciting bands to have emerged from the underground in many a moon. They follow in the tradition of such bands as Sabbat, Cradle of Filth and The Meads of Asphodel, (with the raw power of classic Venom for good measure) and now signed to Godreah Records (where they have already shared a split with the mighty Meads). This is a band with a bright future in front of them.

The cassette format actually enhances the demo’s sound somewhat (vinyl would be good too). So we have the three songs from the original demo, “The Old Corpse Road”, “The Wild Hunt”, and “The Oakmen of Needle Forest”. Three fine pieces of song-writing, performed with emotion and sincerity. The two bonus tracks (exclusive to the cassette release), “Hell’s Kettles” (not about Satan knocking up a quick cuppa!) and “The Song of Amergin”, (Amergin was a Celtic bard, which is apt for a band of storytellers) both of which are fine songs and easily of the same quality of the original demo.

Finally, we have the latest relief from the prolific Orbis, The War Trilogy, and excellent as Forest Illuminations was, this shows an admiral progression, both musically and atmospherically. While the sounds of the forest are natural and pleasing, the ultimate legacy of mankind is war, and The War Trilogy captures the horror and dark emotive depth of World War Two with a grandeur worthy of Milton.

To conclude, three fine and admirable releases from Darkness Shades Records, who also deserve kudos for going against the prevailing trends of the 21st century and releasing something warm and encompassing in the process.

www.darknessshaderecords.tk

e-mail: darknessshaderecords@googlemail.com

e-mail: wraiths@oldcorpseroad.co.uk

By Kevi Metal

Hi friends. It’s been a while. I know it. Sean certainly knows it. You, on the other hand, probably didn’t even notice I was gone. That’s okay. In my absence, I heard a rumour that some people have reaffirmed a love affair with vinyl. Some of these people even own turntables! Fucking crazy!! So, in salutary notion to those of you keeping it real (and even to those of you keeping it false because, well, you own 200 records but don’t own an actual device to play them on) and the labels who graciously send us their latest releases on varying colours of wax, I present the all-vinyl edition of Rimshots.

A.N.S./RAMMING SPEED
SPLIT 12”
(TANKCRIMES)

These two bands bring me back to the carefree days of my youth: backwards baseball caps, falling off skateboards, getting in shit at school everyday, wearing ill-fitting clothes, playing in shitty bands, not getting laid because I was such a geek…Wait a damn second… it would appear that my youth sucked. Fuck both these bands for dredging up all those terrible memories! [7.5/10]

GEHENNA
LAND OF SODOMY II 7”
(A389)

“Gehenna is the sound of endless warfare,” they say. I say Gehenna is the sound of the endless liberation, use and abuse of parts of riffs from Hell Awaits and a drummer who needs to practice to a metronome. They do know the sound of amazing packaging schemes, though. [6/10]

GRAVEHILL
PRACTITIONERS OF FELL SORCERY
(A389)

I’ll bet you my entire next Hellbound paycheque that if you saw a picture of this band, at least one of the following items would make an appearance: a leather vest; mirrored aviator shades; an Obsessed by Cruelty long sleeve; at least one person would be holding a beer; there would be more than a few double chins in the room; and one guy (probably the drummer) would have short hair. [7/10]

GRIFFIN
LIVE ’82 7”
(NUCLEAR WAR NOW!/SNAKEPIT MAGAZINE)

There’s about as much reason for this artifact from metal’s distant past to exist as there is a need for traffic laws in Marathon, Ontario. And if you’ve ever been to Marathon, Ontario, you’ll know what the fuck I’m talking about. [5/10]

THE LOVE BELOW/HOMEWRECKER
SPLIT 7”
(A389)

“Colleen” is an friend of mine who walked out on her marriage and kids because, after years as a domestic engineer, loving parent and gainfully employed individual, she caught the itch to ditch responsibility and her stuffy existence. Last I heard, she was living a party girl’s life, addicted to alcohol, pills and a variety of hard drugs. Both these bands sound like what her bloodstream probably looks and tastes like at this moment. [6.5]

MIGHTY SPHINCTER
RESURRECTION 7”
(A389)

I used to work in an emergency room. One night, a gay couple came in. Apparently, in the quest to construct the perfectly moulded, anal sex toy, Gay Dude #1 let the concrete he poured into Gay Dude #2’s anal cavity solidify a bit too much. I’d rather listen to the affected, ecstasy-addled weeping of Gay Dude #1’s mid-morning stress-related breakdown than listen to Mighty Sphincter ever again. [2]

PALA
WE ARE NOTHING
(A389)

“Sara” is a friend of mine and she’s a prototypical butch dyke. She’s pretty big and pretty angry, but gets super mellow when she dips into her seemingly bottomless stash of weed. She’ll sink into a couch like no one you’ve ever seen before, but out of the blue, she’ll sometimes laughingly punch any males in proximity in the cock with lightning speed and accuracy. This band sounds like what the cock of one of her unsuspecting victims must feel like. [7/10]

PENETRATION PANTHERS
PERPETUAL 80s 7”
(A389)

Perpetual 80s indeed, as in, “Let’s not only sound like 80s proto-punk, but go into this sounding like we haven’t tuned our instruments, improved upon our musical ability or practiced as a band since the 80s either!” [3/10]

PHARAOH
PHARAOH 7”
(A389)

Pharaoh is the sort of doomy, noisy, metalgaze band you’re happy to listen to after a day spent listening to the shit your girlfriend listens to. Not the sort of thing you’d throw on at first opportunity, but they’re good enough to make throwing them on a non-regrettable selection. Pharaoh, the Real Doll of metal. [6]

PULLING TEETH
FUNERARY 2 x LP
(A389)

“Dave” is a friend of mine who balances a wife and at least a two extra marital hook ups on the side, with none of the women knowing anything about the existence of the others. Funerary is the sound inside his head on those nights when all three are simultaneously on the rag and poking at him for emotional support and visceral attention. [8/10]

SERAPHIM
THE LIGHT IN THE DISTANCE
(A389)

The weirdest thing about The Light in the Distance has nothing to do with the band or their somewhat rocking take on sludge metal. Nope, it’s all about how much louder, fuller and all-around better sounding the vinyl sounds when compared to the CD version of the same album. Dom 1, Will, 0. [7.5/10]

VARIOUS ARTISTS
MIGHTY SPHINCTER TRIBUTE 7”
(A389)

I’d rather listen to the scrape of surgical instruments against the concrete lodged in Gay Dude #2’s ass again than voluntarily let this anywhere near my turntable. Ever. [1/10]

WITCH LORD
ATOMIZED IN THE BLACK SOLARIAN
(A389)

I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark and guess that someone was fucking stoned to the tits and listening to Black Sabbath when they named this band, titled this album, wrote these songs, designed the artwork, woke up this morning, had breakfast… [4/10]

WITHDRAWAL
FAITH, FLESH AND BLOOD 7”
(A389)

Somebody check to see if hell has frozen over. A hardcore band from Winnipeg has just released a 7” that’s a hundred times more fucking evil than anything that’s come out of Norway since the 90s. All that and they probably own better quality winter coats as well. [8/10]

By Rob Kachluba

I recently received In Times Of Solitude in the mail from Massacre Records and I gotta say, this is a must for diehard Solitude Aeturnus fans. Of the nine tracks, longtime vocalist Robert Lowe only sings on tracks eight and nine, a live rehearsal and “Mirror Of Sorrow”. Their original vocalist sings on their original five-song demo, a couple of these songs went on to be on their debut album: “Transcending Sentinels,” “Where Angels Fear to Tread” and “Mirror of Sorrow.” Original vocalist Chris was not a bad singer. He’s not as powerful as Lowe but he wrote great lyrics and had an unorthodox delivery. First track “It Came Upon One Night” is just an awesome track. Tons of Trouble style riffs with even a mid-paced Metal Church riff  in it. For you collector nerds, the LP comes in a gatefold sleeve, housing clear vinyl and tons of liner notes of their early beginnings, as documented by John Perez. As I said before, a must for fans of the band, just make sure not to wait too long, as this is a hand-numbered edition out of 500 copies.

(Massacre Records)

By Kyle Harcott

Released in advance of their [out now!] full-length on Northern Horde, Gainesville’s Hot Graves give us a taste of their brand of headripping thrashy D-beat on this seven-inch, comprised of two originals and an Anti-Cimex cover.

The title track opens with zero fucking around, Hot Graves clearly all about the go-for-the-throat. Tearing the gate from its hinges with a righteous D-beat attack, Hot Graves counter their crust with covering-fire riffs that are straight-up Florida death-metal. The whole thing sounds righteously ugly, like it was recorded in an analog sewer; crust falling off of the guitars with every stroke of the strings. But then shit gets weird around two-thirds of the way thru the song, when in the midst of all guns blazing, Hot Graves decide they want to go all funeral doom and lay it on thick and slow. But like the proverb says, what slows down must go fast and soon enough the Graves are finish up the fray with more ripping madness.

Track two is ‘Baphomet’s Revenge’ which serves up some straight-up thrash with its crust, then alternates a little fullbore blastbeat action for shits’n’giggles, cherry-topping the works off with a Kerry King-styled solo for good measure. Hints again of Floridian death metal’s influence rearing its ugly head.

Finally, there’s the cover of Anti-Cimex’s ‘Make My Day’, one ripping minute and twenty-eight scorching seconds of no-frills discrust. Straight, to-the-point like a short, sharp shock, ‘Make My Day’ is a nonstop pummelling that pays perfect homage to the original musically, but manages to smear Hot Graves’ DNA all over it with belchy deathgrunt vocals.

In the mood for some thrash-worship discore that manages to fuck up the mix with occasional blastbeats and/or molasses-slow doom? Pick up this seven-inch from Hot Graves as a taster, or as a companion piece to their just-released full-length, Knights in White Phosphorus.

(Greyhaze Records)

By Steve Earles

The acquisition of new vocalist Al Osta, replacing Orange Goblin’s Ben Ward, has only made Ravens Creed’s music even more brutal. Opening with “Stampede of Skeletons”, we’re treated to a mutant collision of Venom and Celtic Frost, complete with Tom G Warrior style death grunt! The excellently titled “Breaking The Lord” has a similar vibe to Kill ‘Em All era Metallica (long before they became ‘Rock Stars’!). The song-writing here is particularly excellent. “Shoot The Wounded” has a fantastic groove, and “The Wires Will Kill You” truly lives up to its name, with no track outstaying its welcomes.

Ravens Creed is a truly great British metal band, and along with such bands as the Meads of Asphodel and Old Corpse Road, are really flying the flag for true, trend-free, British metal!

(Doomentia Records)

By Rob Hughes

Music journos tend to roll their eyes at hyperbole-ridden reviews by noob webzine writers. They rightly note that no matter how heavy a record sounds, it will not flay the flesh from bones, unleash a tsunami, nor (I’m sad to report) melt your face. It’s just music. It may be exciting to be the first kid on your block to hear the new Mystical Sphincter record, but that advance album stream trickling from your laptop’s headphone jack wouldn’t startle a Shih Tzu.

With that in mind, please allow me to say that THE DEBUT RELEASE FROM BAPTISTS WILL LITERALLY RIP YOUR HEAD OFF THEN DEFECATE DOWN YOUR BLEEDING NECK HOLE!!!!!!!!

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, let’s step back and deal with the facts. Baptists are a four piece from Vancouver who play speedy, chaotic noise rock that emanates from a dark, dark place. If you get a chance to see them live, do so, because they go off. A Baptists gig is an amazing expulsion of energy. Bodies do literally fly, if only for a split second.

With Southern Lord’s interest in things punky and blackened these days, it’s little wonder the label snapped them up for this release. Captured by Stuart McKillop and Jesse Carr at The Hive Creative Labs, Baptists have arrived hitting fast and hard. It’s a little cruel that four songs are all we get, but as a way of documenting the band’s formidable power at this early stage, the 7-inch is the perfect delivery method.

“Good Parenting” arrives with squall of feedback before taking off at hardcore velocity, as drummer Nick Yacyshyn crams fills into every possible break in the riffage. “Farmed” follows after a brief feedback bridge, ramping up the intensity with a bit of grind and vocalist Andrew Drury’s crazed ranting. Less than five minutes has elapsed by the time the needle hits the runout groove, so you might as well return to “Good Parenting” and hear the whole thing again. Side two is essential, though, as it showcases the most interesting arrangements and songs, and hints at how Baptists might develop their material when they release a full-length later this year. “Bachelor Degree Burn” churns like The Jesus Lizard at their most malevolent; the rhythm section working to perfection to pummel the thing home. When this number breaks loose in the second half, it’s a glorious moment. “Life Poser” resumes the frantic pace, with guitarist Danny Marshall backing off the chunky riffs in favour of string bends that send the song careening with thrash ’n’ roll momentum.

Baptists are not messing around. Although you needn’t worry about “literally” being decapitated by a 7-inch record, this is truly powerful stuff.

(Southern Lord)

By Gruesome Greg

Apostle Of Solitude kicks things off here on this new one-sided 12″ split release with the track “Death by Misadventure,” a tune that mixes the heavy, sludgy riffing of their debut album with the wailing, plaintive vocals of 2010′s Last Sunrise. A stop-start riff gives way to a slow, doomy breakdown somewhere around the midway point of the song, unleashing a killer solo before going back to the main riff, ending on a slow, heavy note.

Dawnrider has a bit more of a stoner-rock vibe, with their heavy fuzzbox riffs and thin, garage-style production. The Sabbath riffs that come in with the vocals are definitely doomed, though, with an Eastern-European sounding singer wailing overtop. (Turns out they’re from Portugal, about as west as Europe gets… Dude does not have the pipes of Chuck Brown, in any case.) Interestingly enough, this tune also features bagpipes, or at least something that sounds an awful lot like them, mixed in with a video-game guitar-tone solo.

(A Blood & Iron Records, Raging Planet Records, and Metal Soldiers Records co-release)

By Steve Earles

This twelve inch single is an awesome slab of doom, and that is as it should be, for this is work of Pentagram and Raven legend Joe Hasselvander! Once again, Rock Saviour Records have produced a beautifully packaged, fantastic sounding slab of vinyl, Rock Saviour deserve massive kudos for their dedication to the true format for listening to metal on!

The aptly named Side Heavy features two killer slabs of doom, “God’s Mountain” and “Plank of Doom”; the crushing riffs continue on Side Doom with “Crucible”, while a further treat lies in a startling rendition of the Humble Pie classic, “One Eyed Trouser Snake-Rumba”, which features an excellent vocal from Jimmy Kunes of Savoy Brown Fame, (also played with Exciter and now with 70s legends Cactus!).

A terrific release, exactly what one would expect from Hasselvander and Rock Saviour!

(Rock Saviour Records)

www.myspace.com/joehasselvander

www.myspace.com/rocksaviour

www.iron-pegasus.com

contact: iron-pegasus@t-online.de

By Jason Wellwood

Montreal’s The Great Sabatini are looking to make 2011 a big year. They’ll be recording the follow up to 2009’s Sad Parade of Yesterday’s full length after doing a month long North American tour but first they’ll be releasing this 7” on their own Sludge Hummer Records. If you’re looking for grind inflected sludge metal, with a love for noise, this is the band for you. Something you will notice right from the beginning however, is that The Great Sabatini are not interested in making their music quite that simple. Unlike many 7” releases, Napoleon Sodomite doesn’t feel like the band threw on a few outtakes just to be able to say they put out a 7”. This is quality beginning to end.

Title track ‘Napoleon Sodomite’ is not only a heavy, throat stripping song it’s also very catchy and easy to pick up the melody on. It will definitely have you nodding your head along, until you learn the lyrics. Then good luck with your throat after that as you try to sing along. ‘Helter Skeletor’ is almost a military march with foot stomping and hand clapping and what sounds to me like a banjo….this leads into the next instrumental ‘Trap Sequence’ which is more along the sludgier side of the band. The banjo from ‘Helter Skeletor’ is reprised at the end of ‘Trap Sequence’ leading you to the end of the 7”.

All too soon, the record is over and you’ll want to pick it up and play it again, and again. The joy of having the digital copy is that I’ve been able to just put it on repeat, however when the vinyl of Napoleon Sodomite became available, I ordeed my copy right away!

(Sludge Hummer)

By Sean Palmerston

Queens Of The Stone Age is a band some Hellbound readers may be surprised to see covered on this website. That’s pretty understandable, as the band has risen gradually over the past dozen years or so to a point where their popularity is bigger than was ever expected: they get major media coverage in almost every big newspaper/magazine/website on the planet and assuredly many of their now massive fan base would have no idea who Kyuss were nor that guitarist Joshua Homme honed his chops within the seminal California desert rock band. These are the fans that know the band for their Songs For The Deaf and and Era Vulgaris albums.

Long before QOTSA became a commercial radio band and started headlining theatres and festivals on an international basis they were a fledgling trio that, with their 1998 self-titled debut, created one of the best introductory albums of the 90s. There was already a huge buzz on the band in advance of the album’s release – their North American debut at the Man’s Ruin showcase at SXSW 1998, something I had the pleasure of being in attendance for, set the bar high for their upcoming debut recorded one month afterwards. And when the album finally dropped later that year, somewhat surprisingly on Stone Gossard’s Loosegroove label, it was well worth the wait.

The thing about the first QOTSA album was its loose unpredictability. While many expected Homme to come out with an album that would somewhat follow what Kyuss had did with their 1995 swansong …And The Circus Left Town, his new band (which also featured final Kyuss drummer Alfredo Hernandez along with original band bassist Nick Oliveri) was much more straightforward, much more immediate and way less hypnotic than what Kyss was best known for. The band came blazing out of the gate with an album chock full of some of the wildest riffs Homme has ever created. Many of the main song riffs are still incredible head fucks to this day – just listen to what he pulls off in tracks like the side-winding “Avon” and the just plain weird yet surprisingly catchy “You Would Know”. These aren’t your everyday by-the-numbers heavy rock tracks and this is not a band playing things safe for their first album. Not by a long shot.

On a personal level, this album was a big hit with my friends and I, enough so that a vanful of ten of us went to see their sold out Toronto show at Lee’s Palace, followed by half of us going to see them again the next night at London’s Call The Office and a few of us even making the three hour drive to Windsor the following evening to see them play The Loop alongside a Pink Floyd cover band! Indeed, for most of 1999 and 2000 this album was in high rotation and that early tour, which saw Earthlings guitarist Dave Catchling playing steel guitar and second six-string as touring fourth member, is still the absolute best I have ever seen QOTSA perform. I liked the CD enough that I went out of my way to pick up a copy of the Man’s Ruin limited LP pressing of the album, which I have been told now sells for more than $500 on eBay. As amazing as I think the album is, it’s not worth that kind of money. I personally don’t feel any vinyl album released after 1995 is.

However, if you missed the boat on this album the first time it was made available on vinyl then I am happy to report your waiting days are over. Josh Homme has reissued the first QOTSA album as a gatefold double vinyl set on his Rekords Rekords imprint, which is currently distributed in North America through Domino Records. I don’t know if this is a limited edition pressing or if there are any special versions of it, the copy reviewed here is on black vinyl in what looks to be a 160 or 180 gram vinyl pressing. It is in a nice gatefold package, the two records each have dust cover sleeves with lyrics and album information printed on them and, as an added bonus, a digital download sheet for the album was included in the the pocket containing the first record. You have the choice of downloading the album as WAV files or as hi-res MP3s if you so desire.

There are three reasons that I think really make this vinyl reissue worth the money. Number one, the vinyl pressing is great. The sound on this new reissue is much better than the original Mans Ruin 12” that I picked up back in 1999. I think stretching out the songs over two albums has definitely helped the fidelity. I am by no means an expert, but to my ears this new version does sound better.

The second reason is the bonus tracks. They have included the two songs that were released as a split CD with Dutch stoners Beaver, plus an additional song that was on a limited edition Kyuss/QOTSA split 7” single. I’m not jazzed about where the bonus tracks were placed – the first new/old song “The Bronze” was thrown in as second track on side B, totally ruining the familiarity for those of us that have heard the album hundreds and hundreds of times over the years, but it is nice to have the bonus tracks added.

The third and final thing I like about it is the reinstatement of the original album cover. The 1998 Mans Ruin LP (and all of the subsequent German semi-official releases of it circa 2005/06) has a Frank Kozik cover that comes across like a space vixen from a Russ Meyer movie. Not bad, but not the original album cover. Thankfully that has been reinstated here to its original cover.

As a long awaited reissue, the new 2011 version of this album is about as good as it gets. I personally wouldn’t have made the decision to have a bonus track put so early on in the album, as previously mentioned, but it certainly doesn’t impede the impact the album still has some thirteen years later. My original rating for this album was a nine back in 1998 and that is what I am going to give this reissue too. It’s an album that definitely has stood the test of time and is still my favourite QOTSA release, plus it should be pretty affordable through your local cool indie store, as well as through your favourite online retailers. You should have no problem finding this for under $25 in both Canada and the USA.

(Rekords Rekords / Domino)