SAINT VITUS – First Album Demo

I gotta give a tip o’ thee lid to the legions of nuevo-doom outfits out there. It’s gotta be tough making a living outta playing within the heavily scene-enforced signifiers of a marginalized genre (though it seems to’ve garnered some trendiness as of late). Even in my advanced state of jadedness there’s something noble [...]

Bela Lugosi’s Still Dead BUT…

THE GAULT – Even as All Before Us
San Francisco’s John Gossard is one of the most baffling human icebergs plying his trade in the underground metal scene today. He’s been involved with some excellent and much-lauded bands like Black Goat, Weakling (with Josh of the Fucking Champs) and currently doom behemoths Asunder, and yet you [...]

The Lights, the Sound, the Rhythm, the Noise

FLIPPER – Blow’n Chunks (1983)
Didja see “American Hardcore” yet? Didja catch the part when that weaselly little asswipe Moby claimed to’ve been an erstwhile member of Flipper? Did it make ya wish ya could reach through the TV screen so’s to lay a solid coupla left hooks into that noggin of his; that plucked pate [...]

Broken Legs, Broken Face, Blood Everywhere

NECRONOMICON (Ger) – Tips zum Selbtsmord (1972)
The next time some needle-dicked knowitall tries to lay that “there was nuthin’ as heavy as Sabbath in the early 70’s, dude” trip on ya, sit their sorry ass down for a spin of this beast (Hopefully you have the original edition, limited to 500 copies, with the six-panel [...]

Pantheon II

I think something we often lose sight of as fans, and ESPECIALLY as music bloggers is the fact that a pretty sizable majority of Thee Greatest R&R Ever Made wasn’t created by long-forgotten artists with two songs to their credit. Nor is it measured by “only five copies ever pressed but three were smashed by [...]