Awesome Bands You Should Know...PRIMITIVE MAN

PRIMITIVE MAN is a intense, devastatingly heavy band from Denver, Colorado. The group is comprised of current and former members of CLINGING TO THE TREES OF A FOREST FIRE, DEATH OF SELF, WITHERED, & REPROACHER. The group formed in Denver back in  February 2012 with Ethan Lee McCarthy on Vocals and Guitar, Jonathon Campos on Bass, and Bennett Kennedy on Drums. The trio soon set about crafting savage material drawing elements of Doom, Death Metal, Black Metal, Noise, Drone, Sludge, Crust, and more. Their efforts would soon begin to take form and in October 2012, they entered Flatline Audio, in Denver, with egineer/producer Dave Otero. These sessions would yield their debut LP, "Scorn". This nihilistic, oppressively heavy record would initially be released in January/February 2013 by the band themselves, in conjunction with Mordgrimm and Throatruiner Records. The album was released only on Vinyl in a limited pressing, and featured 7 tracks of audio violence, utter devastation, and ominous atmosphere.

The record opens with the title track, "Scorn", which clocks in at a monsterous 11:44, and demonstrates right out the gate that this band is not to be fucked with. Collossal riffs and ear shredding feedback collide with McCarthy's scorched vocals and misanthropic lyrics, and within this massive first tracks the weak shall be weeded out. This is not for the faint of heart. The meek shall inherit nothing. PRIMITIVE MAN are here to trample the weak, hurdle dead, and get fucked up in the process. During this opening onslaught, the band demonstrate they can not only play slow, pulverizing Doom and Blackened Sludge, but that they can also briefly bust out faster tempos that hearken to the Grind of McCarthy's other main group, CLINGING TO THE TREES OF A FOREST FIRE. Its interesting because in some ways, PM is almost like the reverse version of CTTTOAFF, as PM play a Blackened Sludge/Doom with brief elements of Grind and Death Metal, while CTTTOAFF play Grindcore with occasional elements of Sludge and Doom. "Rags" follows and opens with a hellish groove that would make EYEHATEGOD proud, before slowing the pace to a Death/Doom crawl. Next is "I Can't Forget", the first of a couple disturbing, atmospheric, interlude type tracks. Its quite haunting and truly adds to the overall disturbing aura of the record as a whole. The second longest track of the album follows this, in the form of "Antietam" a 9 minute war of attrition that is all hate and power. After the first 2 minutes of slow motion devastation, things pick up and we get some Crust Punk infused bursts. After a bit we return to a crawling pace for several minutes, before hitting a nice groove inflected stomp for a bit, and then ultimately returning to a slow trudge by songs end. "Black Smoke" is another horrifing interlude piece that is difficult to describe but adds to yet another layer of menace to the proceedings. "Stretched Thin" is the shortest track on the record at just under 3 minutes and is easily the fastest and most Grind and Crust/Punk infused of all the tracks. Its not super fast in the grand scheme of things but in the context of the album, it seems like they're fucking flying off the rails. Finally, we come to the closer, "Astral Sleep", which features huge chunks of Blackened Sludge and Death Doom for most of the track but also rallies the troops for one last blast of faster paced action before closing things out in feedback. Shortly after the release of "Scorn", PRIMITIVE MAN would part ways with Bennett Kennedy, and pick up Isidro "Spy" Soto as his replacement on Drums. About a month after the release of "Scorn", the band would offer up an EP for free via digital download, by the title of "P//M".

This EP would feature 3 tracks of more atmospheric, Ambient and electronic material, including a PORTISHEAD cover. Fastforward to June 2013 and PRIMITIVE MAN would get signed to the prestigious extreme music label, Relapse Records, who would re-release "Scorn" on CD, Digital Download, and limited edition Vinyl LP. The re-release Vinyl LP would be see a pressing of 1000 copies, 700 being standard Black with the other 300 being a "Beer" colored LP that is a beautiful golden brown. This Vinyl reissue would have the same tracklisting as the initial release, however the CD and Digital versions of the Relapse version would include 3 extra tracks, "Lifetime", "Innard$" and "I Am Above You". In a very short amount of time, PRIMITiVE MAN have asserted themselves as one of the foremost bands in Extreme Metal. "Scorn" is one of the best albums of 2013, without a doubt, and for fans of extreme Doom this is your new favorite band. 2014 also looks to big a big year for PRIMITIVE MAN as they are starting the year off with a bang by dropping not 1, but 2 new releases.

First, they have a new split 7" with XAPHAN coming out in January, through Init Records that will feature one new song. This 7" is being pressed in a limited edition of 1000 copies. The 2nd release is due out in February through Tartarus Records. This release is a new cassette tape that focuses more on the Noise and Drone side of the band. It will include the materian from the digital P//M release plus a number of new tracks including a CROWBAR cover, for a total of almost 90 mins of brutality. This cassette is being pressed in a limited number of 100.

There are countless Extreme Metal bands these days and an ever growing number of Extreme Doom bands that take Doom more extreme directions like Death/Doom, Blackened Doom, Sludge, Funeral Doom, etc, etc but tuning low, and playing slow doesnt necessarily result in great music, in and of its self. PRIMITIVE MAN have shown they have what it takes to create interesting, and truly powerful music that while rooted in the slow and crushing end of the spectrum, is also quite capable of utilizing other elements such as Noise and Ambient, to create a more lethal end result.

Check out all PM news, go here... http://primitivemandoom.com/
For merch, go here... http://primitivemandoom.bigcartel.com/
To here these jams, go here... http://primitivemandoom.bandcamp.com/

Andy Sweitzer

Vinyl Album Of The Day is MIDNIGHT - "Satanic Royalty"

Vinyl Album of the Day is MIDNIGHT - "Satanic Royalty". Released November 8th, 2011 on CD, LP, and Cassette by Hells Headbangers Records, "Satanic Royalty" is the first and, so far, only full length album from Cleveland, Ohio's MIDNIGHT. Despite "Satanic Royalty" being their debut full length, MIDNIGHT have been around for a bit and have quite a few releases under their bullet belts. The group formed in 2003 and that same year released their first Demo, from there on they have put out a number of EPs, Splits, Live recordings, and Compilations, but never a full length until 8 years later, in the form of this beastly record. MIDNIGHT play sleazy metal that combines elements of NWOBHM, Speed Metal, early Black Metal, Hard Rock, a bit of Punk, Thrash, and a bit of early Hardcore, but if you want to go with an easy reference MIDNIGHT basically sounds like the bastard child of VENOM and MOTORHEAD. It's metal as fuck, sleazy as hell, drenched in Booze, Sluts, Leather, Spikes, and Satan, but most all its a fun, balls out metal.

As for Vinyl version, the first pressing included 777 copies on Blue vinyl (like mine), 400 Black, 222 Picture Discs, 100 on Red vinyl, which were only available at Record Boy in Tokyo, Japan, and 5 Test Pressings. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered at Bad Back Studios in Cleveland, Ohio by Dave Johnson. The cover art was done by William Lacey, Goat artwork on the inner sleeve was done by Josh McAlear.

For the album, everything was written and performed by Athenar aka Jameson Walters aka Jamie Boulder, who has played in a number of other bands, the most notable being DESTRUCTOR, although he has also filled in as a touring bassist for TOXIC HOLOCAUST and played drums on the first Demo from THE GATES OF SLUMBER.

The vinyl release of "Satanic Royalty" also includes an 18" x 24" poster, with the artwork done by Gary Davis. Another item of note is that the LP includes an exclusive bonus track, "TAP", that is not on the CD or Tape versions of "Satanic Royalty". The CD includes a bonus DVD and the Cassette comes with a sticker.

Side A begins with the title track, "Satanic Royalty" which is a mid paced jam that is chock full of awesome. Its got ball rockin' riffs, the swagger of cock rock, some tasty leads and a chorus hook that is just fucking killer. You just cant get that shit out of your head. It's followed by a faster number, "You Can't Stop Steel" which has more of Speed Metal and NWOBHM vibe, complete with a ripping solo. "Rip This Hell" comes next and is another killer jam with a monster chorus and total booze soaked, Biker from Hell vibe. "Necromania" follows and is the longest song on the album. Its got some mean, ass kicking mid paced riff action that just doesn't let up. It's the longest and maybe the "heaviest" song on the album, and is totally destined to cause "Metal Face" in many a listener. Side A is closed out with "Black Damnation", which is maybe the slowest song on here, with its Occult Doom vibes. Its a very powerful, and "epic" song that kind of alternates between melodic classic metal guitar work and the kind of proto-Doom type riffs.

"Lust Filth and Sleeze" kicks off Side B in a big way. Its total classic Speed Metal ass kicking with lyrics that fit the part. Its got lines like "Tonight oh Ive been waitin' that's right just wait and see, The sound of seed as it seeps from your slit, The only gash I'll ever need, You give me lust, filth and sleeze...". Next is another total Thrashy, Speed Metal rampage in the form of "Violence on Violence". Its fast, relentless and again catchy as herpes. From there we go into a more midpaced jam with "Savage Dominance". Its got big power chords and a simple steady rhythm. The intensity gets ratcheted back up thought quickly with "Holocaustic Deafening" with its Punk fueled fury and awesome, thick opening bass action. Its the shortest song on the record at just over a minute and a half but what it lacks in length, it makes up for in violence. The final regular album track is next with "Shock til Blood" and is very MOTORHEAD-ish, not that there isn't some Lemmy in all these songs, but this closer for whatever reason just has classic MOTORHEAD written all over it, and goddamn it, it is all the more awesome for it. Side B ends with the "vinyl only" bonus track "TAP", which stands for "Tits, Ass, Pussy". Its probably the most sexually graphic song on here for sure, and arguably misogynistic, but this is MIDNIGHT, what the fuck do you expect. The whole jam is about have sex with a less than pure female. Its got a definite early Hardcore/Punk vibe to it, much more so than anything else on this album.

"Satanic Royalty" came out a couple years ago now and gained MIDNIGHT a bit more attention among Metal fans. As mentioned it was the group's first full length, despite them being a band since 2003. Since then they still haven't dropped another full length but they have put out 4 more releases. Two in 2012, which included a Cassette tape, "Satanic Royalty Demos" and "Complete and Total Hell" which is a compilation that features pretty much their entire catalog prior to "Satanic Royalty".  Basically, It compiles all the EPs and Splits from their career up to that point. This year, 2013, they have dropped 2 more releases, a live album and another EP. I haven't got the newest couple things yet, but I'm sure I will soon. MIDNIGHT is a great band, and a fun listen. Yes, you can accuse them of VENOM and MOTORHEAD worship, but they dont give a shit. MIDNIGHT only care about getting fucked up, fucking sluts, being evil, and kicking out some awesome, balls out, rawkin' METAL!

Listen to the album here and find other Midnight related merch and links:
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/midnight/
Buy It Here:
http://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/midnight-satanic-royalty-LP.asp

Andy Sweitzer

7" of the Day -- KATA SARKA & BODDICKER - "The David Lee Gorgoroth EP"

 7" of the Day is the KATA SARKA // BODDICKER split, "The David Lee Gorgoroth EP". This 7" vinyl version was released just this year by Reality is a Cult, a killer little label based out of Bloomington, IN. It was previously available on Cassette, through 18 is 9,  in a limited run of 100 tapes, which are long sold out. This vinyl 7" edition is still available I believe but is also a limited run of only 500 copies, all on Black vinyl. So lets get to the actual jams at hand.

Side A is sees Indianapolis's lords of Crusty Black Metal, KATA SARKA, deliver 2 killer jams. The first track is "Mired In Spleen", as savage romp through Black Metal, Crust, Hardcore Punk, & a bit of D-Beat. Its raw, visceral, and violent. It clocks in at a little under 5 minutes and is pure devastation throughout. This track is also the opening jam on their most recent release the amazing, "Crucible of Misanthropy". "Poaching The Boar" continues the onslaught, and is no less intense. Its about a minute shorter, clocking in around 3:38, and again proves why KATA SARKA are one of the Underground's most promising bands.

These 2 tracks were recorded by Carl Byers in April 2012. Byers continues to get excellent recordings from bands under his Clandestine Arts Recordings banner, when he's not killing it in another of Indy's most devastating bands, COFFINWORM. If you check this out and dig what you hear, definitely check out KS's other releases as they have a few of them now. I would especially recommend the "Existential Oblivion" cassette or the "Crucible of Misanthropy" cd.

Side B of this little monster record comes to us from Indy's  BODDICKER. These guys deliver 4 jams on their half of this split, with the opener being "Every Crime A Trophy". Its fast, raw, and just fucks you up with Crust covered Powerviolence and Grind. For a little over 2 minutes, they absolutely assault you with this aural beatdown. If you dig NAILS, you have to check out this fucking band. "Choice" is up next and is the shortest track on here. Its a 26 second blitzkrieg that melts faces. "Rise of the Downtrodden" follows and is a killer battle between bad ass groove ridden sections, and faster paced blasts. Its the longest track on the BODDICKER side, but still is only about 2 and a half minutes. They close things out with the filth ridden Grind of "They Fix Everything". Aggravated Battery never sounded so goddamn good.

BODDICKER's tracks on here were also recorded by Carl Byers, but in Detroit, with The Clandestine Arts Mobile Studio, in May 2012. If you dig Extreme Metal, particularly Black Metal with a helping dose of Crust, and Crust infused Grind/Powerviolence, then you must check out this split EP. From there you can check out KATA SARKA and BODDICKER's individual efforts.

Andrew Glen Sweitzer

Awesome Bands You Should Know... FALSE

                            
FALSE is black metal band from Minneapolis, Minnesota that has, so far, only released 3 songs, but holy hell, they are 3 amazing jams. In a time, where there is almost no mystic to anything anymore, especially in music, FALSE is doing something different. Nowadays, every band in the world is on Facebook, Twitter, etc and informing fans of every fart they rip. Its even common now among black metal bands who claim to be super evil and grim. Its kind of humorous to imagine a dude in corpse paint & gauntlets tying on a computer at the local library to inform his 28 fans of his "infernal deeds". For a style of music like black metal where everything was supposed to be very much against the grain and confrontational, the aesthetics have essentially become just another image for people to pose with. That's why its refreshing that a band like FALSE has almost no internet presence. They dont have a band page, no facebook, no twitter, no nothing. The only shit you will find about FALSE online is either from other sources writing about the band or a bit on Gilead Media's web pages. They dont have their faces plastered everywhere with stupid promo pics, hell they dont even make their names public, but at the same time they dont make a big deal of hiding their identities. They dont wear corpse paint or spikes. They have no image. They are simply a group of people from Minnesota who have come together to make some blistering, killer black metal, and that its. They simply let the music doing the talking. FALSE's debut came in the form of "Untitled", last year through Gilead Media. "Untitled" was released only on 12" vinyl and via digital download. It features 2 songs, Side A is "The Key of Passing Suffering" and Side B is "Sleepmaker". I loathe the current overuse of the term epic, but there really is no better descriptor for these 2 jams, with both of them clocking in at well over 12 minutes each. The record starts off with a bang as they jump straight into the ruckus. They are able to easily marry crusty punk and viscious black metal, with brutal unhinged ferocity. However, they also are able to simulataneously be expansive and spacious with subtle use of synths as the song progressives further. This is exactly what makes FALSE so compelling they are able to find a middle ground between being primal, visceral & vile, but also being ethereal and otherworldly. They take the best of old school black metal, with a nice part of the progressive, avant garde wing of black metal and mold it into a sound of there own. The B side, "Sleepmaker" is another long blast of malicious intent. Its an unrelenting, violent attack for the first 5 minutes or so, before it breaks into a momentary respite that is depressive and melancholy. After the few moments to catch our break, FALSE return us the the hellish maelstorm. The vocals on both songs are harsh and brutal throughout without any mercy, as is comon in alot of BM. They are all screamed in a monsterous throaty snarl, but they never delve into cookie monster gutturals or super high pitched shrieking. They are also pretty clear compared to alot of vocals in black metal and extreme metal in general. Much of the lyrics are quite easily deciphered without a lyric sheet.
  Also of note, the vocalist in FALSE is a woman, although you probably wouldnt realize it by hearing her vocals. I only mention it because I think its a cool thing that they have a female vocalist, especially being a black metal band, but also because so many metal bands that have a woman in the band put alot of focus on her, & often sadly seem to try to use sex appeal as a marketing tool. This is not the case with FALSE, obviously, and makes their complete lack of image that much cooler. In some ways, FALSE reminds me of one of the most legendary of American Black Metal bands, San Francisco's WEAKLING. Weakling was also a pretty enigmatic band that had long songs that coupled hellacious intensity with somber sad moments. Unfortunately Weakling only released one album and then fell apart, hopefully FALSE sticks around alot longer. FALSE's "Untitled" album made quite an impact on me as well as a number of other black metal fans and critics, as it ended up on a number of Best of 2011 lists at year's end, including mine. Not too damn shabby for a band's debut that was only 2 songs. FALSE's "Untitled" record came with a patch and a button when ordered from Gilead Media, but I believe its now sold out, so unless they press more, you'll have to either get it from a secondary place or just buy the mp3's. So since its release the band has been doing some touring and from all Ive heard is super intense and just as amazing live, if not even more so. Sadly, I missed them when they were in Indy a few months back, but I wont make the same mistake again. The most recent release from FALSE came out this year, again through Gilead Media only on vinyl and digital download, in the form of a 12" split LP with the raw, lo-fi BM band BARGHEST, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
                          
Each band has one side of the LP, with FALSE's half containing just one song, the 17 & a half minute long beast, "Heavy as a Church Tower", while BARGHEST's side has 2 jams, "Shifting Sands" & "Inhuman Hatred". The first few minutes of "Heavy as a Church Tower" are a bit more restrained and not as ferocious in their opening as their previous efforts, these opening minutes are also instrumentals, with the vocals not bursting in for a few minutes, but when they do they signal the marked change of intensity as FALSE go on the attack, barreling full speed ahead for several minutes before slowing things down a bit, but even then they are never far away from blast beats and high velocity assualts. They also again make subtle use of synths that give the song an Emperor-esque granduer at times. This new track takes the visceral intensity of their debut, and couples it with a better command of atmosphere. It will be interesting to see where FALSE go from here. They have already set the bar quite high despite only releasing a total of 3 songs. Wherever they go, I can almost guarantee it will be worth checking out. In 2 short years, 2 releases, 3 songs, & about 43 minutes of music they have vaulted themselves near the forefront of the American Black Metal scene without any of the bullshit or marketing.
http://www.decibelmagazine.com/listen/streaming-false-heavy-as-a-church-tower/
http://gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/album/untitled-2
Andy Sweitzer

Awesome Bands You Should Know...PANOPTICON

PANOPTICON is the name of Austin Lunn's one man music project. One person bands are somewhat common within the realm of Black Metal, and Panopticon most definitely play black metal much of the time, and do it quite well.  However, it is the other side of Panopticon's sound, particularly on new album "Kentucky", that makes the band that much more interesting. On "Kentucky", Lunn isnt bringing in elements of shoegaze, crust, or doom as is increasingly common among American black metal bands. He's doing something that I dont believe anyone else has ever done within the realm of black metal, which is play bluegrass. Yes, you heard me right, BLUEGRASS, and as odd as that may sound to you, its fits, and it fits extremely well. Metal bands having been bringing in elements of folk music for awhile now, hell there is even a subgenre now called Folk Metal, but it is almost always European folk music, which makes alot of sense for European bands, but less so for American band. Black Metal has long had a flirtatious history with folk music with many bands historically and currently being very connected to their native lands and the music and folklore of those places. As more and more black metal bands have sprung up in the United States we have seen some who have also been influenced by folk metal and these things, but its seems to me that Panopticon is one of, if not the, first band to take American Folk music tradions and fuse them to a chasis of black metal. The band was started in 2007 with Panopticon released their self titled debut the following year, in 2008, and have been pretty prolific since then. The band has always been different from alot of other black metal bands, take for example this statement from Lunn himself describing Panopticon, “a black metal band focusing on political and philosophical issues such as anarchism, subjectivism, society, paganism, pantheism, Norse mythology/heathenism and beer. I created this project because i was tired of consumer driven music, a-political and boring ,stale Satanism and racist bullshit that plagues the black metal community. no hair cuts, no big record labels, no bigotry, no drum machines, no rulers, no masters.” The beer reference may seem odd also but Lunn makes his living outside of music by professionally brewing beer. Panopticon's 2nd LP, "Collapse" was released in 2009 through Pagan Flames Productions, and is the point at which the bluegrass influence started to rear its head. The album themes of the downfall of civilization, survival in a post-apocalyptic world, & the survivor's need to reconnect with nature are well integrated not only through the music and lyrics but also through samples and field recordings. In 2010, Lunn self released a compilation of sorts called "...On the Subject of Mortality". It was extremely limited and was a handcrafted wooden box containing Panopticon's split with Skagos and their split with When The Bitter Spring, as well as a T shirt, 2 patches and a print of the album artwork. This "album" was re-released in 2011 via The Flenser on vinyl, but not in the wooden box or with any of the other items. "On The Subject of Mortality, as the title implies is largely a meditation on one's own death. From what I understand, Lunn's father died somewhere around that time period and the songs on that compilation reflect Lunn's attempts at dealing with the loss of his father as well as meditating on his own demise.  After the release of a couple more splits came the 3rd full length LP, "Social Disservices", through Flenser Records in 2011. "Social Disservices" is a much more hostile, angry album than much of what came before or after for Panopticon. It is basically a concept album about children who fall between the crack of the system that is supposed to help them and protect them. The album features ferocious, violent black metal, post rock atmospherics, and as is common in Panopticon's work, samples. The samples, as always, help direct attention to the themes and concept of the record along with the lyrics, and they are as powerful as ever. One sample is even of crying children, so you get the idea. Its an album that is as powerful as it is passionate, and in keeping with the ideals behind the band, attacking the institutions of society that have failed its people. Keeping on pace with Panopticon's seeming schedule of releasing 1 full length album a year, in 2012 we were graced with the amazing new album, "Kentucky". Released this summer through Pagan Flames Productions, "Kentucky" is another concept album, this time dealing with the state Lunn call's home. The main theme of the record is the coal industry and its impact on the people and environment. It delves into mountain top removal, labor disputes, unions, worker's rights, greed, and environmentalism. This is the album that features bluegrass and folk most prominently of all the Panopticon albums, but make no mistake, fierce black metal is still very much a part of the album. The album somewhat alternates between the two styles, but occasionally overlaps them to great effect. It also features 2 traditional labor protest songs that Lunn perform's excellently and doing justice to their 1930's origin. Samples again are a big part of this album with some of them coming from documentaries about mountain top removal and the coal industry in general, some from youtube clips, and also the film "Harlan County USA". All of them fit the mood perfectly and really draw the listener into the struggles at the heart of this album and state. For me personally, "Kentucky" is my favorite Panopticon album, and will rank very high on my best of 2012 list I'm certain. I'm very interested to see what comes next for Panopticon. Each album is different and has its own specific theme, while always being rooted in the overall ideology behind the band, so I'm eager to see what cause or issue will be at the heart of the next album, but also musically whether or not Lunn can fully integrate bluegrass and black metal into each other or if he will largely keep them seperate.

Andy Sweitzer