Tag Archives: noise

Charnel House – Contagion (Sygil Records)

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419613_523102457711722_536295447_nAs I continue to sift through the stack of releases the good folks at Sygil Records sent me a while back, I continue to be thoroughly impressed. After tackling the excellent Avakr cassette, I decided to turn my attention to the lone CD format release the label sent my way, Charnel House’s Contagion. I’m not sure when this album was originally released, and information about the Indiana(?) duo is pretty scarce, but given that they seem to have successfully tapped into a sound that takes elements of the familiar and twists them into something stunningly unique, I can’t imagine them staying a secret for much longer.

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THKD’s Top 20 Metal Albums of 2012

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2012 has been more stressful than a motherfucker; probably one of the most all-around stressful years of my life. Buying a house + assorted family and work-related issues that I wouldn’t even dream of getting into here managed to turn the year into a goddamn pressure-cooker. I’m pretty sure the only things that kept me alive were my wife’s unwavering love (and limitless patience) and an avalanche of incredible music. In 2011 I was feeling pretty jaded and dissatisfied with the state of heavy metal, this year I found myself feeling better about things than I have in years. That isn’t to say there weren’t great albums released in 2011, there were, but in 2012 I felt like there was so much greatness that I couldn’t possibly keep up with it all.

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Menace Ruine – Alight in Ashes (Profound Lore, 2012)

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In the ever-expanding world of heavy/extreme/underground/whatever music, the emergence of artists that have truly managed to forge their own sound is becoming a rarity; originality an endangered species.  When was the last time you heard a band that sounded like nothing else out there or that struck you as a group of true musical innovators?  Enter Montreal, Quebec’s Menace Ruine.  After beginning life as a heavily blackened noise band with their debut album Cult of Ruins, the Canadian duo quickly metamorphosed into a multi-headed amalgamation of black metal, drone, industrial, noise, neo folk, psychedelia and dark ambient that (at least to these ears) has no easily identifiable precursors.  Alight in Ashes, their fourth full length and debut album under the nigh-unfuckwithable banner of Profound Lore, is the most fully realized manifestation yet of Menace Ruine’s corrosive yet haunting outsider art.
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Wreck and Reference – Youth (Flenser, 2012)

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I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about checking out Wreck and Reference when I first heard about them.  As deep an appreciation as I have for forward-thinking heavy music, I still have at least one foot (or maybe just a toe?) stuck in the old school, which means a metal band that doesn’t wield a single guitar of any kind throws up a huge red flag.  I know, I know, it seems silly and more than a tad close minded, but hey, we all have our hang-ups; at the end of the day, I’m a guitar guy, a fucking RIFF guy, so I’m bound to approach a band like Wreck and Reference, who lack the one instrument that is in my opinion the foundation of heavy metal as the Gods (Iommi, Mustaine, Warrior, Quorthon, etc) intended it, with extreme caution.
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Death Grips – The Money Store (Epic, 2012)

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To say that the noise-rap trio known as Death Grips sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the vapid ranks that comprise the average modern major label roster is probably the understatement of the century.  Yet somehow the Sacramento, CA-based group managed to ink a deal with Epic Records, bringing their utterly unique brand of confrontational hip hop to the masses with The Money Store, the first of two albums set to be released in 2012.  I don’t typically look to the majors for such a high level of craftmanship, let alone innovation, so it is a complete shock to the system hearing Death Grips’ singular brand of musical mind-fuck coming from that often dunderheaded corner of the music biz.
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Dreams in the Witch House: Assessing Salem’s King Night two years later.

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When Salem’s King Night was released in September of 2010, there was so much bullshit surrounding the band that it was difficult to give the album a fair assessment.  People claiming that Salem was at the forefront of a “next big thing” genre alternately referred to by a parade of ridiculous tags including but not limited to drag, witch house and rape gaze (my personal favorite), the band literally getting booed off stage during a live set at SXSW, and at least one interview where the band came off as complete fucktards all served to detract from what really mattered: the goddamn music.
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Nyogthaeblisz – Apocryphal Progenitors of Mankind’s Tribulation (SSP, 2012 [reissue])

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There’s raw black metal… and then there’s Nyogthaeblisz.  The trio of Texas black metallers recently garnered quite a bit of press for being kicked off the bill of this year’s Chaos in Tejas fest, due to their affiliation with the Satanic Skinhead Propaganda label (who’s owner described the band as “anti-jew”), appearances on compilations with highly inflammatory titles such as Declaration of Anti-Semitic Terror and a penchant for dressing up like the black metal version of the KKK.  I cannot speak for their ridiculous fashion sense, and I most certainly don’t condone their abhorrent ideology (it seems pretty goddamn absurd that a band that’s supposedly of Hispanic descent would harbor such noxious beliefs), but I can speak for Nyogthaeblisz’s music, which is some the gnarliest black shit I’ve ever heard.
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Interview: The Sun Through a Telescope

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Way back when I first started talking about Bandcamp, I highlighted a selection of stellar bands that were using the site as a platform to promote their music.  One of those bands was The Sun Through a Telescope, a one-man drone/doom/experimental outfit creating eerie, unsettling tunes emanating from somewhere within Canada’s frozen wastes.  I was recently contacted by TSTAT mastermind, drone overlord and all-around awesome dude Lee Neutron regarding TSTAT’s new EP, the excellent Summer Darkyard, which is out now digitally via Handshake Inc, Grindcore Karaoke and of course plain ol’ Bandcamp.  Intrigued by his latest release, I decided the time was ripe to harass Neutron for some answers via e-mail, and the following interrogation transpired.
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Sutekh Hexen – Larvae (Handmade Birds, 2012)

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Somewhere between raw black metal, dark ambient and experimental noise lies San Francisco’s Sutekh Hexen.  Their second full length album, Larvae is a hellish yet ethereal sounding affair that’s relentlessly, unendingly dark; permanent fucking midnight.  I’m not talking about the Earth being covered in eternal blackness here, I’m talking about the dark night of the soul, the abyss within.  It is outsider music designed to take you on a journey to the darkest recesses of inner space, a crepuscular womb of crumbling distortion.
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Mortician’s (death) metal machine music.

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In recent weeks I’ve made several attempts to contact New York death metal duo Mortician for an interview.  Those attempts were not responded to.  The band hasn’t released an album since 2004′s Re-Animated Dead Flesh and only plays a handful of live shows a year, so one can only assume that this relative lack of activity has something to do with it.  I can’t say I blame them.  But, I’ve wanted to write about Mortician for a long time, and even without an upcoming national tour or new album on the way, there is still much about the band’s totally unique and oft-misunderstood take on death metal that’s worthy of discussion.
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