Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine - Rampton (2002)

Full Length, Southern Lord
April 2nd, 2002



Genre: Drone/Doom Metal
Region: UK

Containing members of Sunn O))), Electric Wizard, Khanate, Burning Witch, and Napalm Death — Rampton is enormous, crawling, dirty and trance inducing. This is a crushing record in all aspects. Fans of Oak, Monarch!, Khanate, Trees, Buried At Sea, Black Shape Of Nexus, Asunder, Moss, etc. should get on this now if you haven't already. It's a shame they're on hold.

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Dephosphorus - Axiom (2011)

EP, Independent
June 28th, 2011



Genre: Grindcore/Death Metal/Hardcore
Region: Greece

The guys over at The Living Doorway brought this release to my attention. Dephosphorus are getting glowing reviews all over the place and for good reason. Dubbed "astro grind", they released this album for free not long ago and promise new stuff very soon as well.

Axiom is an excellent blend of blackened hardcore riffs that melt into death/black metal stylings; like a mash up of Black Arrows of Filth and Impurity with Young and In The Way, but much more than that is to be heard here . It works really well and you can't really pin them down to one genre for very long. A fantastic album indeed that demands to be listened to on repeat — check them out on bandcamp too.

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Baptists - Baptists (2011)

EP, Southern Lord
February 2nd, 2011



Genre: Hardcore
Region: Canada

A young west coast Canadian hardcore act, and quite solid too. Four ripping tracks of raw hardcoreI recommend checking out.

Definitely give this a shot if you like Converge, Cursed, Black Breath, and all that good stuff. You can pick it up over at Southern Lord's webstore or give a listen here.

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A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head [2009/VBR]

Shoegaze infused with Noise Rock. Really great album, reminiscent of Veil Veil Vanish at times but with a mix of punk to its sound that really lends itself well to the shoegaze elements. Had this on my computer for a long time but it has taken me forever to finally listen to it, until now, and I'm really digging it. Will update this with a 320 link soon-ish.

Artist: A Place to Bury Strangers

Album: Exploding Head

Release Year: 2009

Genre: Noise Rock/Shoegaze

1. It is Nothing

2. In Your Heart

3. Lost Feeling

4. Deadbeat

5. Keep Slipping Away

6. Ego Death

7. Smile When You Smile

8. Everything Always Goes Wrong

9. Exploding Head

10. I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart

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Griefer - Brute Force (2007)

Full Length, Deterrent Industries
2007

Genre: Noise/Industrial/Death Industrial/Power Electronics
Region: Canada

"Network malfeasance themed power electronics and death industrial from the west coast of Canada."

I and a few friends saw Griefer last night at Mitochondrion's Parasignosis release show. I didn't really know what to expect, and I'm not a fan of noise but I was hypnotized by the end of Griefer's set. While he didn't perform anything off of this album (I assume everything he did was off of the Griefer/Blue Sabbath Black Cheer split), Brute Force is just as disturbing, cold, oppressive, and chaotic as what I heard performed last night.

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You Slut! - Critical Meat [2008/VBR]

A nice blend of post-rock and electronic that sounds like what would happen if And So I Watch You From Afar and Fang Island had a spastic, hipster lovechild. Very short release (less than 30 minutes), but it's perfect for the type of music it is.

Artist: You Slut!

Album: Critical Meat

Release Year: 2008

Genre: Post-Rock/Electronic

1. Cut & Shut by You Slut!

2. On the Count of 13

3. Roofio Shoots, Roofio Scores

4. On-The-Spot Tina Turner Fire

5. Pie to the Death-Faced Indie Kid

6. 1s, 2ns (The Original Door)

7. Jarabew

8. Mybloodyjesusexploreronfire

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Baring Teeth - Atrophy (2011)

Full Length, Willowtip
July 12th, 2011



Genre: Technical Death Metal
Region: USA

These Texans are new on the Willowtip roster and after a small but promising demo have recorded their first album Atrophy. Evoking the style of Gorguts' Obscura this record is twisted, dark, strange, dissonant and is sure to be pleasant surprise to many. If you want a taste of this beast you can hear the full album stream right here. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD (Mediafire)

Disma - Towards the Megalith (2011)

Full Length, Profound Lore Records
July 19th, 2011



Genre: Death Metal
Region: USA

Cavernous and filthy, very well written and executed. A long awaited release created by members of Incantation, Funebrarum, Evoken and many others this is one of those albums any fan of death shouldn't pass up.

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Nero's Day at Disneyland - From Rotting Fantasylands [2009/VBR]

I'm not entirely sure what can be said about this album that'll live up to what it truly is. In terms of electronic music, it's easily one of the best albums ever written, and also my favourite electronic album. I'll just post what last.fm says about the guy, since it's a pretty awesome description of the music:

"Blending haunted 15th century sacred music and a tangled mess of burnt out electronic noise with a crushingly huge sense of scope, Nero’s Day At Disneyland seems to cram together the entire musical history of the last 2000 years."

Unfortunately I don't have a higher quality link, but this more than does it justice. I'll re-up a 320 link if I ever get my copy of the CD in.

Artist: Nero's Day at Disneyland

Album: From Rotting Fantasylands

Release Year: 2009

Genre: Electronic/8-Bit/Glitch

1. In Aisles

2. Civilizing People

3. No Money Down, Low Monthly Payments

4. Child Protective Services Theme Song

5. Charging Swarm of Mousketeers

6. Everything Must Go

7. Death Parade

8. Action Winter Journey

9. Stretched Linen Over Contorted Bodies

10. Eulogy For Nick Galvas

11. In Keyed Fantasy

12. Probably End Up Dead in Ditch Somewhere

13. Plumes of ATM Sinew

14. Vengeance in Cloudland

15. Sprawling Idiot Effigy

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Undead Creep - The Ever-Burning Torch (2011)

Full Length, Dark Descent Records
June 24th, 2011



Genre: Death Metal
Region: Italy

Some fucking great old school death metal right here. This release also includes their previous demo. For fans of Dismember and Entombed.

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True Widow - As High As The Highest Heavens And From The Center To The Circumference Of The Earth (2011)

Full Length, Kemado Records
March 29, 2011



Genre: Shoegaze/Doom Metal
Region: USA

A mighty slow and droning album from True Widow. Described as "stonegaze" by one of the members which, upon listening, is a very accurate tag. Mixing shoegaze elements like reverb-drenched clean vocals alongside lumbering doomy/stoner bass lines and dream-like guitar melodies which have a slight country/western tint to them over steady drumming, True Widow have made another soothing, dense record.

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Reka - III (2011)

Full Length, OSK Records
June 17th, 2011



Genre: Atmospheric Sludge
Region: Russia

Excellent atmospheric sludgey hardcore from Russia. Overall III is very well paced with no dull moments or filler, every track is heavy and memorable, perfect build ups with satisfying crushing payoffs. Its a really enjoyable, intense album that surprised the shit out of me. The vocalist is from Celeste, several members of Optimus Prime and Fortunae Verbera make up the remaining members so there's an interesting mix of influences at work here.

I'd say this is a sweet spot between something like Tesa and dark sludgey bands like Amenra, Time to Burn or Celeste. Their two previous albums are a bit more on the post-rock/post-metal side of things, worth a listen but I definitely found myself listening to this on repeat a lot this year.

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Murmuüre - Murmuüre (2010)

Full Length, Cold Void Emanations
March, 2010



Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal/Ambient/Electronic
Region: France

Murmuüre is one guy from France recording bizarre and creative black metal. The self-titled is short (just under half an hour), well written, and quite unique. There's a heavy emphasis on synth/electronic sampling, a noisey electronic haze blankets the album but underneath there is a distinct black metal sound and structure which focuses the chaos to some extent. Brilliant atmosphere is created from improvised guitar soaked in effects with giant swells of noise; this is definitely a gem.

Full stream of the album right here. Information here:

"All Murmuüre material is based on a one hour guitar improvisation from November 2006.
Selected parts were further edited to fit a rythmic structure, and merged with additional layers of sound.
This process of mixing & endless re-writing took 3 years until final completion.
The percussions are a mixture of the original programmed drums, and some (extremely re-edited) additional live drumming.
Vocals were recorded during a cathartic trance at a sacred place in the forest, with a mini-disc recorder.
Being almost inaudible in the music, they're strictly conceived as a vocal sigil technique, a vehicle for intent.

The 30 minutes long, self-titled release is possibly the first and last Murmuüre record.
I've put so much in it that it will be hard to match, and there would be no point in doing something more just for the sake of it."

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Dirge - Elysian Magnetic Fields (2011)

Full Length, Division Records
April, 2011



Genre: Atmospheric Sludge/Post-Metal
Region: France

A very heavy french band flying under the radar, Dirge play sludge/post-metal and have been consistent when it comes to quality releases. Elysian Magnetic Fields is their fifth release and it is a dense and massive record with layered effects and mounds of atmosphere, a great deal of slow and heavy riffing over top of some well placed synths and samples, occasionally coupled with strained yells from the vocalist.

Eight lengthy songs in the vein of Cult of Luna, Light Bearer, Pelican, Supercontinent, Empires, Rosetta, Hive Destruction, etc.

-link removed on request-