Unkle K's Bands of the Week

Due to my already stuffed ear copping a walloping at the Church of Misery show a month ago, I have not been listening to much music in the last few weeks. Here are a couple of things that have caught my attention.

Rort
I'm sure I've seen or heard this band before but if I have, it didn't leave the impression on me that this new track from their forthcoming LP has. This crushing grindy track leaves me highly keen to hear the full length. Another quality Melbourne act.
Bandcamp

Weekend Nachos

Most of you are probably familiar with Weekend Nachos. For those that are not, checking them out is a must. These two tracks from their forthcoming LP, Still, contain all the elements that make WN so good. Massive guitar sound, great variety between slow and fast. One of the very few bands that could make these old legs want to mosh like a crazy ape.

Bandcamp

Gig of the Week
Cyberne (Japan), Dead (Melbourne), The Reverend Jesse Custer and Machina Genova. Sunday 3 November, 5pm at Magpies City Club. $10 concession/$15 standard.

Also, Beer Day Out is not until Saturday 9 November, but tickets are selling fast, so get onto it: Facebook.

Video of the Week
The VeeBees - "Doin'er Up": YouTube

Playlist: Unkle K
1. Dragged into Sunlight - Widowmaker
2. Mother Brain - Straight to Business
3. Deep Purple - Burn
4. Scorpions - Animal Magnetism 
5. All Pigs Must Die - Nothing Violates this Nature 

Playlist: lxp
1. Earthless - From the Ages
2. SubRosa - More Constant than the Gods
3. Red Fang - Whales and Leeches
4. Great Falls - Accidents Grotesque
5. Woodwall - WoodEmpire

Unkle K

Unkle K's Bands of the Week

Not aware of any shows this week but I'm quite happy to live off memories of the awesome Church of Misery show I witnessed on Friday night in Sydney. Bloody fantastic. Cheers to Nathan for bringing them out from Japan.

Frozen Planet....1969
Featuring our very own Lachlan from Looking Glass along with the Mother Mars brothers. Frozen Planet....1969 play improvisational spaced out jam rock. If you are familiar with any of the members' other bands you will know how talented these guys are and you will be all over this. For the uninitiated, highly recommended.
Bandcamp

Human Cull
Really digging the explosion of good bands out of the UK playing grindy stuff at the moment - Magpyes, Horsebastard, Corrupt Moral Altar. Add Human Cull to that list. Brutal, unforgiving, foot to the floor grind, not too polished like a lot of the newer grind acts these days.
Bandcamp

Seven Sisters of Sleep/Shaman's Owl
Both bands feature members of the underrated The Arm and Sword of a Bastard God, who released a killer split with Coffins back in 2007. They both play similar styles of sludgy doom, maybe not reaching the heights of ASBG for me yet, but still worth checking out.
Cvlt Nation

Video of the Week
Black Sabbath and the Birth of Heavy Metal - On The Road
Excellent video from Vice Magazine. Noisey teamed up with Marshall Headphones and Jesse Hughes of Eagles Of Death Metal notoriety to go on the road to hunt the spirit of Black Sabbath.
YouTube

Playlist: Unkle K
1. Joe Rogan Podcasts
2. Human Cull/Oblivionized - This Septic Isle
3. Slomatics - A Hocht
4. Seven Sisters of Sleep/Shaman's Owl - Split
5. Deep Purple - Shades of Deep Purple

Playlist: lxp
1. Bowcaster - S/T LP
2. Bl'ast! - Blood!
3. Royal Thunder - CVI
4. Agents of Abhorrence - Relief
5. Acid King - Busse Woods

Unkle K

Various artists 2

Some more of my sketchy live photos from the vault.
lxp

Akimbo, 2006

Witchcraft, 2010

Super Fun Happy Slide, 2008

Converge, 2006

Saint Vitus, 2013

ABC Weapons, 2008

Northless - World Keeps Sinking

Northless play a gargantuan, rhythmically confounding kind of sludge that is as enveloping as it is punishing and difficult. Their last full length, Clandestine Abuse was unbelievably heavy, but it didn't let you in easily, and for exactly that reason it was completely addictive. Their releases since then (a split with Lightbearer and the Valley of Lead 10") hinted at the band's evolution, but on their new record, World Keeps Sinking (Halo of Flies/Gilead Media), Northless have launched themselves on to a new plane altogether.

Everything that gave Northless their edge previously is still here, including the characteristic choked, mucous vocals and the teeth clenching, skull fracturing, hard won riffs. But there is a load of additional complexity and control, with a bit of quirk thrown into the mix.

This is the kind of record that needs repeated listens just to make sense of what the hell is going on. The songs are amazingly constructed and completely unpredictable. Titanic, destructive riffs unfold one after another, stuck tightly together by an absolute wrecking-ball of a rhythm section that morphs time and direction so effectively you don't even notice you've been transported to the next beating. Northless have nailed down the ability to forcibly drag their music along an erratic path of fury, misery, frustration, hatred, determination, false hope and...what's this? Dreamlike calm?

When the violence of "Communion" crumbles away to expose a gentle, breezy, clean, almost jazzy guitar finish, it allows the dust to begin to settle, and the full impact of everything Northless have done on this album sinks in. "Passage" picks up from there, providing a 15+ minute lesson in how to melt minds and faces at the same time. Possibly the album's standout track (at least that's my early impression), it exemplifies the whole approach Northless are taking to combining claustrophobic, suffocating heaviness with expansive, preconception-shattering songwriting.

World Keeps Sinking somehow manages to latch on to misanthropy and bathe it in a reflective, almost warm light. It's a fucking fantastic album, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Listen on Bandcamp. Visit Northless' website.

lxp

Unkle K's Bands of the Week

Rectal Hygenics
Dirty, punky noise rock from Chicago's wonderfully named Rectal Hygenics.
Bandcamp

Iron Heel

Doom from Vienna, Austria, which wanders into stoner territory at times. Luckily the riffs are huge. Vocals are great. I can hear bits of Rev. Bizarre.

Bandcamp

Throw Me in the Crater
Nasty, heavy-as-shit sludge from The Netherlands. This has a real dirty swagger, like Autopsy. Brings to mind the under appreciated Accept Death as well.

Bandcamp 

Gigs of the Week

Sick People (QLD), Sewercide (VIC), Eye Gouge, Hygeine and Coffin Birth
Wednesday 18th September, Magpies City Club

Facebook

Black Coffee (A.I.B.C EP launch), The Oily Boys, Eye Gouge, Hygiene and Beach Slut

Saturday 21 September, Magpies City Club

Facebook 

Playlist: Unkle K
1. Windhand - S/T
2. Kadavar - S/T
3. Thou - All
4. Shining - Black Jazz
5. AC/DC - Powerage 

Playlist: lxp
1. Vista Chino - Peace
2. Enabler - All Hail the Void
3. Rituals - S/T
4. Jungbluth - Part Ache
5. All Pigs Must Die - Nothing Violates this Nature

Unkle K

Unkle K's Bands of the Week

Sad week in metal. Joey LaCaze, Eyehategod drummer passed away. RIP, legend.

Hoax
Raw, nasty hardcore punk from Massachusetts, USA. They have a really filthy downtuned sound that is very catchy. The singer looks as mad as the vicious vocals he spews out.
Album download: Cvlt Nation
Live in Brooklyn, 21 August 2013: YouTube

Demon Lung
Epic classic doom from Las Vegas  The brilliant melodic vocals of Shanda Fredrick really set Demon Lung apart from the countless doom releases that are coming out at the moment. Brings to mind the brilliant The Wounded Kings.
Bandcamp

Video of the Week
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - "Mind Crawler": YouTube

Playlist: Unkle K
1. Hoax - S/T
2. Demon Lung - The Hundredth Name
3. Drowning Horse - S/T
4. Uzala - S/T
5. Drug Honkey - Ghost in the Fire

Playlist: lxp
1. Orchid - The Mouths of Madness
2. Moss - Horrible Night
3. Obsessor - Obsession/Sick Salvation/In Fear of the End/Mental Hell
4. Naam - Vow
5. Eyehategod - Dopesick

Unkle K

Unkle K's Bands of the Week

Stangala
Brilliant French occult doom rock.
Bandcamp

Traitors Return to Earth
Quality Ohio sludge.
Bandcamp

 

S.H.I.T.

Toronto's S.H.I.T would rip live I think. Nasty catchy hardcore punk with killer vocals.

Bandcamp

Video of the Week
I Exist - "Fool for Death": YouTube

Playlist: Unkle K
1. Stangala - Boued Tousek Hag Traou Mat All
2. S.H.I.T. - Demo 2012
3. Traitors Return to Earth - Betting on a Full Collapse
4. Armoured Angel - Hymns of Hate

5. Jucifer - за волгой для нас земли нет (The Russian Album) 

Playlist: lxp

1. Holy Mount - Alpic

2. Phantom Glue - A War of Light Cones

3. Church of Misery - Thy Kingdom Scum

4. Drug Church - Paul Walker

5. Cult of Occult - Hic Est Domus Diaboli

Unkle K

To Cross the Oceans

We all know that for a long time now the reach of the music we listen to has extended far beyond the boundaries of the Western/American/UK/European/Australian cultural frames in which it is still stereotypically thought to exist by far too many people. I mean, as Magrudergrind say, "the South East Asian scene is the shit". And I never get bored of reading about the different places where metal and punk take root and are cast in a new light by people unleashing their own experiences through the power of the riff.

I have recently noticed more and more articles looking into metal and punk in different countries, and decided to point to a few of them here. Really, this a pretty lazy post in which I'm not adding anything new, just throwing out a few links some readers may find interesting.

Japan
Japan has been cranking out influential heavy music for years, and here in Australia, we are already lucky enough to have Japanese bands touring pretty frequently. Just a few highlights that spring to my mind from recent years are Boris, Unholy Grave, Numb, Birushanah, Realized and Sete Star Sept...and there have been many others. We've also got Cyberne coming back soon, and the very exciting news that Church of Misery will be headlining this year's Doomsday Festival. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed Craig Hayes' two part feature on Japanese metal at PopMatters, with part one giving a brief historical overview and part two focusing on a handful of standout bands.
Nippon Riffin': Part 1
Nippon Riffin': Part 2

Egypt, Libya and Tunisia
A part of the world whose music I'm much less familiar with is North Africa. So it was interesting to read Alasdair Bulmer's pieces for Invisible Oranges on metal in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. I don't know if there are going to be further installments in this series but if there are, I'll post them further down the road.
African Metal #1: Egypt
African Metal #2: Libya and Tunisia

Mexico
Mexico already has a great reputation for crust and grind. Delving a little deeper into that area, the excellent Aborted Society (through their AbSoc Zine) have just kicked off a series called "Women of Mexican Hardcore". The first, in which Diana Mayoral interviews Mariana Huerta of Guadalajara crust band Antagonisten, was just published a few days ago. So keep checking in for more, in what promises to be a stellar feature that will reveal some fantastic new music.
Women of Mexican Hardcore: Mariana Huerta - Antagonisten

One final note: if you have any interest in magazines that are printed on actual paper, I would also recommend Annick Giroux's "World Downfall" column in Iron Fist magazine, featuring interviews with bands from all around the globe (I've only read the ones from Malaysia and Turkey, but they're well worth checking out).

lxp