True Amazement.

Thanks to Sadness for sending me this awesome album!
TLÖN is a Peruvian/Argentian band. This trio plays some music that goes far beyond your imagination. It's a combination of Stoner, Doom, Psychedelic Rock and 70's Hard Rock. The singer is really inimitable, I never heard someone sing like this guy. This album is filled with ten surprising songs and there all awesome. It makes me curious for the first album. I want to hear that one! For now: Enjoy II!

Amazing new album from South American masters of Doom and Psych Rock. Fantastic songs full of strong vocals and emotional feelings. This is a heavy trip down the road.... The latest studio effort from Peruvian/Argentinian TLÖN is not just a further release from the band but also transports the convincing creativity of the group. TLÖN do not play mere music - they create new dimensions of sound. So is the simple titled album TLÖN II a masterpiece of the very special kind that weaves Doom, Rock and Psych to mystical experience to melt your senses.
(From Nasoni Records)

TLÖN - II (2010)

DOWNLOAD

MySpace

Don't be a sad leecher and tell me what you think by leaving a comment!

Dinosaur Eyelids.

Thanks to the guys from Dinosaur Eyelids for sending their CD!
Dinosaur Eyelids is a band from New Brunswick, New Jersey. These guys play Alternative Rock with Stoner and Grunge infuences. At their MySpace Dinosaur Eyelids claims to be influenced by the following: Jimi Hendrix, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Black Sabbath, John Coltrane, The Who, Kyuss, Tom Petty and Lou Reed. The singer does remind me somehow of Neil Young. Their debut album Winter Solstice is a great one. Listen to the riff of the title track, it is awesome! Just like the other songs. My favorite is the last track Waves, a typical song to end an album. It starts subdued and ends in a great climax. Another great song is Know How To Die, that starts with a nice acapella intro. And Modal Realism has a riff that sticks in your head for the rest of the day.
Dinosaur Eyelids played a lot of shows in the state of New Jersey and the cities New York and Philadelphia. I hope these guys will visit Europe someday!

Enjoy Winter Solstice and support these guys!

Dinosaur Eyelids - Winter Solstice (2009)

DOWNLOAD

MySpace & Facebook

Don't be a sad leecher and tell me what you think by leaving a comment!

Moanin'

Mother Superior is a L.A. based Hard Rock trio and this is their eighth album. These guys are famous for their work with Henry Rollins.
Moanin' is a great Hard Rock album with some Stoner and 70's influences. Some songs are raw as hell and others more subdued. This album has an excellent sound. One of my favorite songs is A Hole, a right in your face Rock 'n' Roll song. And the last track Jack The Ripper is a kick-ass song. Moanin' is great! Enjoy!

What do musical giants like Daniel Lanois, Henry Rollins, Tony Visconti, Alice Cooper, Meat Loaf, Emmylou Harris, Sparks, Anthrax, Wayne Kramer, Lemmy, George Clinton, Iggy Pop, Queens of the Stone Age and others have in common?

They have all worked with Mother Superior, a Los Angeles based trio made up of guitarist/vocalist Jim Wilson, bassist Marcus Blake and drummer Matt Tecu. In a world where musical acts are hopelessly hyped and just as quickly disposed of, Mother Superior has survived on a reputation as first-class musicians, solid songwriters and they are also in high demand for session work. Many top acts have recorded their songs or used the group itself as a backing band.

They have toured and recorded with Grammy award winning producer/performer DANIEL LANOIS and are currently recording songs with him at his home studio for upcoming projects. Mother Superior have also traveled the world with punk rock icon HENRY ROLLINS (the band performs an average of 150 live shows per year) and they have released CDs as the second incarnation of Rollins Band.

On their own, Mother Superior continuously attracts a strong and devoted following by touring the world. They have built a reputation playing packed clubs and rock festivals and have received rave reviews for their energetic performances. They have achieved notoriety and international acclaim as a solid rock ‘n roll force that Rolling Stone has described like “Led Zeppelin with a full erection, Decca-period Rolling Stones, and early ZZ Top with the fury of the Stooges.”

Their latest CD, “Moanin’” features 11 new songs and features a mix of Kinks and Rolling Stones-style classic rockers like “Get That Girl,” “Little Motor Sister” and “Meltdown.” The CD also features more of what the New York Post called “an enormous musical vocabulary” with the heavy soul sounds of “This Song Reminds Me Of You” and the ambitious and hypnotic “Devil Wind.”

Rock ‘n roll fans are well aware of the music of Mother Superior, but they are still one of music’s best kept secrets.
(From their website)

Mother Superior - Moanin' (2005)

DOWNLOAD

Website & MySpace

Don't be a sad leecher and tell me what you think by leaving a comment!

Spaced Out In The Hague.

At some blogs I saw posts about the Øresund Space Collective performance at Roadburn. This post is about the pre Roadburn performance at De Vinger.
De Vinger (The Finger) is a small bar in The Hague and I was really surprised Øresund Space Collective was announced there. The Collective did only one performance in The Netherlands in the past and now they've played in my home city! Awesome!
As I expected, Øresund Space Collective did play a great show. It was an over two hours during Space Trip. An unforgettable experience. But too bad, they didn't recorded all of it, so here's an over one hour recording.
What also surprised me was the fact there were at the most 25 visitors at this great show. (People don't know what they have missed or The Hague isn't ready for totally improvised Space Rock!)

It was really nice to see Dr. Space enjoying his music in his fluorescent wizard robe! I hope they will visit The Hague again sometimes. Maybe then there will be a better audience. Enjoy this experience!

Øresund Space Collective - Live At De Vinger (April 14th 2010)

DOWNLOAD

Website & MySpace

Pennsylvania Stoner.

A special thanks to Sadness for dropping this in the C-Box!
Backwoods Payback is a Stoner Rock band from West Chester, Pennsylvania. This band combines Stoner Rock with Doom and Heavy Metal. Their self-titled album is a nice one. I like the singer of Backwoods Payback, he has a great voice. The songs are nice and groovy, the guitar has a great fuzz so what do you want more? Enjoy.

I’ve been following Backwoods Payback since the Book One release. When this first came out I dug into my pocketbook and got myself a copy. Been listening to it a good deal ever since. On their first full-length, BP gives you rerecorded versions of five tracks from Book One in addition to five brand new tunes. Chris Kozlowski twiddles the knobs here to great effect as the new versions of old classics such as “Mickey Morandini” with its immortal lyric, “I thought I told you before, I’m a motherfucker!”, “Brandywine” now featuring badass organ, “Wide Eyed”, “Hates You” and “Runaway Sinclair” (a monster groove track) all reach their full potentials due to top tier sound quality.

Now, that I’m ahead of myself I guess I should put the reigns on a second for the uninitiated. BP is heavy, tough as nails doom rock in case you’re not in the know. Thundering riffs lay waste to the weak with a dual vocal attack singing and shouting out more profanities than you can shake a stick at.

Oh yeah, a word of warning for those who like their lyrics to paint vivid otherworldly pictures; BP is not going to please you. Their stories of drinking, fighting and taking no bullshit are as blunt as they get. So, if your ears offend easily you’re in the wrong neck of town.

Despite the big, ballsy riffs and rough hewn vocal/lyrical ramblings, there’s a lot of quality songwriting on display in the BP camp. Most of their material gets stuck in my head after the first listen and this new full-length is no exception to that standard. The hooks go hand in hand with heaviness.

All of the redone tracks are badass and it’s interesting to note that they make up the heavier half of the record overall. As for the new tracks, their all well worth your time and range from straight out rockers to slightly more experimental fare.

Rollicking through some seriously turgid rock n’ roll riffs is the drunken, stumbling “Baja 6 Pack”. It has a good deal of groove set to a nice bite of aggression with riffs that stick to your ribs like they should. It moves quickly into the winding space tones of “Bastard Squad”; dabbling with psychedelic instrumentation that adds a drugged out atmosphere to the verses, only to be shattered by fuzz-ridden doom weight in the choruses. The singing is spot on too. I always dug on BP’s vocal delivery as the singing has definite melodic chops interspersed with deadly, moonshine grit.

Southern glory shines throughout the wholly impressive, “You Shittin’ Me?” Big top, bruising riffs maintain a high sense of groove throughout with the taut rhythms adding an extra layer of density. It’s the feeling of reinforcing something as immovable as a boulder. Then to my surprise they slip into a smooth as silk southern groove that rings harmonically beneath a choir of vocals. I thought I had gotten kidnapped and dropped off at a southern gospel practice. Not a moment I expected from this lot.

Digging deeper into the dirt is the boogie rock of “Dirtbike” that makes effective use of Clutch and Corrosion of Conformity’s swing but covers it in the blown out distortion brawl of Earthride. Crystal clear, crooned vocals duel with claustrophobic biker bashing. Jessica Baker’s blues drenched, sludge-y bass lines end this song on a particularly grimy note.

Rounding out the remainder of the new material is the driving southern doom of “Kill All Hell” that features some of disc’s best riffs, along with closer “Penny Driven” which begins slowly with bluesy mood enhancement but then bullies its way to the head of class with additional verbal lamentation provided by none other than Dave Sherman.

BP does it again on this much belated full-length offering. I can’t say that I could see anyone who digs their rock slow, mean and heavy being disappointed with what BP has to offer on their debut long player. They’ve got the melodic, ear catching hooks of COC and Clutch wrapped up with the whiskey sippin’ thunder of ATP at their loudest and Earthride. Loud and abrasive but not without infectious songwriting to make sure you’ll be back at the bar for another round. Glad I shelled out for this one. Hopefully, I’ll get to catch them live someday as I hear they are at their best breathing down your neck from three feet away.
(By Jay Snyder at Hellridemusic.com)

Backwoods Payback - Backwoods Payback (2007)

DOWNLOAD

MySpace & Facebook

Don't be a sad leecher and tell me what you think by leaving a comment!

My Way To Honour Peter Steele.

Back in 1987 I was totally into Thrash Metal with bands as Slayer, Metallica, Testament, Sacred Reich and more stuff like that. And then there was the album Retaliation by the band Carnivore. I never had heard something like this. It was so extreme, I loved it immediately. From the tasty intro Jack Daniel's And Pizza until the last track Sex And Violence this album was a blast in those days. (Remember that Death Metal was a relatively new thing in 1987!) This album was the best thing Peter Steele ever did. Don't get me wrong, I like some Type O Negative stuff (Especially Bloody Kisses), but I love Carnivore a lot more!
If some people are interested in the first band of Peter Steele called Fallout go here.


Under the term "Metalcore" we have a real trend of combining Hardcore attitude with Thrash/Death Metal riffs. But this idea is anything but new, in the 80s that ran under the category “Crossover" (before bands such as FAITH NO MORE, MORDRED, ...) and had bands like D.R.I. and SUICIDAL TENDENCIES as their forerunners. Not to forget Peter Steele’s (TYPE O NEGATIVE) first band CARNIVORE and their ultimate hate fest "Retaliation".

For me this album is one of the best Crossover albums of all times. Here the rough catchiness of old VENOM and the mean guitar attacks of a Tony Iommi are hunted through a wind tunnel and then unleashed upon mankind. And where is the connection to Hardcore Punk? Who knows the super fast riffs knows, right? But with all speed CARNIVORE never forgot to put in variety and used several slower, but all the more brutal parts in their songs. If this album hasn’t inspired several of today’s big Death Metal bands, I’ll lick my own anus.

I can’t say much about the extreme lyrics, because the free beer pressing of Roadrunner Records back then did not have any, but as our chief Alex had told me a while back, the lyrics are very brutal, but not fascist. The CD has been re-done a while back with several (demo) bonus songs. As extreme Metaller you need to know that.
(From The Metal Observer)

Carnivore - Retaliation (1987)

DOWNLOAD

Website & MySpace

Jesus I beg of thee
don't take my life
return me to the womb
from which I was torn
birth is a sin
and the punishment is death
I wish you had left me unborn
(From Ground Zero Brooklyn)

A Couple Of Re-Posts.

Here are a couple of re-posts, because Mediafire had let me down again!

Acid King - Down With The Crown EP (1997)

DOWNLOAD

Acid King - 10" EP (1994)

DOWNLOAD

Both Acid King EP's are originally posted here.

Star Drive - Kings And Slaves (2009)

DOWNLOAD

Stardrive - Rust (2006)

DOWNLOAD

Both Stardrive albums are originally posted here.

Skittles - Contemporary South American Garage Punk, Psych & Blues (2010)

DOWNLOAD

This compilation is originally posted here.

Burning Sea Of Green.

This is a real nice birthday present I've got yesterday!
Obskuria is a band with members from several countries. They play some very great Psychedelic music. On their first album Discovery Of Obskuria they played mostly covers in their own way. On the second album Burning Sea Of Green they play songs of their own, except for one cover: Black Magic by Slayer. Obskuria play this song in a very strange version, with the hypnotic singing of Murielle Stadelmann. I never heard a Slayer cover like this! Burning Sea Of Green contains 9 great songs and it goes from mellow to heavy! Obskuria has two singers who has diveded the songs. The last track is Burning Sea Of Green, a nearly 13 minute Psychedelic trip with Muriellle Stadelmann as your personal guide. Burning Sea Of Green is an album you don't want to miss. Enjoy!

"Obskuria is hungry for ultimate satisfaction; feat. members of La Ira De Dios and Dragonwyck, they're best described as burning-heavy-psychedelic tone poetry, the roots of those 'symphonic/orchestrated' poems go back to the early 19th century, when music was intended to inspire listeners and to consider images or moods, not to focus on following traditional patterns -- free form improvisation! All 9 songs, except a Slayer cover of 'Black Magic' (transformed into '60s garage-twist), were cut from instrumental one-take jams; no headphones and all performers incl. amps in one room to feel the unfiltered natural vibes of the magical float, to get inspired in marching to the eternal outer-space-plateau as ONE unit.. it's the culmination of violent but also floating rocksound with truly authentic hard-driven 70s fuzz/space guitar overkills and spheric Hammond Organ layers. Finally two fabulous guest singers (male/female) added super-catchy soulful, haunted and atmospheric vocals. The debut album Discovery Of Obskuria, got lots fabulous and creative reviews in 2008 for their mostly excessive long instrumental space-Kraut excursions -- NOW the 5 Obskurians speeded-up most of their studio-performance with the focus to get more steady hypnotic song orientated (die)-hard-rock-tunes; which ended after cutting them into 3,5 to 5 min format, except the 13 min title track, a multi-climax, which epically expresses thee 'farewell to the American dream ? drifting in the burning sea of green'! Obskuria is inspired by '70s Krautrock, Black Sabbath, Doors, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, Brainticket, Joe Meek, Spaghetti Western and Slayer. This second album by the intercontinental quintet (Peru, US & Germany) may be seen as a soundtrack-concept-album to express in each song a different scene with an 'abundant' variety of raw energetic beauty plus revolutionary spirit. On low volume it feels like an easy listening album, turning it up it could cause unexpected mind-expansions leading into addiction not many 'modern' rock albums have the potential to bring new outstanding listening dimensions to the true music maniacs and addicts. Obskuria does! 'A new decade of purely emotional, euphoric rock'n'roll has begun to take you back to those days when music still was music!'"
(From Ear-rational.com)

Obskuria - Burning Sea Of Green (2010 Vinyl Rip)

DOWNLOAD

Website & MySpace

Corsario Negro.

Los Natas is a well known Stoner Rock band from Argentinia and it is one of my favorite bands! Corsario Negro is their third album. In my opinion this is a classic. The sound of this album is awesome, just listen to the guitar. There is nothing like that! Los Natas treats you on this album with heavy parts alternated with more atmospheric pieces. Planeta Solitario is one of the best Los Natas songs ever. So the conclusion here is: If you don't know this album, go listen to it and enjoy!

What has six legs, three heads, sings in Spanish, and sounds like a herd of dinosaurs marching across a pre-historic Patagonian beach? Why, it must be Argentina's phenomenal Los Natas, whose earth-shaking brand of doom metal ranks with the best yet heard in this new millennium. Recorded in their hometown Buenos Aires' Abasto Studios with the aid of renowned indie rock producer Billy Anderson (Helios Creed, Red House Painters, etc.), the band's third full album, Corsario Negro, continues to distill their post-Kyuss stoner rock/doom metal with a wash of psychedelic sounds, space rock, blues infections, and jazzy noodlings. Opening with the very amusing "2002" (essentially the main theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey gone doom), the album rumbles into gear with a trio of stunning tracks combining all of the above sounds; beginning with the mesmerizing "Planeta Solitario," rolling onward through the galloping "Patas de Elefante," and culminating in the simply colossal power chords of "El Cono del Encono" -- quite simply an all-time doom classic. The disc's mostly instrumental second half isn't quite as satisfying, but still offers a number of inspired moments by way of the crushing title cut and the quite beautiful, sweetly chiming melodies of "Hey Jimmy" and "El Gauchito." All in all, the dynamic swings and stylistic depth found on Corsario Negro represent a new stage in the group's evolution and will likely convert many past cynics who may have accused Los Natas of owing far too great a debt to Kyuss. Here, they have clearly broken free of these shackles and are forging their own path.
(By Eduardo Rivadavia at Allmusic.com)

Los Natas - Corsario Negro (2001)

DOWNLOAD

Website & MySpace

Don't be a sad leecher and tell me what you think by leaving a comment!

Another Estonian Jewel.

Here's another great CD Jarmo gave me, thanks again!
It is nice to see there is a booming music scene in Estonia. There are a lot of awesome bands over there! One of them is Leech.
Leech is the former band of Talbot's bass player and singer Magnus, but this is a lot different than Talbot! Leech plays a combination of Grunge, Progressive Metal and Stoner Rock. The result is great! Tram-O-Gram is a very nice CD. It contains ten great songs with a lot of variety and authenticity. Enjoy!

We've been waiting for six years and it has finally landed! After some fifty live shows and two singles ("Disconnected" 2003, and "Powerfields" that participated in the Baltic New Music Chart last year), "Tram-O-Gram", the first album of the chaos managers and intergalactic progressive metal pilots crashes the sound systems, decks and boom boxes of the fans like a flying saucer hit Roswell.

Four men form Leech, Magnus, Ivo, Erik and Rainer, and as accustomed to Estonian musicians, most of them have their fingers dipped in more than one pie at once. Bassist Magnus is also part of PlekkSaapad and Melmac, drummer Erik has been part of Loom, and Rainer is half the pop-industrial duo RUHT.

The birth of "Tram-O-Gram" was not an easy one. It took well over two years, plenty of laughing gas, trips to various hospital rooms and midwives until The One was found – the peak of the Soviet architecture Linnahall and the legendary engineer Elmu Värk residing within. He put his mighty mitts at work, helping to perfect the sound and creation of "Tram-O-Gram".

All 10 songs and the design of the CD create a conceptual interweaved whole. They are observations and ironic notes of a bystander about a mankind, who wait for a mystical saviour, while doing nothing to stop the demise they have brought on themselves. Postcards from a post-apocolyptic world that might not be such a bad place without humans.
(From their website)

Leech - Tram-O-Gram (2007)

DOWNLOAD

Website & MySpace