Thorr's Hammer - Dommedagsnatt

Another 'Southern Lord' treasure -- Those dudes from SUNN O))) team up with a norwegian exchange student to make some crushing doom jams. Heavy Monolithic Lumbering Sludgy stuff with a kind of subtle Black Sabbath vibe to it, backed with some deep-n-low growls mixed with chanting. 'Troll' is the fucking shit.

I just wish their name didn't sound like a slay-the-dragon-siege-the-castle type band. Like Hammerfall or something. I fucking hate that band.

Thorr's Hammer - Dommedagsnatt

--fred

Behold! The Monolith - Self Titled

This marks the lumbering, calculated, and none too soon return of LA's battle-geared 'Monolith'.This release follows their crushing, tersely unnamed EP, and shows no hint of the Battlestag slowing down anytime soon.

Little has changed since we've last heard from 'Behold! The Monolith'; they're still the ravenous metallic sludge-trompers we encountered earlier this year...and then some. With this new outing, they've displayed, moreso than before, a dynamic adaption between calm, war, and utter turmoil that proves the band is geared for growth in the future...for the better. They blend the buzz and rumble of High on Fire and RWAKE, with the artful progressive roots of bands like Mastodon; ultimately displaying the capability and courage to put aside the sludgehammer and ponder upon the smoother guitar licks. But when they do get heavy...they're relentless.

Behold! The Monolith - Self Titled (320 kbps)

--fred

Brothers of the Sonic Cloth - Early Demos

This band marks what I like to think of as the first real spiritual return to music for mammoth front-man Tad Doyle. The release of TAD's final album 'Infrared Riding Hood' was followed by a few years of uncertainty as members slowly dropped off to follow other projects and the powerful waves of the grunge movement started to recede from the banks of mainstream popularity. Kurt Danielson migrated off to France for a few years while Tad, after the release of his side project "Hog Molly", took a small hiatus from music and seemed to fade into obscurity. Many, as I did, probably assumed he had died from medical complications related to him brutally abusing his body during TADs reckless touring schedule from '89 to the mid-nineties.

Rest assured that Tad Doyle is alive and well, and now producing music with his new band 'Brothers of the Sonic Cloth'. 'Brothers' adapts a sound similar to Yob and The Christpunchers to Tad's natural songwriting talent, without sounding dated, and outmatching TAD in layers of grit and filth. They only produced 50 or so copies of their actual demo, for whatever reason, sometime last year. Tad has kept a close clamp down on the release on ANY of their material stating only:

We only made 50 copies of these beauties, and not a single copy more will leave hell and enter your little paws... this is because we think it's nice to have a very rare and limited collection of our first documented tracks with our new lineup. We brought and sold all 25 copies that we had available on our merch table, when we played Ash Street, last February 28th. We will have the remaining 25 for sale at our next few shows and they will go fast... no, really.

So, make sure to come early and pick up yours if you don't already have it, cause it goes without saying (though, we'll still say it) that you won't find any versions of these two songs on the internet, because, of course, nobody would dare put them up online for free download... right? Right. Please don't.

So, as you can see, Tad doesn't like the idea of any of their demos reaching any sort of circulation on the internet, and will probably request this be taken down within a few days of me posting this. I hope he'll take into consideration our intentions here and understand that there's a huge camp of people, me included, who will gladly follow his musical career to the ends of the earth...and I can't say that for many artists (see Chris Cornell). I also hope he might consider sending WMUC a copy of his bands demo, considering MINDGRINDER doesn't exactly have the funds to spring a ticket out to Seattle and buy a CD at one of their shows.

...anyway, 'Brothers of the Sonic Cloth' are planning, what I guess would be their first official release, a split 10" with Mico De Noche due to be released on Halloween of '09 with a distribution of 500 copies. Keep an eye on their myspace and Tad's blog for more news on that.

Brothers of the Sonic Cloth - Early Demos

and as a bonus, here are two TAD songs which were released separately as singles late in their career. The first 'Obsidian Lights' was recorded during the production of 'Infrared Riding Hood' and 'Kevorkian's Holiday' was a later single, dating around '98 or so. If anyone has the other halves of these singles, or a copy they're willing to sell, hit me up.

TAD - Late Singles

--fred

NOTE: These are early recordings the band made between 2005 and 2007. This is NOT the demo that was released in extremely limited quantities....still waiting for that one to surface.

Ramesses - Misanthropic Alchemy

Ramesses is Blackened-Doom-Sludge from Dorset, England. The band holds two ex-members from 'Electric Wizard', another Dorset-based Doom Metal band. They left the band in 2003 a few years after recording 'Dopethrone', leaving Jus Osborn as the only founding member still in the band.

Ramesses - Misanthropic Alchemy

Black Skies - Hexagon EP

Black Skies is a Sludge Rock band hailing from Chapel Hill, NC. I'm pretty sure they've only released two 7"s and one EP, of which has proved itself pretty popular on the stoner/sludge blogosphere thus far. Black Skies plays straight-ahead sludged-out rock, not unlike 'High on Fire', with the grittier (and LOUD) sensibilities of 'Jucifer'.

I could go on forever about how awesome the band is and what great people they are...but you probably don't want to read that. I will say however that they have recently released their EP on Vinyl in very limited quantities, so pick it up while you still can:

Buy their LP
myspace

Black Skies - Hexagon (320 kbps)

--fred

NOOTHGRUSH - Erode the Person (Original and Thrones Re-release)

NOOTHGRUSH has only released songs on a little more than a handful of splits and maybe a 7" here and there, so 'Erode the Person', meant to be a compilation, is good representation of their body of work. A bit of a problem arose though, for me at least, when I went to re-download this after my last hard drive died; 'Erode the Person' was released twice--two different albums with separate cover art and track listings. So, to counter-act that, I'm uploading both the original version of 'Erode' along with the "Thrones Release", which was put out 3 years ago. Of the two, I prefer the original for it's tracklisting, as it has 'Gage' and 'Sysyphus Narrow Way', however the "Thrones Release" has it's own edge in sound quality, as well as a few songs exclusive onto itself. Can't go wrong here:

Original 'Erode the Person'
Thrones Release: Part 1 Part 2

--fred

Hail!Hornet - Self Titled

Low-Frequency, Blood-Spittin' Southern Sludge; for fans of Buzzov*en, EYEHATEGOD, and being depressed. The rumble of the Earth-esque opening riff sums the band up for you. They'll still melt your face off and fuck your wife, though.

Hail!Hornet - Self Titled

Hey, did you know that Slipknot's on Metal-Archives, but Agoraphobic Nosebleed isn't? Cool, huh?

Salome - Self-Titled

This is Salome (Sal-Om-May not Sal-Low-Me or Salami) from Northern Virginia. I had the pleasure of seeing these three at the Nowarehouse along with Oak and two other bands that I've completely forgotten about. There was some black or death metal band that seemed to be making a big deal about themselves because they were about to go to tour in Europe but who cares whatever.

Salome is heavy. Really heavy. A kind of crushing misanthropy that could have only come from a real shithole like Northern Virginia. The vocals are something akin to NOOTHGRUSH, something you wouldn't really expect from meeting their vocalist in person (she's apparently also the new vocalist for Agoraphobic Nosebleed). The guitar work is patient and sloth-like, occasionally breaking into Stoner Rock trips before bringing back the heavy. Most of the album keeps a crawling sort of pace with some bludgeoning riffs here and there (most of Black Tides).

Check it out:

Salome - Self-Titled
Buy (It's either this or you go to a show and buy it.)



--fred

Behold! The Monolith

'Behold! The Monolith' hails from Los Angeles, California. With clear influences from Motorhead, High on Fire, Mastodon, and the Melvins, 'Monolith' leads you from track to track on a slow doom tromp, intermittently breaking into an impulsive, gritty, sprinting display of power. Bass lurks through the first track, under layers of fluid guitar work, before the two convene to lay the sludgehammer, setting the mood for the rest of the EP. The vocals reflect influences from metal behemoths like NOOTHGRUSH and Grief, with a hearty helping of Lemmy.

Easily one of my favorite releases of this year:

Behold! The Monolith - EP

--fred