Kata Sarka are a 4-piece band from Indianapolis, led by A.V.9, ex-member of The Electric Hellfire Club, a relatively well-known satanic industrial rock band, and several other projects. According to Encyclopaedia Metallum, their main lyrical themes are: "Insanity, Mysticism, Anti-Capitalism, Survivalism". So far they have released two demos, a split w/ Nak'ay, and most recently - a full-length album called "Existential Oblivion". The only their release I've listened to is "The Great Dereliction", and I can safely call it one of the most promising blackened crust demos of 2011.
So, why not to post it here? It isn't sanctioned by the band, but I hope it's OK because it's available for free from their bandcamp (other releases are available for streaming only). Also check out the interview with A.V.9 here.
Led By Fear are a new 3-piece metallic crust band from Tver, founded by (A)xidanc(E)'s guitarist. Nothing really innovative in terms of music, but still very solid release, a big step forward from what our crust scene was like 2 years ago (see Axidance/E123/Ground Zero 3-way split, for example).
Well, enough for today. Maybe tomorrow I'll finally try to explain what caused the recent protests here (which are still ongoing, but on much smaller scale). However, the situation is quite complex, and probably will take a series of articles to explain it properly...
I already have introduced you to this one-man project from Minnesota, and here's his first demo EP, consisting of 3 tracks. Beside these 2 songs which I already have written about, the demo contains one more short instrumental track. Release notes:
"This is an ep designed so that it would work good on a 7" extended play vinyl. Someone pointed out to me just how raw my recordings are at the moment, so I'm calling it an "ep/demo." I hope those who are not fans of raw can listen through the obviously amateur quality. Hopefully some day I'll be able to rerecord it with better equipment... It is for sure a bit (more like a lot) on the raw side... Unfortunately that part hasn't really changed, My means of production are not great at the moment...
Also it is sort of post-black-metal, with raw production quality (I actually wrote it before I knew about PoM or WiTTR or any of the other bands that does this style. Also I don't like WiTTR that much, but PoM and Skagos are really good, but that's kind of an aside) which seems to be something that you post a lot of. I wouldn't say that my project is RABM, but I'm supportive of the idea"
As for the lyrics - the song "The Wyrm Takes Over" has fantasy-based lyrics, but it was meant to be allegorical: "...it is a metaphor for the way that those with power tend to argue for free-trade as benefitting poor countries, while in fact it tends to enrich the global capitalist class at the expense of the global working class, and while it occasionally benefits some in the semiperiphery, it seldom benefits the actual periphery.
A new song (Little Ice Age) is also kind of RABM-friendly. It's about how religious authorities in Norse Greenland (christian at this point) refused to emulate the Inuit who recently settled nearby during the Little Ice Age (a cold period which started between the 13th and 14th centuries, after the Medieval Warm Period and ended in the late 19th century). The colony in Greenland was really only viable due to the Medieval Warm Period, and the methods of subsistence that the Norse there were employing just could not withstand the cooling. On the other hand, the Inuit had a very flexible and well adapted subsistence system, and the cooling to some extend allowed them to occupy greenland better. It's basically a good historical / archaeological example of how religious and social conservatism in the face of daunting environmental changes lead to the end of the colony in Greenland. In the song, a Norse protagonist get's fed up with the power of the religious authorities and burns down a church before abandoning them and joining the Inuit.
I'm thinking I might release WTO and LIA on a 15m ep (only for d/l unfortunately) with the instrumental "slothomore" (which is just a pun and has no deep meaning)..."
Primitive Accumulation, or ((prmtv-ccmltn)), are a bandfrom Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada, whose first demo cassette "Drive for Return to Inorganic Matter" came out in December of 2011. Musically they're influenced by raw black metal, power violence/fastcore, noise and "other weird shit we can get our hands on" (c); politically - by the ideas of Marx, Marcuse, Negri, Deleuze, Guattari and the New Left in general. The demo consists of 8 short tracks, but it's mixed in one long track here. I'd recommend it to fans of very raw, primitive USBM, and noisecore.
A little off topic here - political rapcore from Rawicz, Poland, made by readers of my blog. While their style is based on hip-hop, they draw influence from various genres, including industrial rock. Archive includes all booklet scans with the lyrics (some more lyrics from their earlier releases can be found here).
BTW, recently I was thinking about making another compilation of socially conscious hip-hop from ex-USSR, like this one - as there's a lot of new projects of such kind, but also a massive wave of "nazi rap" (which started to appear not only in ex-USSR, but also in Germany and Greece) which needs to be countered. However, I'm not sure if my readers would interested in this; second, gnwp.ru (a main source of such music) is currently down, so I have to postpone this project.
"this album was recorded in two parts, first 7 tracks being the original goats hill sessions, recorded in käpylä recording dungeon & vocals in a haunted cabin at the forests of sherwood. the last three songs where recorded a month or two later in tattarmass sessions, in käpylä recording dungeon,situated in southern wastelands"
I'm continuing to post old school metal (yes, Odmetnik, now you can't blame me for posting too much crust and hardcore!), and now here's a 2-piece act from Finland called Spellhammer. They're playing old school, 1st wave raw black metal, and have a number of side projects ranging stylistically from doom metal to crust. So far they have released one full-length album "Goat's Hill" at 18th of February 2011.
According to Encyclopaedia Metallum, one of their central lyrical themes is "story of Noita-Kallo". I googled it, but found only several pages in Finnish (which I don't understand at all, and even Google Translate didn't help much), and one short page in Swedish. At first I thought it was something like Dyatlov Pass accident (one of the well-known unsolved mysteries that have inspired many Russian (and not only) BM, industrial and dark ambient projects), but one of the member of Spellhammer explained that it actually refers to the series of grave robbings and cadaver mutilations that took place in Helsinki in the 1930's:
"noita kallio(kallio being his sr name) was this character, a sort of shaman mixed up with black arts and such. this woman who apparently sffered from shizophrenia came for healing and saw these apparitions appearing to the wall saying that in the pond of tattarisuo was a hidden treasure and the spirits in the pond wold give it up if you would give it a hman hand. so the hand didnt help and they gave it another and things escaladed from there. they end feeding the pond several gorpses and body parts, dug up from graves in malmi cemetary, stolen from a morgue in harju. both of those places exist today, the latter in a youth centre and the pond in tattarisuo is lodged between a freeway and a small airport"
The whole album is also available from their bandcamp for free (and of course, posting it here is sanctioned). You may also buy it from Satanica Productions (BTW, I see they have a new album by Conrad in their catalog... I definitely should get it!).
The 2nd and the final LP by Sacrilege. You won't find any raw, fast and aggressive stuff there - in contrast to Sacrilege's earlier releases, "Turn Back Trilobite" features slow doom metal with a progressive tinge and very melancholic atmosphere, with lyrics inspired by science, cosmogony, Hinduism and existential philosophy. Fans of crust and raw old school thrash/proto-black metal most probably would be disappointed, but I'd say it's definitely very "mature" release, and it was a quite original work in its day...
Speaking of female-fronted metal: here's a band from Birmingham that's widely regarded as one of the pioneering bands in a number of genres, including metallic crust, proto-black metal, and doom metal. According to Wikipedia: "Sacrilege were a female-fronted thrash metal band from the Midlands region of England. Despite having played relatively few gigs during their existence, Sacrilege are today recognised as an important band; both as an influence on later heavy metal and doom metal bands, and as an example of the blending of hardcore punk, radical politics, and heavy metal that occurred during the 1980s, making Sacrilege one of the prototypical crust punk bands of the time". Their political affiliation becomes obvious if we take in account that 2 members of Sacrilege also played in a well-known anarchist punk-82 band The Varukers. While "Within The Prophecy" is somewhat generic 80s-style speed/thrash metal, their debut album "Behind The Realms Of Madness" is a quite interesting work which incorporates elements of Amebix-style crust. Don't know if we call them one of the precursors for blackened crust (along with Amebix and Axegrinder), but their debut album is definitely a must-listen release for everyone who likes both RABM/blackened crust and old school metal; and Lynda "Tam" Simpson's vocals are remarkable as well.
Well, you all know what day is today - so this time I won't post any historical information, but just greet all my female readers (don't know how many I have, but I think I ought to do it). Of course it the perfect time to post some news from the female-fronted bands which have appeared on my blog...
Louna have recently released their new album called "Time X", but they aren't a DIY/underground band (and don't identify themselves as one) - so I don't think I should post any of their stuff here, although they're definitely on our side. Their lyrics have become much more straightforwardly political and anti-religious, although more simplistic as well as their music - but I don't think it's bad. I had just outgrown such kind of music, that's all. Lousiné is still one of the best female vocalists on Russian rock scene, and I respect them for being one of the few well-known bands to sing about important social and spiritual issues.
BTW, I've just discovered an all-female symphonic black metal band from Lousiné's homeland:
Of course, nothing really surprises me after I've discovered an all-female metal band from Saudi Arabia, but it's still interesting to see such band coming from a very non-metal country, especially if it's black metal. Of course you can't compare Armenia to Chechnya or Dagestan, but don't forget as well how deeply Armenians are Christianized (the major part of their national identity is built on being the oldest Christian nation in the world, surrounded by very hostile neighbours), so it's curious enough to see black metal there. Moreover, I was surprised by this video compilation:
I didn't knew there are so many female-fronted metal bands in Yerevan (even though most of them are playing only heavy/power metal). I also heard there's an one-woman DSBM project in Azerbaijan, but I couldn't find any further info. Anyway, good to see such bands coming from a very conservative and non-metal region.
One more interesting find - an interview with a black female metalhead Laina Dawes, who's a music journalist and concert photographer. According to her, she was accused of being "weird" and "race traitor" because of being involved in a very white-dominated culture. So, black girls who like metal have to deal both with racist metalheads and the accusations like "you think you're white" from their friends and families; moreover, expressing one's sexuality in the metal scene differs significantly from the images we see of women in hip-hop scene. All these problems are discussed in her interview, which was quite interesting to read (moreover, she believes in "equality and fairness, of equal access to opportunities and education", which I think is fairly in the spirit of my blog).
A lot of other articles on females in metal which I could find are dealing mostly with fashion - like this article on MetalSucks. Come on, metal/punk isn't about fashion in the first place, it's about music and individuality. So I'd agree with the first comment there - all you need to do is to show up and listen to music. Choosing you appearance is up to you and your taste of what's fit/unfit to you. "Normal" attire (be it jeans, dresses. etc.), as it was suggested in the article? OK. Or you prefer leather corsets, very short skirts, heavy boots and anything else to make you look more "rock"? Fine, why not if you really like it and think it's tasteful. That's very simple, and I think most of my female readers will agree with me. And finally, I want to quote another comment under the same article, which I mostly agree with:
"Who cares what you wear or how you act, as long as you are being yourself, enjoying the music, and being respectful to others (usually best way to get respect back). There's a difference between a slightly intimidating environment and a sexist sausage-party. Judge for yourself and make a choice where you wanna hang and where you don't. Frankly, I have no interest in hanging out with assholes, whatever their gender. So what really matters in not gender, but how nice ppl are and if you honestly like the music. I'm into Metal-Punk, and have been 'in' the Montreal Punk scene for close to a decade. There is no shortage of girls in that scene. I would say it's 40% female and 60% male, on average. However, there is certain a macho attitude amongst some male members of the Punk scene. And there is some petty bitchiness amongst the girls. So really, it's not that much better sometimes. Also, everyone sleeps with eachother (I call it 'Scene-Incest') and it creates too much drama. It's too bad, but it does not diminish my interest in the music. It does however diminish my interest in the scene. Scenes are usually micro-worlds, and ultimate reflections of society and human behavior. So no matter the scene, you usually find a bit of everything. All you have to do is pick and choose"
Some more blackened grindcore/powerviolence for you, this time from Richmond, VA (same area as Unsacred). Of course the production is quite raw, but I think this release will appeal to fans of hardcore/powerviolence, and to listeners of raw USBM as well. Both demos are available for free from their bandcamp.
Well, while the recent events in the Russian political life (and especially the whole course of the so-called "Snow Revolution") turned out to be a big disappointment, our blackened crust scene still keeps giving me some hope. I have only very little info about this band (they're from St.Petersburg, if I'm not mistaken), but their debut release is fucking awesome. A very powerful mix of blackened crust and grindcore, reminds me of Radioskugga. Their lyrical themes range from absurd poetry to personal feelings, depression, misanthropy and some anti-authoritarian topics. Highly recommended!
Let's be brief. First of all, as you already may know, Fifteen Dead released a new single about a month ago. It's aimed against elitist assholes preaching to no one what bands are "trve" or not, and you can listen to it on their bandcamp page. While I fully support the message (because only very few things are more annoying than the self-proclaimed "BM elite" bands calling themselves "trve & kvlt" and thinking it's an excuse for playing shitty music), I'd rather wait for them to release a full-length album. All their 3 EPs are great, so I hope the LP wouldn't disappoint me.
Second, a new EP from Barren Waste is available for free download. Looks like their sound has become much more noisy and experimental, so I'd recommend it only to fans of noisecore and industrial grindcore. BTW, a full-length album is expected to be out soon.
Third: one of my readers has a project called One Thousand Wolves, whose lyrics are mostly fantasy-based, but recently he tried to incorporate some political/social message into his music. For example, this track has metaphorical lyrics that's actually quite RABM-friendly, and the upcoming new track "Little Ice Age" will have such lyrics as well. Unfortunately, the sound is very raw, and it isn't even a proper demo, but I'll wait for him to release one.
Last and not least: the recent protests in Russia against the results of presidental elections have ultimately failed. I'll try to explain it in details tomorrow, as I'm too tired and upset right now. Now I envy the Azeris who recently had a big and well-organized protest in Quba (Lezgistan, northern Azerbaijan), and even set on fire 2 of 4 houses belonging to the corrupt town major:
The Hunt are a band from Perth playing excellent metallic crust/d-beat. This is an "alternate"/earlier mix of their debut LP, made available for free download by their former guitarist (the final version would be re-mastered, with many of his guitar parts removed). They're said to be influenced by such bands as Tragedy, Fall Of Efrafa and Buried Inside (very good list of influences, I'd say).
A 5-piece band from Orlando, FL, which somehow reminds me of Eden To Ashes (and apparently not only me, as Eden To Ashes are on their last.fm list of similar bands). However, their music isn't MDM, but raw sludge/post-metal with strong BM and blackened crust overtones. According to them:
"Our desire for inclusion on your blog stems from our loathing for those who advocate spiritual based social privileges. I, personally, abhor how faith is perturbed as an instrument which cultivates an addiction to sentience, rather than a vaster understanding of the physical reality we're all currently confined by... Feel free to share and critique this on your blog, but most importantly enjoy the music (on drugs)"
One more metal project which I found on revleft.com long time ago (it's a band of one of the active members of that forum). An excerpt from their official biography:
"Eden to Ashes is a new Dutch metal band based in Nijmegen. They combine devastating metal with atmospheric and experimental overtones... The band tries to steer away from musical conventions and develop a sound based around death metal, but expanding into many different musical areas. Primary influences include artists such as Gojira, Devin Townsend, Behemoth and Neurosis. Their songs cover a wide range of lyrical themes such as societal problems, philosophy and entheogenic experiences. “When the decision was made to pull the plug on Heaven Denies, we all felt the need to create something different and new, without the burden of genres and conventions” Omar Kleiss, bass player and co-founder of the band, explains. “I think we have written some great material and we are getting close to the sound we have been looking for since the start of our band.”"
Well, their sound turned out to be not as progressive as I expected after reading that, and the vocal work isn't that impressive, but it's still a good demo (moreover, it's completely free), so I recommend to give it a listen.
First of all, excuse me for my possibly poor English (but at least I'm trying to do my best). Second, if you're playing in a band and want to see your music featured on my blog - send a download link of your demo to b_k(@)hush.com. Make sure to include the following information:
- band name, release name/year, country of origin, album cover image (or at least band photo or logo);
- track listing (properly numbered);
- preferably a full release (not samples or streaming) in mp3/m4a/ogg (128kbps or higher bitrate). You may use any free filesharing site (preferably Mediafire) to host your files; or you can use Bandcamp (but then make sure your release is available for free download). Please don't send me large files as attachments;
- any other info about you and your release (links to any sites related to your band, release notes, etc.);
- reason why you want your music to be featured on my blog (note that it's not just another metal blog, and even if your band is apolitical, it still should be somehow in the spirit of RABM movement).
Unfortunately I often have not so much free time, so don't expect me to review your release immediately. Of course you're free to ask me how soon will I do it, if you really want to know.
Kinds of music featured in this blog:
- (primarily) RABM or Red & Anarchist Black Metal: all kinds of black metal-related music charged with radical leftist (anarchist, libertarian socialist, eco-anarchist, etc.) political views. Some of the bands featured here may be not openly political, but all of them are RABM-friendly;
- blackened crust/hardcore/punk (only if it's openly RABM-friendly, or if it's just very good music; I've no intention to collect here all the blackened punk in existence);
- other kinds of political (anarchist, socialist, etc.) metal - death, thrash, post-metal, etc.;
- dark ambient, neofolk, industrial, dark electro, etc. - but only if it has RABM-friendly ideology;
- regular punk/hardcore/crust, post-rock, conscious hip-hop, etc. - but only as a rare exception (so if you want me to send a demo in one of these genres, you're probably in the wrong place).
Most of the uploads here are band sanctioned. Anyway, if you for some reason don't want to see your music here, send me a message and I'll consider taking it down.
The main idea of this blog is to keep alive the connection (both musical and ideological) between black metal and punk scenes, which existed since early days of BM (think Venom, early Bathory, early Mayhem and early Sodom on one side, and Amebix, Discharge and Axegrinder on another). Recently this mix of BM and hardcore punk got a new life in the form of blackened crust (thanks to Black Kronstadt / Iskra in first place). And don't forget about Cascadian black metal bands with their radical environmentalist ideology, often to the extent of radical eco-anarchism or "pro-nature/anti-humanity" ideas.
While RABM is definitely against NSBM and any other kind of far-right crap in metal scene, it's most emphatically a self-sufficient movement and not any kind of "answer to NSBM". Similarly, while RABM is 100% pro liberation from any kinds of religious tyranny, it isn't a movement against any particular religion (Christianity, Islam, or any other).
"Metal/Punk = rejection of mundane authority; anarchy. Black Metal = rejection of spiritual authority; metaphysical anarchy. NSBM = crap that follows an authority" (c)
But of course, if you still think that all these ideologies should have no place in "true" black metal, you can feel free to call it "blackened punk" or whatever you want, and leave my blog. And in case if you if you find any content of this blog offensive for political, religious or whatever else reasons - fill out this form and GTFO here.
Any kind of ideological hostility within RABM movement is also not welcome here. RABM is open to various opinions, we do not endorse any kind of division of the RABM scene - "Anarchism vs. Marxism", "Trotskyism vs. Anti-Revisionism", "Primitivism vs. Transhumanism" (for me, both are way too radical...) or whatever else. However, we definitely don't support unabashedly totalitarian ideologies like Juche/Baathism/Polpotism/any other kind of monarchism or nationalism disguised as Stalinism, Marxism or even Anarchism. The only kind of "national liberation" movements that we can support are the ones which seek for individual freedoms and social justice, progress of the society and liberation from authoritarian prejudices and religious fundamentalism. Examples of such movements include:
![Red & Anarchist Black Metal [and much more!]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FFOtCieN9_c/TwXO3c3hcaI/AAAAAAAAB8s/aIfBnwfs-uw/s1600/rabm.jpg)
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