/r/RABM/

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Words - s/t (2012)


WORDS "Words EP"

Year: 2012
Genre: Metallic Crust/Sludge
Country: Mexico

Track List:
  1. Red Fascism
  2. Cannibal Feast
  3. When Civilization is No Longer Enough
  4. Burn Brightly
  5. Ligeramente Enamorado del Diablo
  6. Watching Me Breath
  7. The Dust
bandcamp

Boring band name, but good music. Words were formed in 2010 and have played with many bands since then, including Antimaster and Inservibles (local Mexican bands), and also opened for Dave Phillips (ex Fear of God), Eskatologia (Sweden) and La URSS (Spain). Here's their debut release - 7 song EP which they recorded last year and released on cassette as well as in digital form in January 2012. They define their style as "crust/sludge/stenchcore/whatever" (all of which is good in my book).

Upd. 12th April: Initially, I was about to post this EP right after I received it (end of March), but then I decided to ask the band about the meaning of the lyrics for the song "Red Fascism", which I didn't fully understood. According to them, it's a song about totalitarianism in the animal kingdom - specifically about ants and their instinctual discipline.

blog / facebook / twitter

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

In Cold Blood (CHL) - demo (2012)


IN COLD BLOOD "demo"

Year: 2012
Genre: Thrash Metal, MDM
Country: Chile

Track List:
  1. Black Block
  2. Payback
  3. Apocalypse Now
  4. Panopticon
DOWNLOAD

I found this band in the list of latest additions on EM, and thought they may be relevant to my blog, as their lyrical themes are: "Politics, Social Issues, Enviroment", and it looks like the lyrics on this demo (or at least the 1st track) are indeed political. The music is good for a first demo, though nothing innovative. According to their facebook page, they were influenced both by thrash metal (Slayer, Megadeth), and death metal - both melodic (In Flames, At The Gates) and brutal (Dying Fetus, Necrophagist). BTW, don't confuse them with a metallic hardcore band under the same name from Cleveland, OH, which released an excellent LP "Hell On Earth" on Holy Terror Records in 1998.

Sinat Hinam - "שנאת חינם" (‪‎2007)


SINAT HINAM "s/t"

Year: 2007
Genre: Blackened Crust, Stenchcore
Country: Israel

Track List:
  1. Nevu'at Za'am
  2. HaBayit Harev
  3. Sho'a Azmit
  4. Kiyum Apathy
  5. Sinat Hinam
  6. Aqedat Yitzhak
  7. Untitled
DOWNLOAD


Sinat Hinam, a very obscure band that was formed circa 2005 and disbanded in 2008, were probably the one and only crust band with lyrics entirely in Hebrew. Moreover, they were the only known crust band in Israel who incorporated some elements of black metal into their music (until Tamut Amen were formed). There's not much info about Sinat Hinam, but at least their list of influences looks quite good: Axegrinder, Amebix, Wretched, Nerorgasmo, Dir Yassin, Napalm Death, D.S.-13, Motörhead, Hellshock, etc. They described their music as "a neandertalic caveman crushing the angel of death's head on the ruins of the jewish temple in jerusalem" (c). Line-up:

Gad- Guitar (Mit'an, Hummus Grinders)
Oleg- Vocal
Alon- Bass (Mondo Gecko)
Tom- Drums (D9, Mit'an, Hummus Grinders)
Yanir - Guitar (Mondo Gecko, Hummus Grinders, ex- Mega Pigu'a)


Past Members:
Petel - Bass
Oren - Guitar
Yonatan - Drums
Nadav BxAx - Vocals

If I'm not mistaken, some members of Mondo Gecko are now playing in TamutAmen)


Translated tracklist (can't guarantee the accuracy of these translations, though):
  1. "Nevu'at Za'am" = Prophecies
  2. "HaBayit Harev" = Sword Home (still don't understand what it means... sheath, maybe? - B.K.)
  3. "Sho'a Azmit" = Self Immolation (literally "Self-Holocaust")
  4. "Kiyum Apathy" = Existential Apathy
  5. "Sinat Hinam" = Irrational Hatred (but it looks like a more complex concept which is difficult to translate, like "Saudade" or "Weltschmerz" - B.K.)
  6. "Aqedat Yitzhak" = Binding Of Isaac
P.S. According to rumours, this EP was recorded during one night, on a studio where one of the band members worked as a security guard. Don't know if it's true.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Ancient Oak - "Embrace Of Death" (2012)


ANCIENT OAK "Embrace Of Death"

Year: 2012
Genre: Instrumental Atmospheric BM / Blackened Crust
Country: Russia

Track List:
  1. The first snow
  2. Cold
  3. Suffer under the storm
  4. Dead body with frozen machine-gun belt in the forest
  5. Storm, earth and fire, hear my call
  6. Bare en annen sang
  7. When you walk in the snow
  8. Mountain wolf's winter
  9. Fog
  10. Warstorm
  11. Sun
  12. Erzsébet
  13. Han som reiste
  14. Drums of the sky
DOWNLOAD

Finally, a full-length release by Ancient Oak is here! Despite being completely instrumental and quite lengthy album, "Embrace Of Death" is very good release (at least for an one-man DIY project). So, now we have another instrumental BM/stenchcore project which is even better than Eternal Dysphory, and it's definitely great news. Hope to hear much more from Ancient Oak in the future.

P.S. When this album was posted (by the author himself) on gnwp.ru, someone pointed out that it contains a Burzum cover ("Han som Reiste"). However, the guy behind Ancient Oak has strongly denied any ideological connections with Burzum, and I'm 100% sure that he's an anarchist who's just interested in Norwegian mythology. According to him: "Varg's lyrics have no political message whatsoever, so I think it was OK to do such a cover. Moreover, my music is completely instrumental, so I couldn't include any politics in it, even if I wanted to"

66° 33′39″ - "The Light from the Depth of the Arctic Ocean" (2012)


66° 33′39″ "The Light from the Depth of the Arctic Ocean"

Year: 2012
Genre: Drone Ambient, Old Roots New Shoots
Country: Russia

Track List:
  1. Погружение в арктический океан
  2. Путешествие
  3. Свет со дна
DOWNLOAD

The first "more or less serious" solo work from one of the most staunch supporters of the RABM movement here (and a member of one of the most prominent "Old Roots New Shoots" bands... won't say which exactly). It's an one track EP, but it consists of 3 parts: "Submerge into the Arctic Ocean", "Journey", and "A Light from the Depth". Compared to his previous works, it's more drone/noise than just dark ambient.

Омут - "Взгляд в бездну" (2012)


ОМУТ "Взгляд В Бездну"

Year: 2012
Genre: Raw Black Metal/DSBM
Country: Russia

Track List:
  1. Великий Мерцающий Бог
  2. Твои бельма видят лучше их глаз
  3. Я становлюсь глухонемым
  4. Монотонность
DOWNLOAD

Omut (Омут, " slough") is an one-man band from Ivanovo that started somewhere in 2010 as a nature-inspired "noise/scream" project. To be honest, the first demos were just unlistenable, so I won't post them. However, this EP is a different story; while the music is still very simplistic, raw and noisy, it's a big step forward from the first demos. Recommended to anyone who likes both DSBM and raw US-style BM/noise. As of today, the project isn't explicitly political, but it's still anarcho-friendly, and definitely anti-nazi ("we're all equal in front of the face of death... nazis and fascists - fuck off, the real black metal is free of this shit"). Looks like it's somehow connected to the Ivanovo-based crust band Plastid, but I'm not sure if it's a side project of one of their members.

The archive contains all the music, lyrics (with translations) and artwork in highest possible resolution. Some more artwork from the earlier demos, which I forgot to add to the archive:




Monday, March 19, 2012

Kata Sarka - "The Great Dereliction" (2011)


KATA SARKA "The Great Dereliction"

Year: 2011
Genre: Blackened Crust
Country: USA

Track List:
  1. Wearing the Rings of Saturn as a Halo
  2. Atrophy
  3. The Great Dereliction
DOWNLOAD

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.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

One Thousand Wolves - "Slothomore" (2012)


ONE THOUSAND WOLVES "Slothomore"

Year: 2012
Genre: Raw Post-Black Metal/Punk
Country: USA

Track List:
  1. Little Ice Age
  2. Slothomore
  3. The Wyrm Takes Over
DOWNLOAD

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 - "Drive For Return To Inorganic Matter" (2011)


((prmtv-ccmltn)) "Drive For Return To Inorganic Matter"

Year: 2011
Genre: Black Noise/PV
Country: Canada

DOWNLOAD

Primitive Accumulation, or ((prmtv-ccmltn)), are a band from 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 (alternative download link with 8 tracks). I'd recommend it to fans of very raw, primitive USBM, and noisecore. 

Bud2aY - "United" (2012)


BUD2AY "United"

Year: 2012
Genre: Rapcore
Country: Poland

Track List:
  1. Czas Rebelii
  2. Shut Up
  3. Do Not Cross
  4. Wake Up
  5. Wariat
DOWNLOAD

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.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Spellhammer - "Goat's Hill" (2011)


SPELLHAMMER "Goat's Hill"

Year: 2011
Genre: Old School Black Metal
Country: Finland

Track List:
  1. Gates of Iron-Ore (Intro)
  2. Magick Death
  3. Cryptical Wolf
  4. Goat's Hill
  5. Spellhammer
  6. Enslaver Necro
  7. Storm Burial (Outro & Introduction to Tattarmass Sessions)
  8. Tyrantic Sword
  9. Swamp Risen Treasure
  10. Conjuror Merciless
Release notes:

"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 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!).

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Sacrilege - "Turn Back Trilobite" (1989)

SACRILEGE "Turn Back Trilobite"

Year: 1989
Genre: Doom Metal / Progressive Rock
Country: UK

Track List:

  1. Father Time (Beneath the Gaze)
  2. Silent Dark
  3. Soul Search
  4. Awaken (Suryanamaskar)
  5. Key To Nirvana
  6. Into The Sea Of Tranquility (Parts 1 - 3)
  7. Equinox

DOWNLOAD

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...

Sacrilege - "Behind The Realms Of Madness" + "Within The Prophecy" (2005 re-release)


SACRILEGE "Behind The Realms Of Madness" + "Within The Prophecy"

Year: 1985-1987 (re-released 2005)
Genre: Thrash Metal/Crust
Country: UK

Track List:
  1. Life Line
  2. Shadow From Mordor
  3. At Death's Door
  4. A Violation Of Something Sacred
  5. The Closing Irony
  6. Out Of Sight Out Of Mind
  7. Sight Of The Wise
  8. The Captive
  9. Winds Of Vengeance
  10. Spirit Cry
  11. Flight Of The Nazgul
  12. The Fear Within
  13. Search Eternal
DOWNLOAD


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.

Monday, March 5, 2012

The Hunt - s/t (2011, alternate version)

THE HUNT "The Hunt"

Year: 2011
Genre: Dark Hardcore / Neocrust
Country: Australia

Track List:

  1. Emptiness
  2. Golden Calf
  3. Shrine
  4. Mourning
  5. Enslaved
  6. Australia Failed You
  7. Buried
  8. Unmarked Grave

SIDE 1 / SIDE 2

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).

source

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Fire In The Cave - s/t (2012)


FIRE IN THE CAVE "Fire In The Cave"

Year: 2012
Genre: Blackened Sludge/Doom Metal
Country: USA

Track List:
  1. Civilized Swamp
  2. Aedenn Carr
DOWNLOAD

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)"

facebook / bandcamp

Eden To Ashes - demo (2011)


EDEN TO ASHES "demo"

Year: 2011
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Country: Netherlands

Track List:
  1. Prelude
  2. The Black Stain
  3. Deception
  4. Clouds
  5. Beyond Duality
DOWNLOAD

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.

Unsacred - "Where The Light Dims" (2012)


UNSACRED "Where The Light Dims"

Year: 2012
Genre: Blackened Hardcore/Crust
Country: USA

Track List:
  1. Drawing Down the Moon
  2. Suffer Me
  3. Blight
  4. Where the Light Dims
  5. Abandoned
  6. It Only Gets Worse
DOWNLOAD

Some more American blackened crust/hardcore - this time from Richmond, VA. Just like in case with Violent Ends, the album was sent me by the band themselves, and their music is quite decent. For further info, see the links below:


http://www.facebook.com/unsacredva
http://unsacred.bandcamp.com/
http://unsacredva.tumblr.com/
http://stereokiller.com/Unsacred

Violent Ends - "Invisos" (2012)


VIOLENT ENDS "Invisos"

Year: 2012
Genre: Hardcore/Crust
Country: USA

Track List:
  1. Bloodletting
  2. IX
  3. Nocturnal
  4. Earth
  5. Sky Of Iron
  6. Eyeless
  7. Haunted
  8. Nervosum
  9. Human Life Begins On The Far Side Of Despair
  10. Bad Faith
DOWNLOAD

1st full-length album from this NC-based hardcore band. Maybe their sound isn't really that "blackened", but they're long-term supporters of my blog and their music is good, so i advice everyone to check out this release.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Militia - "Power! Propaganda! Production!" (2011)


MILITIA "Power! Propaganda! Production!"

Year: 2011
Genre: Martial Industrial / Noise
Country: Belgium
Label: Neuropa Records

Track List:
  1. A New Statement
  2. Üb Immer Treu Und Redlichkeit
  3. A Kite Of Glass In A Blood Red Sky
  4. The Undeniable Power Of The Proletariat
  5. Power To The People
  6. Power, Propaganda And Production
  7. The Conquest Of Steel
  8. Abrupt Climate Change
  9. Cash Crash And Crisis
  10. Amidst The Burning Oil Fields
  11. The Final Level
DOWNLOAD

Release notes:

""Power, Propaganda, Production!" is the new MILITIA album and it's a bull's eye! The six famous muscle workers from Belgium have not only unleashed a new production following their 2005 album "Everything Is One" on the new defunct Tactical but have also set a new milestone in their long-running industrial career. The album contains eleven new studio tracks dealing with the very topics MILITIA has always been pointing at during their provocative career: the relation between industry, the dictatorial capitalist system and the situation of the subordinate workers, the economic and financial crisis, the power of the dollar, the exploitation of human and natural resources and reserves, pollution and global warming, the and-needs-and-rights of the oppressed, the strength of unity and solidarity as a means to wipe the floor with governments, regimes and religions that are based on greed, corruption and cruelty.

Militia is a Belgian industrial-percussion band, founded in 1989 by multi instrumentalists Frank Gorissen and Jo Billen. Most of our percussion instruments are made out of oil barrels and old metal parts from cars and machines. They combine these self made instruments with conventional drums, toms and cymbals. The band members also play a variety of self-made wind instruments and tools.


"Power, Propaganda, Production!" comes in a deluxe cardboard box with an 8-page booklet and a magnificent MILITIA politburo mini-poster, all designed by Metastazis from France. The six percussion players are lined up in front of the new flag, fists clenched, shoulder to shoulder, stronger than ever, armed with their huge metal and skin percussion installations to crash the corrupt systems under their boots!"

After 6 years of silence, a new Militia LP was released in March 2011, consisting of 11 pieces of glorious propaganda. If you heard and liked their earlier albums ("Everything Is One" and "The Black Flag Hoisted"), I'll definitely recommend it to you; otherwise you may find it too lengthy and boring, especially if you aren't familiar with this kind of music. Anyway, this is one more time Militia have proved to be good successors to (early) Laibach, and the cover art is great too.