Red & Anarchist Black Metal [and much more!]: Negative Standards

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Negative Standards - "VI-XI" (2012)

NEGATIVE STANDARDS "VI-XI"

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

Unfortunately this band doesn't provide their releases for download, but you can stream their first full-length "VI-XI" (as well as their first 10''/tape "I-V") from bandcamp (UPD 17th of June 2012: now it's available for free, enjoy). You can also buy it from the label's webstore, if you wish. Negative Standards are based out of Oakland, and play doom/sludge with elements of black metal and epic crust. Now they're on a month-long US tour, and their bassist has asked me to post the tour dates on my blog. Well, why not?..

May 17 - Washington, DC @ Ras Hall, 4809 Georgia Ave. NW w/ Good Luck, Spoonboy, Hop Along, Sundials.
May 18 - New Brunswick, NJ @ Ray Cappo's Cantina
May 19 - Brooklyn, NY @ Stolen Sleeves Collective, 538 Johnson Avenue w/ Anasazi, No Sir I Won't, Sad Boys, Zatsuon.
May 20 - Northhampton, MA @ VFW Florence, 18 Meadow Street w/ Warrior Kids (France), MFP.
May 21 - Montreal, QC @ Death Church w/ Æsahættr, Xothugua, Sand Witch.
May 22 - Portland, ME @ 442 St. John St w/ The Piper and the Salami, The Correspondences.
May 23 - Boston, MA @ Whacky Kastle w/ Vaccine, VYGR, Nailed Shut.
May 24 - New Haven, CT @ TBA w/ Escalators.
May 25 - Philadelphia, PA @ Cloud City w/ Bacchus (Ireland), Torch Runner, Hazards, War Emblem.
May 26 - Baltimore, MD @ TBA
May 27 - Asheville, NC @ The Get Down!
May 28 - Atlanta, GA @ Wonderroot Collective
May 29 - New Orleans, LA @ Hey Cafe w/ Mauser, Post-Teens, Mystic Inane.
May 30 - Houston, TX @ Vinyl Junkie w/ Napalm Raid, Sixbrewbantha.
May 31 - Austin, TX @ Chaos in Tejas (TBA)
June 1 - Austin, TX @ Chaos in Tejas, End of an Ear Day Show
June 2 - Austin, TX @ Chaos in Tejas, Prank Records Breakfast Show w/ No Statik
June 3 - Austin, TX @ Chaos in Tejas (TBA)
June 4 - El Paso, TX @ The Horizon Club w/ Røsenkøpf.
June 5 - Phoenix, AZ @ TBA
June 6 - Los Angeles, CA @ McWorld, 5011 W. Adams Blvd.
June 7 - San Francisco, CA @ TBA

3 comments :

CoreyMay 20, 2012 at 6:42 PM
There has been an update on the tour, the Boston date is now at What We Talk About.
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-DMay 21, 2012 at 10:10 PM
Definitely catching them on when they're in LA .. great band.
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JJune 3, 2012 at 9:41 AM
Seen them a few times & talked with the lead singer (nice guy). Amazing stage presence & the analogue visuals behind them is fucking awesome!
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About the blog

After many years of activity, this blog is now put on hold since the majority of contributors have a lot of other important stuff going on in their lives. New music submissions should go to /r/RABM/ (note that the mods of /r/RABM/ don't have anything to do with this blog).

Most of the uploads here are band sanctioned. Anyway, if you for some reason don't want to see your music here, contact us using rabm (AT) gmx (DOT) com, and we'll consider taking it down.

Bottom note: there's probably a lot of broken English on this blog, since English isn't the first language for many of the contributors.

FAQ

Q.: Which kinds of music are featured on this blog?

A.: - (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; we have 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 some RABM-friendly ideology;

- regular punk/hardcore/crust, post-rock, conscious hip-hop, etc. - but only as a rare exception (so if you want to send us a demo in one of these genres, you're probably in the wrong place).

Q.: What are some RABM/blackened crust bands to start listening from?

A.: Here's an old compilation which I (B.K.) made in late 2009. Doesn't include a lot of good RABM bands that I didn't know of back then, but still recommended if you're new to RABM:

Check out this list as well, or this one.

Q.: How can I support a particular RABM band with my money?

A.: Most bands nowadays have a bandcamp page, where you can but their stuff online (usually for an arbitrary price). It's the most convinient way to support the band. If your favourite band don't have a bandcamp or bigcartel page, try to find out in which distro you can find their albums/merch. Of course, go to concerts if you have such opportunity.

Q.: How can I offer my financial support to this blog, or the RABM movement in general?

A.: Unfortunately right we don't have an opportunity to accept donations, but we hope we'll be able to set it up soon.

Q.: What is the connection between black metal and hardcore/punk/crust?

A.: It's a well-established fact that the connection between black metal and punk scenes existed since the 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.

Q.: What's your main ideology?

A.: This blog is generally written from a position of anarchism without adjectives; however, the RABM scene is very diverse ideologically. Let us end on this, as this blog isn't quite a right place for purely political debates; if you want to learn or argue about anarchism/other ideologies, there's a lot of specialized FAQs/blogs/forums for you.

Q.: Isn't black metal supposed to be apolitical?

A.: Supposed by whom? I personally don't think so, but if you think that political awareness should have no place in "true" black metal, you can feel free to call the bands featured on here "blackened punk" or whatever you want. It should be noted, though, that a lot of these bands doesn't openly talk about politics in their lyrics, exactly because they think it wouldn't be suitable for black metal. - B.K.

Q.: Isn't RABM just an "answer" to NSBM?

A.: 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).

Q.: What's your opinion on Satanism?

A.: The so-called "Hollywood Satanism", which is often found in black metal, is, in our opinion, nothing more than inverted Christianity, so we aren't big on it. Many of us are simply atheists, pagans of all kinds, gnostics, etc. We also don't share the notion that only genuine theistic Satanists / Devil-worshippers can play "real" black metal (this would exclude such bands as Venom, Bathory, Immortal, Summoning, and many many others). Additionally, the very term "Satanism" is quite vague, and can't be narrowed down to LaVeyan Satanism (which is heavily disliked by many black metallers), or whatever else. LaVey had some good points, but in general his philosophy can be described just as "Ayn Rand with some occult tinge".

Q.: What about misanthropy and nihilism?

A.: To put it in short: we don't hate everyone and everything (and we don't think there's anyone who truly does). We just hate these traits of humanity which make true anarchist society most likely infeasible in the foreseeable future.

Q.: Collectivism or individualism?

A.: There actually is no "hard" contradiction between these two terms. Individualism is simply an outlook emphasizes the moral worth of the individual and its right not to be oppressed by the state or some social group. It doesn't contradict at all with standing up for your rights along with a group of like-minded individuals. It also worth noting that the early black metal scene didn't promote individualism that much (see "black metal circles").

Q.: Who coined the term "RABM"?

A.: Hard to say, but there's an apparent similarity to RASH ("Red & Anarchist Skinheads"). Here's the very first mention of "RABM" we could find (August 2005). The term was popularized by our last.fm group (and later - by this blog) since 2009.

Q.: Do you know the ideology of the band X? It isn't obvious if they're NSBM or not...

A.: Sorry, we don't know, do your own research. It's often hard to say anything certain about a band's views, if the members themselves aren't open about it. We also don't advice using various "lists of nazi bands" etc. as a reference, as most of them are full of bullshit. Similarly, forum posts or blog comments (especially anonymous ones) generally aren't a reliable source for anything. In one particular case, we had an anonymous comment claiming that the members of Timebomb are now playing in a fascist band called SPQR. Later it turned out that it were members of a completely other Italian band with a similar name (Timebombs). Hopefully that'd be a good example of how important fact-checking is.

Q.: I've seen some of the albums posted here in the same distro with some albums by right-leaning bands...

A.: Unfortunately it's often the case with distros and labels that distribute stuff regardless of its political affiliation. Even Austin Lunn of Panopticon complained about Pagan Flames (the label which released his "Collapse" and "Social Disservices" LPs) having NSBM in their distro, so things like these are just unavoidable.

Q.: Some bands on this blog have Burzum on their list on influences. Isn't Varg Vikernes a nazi?

A.: See a good comment on this matter here.

Q.: Can I use some materials from this blog on my site?

A.: Of course you're welcome to do so (unless otherwise is specified), as we're against copyrights.

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Negative Standards - "VI-XI" (2012)

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Negative Standards - "VI-XI" (2012)

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