Red & Anarchist Black Metal [and much more!]

Livstid - s/t (2011)

2012-02-09T00:15:00.004+04:00

LIVSTID "Livstid"

Year: 2011
Genre: Crustgrind
Country: Norway

Track List:

Ei Jævla Tragedie
Permafrost
Du E Feig
Alltid Beredt
Ei Etasje Opp
Veien Nedover
Kem Ska Forme Framtida
Alle Kan Ta Feil
Oppreist Til Det Siste
Krigshisser
Juggernaut
Tenk Hvis Alle Hadde Alt
Dei Du Ikke Ser
Gravøl

Livstid are an anarcho-crustcore band from Bergen whose debut album is currently being distributed by Fysisk Format label. It isn't really blackened crust (well, I can hear blastbeats there, but it's mostly of grindcore kind; so I'd rather compare Livstid to bands like Radioskugga), but it's still EXCELLENT stuff. Highly recommended for all fans of Scandinavian crust!

facebook / bandcamp

Ceaseless Desolation - demo (2012)

2012-02-07T23:57:00.005+04:00

CEASELESS DESOLATION "demo"

Year: 2012
Genre: Blackened Crust
Country: Poland

Track List:

Nieustająca dewastacja / Tyrania widm
Ucieczka
Egzystencjalny szum
Dwunożna autodestrukcja
Jutro?

DOWNLOAD

Ceaseless Desolation are a new blackened crustcore/stenchcore band from Poland. One of their members was an active supporter of RABM cause since the very beginning, when this blog didn't exist yet. As far as I can understand, they're antifascist, anti-Catholic and anarcho-individualist (think Max Stirner's ideas). It's only a first demo, so the quality of production isn't that good, but a proper LP is expected to be released in the next few months. Good to see such band coming from a profoundly right-wing Catholic country...

Burn Idols - "Theodicy" (2012)

2012-02-07T23:45:00.005+04:00

BURN IDOLS "Theodicy"

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

Track List:

Anchored in Pain, Dead to the World
This Sterile Ethic Breathes
A Thorn in our Side
It Fosters a Disconnection
From Finity.
Lulls us with False Security
Our Life in Silence

DOWNLOAD

One more album made by readers of my blog (who are also both in politics and in DIY movement). Burn Idols are anarchists from Long Beach, CA, and although their music isn't black metal, it's still very heavy stuff. The album is distributable freely on the terms of Creative Commons BY 3.0 license.

bandcamp

Iskra & Doom Siren - split (2011)

2012-02-02T03:15:00.003+04:00

ISKRA / DOOM SIREN "split"

Year: 2011
Genre: Blackened Crust, Crustgrind
Country: Canada/USA

Track List:

Iskra

Masqueradors of Fraud
Thieves of Life
Privileged Morality
The Levelling Dust

Doom Siren

Gun Drone
Bankercide
Plague Master
War Madness

DOWNLOAD

Do I really need to present Iskra to you? I think you all know them, and here's their newest release - a split w/ Austin, TX crust/grindcore band Doom Siren.

P.S. If you want some more metallic crust, then check out newest albums from Evidence Smrti and Cancer Spreading. BTW, the whole Evrom's blog is great, and its owner totally supports RABM (even though he used to post a lot of NSBM back in 2010... but he doesn't do it anymore).

Douleur Atroce - demo (2012)

2012-02-02T01:00:00.003+04:00

DOULEUR ATROCE "Demo I"

Year: 2012
Genre: Raw Depressive Black Metal
Country: Brazil/Germany

Track List:

Nemesis
The Emptiness of Everything

DOWNLOAD

One more band with a long time supporter of my blog in the lineup - now from São Paulo, Brazil. He's politically active and has to work a lot (how I understand him...), so his project has recorded only two songs so far, and the quality of recording isn't that good (but OK for a first demo). Official biography:

"Douleur Atroce started in October, 2011, by me, "J. Wildlord" as a one-man band, in Guarujá, a city in state of São Paulo, Brazil. I handled all instruments, but was searching for an vocal here, and when I found one, he just got fired from a NSBM band. So, hopeless, I went to youtube to search videos of people doing vocal covers from Brazil, but none of them agreed to enter the project. So, I found an guy doing vocals, but he was from Berlin - Germany... Even knowing this, I asked him to do vocals in a Anarchist Black Metal project. He agreed, and, I can say that now we're more friends than bandmates.

Until now, I did everything (Melodies and Lyrics), but he can also compose lyrics and he's vital in my composition of melodies, because everything I do I ask his opinion before, because he's 50% of the project, though. Anyway, I'm almost sure that it will be only me and him til the end.

Well, we don't have any labels, and our music is for free. We also do song by song, seeing how difficult is to me to record things and such, with low money condition as well as the distance between me and vocalist.

We had released 2 songs til this moment. The lyrics of the first one is heavily influenced by my anarchist thoughts. The second one, in lyrics, is more influenced by Nihilism, tells the story of a nihilist person in the edge.

Musically, I'm influenced by Iskra, Mayhem, Sigh, and Ragnarok. He's influenced by Marduk, Belphegor, and Endstille.

We are just beginning, so, I hope you like this, just try to ignore the not so good quality and technique. We're trying to be better in each song!
We would like to have our music in your blog, because, well, I'm not sure if we are a RABM band, even I'm liking the idea, but I'm anarchist and support 100% the RABM scene!"

Morgon - "Greasy Vomit From The Catacombs" (2012)

2012-02-01T23:57:00.005+04:00

MORGON "Greasy Vomit From The Catacombs"

Year: 2012
Genre: Old School Black/Death Metal
Country: France

Track List:

Catacomb ov Ghouls
Permian Massive Extinction
Rancoeur et Amertume

DOWNLOAD

A newest 3-track demo from this French anarchist metal project which sounds like it's from 1990, not 2012. It's quite strange release which sounds much more like very raw old school death metal than BM, so I'd recommend it only to fans of early death metal scene. The members of Morgon are also involved in such projects as Disakrin (very raw BM) and Black Earth & Burning Sunn (noise/drone; hope I remembered the name right).

Social Death - "Carpe Noctem" (2012)

2012-02-01T23:00:00.003+04:00

SOCIAL DEATH "Carpe Noctem"

Year: 2012
Genre: Raw Depressive Black Metal
Country: Romania

Track List:

Intro
Volatile Cult
Seize The Night
IV
Fill The Void
Venturing Down
The Wanderer

DOWNLOAD

Another demo sent to me by a reader of my blog, now it's lo-fi DSBM from Romania. The quality of production may be far from perfect, but it isn't bad for a first demo (except for first two or three tracks, which I didn't really like).

Mortal Threat - "Psychotic Paralysis" (2011)

2012-01-31T00:47:00.003+04:00

MORTAL THREAT "Psychotic Paralysis"

Year: 2011
Genre: Crossover Thrash Metal
Country: Greece

Track List:

Psychotic Paralysis
Black Domain
Guilt After Life
Justice Of Mind
Ironic Trust
Inhuman Effective Terror
Chains Off Life
Mortal Threat (+ hidden track)

DOWNLOAD

Excellent anarchist thrash metal from Greece, thanks to Noisy Subculture for pointing me to this release. It's 128kbps WMA rip, but according to the man behind Noisy Subculture, the 320kbps will be available soon. He also promised to post some new tracks from Crucified Bastard, so I'm looking forward for it.

P.S. This week I plan to answer the rest of my mail and to post some more noise from ex-USSR. Stay tuned!

underfear - "Внутри себя Я рву провода" (2011)

2012-01-31T00:25:00.004+04:00

UNDERFEAR "внутри себя Я рву провода"

Year: 2011
Genre: Harsh Noise / Digital Mathgrind
Country: Russia

Track List:

внутри себя Я рву провода

DOWNLOAD

Very brutal industrial noisegrind from Penza (Russia) that will probably fit well in the line of harsh noise releases that I've posted here today. Recommended to all fans of The Berzerker (and extreme cybergrind in general). I have only very little info about the band, but at least they seem to be somehow connected to La Vida Cuesta Libertades.

Piĉismo - "toH, tlhIngan Hol DajatlhIaH 'e' DaneH'a'?" (2000)

2012-01-30T23:57:00.000+04:00

PIĈISMO "toH, tlhIngan Hol DajatlhIaH 'e' DaneH'a'?"

Year: 2000
Genre: Harsh Noise / Esperantocore
Country: Ukraine / Russia / Lithuania

Track List:

qatl pIm ramvam Hoch rammey je
etDaq lIy vIlegh
lotlhwI bom wej
mutlhegh vIyajchube bogh Hech
aqtu mellota

DOWNLOAD

...Well, I think I'm OBLIGED to have at least one release of this extraordinary band on my blog. Pichismo are the legends of ex-USSR underground punk scene. Formed in January 1993 (!) in Tsuryupinsk (south Ukraine) as an anarcho-punk band singing in Esperanto (!!!), Pichismo have a vast discography and a long history of lineup changes. The band is led by Gleb Maltsev, who's currently residing in Kaunas (Lithuania). This year he'll be 40 years old, but he'll remain a true punk forever! He's a polyglot and constructed languages enthusiast, and all his lyrics are in Esperanto and numerous other conlangs (Ido, Klingon, Toki Pona, Volapük, etc.) It's hard to believe that there was someone listening to crust in rural south Ukraine back in the early 90s - but Gleb was.

It isn't hard to find the detailed biography of Pichismo, if you're interested. As for this release - it was recorded in 2000 at St.Petersburg in collaboration with members of numerous other DIY noise projects. "toH, tlhIngan Hol DajatlhIaH 'e' DaneH'a'?" is extreme noise with lyrics in Klingon (yes, you got it right - it's the language of aliens from Star Trek). Recommended to those who like really weird and noisy stuff.

Fucking Paralytics - "Bitch House" (2010)

2012-01-30T23:17:00.005+04:00

FUCKING PARALYTICS "Bitch House"

Year: 2010
Genre: Mystical Noise / Power Electronics
Country: Russia

Track List:

Paralytic Ritual
Mentally Ill Person
Bitch House
Lunatic Soup

DOWNLOAD

Fucking Paralyrics are an Experimental/Noise duo from Moscow that has performed on 1st Discomfort Fest - so I think they're more or less on our side. Here's their first demo called "Bitch House" (an obvious pun on "witch house"), and it's one of the best noise releases posted on gnwp.ru ever. No, really, it's very interesting (non-)music, and I recommend to check it out even if you're not a big fan of noisy stuff. Entartete Kunst in its finest (or maybe nastiest?) form ;)

Video from the 1st Russian Discomfort Fest:

One more live performance:

Wormpig - "Poison" (2010)

2012-01-30T22:45:00.004+04:00

WORMPIG "Poison"

Year: 2010
Genre: Black Noise/Power Electronics
Country: Russia
Label: Hiroshima Toy Pet Records

Track List:

Deathcrush (Mayhem cover)
Eyes
Hail Nothing

DOWNLOAD

Wormpig is an one-man extreme noise/BM project from the founding member of "anti-human noisecore/noisegrind" project Pissdeads. He himself uploaded all releases - both by Pissdeads and Wormpig - to gnwp.ru, so I think think demo would fit well in here too. Only for fans of very noisy stuff (see Funeral Stench)!

Во Мгле - demo (2011)

2012-01-30T22:15:00.002+04:00

ВО МГЛЕ "демо"

Year: 2011
Genre: Black Noise
Country: Russia

Track List:

Белая Земля
Число Зверя: 988
Корона (Гражданская Оборона)
Вечность, Покрытая Льдом

DOWNLOAD

As I promised before, I'm starting to post very raw and noisy BM and blackened punk from Russia & other ex-Soviet countries. Let's start with Vo Mgle (In The Mist), a noise black metal project by one of the co-editors of Pagans Against Fascism site. The demo consists of 4 tracks, including a cover of Siberian punk classics, Гражданская Оборона (BTW, their earliest, 1985-1988 albums, are about as raw and noisy as this demo...)

Dogoda Cry - "First Cycle" (2012)

2012-01-25T23:57:00.005+04:00

DOGODA CRY "First Cycle"

Year: 2012
Genre: Dark Ambient
Country: Ukraine

DOWNLOAD

First demo from Dogoda Cry, a new nature-inspired anarcho-pagan ambient project, consisting of two untitled tracks. There's almost no info about the project, except it's based out of Ukraine. The sound is quite minimalistic and composed mostly of nature sound (however, it isn't surprising, given the primitivist ideology of the project).

P.S. In the last few days I had serious problems with my internet connection, so I wasn't able to answer my mail or the comments here. Sorry about that.

Another bad news: Megaupload is down, Filesonic also has serious problems, and the major recording corporations are actively pushing the SOPA/PIPA laws. Hope Mediafire would stay OK...

Convince - "Apocalypse For You!" (2011)

2012-01-20T02:00:00.003+04:00

CONVINCE "Apocalypse For You!"

Year: 2011
Genre: Neocrust/Dark Hardcore
Country: Russia
Label: My Riot Inward Records

Track List:

Религия
Покойся с миром
Мертвый сезон
Рожденные чтобы умирать
1984
Плач

DOWNLOAD

Unfortunately, Nicola Tesla have split up, but the other band featuring ex-members of NT - Convince - is alive and well, and currently working on a new release. They're playing neocrust/dark hardcore without any significant BM influence (unlike Nicola Tesla, wh were playing mostly raw/noise BM), but it's very good neocrust, especially by the standarts of ex-USSR scene.

P.S. Should I post more ex-USSR noise BM bands, that are RABM-friendly, or at least have connections to the DIY punk scene? I have quite a lot of such stuff, but I guess only fans of Funeral Stench and similar blogs would appreciate posting it...

Situation in Kazakhstan: Zhanaozen incident

2012-01-20T01:00:00.003+04:00

Before I start to analyse the recent protest actions in Russia, I'd write a little about what happened in Kazakhstan at the same time. Although the events in Zhanaozen have no apparent connection to "Snow Revolution", it received a lot of attention from both opposition and loyalist movements in Russia and Ukraine:

At first it wasn't immediately clear what happened. Violent mass fights still are nothing uncommon in Kazakhstan, especially in places like Zhanaozen. It's an oil town located in Mangistau, a desert region east of Caspian sea. Due to harsh weather conditions, the population of Mangistau isn't that big, and mostly consisting of oil workers, and criminals confined in labour camps. From the beginning, the events were dubbed by mainstream media as "epitome of mambetism". It's hard to explain precisely what mambet is, but such types aren't uncommon in other countries as well (British chavs, Australian bogans, Russian gopniks...). The antonym for mambet is mankurt, which often uses interchangeably with "traitor", but more precisely refers to a person who's too westernized/Russificated and abandoned his Kazakh/Kyrgyz cultural roots. The word mankurt became popular after it appeared in Chingiz Aitmatov's novel "The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years", but in fact it has deeper roots in Turkic folklore. In Aitmamov's novel, the Djungar conquerors severely tortured an young Kyrgyz in order to make him a mankurt, to the point when he didn't recognize his own mother and killed her following the order of the Djungars. (Actually, I recommend to read the entire novel, as it's probably the only book by a Central Asian author easily available in English). As opposed to mankurt, mambet is overtly conservative, patriotic, ignorant, rude and violent. It's widely believed that the two recent Kyrgyz revolution have made mostly negative impact on Kyrgyzstan, primarily because most of its active participants were young mambets.

The incident in Zhanaozen happened on the 25th anniversary of Jeltoqsan events, so a lot of conspiracy theorists suggested that it may be an attempt to start an "orange revolution" in order to destabilize Kazakhstan and prevent it from joining the Eurasian Union. However, the Kazakh industry is already almost 100% owned by Western, Russian and Chinese corporations, so such "revolution" isn't apparently in Western or Chinese interests. Then, after several days of curfew and Internet blackout in Zhanaozen, a new video of events was revealed:

It clearly shows that the police is shooting at unarmed people, who appeared to be local oil workers who were on strike during several months before the massacre. According to witnesses, the clashes began after a police car ran into a crowd of strikers. The official body count is 14+, but there are rumours that it can be as high as 50, and there were more than 100 unidentified corpses in Aktau morgue secretly prepared for cremation.

So far, the state of emergency in whole Mangistau still continues, but I seriously doubt if there is a revolutionary situation. Organized leftist movements (as well as any other opposition groups) are very weak in Kazakhstan - although there's a section of Committee for Workers' International, and a newly launched Campaign Kazakhstan. A revolution without a solid ideological background will only lead to something like 1992-97 Tajik civil war, which effectively turned Tajikistan into one of the poorest countries in the world (or at least to something like 2005-10 Kyrgyz revolutions).

According to the sources in the Kazakh military, they're preparing for a big war (with enemies assigned as NATO forces - it's apparently related to the current situation over Iran), but there's no serious threat of "orange" or nationalist revolutions. Although radical nationalists in Kazakhstan do exist (mostly in the south), they aren't popular at all, because everybody understands that there are less than 2/3 Kazakhs in Kazakhstan, and any attempt to ruin the ethnic balance in the country would have catastrophic consequences - like it was in Ferghana valley of Kyrgyzstan, which over 400.000 Uzbeks were forced to leave during the 2nd Kyrgyz revolution, some of them killed:

So far, the only potential internal threat in Kazakhstan are Wahhabi militants that have started to appear there in the last few years, probably backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE. However, the overall Kazakh population isn't as religious as in other Central Asian countries, so this movement is unlikely to grow.

Uzbekistan, on the other hand, managed to avoid the Islamist threat in the late 90s only at cost of becoming a police state and de-facto hereditary monarchy. The next Uzbek president would be most likely Gulnara Karimova (a daughter of the current dictator "president" Islam Karimov), who's said to be quite secular and pro-Western (although not specifically pro-Russian, unlike the current Kazakh and Kyrgyz governments). Like in most other post-Soviet countries, the government tolerates the opposition parties only as long as they're full of idiots and therefore unelectable. So I'm afraid that the only possible alternative to the Karimovs' regime are Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and Hizb ut-Tahrir. The good portion of Uzbek population is almost illiterate, poor and conservative, therefore seeing the policy of westernization performed by the Karimovs as detrimental to Uzbek traditionalism and cultural values (actually, Islamists wouldn't tolerate traditional Uzbek culture too, de facto replacing it with Arab one - but it's a different story...)

To sum it up: right now I don't see any revolutionary situation in Kazakhstan or anywhere else in Central Asia. However, it isn't hard to see that a big trouble is brewing in the whole region, although it would most likely start here in Russia. In my next posts I'll try to elaborate on what to expect in the case if major "kyrgyzing" starts here, hope i'd be interesting to at least some of my readers.

Ives - "Abandon" (2010)

2012-01-17T23:57:00.003+04:00

IVES "Abandon"

Year: 2010
Genre: Raw Black Metal/Punk
Country: USA

Track List:

The Taste Of Severity
Burning The Incense, Amanita Virosa
Lost In The Pleasures Of Moonlight
Abandon

DOWNLOAD

While I don't fully support the radical anarcho-primitivist ideology of this duo from Florida (and possibly some of the religious views of its members), I can't deny that they're ones of the best bands playing raw USBM/punk. I'll soon ask Boue Records if I can post here Ives' latest release (a split w/ Amort). BTW, the members of Ives are playing in several other political metal bands, which I'll check out soon too.

Kolaps Systému & N.K.T.T - "Non-human Noise" (2011)

2012-01-17T23:45:00.007+04:00

KOLAPS SYSTEMU / N.K.T.T "split"

Year: 2011
Genre: Harsh Noise / Power Electronics
Country: ~~Czech Republic~~ Slovakia

Track List:

Kolaps Systému

Untitled

N.K.T.T

13 Minút Nihilizmu

DOWNLOAD

As far as I know, Kolaps Systému are a hardcore band (I don't know much about NKTT, though), but this split/demo features only 30 minutes of extreme noise, not hardcore/metal at all. The music (or maybe anti-music?) seems to be charged with radical environmentalist ideas - for instance, it looks like N.K.T.T are very fond of Ted "Unabomber" Kaczynski. Actually, my personal opinion on Kaczynski isn't very high (although he's widely regarded as one of the crucial figures of green anarchist movement, a lot of his ideas are dangerously close to eco-fascism, and even Breivik has cited "Industrial Society and Its Future" as one of his sources of inspiration), but it's matter of a separate discussion which I wouldn't like to invoke.

source

Bits-and-Herz - "Julieta I" (from "Tranzmetal" LP)

2012-01-17T22:45:00.004+04:00

Bits-and-Herz is an one-man electro-industrial project from Mexico, started in 2006 by Angel "WasV" Fajardo (who I know reads my blog). The main lyrical theme of Bits-and-Herz are negative emotions and social conditions (alcoholism, rape, drugs, depression, frustration and hatred). He has released 3 albums so far. Unfortunately, the quality of production is far from perfect, and I don't really like the vocals (according to WasV, he doesn't use any voice effects, because he wants to differ from all these commercial dark electro bands that all have distorted vocals; but I personally think that his vocals would fit the music much better if distorted), but some of his tracks sound very promising:

facebook

Improving my blog

2012-01-17T02:00:00.004+04:00

Well... as you can see, I finally finished the re-design of my blog. Hope it looks better now - I checked it with Firefox 9, Opera 11.60 and MSIE 8, and it looks OK in all these browsers. However, if you have a problem with the new design while using some less popular browser (Safari, etc.), let me know.

I also took down several of my old political posts, as they contain mostly outdated and no longer actual information (however, I haven't deleted them but just moved them to the drafts - so I can re-publish them at any time if needed), and also re-categorized some of my old posts (really, why I didn't have categories like "grindcore" and "cascadian black metal"?..)

Right now I'm too tired for doing anything more, but next time I'll complete my blog description (and check it for grammatical errors), check my old posts for dead links... and of course, finally answer all my mail. Stay tuned!

P.S. A couple of music links:

1st Anne CD-R online (neoclassical/neofolk)
Gardens - "Manifesto Abolicionista I" (anarcho-individualist and environmentalist noise/industrial from the founding member of Anne)

Of course I understand that not many of my readers may like music of such kind... but I promised you to post more anarcho-industrial and noise here, and I'll continue to do it in the next few days.

Kalendae - demo (2012)

2012-01-12T23:57:00.005+04:00

KALENDAE "demo"

Year: 2012
Genre: Raw Post-Black Metal
Country: Russia

Track List:

В мыслях о смерти мы теряем жизнь
Когда мы думаем, что начинаем жить, фактически мы уже мертвы

DOWNLOAD

Finally, one of the core bands of "Old Roots New Shoots" circle released their first studio-recorded demo. Their founding member was an avid supporter of the RABM movement from the very beginning (although two other members are apolitical). Personally I was suprised at the amount of post-rock and drone/ambient influence on this demo - it even reminds me of Velvet Cacoon... Anyway, it's very promising debut, and good to see something comparable to the Cascadian scene is emerging here. It'd be released on physical media in February (30 CDs + 30 cassettes).

Anastatica - "Ephemera" (2011)

2012-01-12T23:40:00.002+04:00

ANASTATICA "Ephemera"

Year: 2011
Genre: Experimental/Post-Metal (with folk & Cascadian BM overtones)
Country: USA

Track List:

Rue
Last Eclipse
Desolation
Ephemera
Axis
Nest

DOWNLOAD

Very interesting 5-piece musical project from Olympia, WA. It's hard to classify their music, but I'd say it's mostly post-metal/hardcore with a lot of folk influences and some Cascadian black metal overtones. Unfortunately they're split up by now, their last gig was at Heavy Metal Ladies Night 2011/10/29. Anastatica's members were: Danielle, Paris , Orion, Jill and Savanna (some of them also played in a band called Nychthemeron). According to Danielle, they're strongly pro-environment, anti-homophobic, and comfortable to identify themselves as anarchists. Here's a 128kbps mp3 rip of their first and only album "Ephemera", if you want higher bitrare then buy it from bandcamp.

Hellcrawler - "Wastelands" (2011)

2012-01-12T23:20:00.003+04:00

HELLCRAWLER "Wastelands"

Year: 2011
Genre: Crust/Death'n'Roll
Country: Slovenia

Track List:

Devastation
Rattlesnake Tavern
Motosluts From Hell
Wastelands
Post Apocalyptic Revolt
The Molten Faces Tribe
Firefly Powerplant
Yet Again The Greed Of Man
Towards The End
Demons Within

DOWNLOAD

Another band that's quite similar to Bhopal and Children of Technology - both musically and aesthetically. They are not from Italy, but from Slovenia, which is right next to Italy. Their debut LP "Wastelands" was released by Hollow Earth Records who apparently are RABM-friendly as well as Iconoclast. If you like metallic crust with lyrics inspired by post-apocalyptic & biker movies, then this release is for you.

bandcamp

Bhopal - "Age Of Darkness" (2010)

2012-01-12T23:10:00.003+04:00

BHOPAL "Age Of Darkness"

Year: 2010
Genre: Metallic Crust
Country: Italy

Track List:

Bike Punk Apocalypse
Bhopal
Hatred
Age of Darkness
Doomed to Consume
Deadweight
Extinction
Opposition
Where Morality Fails
Loser Generation

DOWNLOAD

Bhopal are another good Italian crust band whose debut full-length album "Age Of Darkness" was released by Iconoclast Records (a label that's very RABM-friendly). They have members of such bands as Mortuary Drape (legendary Italian BM) and Dead & Forgotten (eco-anarchist depressive BM) in their lineup, but their music hardly can be called "blackened crust" - I'd say it's just solid metallic crust.

Children Of Technology & Cancer Spreading - split (2008)

2012-01-12T22:45:00.003+04:00

CHILDREN OF TECHNOLOGY / CANCER SPREADING "split"

Year: 2008
Genre: Crust'n'Roll
Country: Italy

Track List:

Cancer Spreading

Il fallimento della civiltа
Incubo

Children Of Technology

No fuel no hope
The road warriors

DOWNLOAD

Looks like the members of Cancer Spreading are reading my blog, so I decided to post some of their music - although it isn't really "blackened", just raw crust. As for Children Of Technology, I think you're already familiar with them and their "crust'n'roll" style.

Winternight - "Song Of The Dead Loner" (2010)

2012-01-07T23:57:00.005+04:00

WINTERNIGHT "Song Of The Dead Loner"

Year: 2010
Genre: Neoclassical / Dark Ambient
Country: Indonesia

Track List:

Nekrodeath
Silent Death Of The World
A War Without End

DOWNLOAD

I'm posting this EP mostly because the founder of this one-man project from Bandung (Indonesia) is also involved in a blackened crust band called World To Be Ashes (formerly known as Display Of Vulgar Mayhem). So far they haven't recorded anything except one rehearsal demo track, but they definitely know about RABM scene and support it. As for Winternight, it's a minimalistic neoclassical/ambient project which has released two EPs and one split demo up to date.

Release notes:

"Year 2006 was a very terrible for my personal life, also the year that I no longer play music. Alienation in those years led me to a saturation point in playing music, until finally I decided to make a solo project named Winternight with minimal skills and limited understanding of music.

I do not have a good reason about taking the name, I just call it like-it, and that too is enough to describe …the alienation represent nights that I spent in those years. And Winternight has brought me to a room where I found many other apocalypse than just play music.

But this is a melancholia which I have never loved. When a lot of catharsis that I can not tell by my previous bands. In Winternight I found a simpler way to describe something even if only through the effects of sampling. At least I was not imprisoned in words. Because words are never enough to expose it. For that I do not need to write the lyrics or the vocal sounds included in it, I just play the tone and enter the sampling that I was never concerned with the rules of right or wrong chord. As well as to represent alienation, I just enter the sampling wind and waves with the atmosphere of a quiet night, or enter a sampling of war to represent anger.

Song Of The Dead Loner is more like journey that takes the silence of the world from a very disturbing noise, is also an escape from anxiety and loneliness that continually haunt, where I lost a lot of people nearby who leaves me without a trail"

Note that there's two more bands called Winternight - one from Germany and another one from Hungary, both playing pagan black metal.

bandcamp

No Eulogy - s/t (2011)

2012-01-05T22:15:00.004+04:00

NO EULOGY "No Eulogy"

Year: 2011
Genre: Blackened Crust / Death Metal
Country: Canada

Track List:

Cracking Mirrors
Dogs of the Apocalypse
Solipsist
Logic of the Saints
Freedom and Responsibility
JAFP
Terminal

DOWNLOAD

No Eulogy (formerly Black Cloud) are an anarchist blackened crust band from Victoria, BC, featuring some ex-members of Iskra. Their self-titled LP was released not so long ago on Black Raven recs., and the band sent me it for a review.

P.S. As you might have already noticed, I've slightly re-designed the blog. Moreover, I've contacted our designer (who did some of the graphics for my other blog), now I'm waiting to see what he would propose. Tomorrow I'll try to update the blog description, though I'd need someone willing to correct my English grammar. I'll be grateful to anyone who will help me with that. As for answering my mail and writing about politics - I'll do it a little later (there's just a lot to write)...

Wölfe - "I" (2011)

2012-01-05T22:00:00.003+04:00

WOLFE "I"

Year: 2011
Genre: Grinding Blackened Thrash
Country: Australia

Track List:

II-III-IV-V-VI

DOWNLOAD

Very interesting collection of early recordings by Wölfe, a duo from Melbourne, Terra Australis. They describe this release as "a fifteen minute descent into a viscous whirlwind of hatred and despise for modern humanity and its subsequent christo-capitalist mind rape". The music is quite interesting, I'd call it "progressive blackened grind/crust with spoken word interludes". Definitely worth checking out!

facebook

Saint Melkor - demo (2011)

2012-01-05T21:00:00.002+04:00

SAINT MELKOR "demo"

Year: 2011
Genre: Raw Blackened Neocrust
Country: Russia

DOWNLOAD

Saint Melkor are a trio from Kovrov, a relatively small city 250km from Moscow (good to see that blackened crust bands started to appear not only in major cities). This is their first demo, consisting of two untitled tracks and a cover of Darkthrone's "Too Old Too Cold". Yes, the quality of recording is quite low, but it's just a first demo... Their lyrics are mostly about depression and personal feelings, but they support the "no gods, no masters" ideology for sure.

2012

2011-12-31T23:57:00.009+04:00

Greetings to all of you, comrades! Hope we'll be victorious in the new year.

During 2011, the RABM movement continued to grow and already became a force that can be reckoned with (yet still small... but it only means we have potential to grow even more). Wouldn't speak about other countries, but here we already have at least one RABM-friendly circle ("Old Roots New Shoots), zines and gigs. In the next two weeks, I plan to finally sort out things with our forum, and to answer all my mail (just be a little patient...)

Speaking of my blog: I plan to further expand the spectrum of musical genres presented here, but still keeping it at least 50% dedicated to black metal, blackened crust, and other BM-related genres. Looks like a lot of my readers wish to see more post-metal here, but right now I don't have much of such stuff. But I can promise there will be a lot of anarchist industrial/neofolk/other experimental music in my blog in the next couple of months. Hope you're into such music (I know at least some of you are...)

Politically, 2011 was a quite interesting year. Looks like the crisis of global financial and political system is near, and we already have seen very massive opposition movements in various parts of the world (Arab Spring, OWS, "snow protests" in the ex-USSR). However, don't delude yourself thinking that it'll automatically lead to the triumph of libertarian socialist ideas. Both Arab Spring and OWS have achieved very little positive so far, and the "snow revolution" is quickly turning into liberal farce. Moreover, economical crises often lead to the rise of various authoritarian bullshit, some of which we can already see (quick radicalization of "mainstream" political right in USA and Europe; Nour and Muslim Brotherhood threatening the anarchists and socialists in Egypt; an alliance of liberals and nationalists here in Russia, which seemed to be completely impossible even 5 years ago...). Along with continuing Israel/NATO's saber-rattling against Syria and Iran, it all doesn't bode well. Don't want to sound too alarmist, but I think we all should be prepared for a war - not only here in Russia, but in a lot of much more stable countries as well.

Well... at least we here finally have small, but steadily growing non-authoritarian leftist movement - first because of the influence of Greek anarchist movement, second - because of all that recent protest stuff and rising political awareness of the masses. It's also becoming more and more militant, which is clearly evident from the recent chronicles of resistance against the oligarchic regime. Don't know about other countries, but at least in the USA it seems like we can have a lot of potential allies among OWS people, and maybe even Ron Paul supporters (as controversial as it may sound... but many of whom seem to be very anti-government, anti-authority, and open to any ideas that go against the oppressive system of big financial capital - so they just need to be introduced to our ideology).

Unfortunately I'm not good with drawing or CG, so there won't be any new year art in the RABM style. But instead you can have this 2012 calendar in "pin-up meets anarchist art" style, made by some supporter of Autonomous Action:

V/A - "Dark Punk Arise" (2011)

2011-12-30T01:45:00.003+04:00

Year: 2011
Genre: various
Country: various

Track List:

The Austrasian Goat - AFBM (Anti-Fascist Black Metal)
Contagium - Wallow
Arxi Tou Telous - Ksespasma Misous (Burst Of Hate)
Spectres - Cold War
Dažd - Tamo Dole (Down There)
Chambre Froide - Azazel
Iskra - Bureval
Monarch - A Look At Tomorow (Discharge cover)
Warcollapse - Crust As Fuck Existence
Cross Stitched Eyes - Breath Of Lies
Deathcharge - The Hangman
Rudimentary Peni - Eyes Of The Dead
Valpourgia Nyxta - Politikoi Kratoumenoi
Black Trinity - Throne Of Dark
Filth Of Mankind - Obledna Rzeczywistosc

DOWNLOAD

Quite interesting compilation of 15 tracks in very varied genres, from raw black metal and metallic crust to hardcore and post-punk. There are also several good Greek bands, of which I didn't even know before. Found on gnwp.ru.

Asilo & Fracción George Best - split (2011)

2011-12-29T23:57:00.003+04:00

ASILO / FRACCION GEORGE BEST "split"

Year: 2011
Genre: Sludge/Crust (Asilo), Hardcore/Screamo (FGB)
Country: Argentina / Chile

Track List:

Asilo

Mecanismos de la Vida Moderna
Oración

Fracción George Best

III
Caronte

DOWNLOAD

I've received an e-mail from one of the members of Asilo not so long ago. Actually, I already knew about Asilo before, and even posted one track from their split w/ Tzara on my other blog, but it's always good to know that the band members themselves are reading my posts. They define their style as "a mix of black metal, doom, drone, sludge and many other kind of music", but for me it's mostly sludge/drone/doom with some blackened crust overtones. Not bad, but definitely not for fans of fast and aggressive stuff. As for Fracción George Best - they're from Chile, playing some kind of hardcore/screamo (not metallic at all). To be honest I didn't like their side of the split that much, but you might have a different opinion.

Release notes:

"bio: asilo is a sludge crust three-piece band from buenos aires, argentina. their members (nacho dp: drums / manuel: vox - bass - analogue devices / sebaxxxtian: bass / vox) played and still play in underground bands from the underground metal scene, like voightkampff, gran cuervo, milica, etc. we've released our first split with tzara (post hardcore, with manuel playing bass), including a live song from our very first show live in april 2011. Nowadays we are releasing this second split with fraccion george best, from chile, with two songs each band... this split cd will be releasing in chile and ecuador too.

In 2012, we are eager to play live and record our new songs and trying to be edited in usa or europe.

you can listen asilo

http://www.myspace.com/estoesasilo
http://www.facebook.com/estoesasilo
http://www.asilo.bandcamp.com
http://www.last.fm/music/Asilo

their releases are available in
http://www.myspace.com/distroiart
http://www.facebook.com/distroiart
http://www.zannmusic.com.ar
http://www.facebook.com/zannmusic"

Typhonic Age - "Storm the Heavens" (2011)

2011-12-27T23:57:00.002+04:00

TYPHONIC AGE "Storm the Heavens"

Year: 2011
Genre: Black Metal
Country: USA

Track List:

Storm the Heavens

DOWNLOAD

This track was originally recorded for a compilation, but TA also decided to release it as a single-track demo. Musically it isn't much different from their first demo - raw, minimalistic old school BM. You can find the lyrics at the bandcamp page.

Typhonic Age - "Misanthropic Wrath" (2011)

2011-12-27T23:45:00.004+04:00

TYPHONIC AGE "Misanthropic Wrath"

Year: 2011
Genre: Black Metal
Country: USA

Track List:

Procreating the Archetype
Therionic Wolfhowl
Ahriman Ascendent

DOWNLOAD

Typhonic Age are a new black metal duo from Asheville, NC, who released their first demo "Misanthropic Wrath" month ago. Their lyrics deal mostly with usual BM subjects, and they aren't a specifically political band, but both of them definitely support the ideology behind RABM.

Funeral Throne - "Victory" (2010)

2011-12-24T22:30:00.004+04:00

FUNERAL THRONE "Victory"

Year: 2010
Genre: Black Metal
Country: UK

Track List:

Victory
Novus Ortus

DOWNLOAD

Don't know much about this band, but according to what I've received in my mail, it's OK to post this EP here. They're from Wolverhampton, UK, playing pure satanic BM with a slight punk touch since 2005. The full album is expected to be out early next year.

myspace

P.S. Sorry for not commenting on the latest events of the "Snow Revolution" - namely, violent clashes in Kazakhstan and today's 120.000 rally in Moscow. Right now I'm too tired, but i definitely will write about it next week.

Edda & Minuala - split (2007)

2011-12-22T23:57:00.002+04:00

EDDA / MINUALA "split"

Year: 2007
Genre: Dark Hardcore / Neocrust
Country: Poland / Russia

Track List:

Edda

Oddam wszystko
Ucieczka
Budze sie
Proznosc
Slepne

Minuala

Свобода (Freedom)
You're a living soul
Untitled
Death Now!
Для Тебя (For You)

DOWNLOAD

Someone has dug out this relatively old release and posted it on gnwp.ru, and I think it'll be interesting to some of my readers as well (although it isn't really "blackened", just neocrust / dark hardcore). However, be prepared to hear a lot of annoying crackle on Edda's side (Minuala's side is recorded OK). Don't know why the drums were recorded with such poor quality, but if you leave it aside, then the tracks by Edda aren't bad at all.

P.S. Another good Polish band which I discovered recently: Born Anew, female-fronted hardcore/metalcore/groove metal. Check out their 2008 demo!

Baldaraz - "Wolves Without Sound" (2011)

2011-12-19T01:00:00.004+04:00

BALDARAZ "Wolves Without Sound"

Year: 2011
Genre: Instrumental Black Metal
Country: Germany

Track List:

Metonymie (ver. 1)
Balders Träume

DOWNLOAD

A first demo of a new black metal band from Berlin, consisting of two instrumental tracks. They're definitely anti-NSBM (which is evident from the anti-Absurd image on the cover of this demo), and at least one of their members reads my blog. Here's a video for the track "Metonymie":

Xaotiko Telos - "In Front Of Paranoia" (1993)

2011-12-17T23:45:00.002+04:00

XAOTIKO TELOS "In Front Of Paranoia"

Year: 1993
Genre: Epic Crust / Crossover Thrash Metal
Country: Greece

Track List:

ΚΟΥΡΕΛΙΑΣΜΕΝΗ ΨΥΧΗ
ΤΙΠΟΤΑ ΑΛΗΘΙΝΟ
ΜΠΡΟΣΤΑ ΣΤΗ ΠΑΡΑΝΟΙΑ
ΕΠΟΧΗ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΡΑΚΜΗΣ
Ο ΥΜΝΟΣ ΤΩΝ ΡΟΥΦΙΑΝΩΝ
ΜΠΑΣΤΑΡΔΟΙ ΘΑ ΠΛΗΡΩΣΕΤΕ
ΖΟΥΜΕ ΣΤΟ ΣΚΟΤΑΔΙ
TRAMPCORE
ΣΚΟΤΑΔΙ ΚΑΙ ΜΟΝΑΞΙΑ

DOWNLOAD

Thanks to the Noisy Subculture blog for helping me to discover this classic of Greek anarcho-metal/punk scene. Χαοτικό Τέλος (Chaotic End) were a metallic crust punk band from Athens, formed in 1989 and disbanded in the mid-90s. They have released only two cassette demos and one LP, but they went down in history as one of the most unique bands of their era, who mixed thrash metal with raw crust/hardcore and added a bit of dark ambience. I think they're comparable to such bands as Amebix or Axegrinder, and even it isn't black metal at all, a lot of my readers may find their sound interesting. I can't understand their lyrics, but looks like they contain very harsh social criticism, as well as depression/personal-feelings themes.

P.S. Much more music of various kinds is coming soon, but first I'll try to give a detailed explanation of the situation with recent "snow revolutions" in ex-USSR. Stay tuned.

Livia Sura - s/t (2011)

2011-12-17T23:25:00.004+04:00

LIVIA SURA "Livia Sura"

Year: 2011
Genre: Blackened Sludge/Crust
Country: Romania

Track List:

Poraimos
Tăcere surdă
Generații de mizantropi
Saiwala

DOWNLOAD

Livia Sura are a new blackened crust/sludge collective from Timisoara, Romania, who have sent me their first EP for a review. Although their music is more sludge than BM or crust, I think it'd fit here well. The EP is also available from bandcamp.

TamutAmen - demo (2011)

2011-12-17T23:00:00.001+04:00

TAMUT AMEN "demo"

Year: 2011
Genre: Blackened Hardcore
Country: Israel

Track List:

The Creatures
Ancient Demon
Million Pills
The Elite
She Returned

DOWNLOAD

TamutAmen are a new blackened grind/hardcore band featuring members of various Israeli hardcore, grindcore and powerviolence bands such as Whorecore, Mondo Gecko and Tea With Satan. Of course they know about my blog, and this demo is posted with the band's permission.

facebook

Mania - "Mania" (2010)

2011-12-17T22:30:00.001+04:00

MANIA "Mania"

Year: 2010
Genre: Cascadian Black Metal
Country: USA

Track List:

Numbing
Eternal Filth and Chaos Everywhere
Lostness and Confusion
Fertility Fucked
Getting Nowhere
Primal Instincts
Ice Covered Sphere
Suspense
Awaken

DOWNLOAD

Wait... I haven't posted this album here yet? It's probably the best release by Mania up to date - depressive black metal from Cascadia in the way how it should be. The choice of cover image may look weird, but I think it directly relates to the recurring theme of ecocide in Mania's lyrics. By the way, there are also two splits (w/ Huldrekall and L'Acephale), but I haven't listened to any of them yet.

"Snow Revolution" in Russia & South Ossetia

2011-12-11T23:00:00.001+04:00

First of all, sorry for not updating this blog in the last few weeks. Now I have to write about politics once again, because we finally have pre-revolutionary situation and largest protest actions in Russia since 1993:

There's already a wiki article about these events, and I'll make a detailed analysis of it as soon as possible. And for now - just some videos of protests:

4.12.11, Moscow

5.12.11, Moscow

5.12.11, St.Petersburg

6.12.11, Moscow

6.12.11, St.Petersburg

6.12.11, Rostov-on-Ron

7.12.11, Moscow

As of today, the general course of events is more resembling the "orange revolution" scenario than anything else, which I definitely don't approve. However, it's great to see that we finally have done something comparable to Greek protests or Occupy Wall Street, and I'm proud of having taken part in these protests. There were various opposition factions - from liberals and nationalists to Left Front and anarchists, who made a "ceasefire" in the name of fighting against common enemy (Putin's regime), but the majority of protestors were previously apolitical people, who just became dissatisfied with the regime. But of course I wouldn't be too optimistic about the perspectives of such movement (I'll explain my position a little later)...

Meanwhile, the small unrecognized republic of south Ossetia also protests over rigged elections. Taken in account the small population of SO, it's basically direct democracy in action. The main opposition candidate, Alla Dzhioeva, has a lot of support from the locals and paramilitaries (but not from the Russian government), and in case if she wins, she will become the first female national leader in North Caucasus.

Why "Snow Revolution"? Just look at the photos:

Prison Of Mirrors - s/t (2011)

2011-11-07T23:57:00.003+04:00

PRISON OF MIRRORS "Prison Of Mirrors"

Year: 2011
Genre: Cascadian Black Metal
Country: USA

Track List:

The Scent Of The Severed Hand
A Destiny Unforseen
The Fallen Leaves Have Turned
Procession Of Ghosts
Snow Stained Red
As Rivers Crest

DOWNLOAD

I noticed this band about a half an year ago, after they released their first single "Snow Stained Red". I liked "SSR" a lot, so I was very excited when I received a message from one of the members of P.O.M. It appeared that he's a frequent reader of my blog, and he'd like to see their first full-length album to be featured here. So, why not?

The best track on the whole album is definitely "Snow Stained Red", but the rest of the album is also quite good for a first release. Like in case with Nidra, the music contain some melodic death metal and post-rock elements, and the vocals aren't quite in the black metal way (but I personally have no problems with it). A very good release overall, Im looking forward to any new stuff from them. (BTW, there's one more BM band called Prison Of Mirrors - an one-man project from Sochi, south of Russia)

bandcamp

P.S. Looks like I've posted all the stuff I wanted to post, and I really don't have much free time to keep the blog up, so I'm considering to take a break for a few weeks. See you next month, hope you'll stay tuned!

ciikada - "mono chrome horrific {emulation obscene}" (2010)

2011-11-07T23:45:00.006+04:00

ciikada "mono chrone horrific"

Year: 2010
Genre: Industrial Blackened Crust / Grindcore
Country: USA

Track List:

Vitamysterium
The Hand, The Morning Star.
You Get nothing
And Emptyness
(Any Order) The Withered Tree
honi soit qui mal y pense
Palace
EARtH IS THE SUN
Inhaling the Fumes of the Pit and in Tongues We Speak
Blazing Eye
Glorious
Corridors... Choking Stench
Swank Shithouse
Treblinka
Hooked on the Obscene
Like Tears in the Rain
The Navajo Know

DOWNLOAD

My dreams continue to come true: I wished there's a RABM friendly band playing industrial BM / blackened crust / grindcore (or at least something in the vein of Anaal Nathrakh), and ciikada are playing almost exactly such kind of music. The sound of "mono chrome horrific" was one described as "Fukpig meets Aborym", and it's quite accurate IMO. The whole album is very good and strongly recommended to the fans of blackened crust, as well as the fans of digital hardcore/grind. Lyrical themes are: anti-NWO, anarchism, personal freedoms, nonsense poetry, social commentary, etc.

All the music and most of the vocals on "mono chrome horrific" were made by Justin, the man behind ciikada - but according to him, ciikada isn't quite an one-man project. If I'm not mistaken, he lives in Austin, TX, and is currently working on two new projects: a blackened d-beat band (its current working name is Krig Blåst), and an anarchist BM band. He's also a host of radio show "Feel The Darkness", and if I understood him right, he used a lot of music from my blog in it.

source (BTW, the whole blog is great and definitely worth checking out)

Panopticon & Wheels Within Wheels - 2nd split (2011)

2011-11-07T03:27:00.003+04:00

PANOPTICON / WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS "split II"

Year: 2011
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal / Ambient
Country: USA

Track List:

Wheels Within Wheels

A Burial of the Mother of Orion (instrumental)
A Splinter of Hope in the Blackest of Hearts

Panopticon

The Road to Bergen
From Bergen to Jotunheim Forest
The White Mountain View

DOWNLOAD

Following my recent posts, some of my readers encouraged me to post more post-metal bands. Well, I'll try to search for more of such bands that would fit in my blog, but not right now. However, the recently released Panopticon / Wheels Within Wheels split sounds very post-rockish, so I think it's about time to post it.

WWW's side of the split sounds much more like drone ambient than black metal, which isn't too unexpected. But I was really surprised at Panopticon's side - it sounds very different from all the earlier releases. The music is very beautiful and atmospheric, but it's not 2009-2010 Panopticon - even the drumming style is different...

BTW, A.Lundr is about to release two new albums in the next few months. Here's a track from the upcoming album "Social Disservices", and it sounds great:

Social Despair - demo (2007)

2011-11-07T03:00:00.005+04:00

SOCIAL DESPAIR "demo"

Year: 2007
Genre: Thrash Metal
Country: Greece

Track List:

Forever Pawn
Civil War
Welcome To The Slaughter
Society
Technology Kills
Suffer Remains
Social Despair

DOWNLOAD

Old school death/thrash metal band from Athens, formed in 2005 and released their first demo in 2007. They're about to release their first LP in some months by now; he vocals won't be like on this EP, but in the vein of Possessed. The vocalist of SC is among the best friends of the owner of Noisy Subculture blog, and the whole band are anarchists too.

Holy War - demo (2011)

2011-11-07T02:50:00.002+04:00

HOLY WAR "demo"

Year: 2011
Genre: Thrash Metal
Country: Greece

Track List:

Bastards Association
Fucking Posers
No Future (React)
Zoume Sto Skotadi (Xaotiko Telos cover)

DOWNLOAD

Another anarchist thrash metal band from Greece, discovered through Noise Subculture blog. All band members are young (around 15-17 years old). The music is actually very good for a first demo, they know how to play real thrash metal... (however, I'd prefer more brutal vocals)

Human Slaughter - "Victims Of Ignorance" (2010)

2011-11-07T02:30:00.003+04:00

HUMAN SLAUGHTER "Victims Of Ignorance"

Year: 2010
Genre: Crossover Thrash Metal
Country: Greece

Track List:

Don't Trust
Derange Messiah
Victims of Ignorance
Questions and Answers
Back Stamped (Friends)
Horror Of Reality
Lou Lou Lee (Ratos De Porao)

DOWNLOAD

According to the owner of Noisy Subculture blog, the Greek thrash metal scene is almost 100% full of anarchists, so why not to post some of the bands he suggested? Let's start from Human Slaughter, a crossover thrash band from Thessaloniki, Greece, formed in 2008. All the members of HS are anarchists. "Victims Of Ignorance" is a promising demo, despite somewhat low quality of production (which, however, isn't surprising for a DIY underground band).

Nidra - s/t (2011)

2011-11-05T23:57:00.005+04:00

NIDRA "Nidra"

Year: 2011
Genre: Black Metal (with Death/Thrash overtones)
Country: Russia

Track List:

Дремлющий лес
Созерцание
Забвение
Скитание
Рассвет

DOWNLOAD

Nidra (which means "sleep" in Sanskrit) are a new 3-piece BM project from Perm, Russia. They're not explicitly political, but definitely RABM-friendly. Main lyrical themes are nature, personal feelings and misanthropy / anthropological pessimism, which is also quite typical for Cascadian BM scene. However, their music doesn't seem to be too influenced by Cascadian bands - it isn't very atmospheric, and has some death and thrash elements (for instance, the vocal style is closer to thrash metal than to BM). Nevertheless, the music is quite good, especially by the standards of Russian BM underground.

Louna - female-fronted modern metal from Moscow

2011-11-05T23:40:00.006+04:00

Well, here's another band which is relatively well-known (at least in Russia and ex-USSR), whose political views appear to be quite close to those of my own. Louna is a 5-piece female-fronted modern metal band from Moscow, formed as a side project of two members of Tracktor Bowling, a very popular nu-metal band. At first I expected them to be another generic Linkin Park clone, but fortunately I was mistaken: Louna are playing a mix of punk/metal/post-grunge/whatever, with politically/socially conscious lyrics - which isn't bad at all. They also were labeled an "oriental metal" band, but I don't hear that much "oriental" influence in their music. However, two of their members - Lousiné (vocals) and Rouben (guitar) are Armenians, so they probably know better ;)

Here's some excerpts from their interview, which I tried to translate for you:

"We are all somehow involved in the political processes going on in our country and the whole world. You can say that you're indifferent / apolitical - but you still remain an inert part of the political system. Our lyrics are definitely not the last call to think of where we should go, where we want to go, and in what direction we're actually led...

We have openly atheist lyrics simply because we're born in the country where the values of Age of Enlightment, secularism, and other progressive ideas were held in a high regard. And suddenly I've noticed that everything started to sink in the medieval barbarity, despite it's already XXI century now, not XIII... The sleep of reason produces monsters, everything is that simple.

Of course we aren't like Burzum or other church burners, we just want to remind that the society consists not only of idolaters, but also of rational people - and we have every right to openly exppress our views in our lyrics. All these Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and other religious bands openly sing about their beliefs, then why shouldn't we do the same? Another question, what beliefs are the most profitable to this or that state/regime. But it's matter of dirty politicking, not human rights... But our band will never be a part of any political party - we just express our position on what we don't like and what we wish to change in the world. Our weapon is music, and for us it's the most effective...

Our song "Vendetta", apart from the obvious environmentalist message, also carries the ideas of social justice and bringing down the reign of transnational corporations. Personally I (Rouben) am currently studying the Marxist theory. I feel it's very important right now, when the socialist ideas are distorted beyond recognition. Before we take to the streets, let's first have a clear understanding of what we need to do, and why.

We are absolutely not totalitarianists, but we do admit that our society has a great amount of very severe problems, and we need very decisive and harsh kind of actions to solve them. However, the reign of big capital should become the thing of the past. We need to implement people's self-governance in some form, and I'm ready to fight for it.

Did we have any problems with the authorities because of our music? Well, we already have experienced police brutality at the gig of Tracktor Bowling in 2005, when the squad of riot police, who were just returned from Chechnya, started to behave very violently towards our listeners right in front of our eyes. Of course we immediately stopped the performance and told the police everything we thing about them, and then it was our turn to be targeted. These people were abolutely psychotic, and "we fought in Chechnya" is definitely not an excuse. Of course we have absolutely no desire to become the victims of police brutality or the prisoners of conscience, but we don't forget in what kind of country we live in, so we don't exclude such possibility..."

P.S. I've sent a letter to Rouben, and he answered me (I can imagine what amounts of mail he constantly receives... even I constantly forget to answer all my mail :( ). According to him, the rest of the band don't fully share his beliefs, but they're all open to discuss any proposals from our side. Right now I have nothing to offer them, but it'd be definitely great to have such well-known band supporting us.

Arch Enemy, The Agonist... your opinion on them?

2011-11-05T22:40:00.005+04:00

BTW, what do you think of relatively well-known metal bands, like Arch Enemy, who claim to be anarcho-friendly? I definitely can't call AE an "underground" band, but so far they seem to be honest about their beliefs, not just wearing circle-A's to look cool. I've read several interviews with Angela, and I don't have any political disagreements with her so far, plus I like her vocals... but I have to say honestly - their music in general seems to be rather generic and uninteresting for me.

Speaking of similar bands, I prefer The Agonist. Alissa's voice is definitely very good, and while she doesn't openly associate herself with any political current, she still adheres to the values of HC scene and all that implies:

P.S. Wonder why I chose only female-fronted bands? There's one more band of such kind, which will be discussed in my next entry.

Selma - s/t (2010)

2011-11-05T05:55:00.002+04:00

SELMA "Selma"

Year: 2011
Genre: Post-Metal
Country: Ukraine

Track List:

Фантом
Крик
Сон

DOWNLOAD

And finally, one more post-metal release coming from Ukraine. Their lyrics are in Russian, and judging from what I could understand, their lyrical themes are very typical for DSBM (although the music is much closer to post-metal/rock than black metal)... and the lyrics of the last track make me think that they're (ideologically) pretty much on our side.

Alinda - "Ruins" (2011)

2011-11-05T05:35:00.003+04:00

ALINDA "Ruins"

Year: 2011
Genre: Post-Metal/Rock
Country: Ukraine

Track List:

Nuclear Fall
Ruins
Home
Quingdao

DOWNLOAD

Sorry, I can't resist the temptation to post some more stuff unrelated to RABM... but the Ukrainian post-metal scene is becoming better and better literally with every day, and it's a shame that it gets too little attention worldwide. Alinda's music is hardly metal, it's mostly instrumental post-rock with some "harsh" parts, but they're still worth checking out as one of the most interesting bands from the Ukrainian scene, playing very beautiful music. This EP is a very recent release which was posted on gnwp.ru only a few days ago.

P.S. I'm not sure about the origin of their name: first of all, Alinda means "Man on the Moon", an indigenous Australian mythological characher; but the band is most likely named after 887 Alinda, an asteroid (they seem to have chosen an astromony-related name, like Rings of Rhea, to put an emphasis on the "cosmic" atmosphere of their music... but it's just my assumption)

Wave of Despair (Хвиля Відчаю) - Відчуження (Alienation) (2009)

2011-11-05T05:10:00.004+04:00

ХВИЛЯ ВIДЧАЮ "Відчуження"

Year: 2011
Genre: Raw Post-Black Metal / DSBM
Country: Ukraine

Track List:

Спомини
Борьба
Взгляд
Гра Суспільства
Моє Життя

DOWNLOAD

Хвиля Відчаю (Wave of Despair), formerly a DSBM project based out of the south of Ukraine, are now working on their first full-length album, which is expected to be a conceptual release dealing with the topics common to the RABM and Cascadian BM scene: environmentalism, civilizational pessimism, societal oppression, etc. Unfortunately, I have no idea at which stage is the work, because they didn't reply to my last mail, and they have no official site/blog.

So I'm posting only this 2009 demo, which is obviously pretty weak, but I hope someone will enjoy it anyway... just don't have too big expectations for it. The lyrics on this demo deal mostly with personal feelings and social alienation, and are all in Ukrainian. According to the band, such choice of language isn't a sign of nationalism, it's just because Ukrainian language seems to be sounding more "atmospheric" and less "trendy" (it was a direct translation of what they wrote to me... not sure if I understood them right). The whole project never had anything to do with NSBM or Ukrainian nationalism; moreover, they view nation as an unnatural social construct which must be overcome.

Peregrinus - demo (2011)

2011-11-05T04:55:00.001+04:00

PEREGRINUS "demo"

Year: 2011
Genre: Post-Metal (with Cascadian-style BM overtones)
Country: Belgium

Track List:

Collapsing Star
Worlds That Never Were
All Parts Of The Sky
The Fall Of Every Sparrow
Hourglass Of Time
We Humans Are Capable Of Greatness

DOWNLOAD

An interesting coincidence - first I posted a release from a post-metal band (Rings of Rhea) in my blog, then it appeared like another post-metal project has sent me a demo just a couple of hours before that. To be honest, it's pretty amateur stuff, and it's average at best... but it's just a first demo, and it already shows some potential. The only member of the project claims to have anarchist/progressive views, and of course he's a reader of my blog.

Rings Of Rhea - s/t (2011)

2011-11-02T03:27:00.003+04:00

RINGS OF RHEA "Rings of Rhea"

Year: 2011
Genre: Post-Metal
Country: Ukraine

Track List:

Imitation
Darkness pt.1
Darkness pt.2

DOWNLOAD

And finally, some stuff that may be not closely related to the concept of my blog, but still good and worth posting here. Ukrainian post-metal scene is full of great bands, and here's a debut release from one of them. This 3-track EP sounds very promising, and the only weak point of it is the vocal work (I'd prefer it to be purely instrumental... moreover, the vocalist's accent is too heavy even for me). To put it in short - if you liked Шайтанкутак, then you'll probably like Rings of Rhea. As far as I know, all the members of RoR come from the punk/hardcore scene, and they frequent the neformat.com.ua forum (which is quite RABM-friendly), so they probably wouldn't be against having their EP posted on my blog.

bandcamp

Wolvhammer - "The Obsidian Plains" (2011)

2011-11-02T03:10:00.003+04:00

WOLVHAMMER "The Obsidian Plains"

Year: 2011
Genre: Blackened Crust/Sludge
Country: USA

Track List:

The Gleaming
Writhe
Bones Of The Pious
Ghosts In The Water
Shadowhorn
A Defiled Aesthetic
The Sentinels

DOWNLOAD

I think this band needs no introduction: I've already posted all their earlier releases here, and now it's time for their latest album, "The Obsidian Plains". Like their previous release, "Black Marketeers of WWIII", it features a very solid mix of black metal, crust and sludge - but this one is even better than "Black Marketeers..."! Not disappointing at all, and definitely recommended.

Wolves In The Throne Room - "Celestial Lineage" (2011)

2011-11-01T23:52:00.003+04:00

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM "Celestial Lineage"

Year: 2011
Genre: Cascadian Black Metal
Country: USA

Track List:

Thuja Magus Imperium
Permanent Changes in Consciousness
Subterranean Imitation
Rainbow Illness
Woodland Cathedral
Astral Blood
Prayer of Transformation

DOWNLOAD

Here comes the latest release from a band which greatly influenced the whole RABM movement... but now they got a lot of accusations of being too popular and "hip". Personally I don't see it as any big problem (after all, ~~they're not Insect Warfare, who decided to split up after becoming "too popular"~~ well, maybe it was only rumours...). However, I didn't like "Celestial Lineage" as much as their earlier works. Yes, there are really killer songs like "Subterranean Imitation", a lot of female vocals and ambient parts, but the whole album is somewhat weak, especially in comparison with their first two ones.

(But then again, it's nowhere near as disappointing as the latest LP by Amebix, "Sonic Mass"... Yes, I liked "Knights Of The Black Sun" and "Here Comes The Wolf", but the rest of the album turned out to be very uninteresting. I expected much more from such band as Amebix...)

Shapeless - "To Walk Among Beasts" (2011)

2011-11-01T22:30:00.003+04:00

SHAPELESS "To Walk Among Beasts"

Year: 2011
Genre: Experimental Black Metal
Country: Australia

Track List:

To Walk Among Beasts

DOWNLOAD

Newest single by Shapeless, quite short (only 8 minutes), but according to the guy behind the project, "I felt I accomplished what I needed to with the one track. In saying that, I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out, but it is what it is... Once again, musically it's pretty pathetic, but it's honest, and to me that's what black metal is all about. Hopefully others feel the same"

I'm posting this right after I've posted the EP by Woccon, and it isn't a coincidence - in my opinion, both projects share the same (black & green) ideology and mentality. Maybe Shapeless can be called "primordial black metal" ;)

Woccon - "Through Ancestral Fires" (2011)

2011-10-31T23:17:00.001+04:00

WOCCON "Through Ancestral Fires"

Year: 2011
Genre: Death/Black Metal
Country: USA

Track List:

Veneration
Berkutchi
Nomadic
Jhator

DOWNLOAD

Woccon are a new blackened death metal project featuring at least one former member of Peregrine. Their sound was described by K.Tucker (Peregrine) as "Nile meets Panopticon", but I think it's also very similar to the latest releases by Peregrine. The ideology is the same (black and green). Very good EP, definitely recommended!

Harrow - "Wanderer" (2011)

2011-10-27T23:57:00.003+04:00

HARROW "Wanderer"

Year: 2011
Genre: Cascadian Black Metal
Country: Canada

Track List:

Into the Valley
Vast, Unending Lands
In the Shadow of the Stone
Journey Under the Mountain
To Weather the Storm
Snow Falls on the Night of the Solstice
Exile & Rebirth

DOWNLOAD

Another release from Harrow - this time a full-length album, not EP. "35 minutes fusing black metal and ritual folk music. A journey into the self and the conflicts and dualities which reside inside us all" (c). For me, it's pretty good album, but not enough "Cascadian"... don't know how to explain it properly. According to the band, it's okay to put it here for download, but of course you can buy it for 3 Canadian dollars on bandcamp.

Line-up:

I. Campbell - guitars and voice
K. Brickell - drums
C. Hellvomit - session drums

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Harrow and C. Hellvomit in The Lair, April/May MMXI

Spires of Belziar - demo (2011)

2011-10-27T23:45:00.003+04:00

SPIRES OF BELZIAR "demo"

Year: 2011
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Sweden

Track List:

Inverted cross and burning pentagrams
Red dust and blood
Nocturnal revenge
Through the oceans of sorrow
Great Zimbabwe
The return of the black king
Heathen invasion
Desert mist

DOWNLOAD

Here's a myspace rip of demo tracks by another Swedish BM project, which appears to be an one man band led by Eric S. Spires of Belziar may be not an explicitly RABM project, but Eric definitely knows about our movement, and he even posted a link to SoB's myspace in our facebook group. Moreover, it indeed looks like African history and mythology could provide a lot of potential source material for BM lyrics - some of these tracks are obviously inspired by African history (namely Great Zimbabwe and Namibia). The music is your typical Scandinavian BM, quite good for a first demo.

Seeds In Barren Fields - "Sounding the Siren Song in Vain" (2011)

2011-10-25T23:57:00.003+04:00

SEEDS IN BARREN FIELDS "Sounding the Siren Song in Vain"

Year: 2011
Genre: Black/Death Metal
Country: Sweden

Track List:

Sounding the Siren Song in Vain
To Feel
Tomorrow Black Birds Fly
Pastures of Plenty
Destroy the Machines
Leviathan
I Natten den Kalla och Klara

DOWNLOAD

A first full-length album by SIBF, a black&green metal band from Göteborg, which was released several months ago on Lundr Records. Musically there's a mix of melodic death and black metal (which is quite typical for the Gothenburg metal scene), except for the last track. Comparing with their first demo, this album is much more "metallic" and less "crusty". They're also about to release a split LP w/ Marnost on 12th of December (Marnost's side is already available as a preview).

A Cloud Forest - "These Mournful Days" (2011)

2011-10-25T23:40:00.003+04:00

A CLOUD FOREST "These Mournful Days"

Year: 2011
Genre: Atmospheric / Depressive Black Metal
Country: USA

Track List:

Lost in the Fog of Mourning
With One Last Breath
The Smile of Suffering
The Dark Wings of Hate
The Blooming of an End
Into the Silent Land

DOWNLOAD

The newest full-length album from A Cloud Forest - now it isn't a CD-R, but a professional release by Silence and Solitude Records. Like the earlier albums, it's available for free download, but if you're interested in supporting/buying the album you can get it direct off the official site for $7 plus postage (it's also available off bandcamp in physical CD form and digital download as well).

Temple Av Lidelse - "Sesiones en el Infierno" (2011)

2011-10-25T02:45:00.003+04:00

TEMPLE AV LIDELSE "Sesiones en el Infierno"

Year: 2011
Genre: Raw Black Metal
Country: Argentina

Track List:

El último de los Romanov
Han Som Reiste
Sistema de Opresión Social
Chainsaw Gutsfuck
Penumbra
Temple Av Lidelse
El Fin de los Tiempos

DOWNLOAD

Well... here's another Argentinian band. Temple Av Lidelse started in 2010 as just another underground BM band playing covers of Burzum and Mayhem (as well as their own material in the vein of early Norwegian BM scene). However, their vocalist became interested in radical leftist politics, that's why they made songs like "El último de los Romanov" or "Sistema de opresión social", dealing with political/historical subjects (not to mention they're against the nazi scene). Apart from this demo, they have released two more demos (which I can upload, if you're interested... but they contain mostly different versions of the songs from this demo). They even put the R&A symbol on the back cover of their demo "jævla tortur" to demonstrate that they're on our side:

Emerson Dracon - "Mañana Lloverá En Buenos Aires" (2011)

2011-10-24T04:50:00.003+04:00

EMERSON DRACON "Mañana Lloverá En Buenos Aires"

Year: 2011
Genre: Martial Industrial
Country: Argentina

Track List:

I - Los Himnos

A Las Barricadas
Reign Forever? (Blood Axis re-cover)

II - 1955 / 1956

Fusiladora
Operación Masacre

III - Love & Doom

Sear Me MMXI (My Dying Bride cover)
They Walked In Line (Joy Division cover)

DOWNLOAD

Just another demo found in my mail... but it turned out to be absolutely not what I expected. I expected to hear some metal (not nesessary black), but it turned out to be martial industrial/neofolk/post-punk. However, I really liked this EP after a few listenings. It's maybe the first example of leftist martial industrial I've came across, and it's quite good, despite more than half of these tracks being covers. I'm not sure if I understood the concept of this EP correctly, but looks like it's inspired by Plaza De Mayo events. Here are the release notes (in Spanish):

"Este proyecto musical es algo que estaba en mente, pendiente, desde hace bastante tiempo.
Vamos a intentar ser simples.
Dentro de una escena, nos guste o no, inestable, se intenta aportar un grano de arena
dentro del concepto de 'contra-cultura'; creando espacios culturales y artísticos, históricos y sociales.
El trabajo a lo largo de estos años y el camino recorrido nos dice que hay muchas cosas por decir y hacer.
Desde ya, y no hace falta profundizar mucho, NO estamos de acuerdo con los productos culturales y artísticos hegemónicos, como se entiende socialmente en los medios de comunicación, masivos.
Por eso elegimos 'ésto'. Y no es moda, ni religión, ni nada de eso. Es una participación activa dentro de la lucha por el florecer en el under.
Como el punk años atrás, hijos de ese espíritu, con consciencia, dialéctica y respeto, presento este humilde EP a los 16 días de Junio de 2011.
¿Por qué esa fecha? Por el bombardeo que sufrió Buenos Aires un 16 de junio, pero en 1955; contra un gobierno, nos guste o no, elegido democráticamente; masacrando intelectuales y trabajadores comprometidos antes y durante la dictadura fusiladora, anterior a la que todos nombran.
Ante todo, defendemos la libertad. Cueste lo que cueste, por eso, el 'himno' "A Las Barricadas", canción popular de fin de los años 30's en la España de la Guerra Civil. Por eso, un no-cover de Blood Axis, volviendo el sampleo de Sergéi Prokófiev a su real
lucha, cambiando las líricas.
Por eso también, un reconociemiento a las bases artísticas que el amor a la libertad nos implica pensar que no estamos solos en un mundo mal contextualizado históricamente, con mala memoria, con una verdad a medias y con justicia para pocos, sea social o cultural.

Espero les guste el proyecto, o aunque sea, les llame la atención...
Emerson Dracon"

myspace

Incipit - "½" (2011)

2011-10-24T04:40:00.000+04:00

INCIPIT "½"

Year: 2011
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Argentina

Track List:

½
Live - Die
The Fire and Time
Time Wheel
Mulanima
Hymn III (Ulver cover)

DOWNLOAD

The only member of this San Juan-based black metal project has contacted me on youtube and asked to check out his music. Well, I'd say it's very good for a 1st demo, and despite the lyrics aren't political or religious (except maybe for track #5, which has anti-Christian lyrics), it's definitely an anti-nazi project.

Vorkuta - "Ser O No Ser Aniquilados" (2010)

2011-10-24T03:45:00.003+04:00

VORKUTA "Ser O No Ser Aniquilados"

Year: 2010
Genre: Metal/Punk
Country: Argentina

Track List:

La Miliciana
La Hoz Y El Martillo
Encrusijada Final
Musica De Guerra
Castremos Al Taliván
A La Horca Los Capitalistas
Praxis Roja Y Verde
Un Reguero De Polvora
Angel De La Guerra
Estrategas
Laboratoios Obreros
Ellos O Nosotros
Unidos Por Su Destrucción
Hacia La Nueva Internacional

DOWNLOAD

I've no idea why at least two bands decided to name themselves after a boring coal-mining town in the northern Russia (the second one is a BM band from Hungary)... maybe because it's a place of one of the worst civil disorders in the Soviet Union (Vorkuta labour camp uprising '53?) Anyway, Vorkuta is a 5-piece punk/metal band from Argentina, featuring former members of Espartako and Bolchevikes. Their lyrics are overtly political, but it's somewhat hard for me to fully understand their message, because they sing in Spanish. As far as I can understand, they're leninists, not anarchists, but they strongly dislike Stalinism, Castrism, and Hugo Chavez' regime. They're also environmentalists, but not primitivists - at least one of their vocalists (Victoria) has expressed sympathies for transhumanism.

Vorkuta have two female vocalists - Elizabeth and Victoria, but I can't say I really liked their voices. As for me, such vocals are more suitable for female-fronted punk/oi, than for metal; however, if you're into early 80's-style metal heavily mixed with punk (a-la Motorhead, Warfare, etc.), then this album is for you. BTW, Victoria (the blonde one) is also an erotic model, whose primary aim is not profit, but creation of her own aesthetic system, where the exploitation of sexuality won't be another pillar of capitalism (a translation of her statement in Spanish, probably very rough). She also seems to be very much into both industrial music and 80s metal, cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic movies... and yes, looks like she knows about the RABM movement.

P.S. Archive contains all the MP3s, cover art and lyrics... and of course, it's free for distribution.

Agonia - "No Respiraremos El Aire Muerto" (2010)

2011-10-23T03:20:00.004+04:00

AGONIA "No Respiraremos El Aire Muerto"

Year: 2010
Genre: Blackened Neocrust
Country: Mexico

Track List:

Intro
Dragon Negro
Batalla Perdida en el Subsuelo
Ausencia
Intermedia
Llamada Brutal
La Memoria no se Borra
Satanico Trampa
Hijos del Trueno

DOWNLOAD

A question that has been asked several times: "Are there any Mexican RABM bands?" Well, looks like there's no RABM in Mexico yet, but there's at least one blackened crust band whose members are aware of the RABM movement. Agonia define themselves as a "mexican black metal punk crust band with indigenous pagan anarchist ideals", and while their music is mostly neocrust with little BM influences, several tracks on this album (especially "Hijos Del Trueno") sound much more like black metal than punk. The quality of production is far from perfect, but it isn't a big flaw...

Drear - "We'll Use Your Blood For Fertilizer" (2011)

2011-10-22T05:35:00.005+04:00

DREAR "We'll Use Your Blood For Fertilizer"

Year: 2011
Genre: Blackened Doom/Sludge
Country: UK

Track List:

Finally
Madness And Civilisation
Capturecultivateconsume

DOWNLOAD

As I have promised before, I'm posting the latest release by Drear. Can't say it's very "blackened" stuff, but it's still very solid sludge/doom metal influenced by eco-anarchist beliefs... and this demo is definitely better than 2007 one.

bandcamp

...Yet another pessimistic post about Russian politics

2011-10-22T02:45:00.004+04:00

Looks like my recent political posts have gathered some attention, so I think I need to explain why I'm so pessimistic about the perspectives of any protest movement in Russia. Not just because only very few people showed up for the #occupyRussia protests, but mostly because of the obvious degenerative tendencies affecting the whole society. However, first things first. I never thought I'd ever quote McCain in my blog, but...

"We believe very strongly that the people of Libya today are inspiring the people in Tehran, in Damascus, and even in Beijing and Moscow. They continue to inspire the world - and let people know that even the worst dictators can be overthrown and be replaced by freedom and democracy..."

Well, well, well. Let's take a closer look on Libyan rebels and their beliefs:

they use the monarchist flags (the monarchy of Idris wasn't even a constitutional one, but an obvious dictatorship), even though their leaders don't openly claim to be monarchists;
they blame Gaddafi of letting too many foreigners in the country, and of the unfair distribution of the oil revenues;
they accuse Gaddafi of relying on foreign mercenaries, not the Libyan people;
they accuse Gaddafi of taking away the freedoms of speech and gatherings;
finally, they hate Gaddafi just because he stayed in power for too long.

For me, it all sounds VERY familiar. If you replace Gaddafi with Putin and his party (ER), you'll get a very accurate description of our opposition (or at least the most prominent part of it, based on "anti-Putin" liberal/nationalist consensus). I have no illusions about the future of post-Gaddafi Libya (even the majority of anti-Gaddafists here admit that Libya most likely will turn into something resembling Somalia or Afghanistan), and we already see people in Benghazi protesting against Transitional National Council (which obviously turned out to be no better than Gaddafi and his henchmen).

Now let's return to Russia. There are plans for massive protest actions on 3th of December, but for me it smells like a big provocation. First of all, looks like it's organized by the same people who organized the riots in Moscow an year ago (but this time their rhetoric isn't overtly nationalist - they even expect the capital of Dagestan to join the protests). Second, the protests are planned for a day right before elections, when any kind of political agitation is officially banned - so the police would have all the legal rights to detain the protestors. Third, there's no ideological agreement among protestors outside their anti-Putin stance - there are monarchists and liberals, (pseudo)-communists and nationalists. Taking in account all that, I think it'd be wise to boycott these protests.

Regarding "freedom and democracy": I'd be very naive to expect people who gather under the flag of Alexander III (a very autocratic ruler) and demand more censorship in the media (basically, to ban everything what they deem "amoral" and "insulting the national feelings"), to be true democrats and liberals. Moreover, looks like there's a quickly developing cult of personality of Alexey Navalny, one of the most prominent opposition figures (I already mentioned him in one of my earlier posts, but only as an anti-corruption activist). His fans accept absolutely no criticism of Navalny, and label all his critics as "paid loyalists who all deserve to die". For me it isn't very democratic, even though Navalny declares himself as a democrat. While I had some respect for him in the beginning, now it's obvious that he's nothing more than a shitty nationalist and populist, like early Yeltsin. Even if an attempt of anti-Putin revolution won't result in a military dictatorship (which is more than likely), the coalition of liberals and nationalists won't change much, just like the "orange" governments changed nothing in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. And now I'm talking only about the least disgusting part of the opposition - I don't even want to discuss the level of intelligence of average members of various far-right groups (and there are tons of them). It's common for nationalists to laugh at the people from Central Asia, because they all turned out to be unable to run their countries in a civilized way after they got independence (except maybe for Kazakhstan) - but I doubt Russia's future would be much different when the oil prices will drop below 30$/barrel.

Don't get me wrong, I hate Putin and his clique for bringing the country to this dead end - but if the 90% of our opposition only wants to have welfare benefits because they're members of a "titular nation", then fuck such opposition. And it isn't only my disappointment - in the recent couple of months a lot of my favourite bloggers (Verbitsky, Heller and many more) admitted that if only we had really fair elections, then criminals and charlatans would quickly be elected again. I'm not of those kind of "black metallers" who claim to hate everyone and everything, but I truly hate this society. Now I understand that the 1990's was a fair punishment for the stupidity of all those who have supported Yeltsin, and it most likely will happen again. However, there are still some reasonable people, and it still makes some sense to continue our actions in order not to allow the populists (liberals and nationalists) to privatize the whole movement against the regime. I could say much more on this matter, but I don't think you're that interested (and writting all this isn't the most pleasant things to do), so that's all. Of course I'd inform you if anything really important happens here, but now I'll try to concentrate on music.

Oakhelm - "Echtra" (2011)

2011-10-20T02:45:00.002+04:00

OAKHELM "Echtra"

Year: 2011
Genre: Folk/Black Metal
Country: USA

Track List:

Into the Unknown Wilderness
The Way of Bleeding Bark
Children of the Glade
Lady of Three Faces
Echtra

DOWNLOAD

I already have the demo and the debut LP of this band on my blog, so why not to post their latest release? They may have no direct relation to the RABM movement, but they have people like Pete Jay (ex-Assück) and Kody Keywoth (L'Acephale, WITTR (live), ex-Fall Of The Bastards), and their music is really good. They often were labeled as a "viking metal band", but looks like their main source of inspiration is Celtic mythology, not Norse...

Tryblith

2011-10-20T02:30:00.003+04:00

Does anyone have more info on them? According to the description, they're a 4-piece band from Dayton, OH, playing black metal/ambient influenced by shamanism, chaosophy and anarchist beliefs (probably of a primitivist kind). Their facebook and myspace pages cointan very little info, but in their interview they mention WITTR and Ash Borer as their bands of influence.

Gottesmorder - "Gottesmorder" (2011)

2011-10-17T23:57:00.002+04:00

GOTTESMORDER "Gottesmorder"

Year: 2011
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
Country: Italy

Track List:

Winternight
Abyss Of Throats

DOWNLOAD

One more band from Italy, playing atmospheric BM in the vein of Cascadian scene (the ideology behind the music is pretty much the same as well; main lyrical themes are nature and sorrow). Just like in case with the majority of recent posts in my blog, this download link is band-sanctioned.

Larva Ov Cum - "Odio" (2011)

2011-10-17T23:30:00.004+04:00

LARVA OV CUM "Odio"

Year: 2011
Genre: Black Metal (with clean vocals)
Country: Italy

Track List:

Elemosine attue a gratificare il sottoposto
Spresonificazione della risorsa produttiva
Teorema dell'eterna sottomissione alla mansione lavorativa
Deumanizzando nel nome della meritocrazia monetaria
Pretendere cortesemente l'estinzione del padrone

DOWNLOAD

Another band from Italy, playing "Hysteric & Epic Modern Black Metal" (according to Evrom's blog). The vocal style is rather unusual (however, it doesn't ruin the music). I don't understand their lyrics, but according to the Italians in our Facebook group, Larva Of Cum are an anarcho-communist band. "Odio" is their first release, published under Creative Commons license (see their jamendo page).

Noscrape - "Soundtrack to a Post-Atomic Landscape" (2011)

2011-10-17T23:07:00.005+04:00

NOSCRAPE "Soundtrack to a Post-Atomic Landscape"

Year: 2011
Genre: Post-Metal/Sludge
Country: Italy

Track List:

Soundtrack to a post-atomic landscape
Hic sunt leones
Concrete
Annihilation

DOWNLOAD

Noscrape are a band from Italy playing psychedelic sludge-metal with some ambient influences. This EP (EP? it's actually a quite lengthy release, despite having only 4 tracks...) was sent to me by Dario, their vocalist, who is a friend of Adam (Adamennon). I tried to write a review of it, but apparently I can't write anything better than this review (a very detailed one, I must say. It also contains links to the band's facebook, myspace, and bandcamp pages).

Nachzehrer - "Pestilence Hungers in the Shadows" (2011)

2011-10-17T07:40:00.001+04:00

NACHZEHRER "Pestilence Hungers in the Shadows"

Year: 2011
Genre: Black Metal / Blackened Thrash
Country: USA

Track List:

The Awakening
Bärsärkar-gång
Howling and the Imminent Stench of Decay
Black Order of the Goat
Incestual Demoncy
Atavist

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Short bio: black metal/black thrash band from Boston, MA (USA). A Nachzehrer is a type of vampire in German folklore; the name literally translates to "afterwards-devourer" (nach-zehrer). Labels: Demons Gate Records (UK) / Tombs In The Valley Productions (UK). Contacts: facebook / email.

Actually, they're not a political band, but they know about my blog and have played with such bands as Morne, Ramlord and Infernal Stronghold. Their sound might be not very original, but who cares? The quality of production is nearly excellent for such kind of music, the songs are fast and aggressive... what else to wish? Definitely recommended.

"Occupy Russia": an overview of protest activity

2011-10-17T03:30:00.018+04:00

It turned out like there's a lot of people coming to my blog from google, searching for "Occupy Wall Street protests solidarity in Russia", so I'll write one more post on that matter.
As you may remember, I didn't expect much from the #occupyRussia movement, and it looks like I was right so far. The protests were announced for Moscow, St.Petersburg, Samara, Arkhangelsk, Kirov and Kostroma, but right now I have reports only from the first 3 of said cities. In SPb, only ~20 people showed up, so the whole event turned into just an organizational meeting (however, a new rally is announced for the next weekend). In Moscow, the situation wasn't much better: "30 protestors, 50 journalists, and a lot of police" (c). Earlier actions in Moscow include the "Day of Anger" by Left Front on 12th of October (not very impressive as well), and a protest of scientists against budget cuts on 13th (~350 participants).

Of course it's disappointing, but unsurprising. It's 2011, not 1990-91 when the protest rallies could gather more than 100000 participants. After the "Black October" of 1993 people became very politically passive, and even today the majority of them are sceptical about any public protests after witnessing the unsuccessful actions of Strategy-31 and similar movements. If it will continue, then there's no doubt that Putin & Co. will stay in power for at least 12 years more, and Russia will finally degrade into something like today's Pakistan or Nigeria: a poor and ignorant mess of ethnic and religious factions trying to exterminate each other while the elites are selling all the natural resources to the transnational companies... However, we shouldn't lay down our arms and surrender, as long as there's some hope. The whole #15oct thing is organized through social networks, and we already have more than 1000 members in our main group (but how many of them will actually take to the streets?.. that's the question), and almost 17000 in "AnarchoNews" group (however, it's still 3 times smaller than one of the biggest far-right groups...)

The weather conditions also may have prevented a lot of people from attending the rallies - it's quite cold almost everywhere, and it was even some snow in my city. But, as the practice shows, the weather isn't the biggest problem - this year an anti-nazi meeting in Moscow gathered more than 1000 participants, even it was almost -20°C outside. What's much worse - a lot of common people are reluctant to join the activists, because they believe they'll achieve nothing but being beaten by police (then again, it's mostly Strategy-31 who gave such reputation to all the protest rallies).

At least the people who actually participated in #oct15 actions, didn't disappoint me. Most of them are left-leaning and anti-authoritarian, and they generally have a good understanding of the whole political situation. Here are some videos (nothing actually interesting, so I won't translate it, but I'll put it here just for a historical record):

SPb

Moscow

15 october #GlobalChange in Moscow from Andrey Lukyanov on Vimeo.

(you can see a special guest (a woman from Spain) on 4:55)

There's also a report from Samara, but without photos or videos. According to them, first they gathered only 7 independent activists. Later, several girls have joined them and presented themselves as activists of "Together" movement (it's the first time I hear about such a movement). Maybe there would be more participants, but the police accused them of unsanctioned rallying in favor of "People's Will" party, and forced them to leave the square. Of course the accusations were false, because #occupyRussia is a strictly grassroots movement not aligned with any political party - but it would be just not wise to counter the overwhelming forces of police.

That's all for today, maybe I'll write one more post about the perspectives of the movement in the next few days. I understand that this post is quite boring, so I'll put here some photos of recent protests all around the world.

SPb, 15 Oct., anti-Putin protestor. Excellent photo, I think:

Scientists and students on 13Oct. rally:

Female activists of a social democratic party on the same rally. Unfortunately they still don't understand that their party is a joke, and the grassroots movements have much better chances:

Portugal. Really huge protest, unlike ours:

Italy, violent clashes in Rome:

Anti-capitalist banners in the capital of Bosnia:

Japan:

Philippines:

South Korea:

Switzerland (looks like social democrats to me, though...):

Sweden:

Taiwan:

I also had some hopes for Ukraine and Kazakhstan, but looks like there's nothing happening at all. The atmosphere in Belarus, as far as I know, is very heated - but the police still tightly controls the situation and doesn't allow any protests...

Necrohell - "Where Solitude And Coldness Unite" (2011)

2011-10-15T05:20:00.003+04:00

NECROHELL "Where Solitude And Coldness Unite"

Year: 2011
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Greece

Track List:

38 Millimeter
Where Solitude And Coldness Unite

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Another Greek band - this time BM, but not RABM... anyway, this release may be interesting for my readers because the 1st track is a cover version of a song "38 Millimeter" by Adiexodo, one of the most prominent Greek anarcho-punk bands from the 80s. According to 7inchcrust, the lyrics are:

"Blood, of innocent thousands I want, to pave the roads
Blood, of innocent thousands I want, to run for revenge
Innocent journalists, innocent cops,
Innocent judicial officers, innocent decent citizens .
Revenge. Revenge. Revenge. Revenge.
... Blood, the horrid memory of a night on Stournara street
Blood, the last image before the dominion of silence
Executioners journalists, executioners cops,
Executioners judicial officers, executioners decent citizens .
Revenge. Revenge. Revenge. Revenge.
Not alone was the one who shot
He had other, hidden hangmen
He had with him the virtuous
He had with him the decent
He had with him the noble
He had with him the fair
He had with him the peaceful.
The hangmen are innocent. The hangmen are innocent.
The guilty lie dead. The guilty lie dead.
Revenge. Revenge. Revenge. Revenge.
Blood, of innocent thousands I want, to pave the roads
Blood, of innocent thousands I want, to run for revenge
Executioners journalists, executioners cops,
Executioners judicial officers, executioners decent citizens .
Revenge. Revenge. Revenge. Revenge.
Revenge. Revenge. Revenge. Revenge"

However, I still have some doubts about this 7'', because it was also posted on some Greek NSBM blog (won't give a link here, but it can easily be found via google)... but let's trust 7inchcrust, he never recommends any wrong stuff!

Pornostroika Dadaifi - "Pornotroika: Erotas Sta Hronia Tis Porneias" (2011)

2011-10-15T04:50:00.005+04:00

PORNOSTROIKA DADAIFI "Pornotroika: Erotas Sta Hronia Tis Porneias"

Year: 2011
Genre: Industrial / Cyberpunk / Dadacore
Country: Greece

Track List:

Anodos ton Pithikanthropon
Naraxia
Robocop
Astikos Polemos
Ta robot
Pyrinikos Minotauros
Pyriniko Pornokaytoma
Skylia tou Paulof
Regges Anthrwpoi
Anthropinoi donites
NWO Νo Οrder-GAP
Zambo (cut version)
O nearos kapitalismos
Adiaforia

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First of all, let's be clear: it isn't metal or rock music at all, but if you're into dadaism, industrial music or avantgarde art in general, you may find this release interesting. According to the official biography, "Pornostroika Dadaifi is a cyberpunk group formed in 1999 in Lesvos (Greece), an island located at the North-East part of Aegean Sea, from marginalized individuals that united to have their musical revenge. Pornostroika Dadaifi is a politicized band that does not aim for money or fame but to give clearly messages to the listeners. Pornostroika Dadaifi belongs to ZAM (Zero Artistic Movement). ZAM’s influences are: Futurism, Dadaism, N.S.K.(Laibach’s Art Collective), Bertolt Brecht, W.Burroughs, Soviet Realism and the fantastic-horror cinema... Main purpose of Pornostroika is to destroy the capitalist art. PORNOSTROIKA DADAIFI OFFERS THEIR ALBUMS FOR FREE DOWNLOADING"

"Pornotroika..." is a strange-sounding release from a band with even more strange name (in Russian it means something like "pornographic building site"... don't know what it means in Greek, though) - but I guess that's what dadaism is all about. The music primarily consists of repetitive patterns of electronic sound with voice samples over it. Sadly I can't understand their message (probably very interesting), since I don't know the language. I absolutely can't guarantee that you'll like this album (as it sounds very different from all what I've posted here before, except maybe Struck 9), but if you like cyberpunk and industrial music, then I'll recommend to give it a try.

myspace

source

HCCE Orwell - "Que la Muerte Retroceda" (2011)

2011-10-15T04:35:00.003+04:00

HCCE ORWELL "Que la Muerte Retroceda"

Year: 2011
Genre: Death Metal / Blackened Crust
Country: Spain (Catalonia)

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The first full-length album by HCCE Orwell ("Hordas Chakaloides Contra la era Orwell"), received directly from the band. The tracklist is pretty much the same as in here, with addition of two new songs: "Lobos" and "Que la Muerte Retroceda". Complete D.I.Y. production, strictly left-libertarian and anti-NSBM.

Tussock - "Devastation Of Nuclear Proliferation" (2011)

2011-10-15T04:20:00.003+04:00

TUSSOCK "Devastation Of Nuclear Proliferation"

Year: 2011
Genre: Crustgrind
Country: Malaysia

Track List:

Have You
Macheni, This Is Grindcore
Devastation Of Nuclear Proliferation
This Is What I Thought About Government
Authority
Politician Scum
There Is No Fucking Alient
Definasi Emo Dan Grind
Hash Feelings Hash Extreme
So Effective
Grindlove
Where The Truth
Scenester Hierarchy Fuck Off
We Are Poser
Not The End

DOWNLOAD

It's not really blackened crust, rather grindcore/crust - but it's the first band from Malaysia who has contacted me and asked for a review, so why not to post it here? Looks like Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia have a big crust/grindcore scene, but the majority of bands from that region are relatively unknown outside South Asia. The only Malaysian crust/political grind bands I know (besides Tussock) are Torture Incident and Mass Separation. BTW, I've heard that black metal is officially banned in Malaysia, but I have no idea if it's actually enforced or not...

Tussock biography:

"TUSSOCK Originally formed by Acad in late 1999 with two other members, Hafiz and Bujal in Muar, Johor. These Muarian crustgrinder later on invited Fadzee/Ganga (VIOLENCE) to joined the band’s. In 2001,TUSSOCK participating a compilations project and with the absent of Bujal ( bass ) due to his commitment to his new job in Shah Alam, Selangor. They vomiting 4 tracks for JOHOR HARDCORE COMPILATIONS ( BROKEN NOISE ).

Line-up 2001. Acad (vocal), Hafiz (drums), Fadzee/Ganga (guitar). TUSSOCK were invited to entering studio in 2002 to record an EP. The EP will be released by GRUNDAR PRODUCTIONS owned by Prop (ARGON/PARKINSON) and Fadzee with Acad decided to recruit new comrade and Sopex (SACR) to fit in. But two week after before the recording begin, Hafiz leave the band without giving any reason. Luckily they found Fauzi (NARSAMUM/DAMOKIS) that willing to help thru the recording process.2003, Out Of Rhyme EP’s was released.

Line-up 2001. Acad (vocal), fauzi(drums), Fadzee/Ganga (guitar), Sopek (guitar)
TUSSOCK journey not so well. After two year the EP’s was released, Acad the last and only former member quitting the band and a year go by TUSSOCK was put to his sleep.

The return..2010 Fadzee/Ganga decided to reformed the band back with help with Bob (NAVRATHOS), Moha (EYES POPPING OUT), Akmal (VIOLENCE). As a result 15 tracks of Sarcastic violence of hate crust grindcore ready to blown your mind !!!

Line-up Fadzee/Ganga (guitar), Akmal (vocal), Moha (guitar),Bob (drums). Influences: CARCASS, ASSUCK, SPAZZ, CHARLES BRONSON, BATHTUB SHITTER, AGATHOCLES, CRIPPLE BASTARDS, DISCORDANCE AXIS, GRIDLINK etc…"

blog

Barren Waste - "Divine Intervention" (2011)

2011-10-15T04:00:00.003+04:00

BARREN WASTE "Divine Intervention"

Year: 2011
Genre: Blackened Hardcore/Grind
Country: USA

Track List:

Self Examination
Dominant Hand
Of Flesh And Decay
Bronze Bull
Collection Codes
Last Gasp

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This band was suggested to me about 4 months ago, but I had little free time then, so I forgot to review it... But well, better late than never. Barren Waste are a 4-piece band from Milford, NH, whose sound can be roughly classified as blackened grindcore/hardcore: "Barren Waste came together in late January of 2011 in response to an unimaginative local metal scene. All four members wanted to make something exciting and have so far done just that. Genre conventions were dropped. Instead the songs dictated where the songs would go. Not only are the usual elements of Death, Black, Thrash, Grindcore, and Hardcore used, but they are coupled with noise, classic rock, and free jazz influences..." Their music is also remarkable for a lot of melodic solos. Still unsure if it's worth checking out? Then listen to their tracks at Reverbnation first.

Sheer Ignorance - "Conditioning" (2011)

2011-10-14T03:15:00.003+04:00

SHEER IGNORANCE "Conditioning"

Year: 2011
Genre: Blackened Crust
Country: UK (Scotland)

Track List:

Pay Your Dues to Punk
Social Conditioning
Blood Sludge
Militant Zombie Deathsquad
Mind Control Airwaves

DOWNLOAD

Another loud and uncompromising crust punk/black metal band whose members know about my blog. One of them also plays in a death metal band Nerrus Kor. Their debut EP was released in September 2011, and I'm posting it here along with booklet (containing all the lyrics). You may also purchase it from bandcamp.

Aspera Ad Astra: another band from Germany

2011-10-14T03:10:00.002+04:00

From our group on Facebook:

"I'm radical left and vocalist in a black metal band from germany. The band and lyrics are apolitical, but sometimes libertine and got intertextuality with left art like from the Situationist International."

Vidargängr: German punks playing black metal

2011-10-14T03:05:00.003+04:00

As far as I know, they're a RABM-friendy band featuring members of such Leipzig-based punk and metal acts as Rattenpisse and Distinct Cult. Their main lyrical themes are disaffection, hate and anti-Christianity. They plan to record a demo this or next month.

Shapeless - "Non-Aretaic Dimensions" (2011)

2011-10-14T02:15:00.002+04:00

SHAPELESS "Non-Aretaic Dimensions (of misery and freedom)"

Year: 2011
Genre: Raw Black Metal / Dark Ambient
Country: Australia

Track List:

Boner of the Fallen Satyr
Putres Motuos et Leviathan
An Introverted Journey Through Worthlessness
Non-Aretaic Dimensions

DOWNLOAD

Another demo made by one of my readers. According to him:

"I just finished my solo demo. It's pretty shit, but it combines some elements of DSBM, inspired by the horrid society we live in. There's also a track inspired by Against His-Story, Against Leviathan! and although the lyrics might be a bit vague on exactly what I'm trying to get across, the gist of it is Anarchism and the rejection of modern society...

I'm currently working on another EP. I'd be happy to send it along when it's done. Unlike Non-Aretaic Dimensions, I'll be putting more time into it - though hopefully it will still retain the raw quality"

Well... the 2nd track is good enough for a first home-made demo. Reminds me of L'Acephale and Mania (and maybe also Burzum's "Det Som En Gang Var"). Tracks #1 and #3 are just electronic interludies, nothing really remarkable. The 4th track is also not that bad, but the sound is much more raw and noisy. Overall, the music is as minimalistic as the cover image, but I'm not saying like it's a bad thing. Let's wait for a 2nd demo...

Forge of Customs - "Zeitgeist" (2011)

2011-10-13T04:45:00.005+04:00

FORGE OF CUSTOMS "Zeitgeist"

Year: 2011
Genre: Negative Hardcore/Metal
Country: Russia

Track List:

Break It Down! (Intro)
Endgame
Zeitgeist
Social Package
Simply Fashion
Last Generation

bonus

Black Monday
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum!

DOWNLOAD

As you may have already noticed, I'm interested in metal and other underground music coming from the regions like Middle East. It's relatively easy to speak against Christianity while residing in already secular countries like Norway, but it takes a lot of courage to be critical of Islam in Iran or Saudi Arabia.

Speaking of Forge Of Customs - well, I don't think having one member in their lineup originally from Derbent (south Dagestan) makes them an "oriental metal" band, but it's hard not to notice that their music is heavily inspired by the political events in that region. Forge Of Customs is an anti-NWO, anti-consumerist, anti-religious fundamentalist metallic hardcore band with female vocals based in Moscow, and "Zeitgeist" is their first full-length release. While the music is somewhat repetitive and unoriginal by Western hardcore scene standards (plus I didn't like some clean vocal parts), it's already a promising release for an young Russian band. Leaving aside the black metal scene, we don't have that many political metal bands, and I hope FoS will eventually become one of the leading bands on our scene, along with Slaughter 2017.

The lyrics are overtly political, dealing with such subjects as terrorism, Moscow Metro bombings, consumerism, religious fanaticism and human stupidity. While their position is slightly more socially conservative compared with most other bands on my blog (as far as I understand, they mostly adhere to the sXe ethos), their lyrics are still honest and inspirational, and their music makes me feel real passion and anger. The archive includes 6 album tracks and two more tracks from their early demos, with slighlty different sound. As for me, "Sivis Pacem, Para Bellum" is the best track they've ever recorded, and I have no idea why it wasn't included in the album...

On Occupy Wall Street protests and the Russian situation

2011-10-12T23:57:00.006+04:00

(UPDATE: PART 2)

First of all, I hope you all know what's happening in America right now. Some call the Occupy Wall Street protests "the continuation of Arab Spring", some view them as the continuation of Wisconsin events... it's hard for me to judge who's right, as I'm residing on the other side of the planet. All I can do is to translate some Russian TV reports on OWS protests:

Hope it'll give you some understanding of how these events are covered by our media. And I just can't resist the urge to post this excellent photo:

Of course I don't really think that OWS movement will change anything, but at least it looks much better than our "Strategy-31". BTW, this Saturday will be the global day of actions in support of OWS, which will take place in Moscow, St.Petersburg, Samara and Chelyabink. I don't have any big expectations for it, but I hope it'll be a good start for a really massive liberation movement in Russia, the need in which is long overdue - as we have much worse problems with the government and society than most of Western states. Now it's evident that Putin's regime didn't really bring any change to our condition - we are just continuing to export resources (both natural and human), while up to 30% of the revenues are being literally stolen. Some more info here: "The (Continuing) Russian Economic Miracle" by Alexandra Bayazitova & Maria Zhebit. Whoever translated that article to English, has done a good job.

The ethnic tensions are also becoming worse and worse with every month, and it looks like the authorities are doing everything to worsen the situation even futher. The only politician involved in the conflict who looks truly honest to me, is the president of Ingushetia, Yunus-bek Yevkurov. Here's his interview regarding the December 2010 ethnic riots, which I tried to translate:

While I can't agree with several of his statements (trying to solve all problems by police force, instead of uprooting the causes of said problems, will lead us to nowhere), it's still the only sane opinion on that events, made by a high-ranked politician. It isn't the first time when he speaks the evident truth, so it isn't surprising that he has already survived one serious attempt on his life:

As for me, he's certainly right about the roots of violent phenomenon of far-right Islamic insurgency in Ingushetia and neighbouring regions: "Distrust towards the authorities and corruption are the main reason for the current state of affairs in Ingushetia... Young men are joining militants and becoming criminals because our society is suffering from a crisis - they see how government officials are building mansions and drive expensive cars, while the unemployment rate is more than 50%". While the situation in most other Russian regions is still nowhere near as bad as in Ingushetia or Dagestan, there's no doubt that the degradation will continue if Putin stays in power next 12 years.

What's also worth mentioning - shortly after the assassination attempt, Evkurov made a statement accusing the West of seeking to destabilize the whole Caucasus: "I'm miles from believing that Arabs are behind this. There are other, more serious forces there. We understand whose interests these are: the United States, Britain, and Israel too... The West will keep seeking to prevent Russia from reviving the former Soviet might". While I'm skeptical of his Soviet patriotism (however, there's a lot of conspiracy theorists who are actually much worse - for example those who believe in the existence of so-called Dulles' plan), it's hard to deny that he has some valid points (and I can also add that Saudi Arabia might be involved, as they're a center of Wahhabism, they have a lot of oil money, and they're allied with NATO). While being a military commander, he has visited both Bosnia and Kosovo, so he might have noticed the similarities between "balkanization" (obviously backed by NATO and powered by already existing religious conflicts), and the conflict in his home region. Moreover, Evkurov himself was raised in a conservative Muslim family and then was educated in more or less Westernized society - so he might have a good knowledge of how to provoke a religious conflict.

However, it'd be very lame to blame the current sad state of Russian society on some "conspiracy". While the 70-80% of the population still mentally lives in the middle ages, the mere change of the key politicians will actually change nothing - the corrupt system will stay in place. Anyway, as long as there's still a significant amount of us progressives (even if we are vastly outnumbered by fascists and loyalists of all sorts), it's too early to lay down our arms. The fight will continue, even there's not much hope...

No way, No Life, No Future, Gods and Masters! (c)

Kalendae - live set (from "Evenings of Forests and Sorrow")

2011-10-07T23:57:00.005+04:00

The 3rd event in the series of "Evenings of Forests and Sorrow" will take place in SPb on 19th of October. Line-up:

Kalendae (atmospheric black metal\ post-)
... и возвел их на гору (ambient)
Gray Bastion (death/doom metal)
Virosa (post-metal)

info

Two tracks from the first live show of Kalendae (not even a demo, just a live recording; the upcoming demo may sound different. I'm putting it here only to give you an idea of what kind of music they're playing):

~~DOWNLOAD~~ (UPD: the demo is officially out)

And some more photos (credits to Julia Buryakova):

Fregoli Delusion - demo (2011)

2011-10-07T00:40:00.002+04:00

FREGOLI DELUSION "demo"

Year: 2011
Genre: Funeral Doom/Black Metal
Country: Lithuania

Track List:

Flight
Epiphanies
Monochrome
Revolve

DOWNLOAD

"The Fregoli delusion is a rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that different people are in fact a single person who changes appearan ce or is in disguise"

Fregoli Delusion is an one-man project from Lithuania, featuring a member of such bands as Jane Doe Drowned and Vėžys. I'd label his music as funeral doom with some BM overtones, obviously influenced by blackened crust and Cascadian black metal. Reminds me of Mania and The Austrasian Goat (both musically and ideologically).

Spanish Civil War documentary: CNT & FAI (English subtitles)

2011-10-06T23:57:00.003+04:00

77 years ago, on 6th of October 1934, the Republic of Catalonia was declared, making its first step to become the anarchist Catalonia (1936-1939). Here's a documentary on events of Spanish Civil War, translated to English by Panda (Legado de Odio):

The story is narrated from a pro-anarchist, anti-falangist, anti-Stalinist point of view... and of course there's a lot of music in this film! Right now I'm trying to translate it to Russian, and I understand the amount of work done by Panda. Hope I'll have enough patience to finish the translation - this documentary depicts one of the most important events in the history of fighting for true freedom, and it should be available in as many languages as possible. Spread the word!

Harrow (ex-Wraith) - "Forest Altar" (2011)

2011-10-01T02:57:00.001+04:00

HARROW "Forest Altar"

Year: 2011
Genre: Cascadian BM
Country: Canada

Track List:

Balance
Wraith
Watcher

DOWNLOAD

I hope you remember a demo called "Unending Lands" by Wraith, which I've posted here year ago. Now they're a full band and no longer a one man project, and they changed the name to "Harrow," though the band is a continuation of the themes and music from those Wraith demos. Their music is still very decent atmospheric BM, though the vocals aren't quite "black metal"-ish. And some words directly from the band (about their concept):

"Harrow is the struggle for understanding of the self and of the Earth. It is coming to terms with accepting the truth of being human and then learning to live in our world with that knowledge. We exist in a time when two forces are beginning to clash and the outcome will determine the fate of all life. One side seeks harmony and understanding with the Earth and its habitants. The other seeks dominance and gain for itself. “Forest Altar” sets out this opposition as a foundation to build upon. At this point, we walk through an obscuring fog, only seeing small parts of a larger whole. When the fog clears, the truth has been reached"

bandcamp

Shaytankutak - "Жаз" (2011)

2011-10-01T02:00:00.004+04:00

ШАЙТАНКУТАК "Жаз"

Year: 2011
Genre: Post-Metal
Country: Kazakhstan

Track List:

Шу
Актобе
Жок
Жаз
Аспан

DOWNLOAD

Shaytankutak (Шайтанкутак) is a duo from northern Kazakhstan which was formed in 2007 as a political/satirical grindcore project. The band name can be literally translated as "Satanic Penis" or "Satanic Dildo". After releasing some noisegrind demos (which, to be honest, are just unlistenable), they finally recorded a "serious" 5-track album, the music on which is relatively far from grindcore. I'd say it's rather post-metal with strong BM and sludge influences, and some acoustic parts. Finally, a really interesting metal release from Kazakhstan! Recommended to everyone who likes progressive metal, post-hardcore and post-black metal. Sadly I can't understand the lyrics, but I guess they're political (at least track #3 is claimed to be about Domodedovo airport bombing).

Kalendae: live photos

2011-09-29T02:40:00.007+04:00

Latest news from Kalendae: there's still no demos or live videos from them, but now they have a blog and an official newsfeed. Some photos of them from a recent gig (credits to Polina Chernovolenko):

Beauty Of Sirin - "Winter Demo(n)s" (2010)

2011-09-27T23:57:00.002+04:00

BEAUTY OF SIRIN "Winter Demo(n)s"

Year: 2010
Genre: Blackgaze
Country: Russia

Track List:

Beauty Of Sirin
Blackened Winter
Giants

DOWNLOAD

Beauty Of Sirin are a trio from St.Petersburg whose music is very far from "true" black metal, but quite similar to Amesoeurs' first only LP, Dernier Martyr, and other depressive rock bands influenced by DSBM. They're apolitical, but associated with Kalendae, Kora and similar acts, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to post their demo here. Their second demo is announced to be released very soon, and will be a conceptual work with mythology-based lyrics (unlike this one, which has almost no lyrics except for some spoken word passages). However, they're mostly a live band, and don't distribute their demos through any labels. Speaking of "Winter Demo(n)s" - I think it can best be labeled as depressive rock with some DSBM elements and electronic/ambient parts, akin to Amesoeurs, Velvet Cacoon / Clair Cassis, etc. It's interesting to compare them with O.R.N.S. bands, and projects like Dernier Martyr or All The Cold. Seems like Russian metal scene tends to produce more and more atmospheric and introspective stuff in the late few years, and I can't say it's a bad tendency...

Our Last Rain - "Arcane Sanctum" (2011)

2011-09-26T04:45:00.000+04:00

OUR LAST RAIN "Arcane Sanctum"

Year: 2011
Genre: Dark Ambient
Country: Russia
Label: IAKH Records

Track List:

Тайное святилище
Спящие духи в сердце камня
Одинокий человек в руинах города
Белые вершины
Река, простирающаяся в небо
Ночной ритуал
Трансцендентальная реальность

DOWNLOAD

Well, since I mentioned O.R.N.S. in my previous entry, it's time to post a new album of a band belonging to that circle. I've already posted two demos from Our Last Rain before, when OLR was an one-man project... but now it's a 3-piece band (Denis - male vocals, guitar, banjo, tambourine; Nataly - female vocals, bamboo flute; Sergey - drums, tambourine) who released their first full-length album on CD not so long ago.

The music on this CD is mostly nature-inspired instrumental dark ambient with small hints of black metal influence in some tracks (e.q. #6), played entirely on acoustic instruments. Overall, very comparable to other O.R.N.S. ambient projects (Дно, 66°33’39). And if you liked the acoustic projects that I've posted here before (Into The Rhine, In The Sea Of Trees, etc.), you'll probably enjoy this album as well - both musically and ideologically.

And I have to repeat that I'm pleased to see a movement that's comparable to Cascadian BM scene - but emerging here in central Russia, and not being a direct copycat of Cascadian scene (despite having a lot of similar traits). Now we have even our own label (IAKH Records), and some plans of releasing a BM zine - all thanks to our RABM community (especially to the members of Kora, Kalendae and Axidance)! Back in 2007 I couldn't imagine that we'd have anything like this 4 years later... It should be noted, however, that O.R.N.S. isn't a political, but rather philosophical/spiritual community most of which members just happen to be radical leftists. Hope they'll continue to grow, and I'll do anything in my powers to support them...

26.09.2011, St.Petersburg - "An Evening of Forests and Sorrow", pt.2

2011-09-25T23:57:00.002+04:00

One more event organized by our community - this time not quite RABM-themed, but there will be at least one band associated with RABM scene. The event will took place tomorrow in St.Petersburg, and it's called "Вечер лесов и грусти, vol.2" (which can be roughly translated as "An Evening of Forests and Sorrow/Sadness"). Line-up:

У меня всё хорошо, очень даже (drone doom, shoegaze, sludge)
Kalendae (atmospheric black metal/post-BM)
Not My Murder (sludge/metal)
Inter Arbores (ambient doom)

last.fm page / vkontakte

It's the second event in the line of "Evenings of Forests and Sorrow" - the first one took place at the same club in SPb month ago. The lineup consisted of Beauty Of Sirin (blackgaze) and Kalendae. Kora were also invited, but couldn't perform because one of their members was seriously injured.

This time the lineup consists mostly of sludge/doom metal and drone bands, but I hope EoF&S #3 will be more BM-oriented. None of these bands have released anything yet, but Kalendae are about to release a 2-track demo very soon. I've already heard their track called "Qliphoth", and it sounds very promising. BTW, they're members of "Old Roots New Shoots" association, along with such bands as Axidance and Kora (and their side projects: Our Last Rain, Дно, 66°33’39). The bands of O.R.N.S. have a lot in common with Cascadian BM bands, so I hope we'll see something comparable to Cascadian BM scene on post-Soviet space very soon.

Ancient Oak - "Sun" (2011)

2011-09-21T23:57:00.002+04:00

ANCIENT OAK "Sun"

Year: 2011
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal / Blackened Crust
Country: Russia

Track List:

DOWNLOAD

A new one-track single from Ancient Oak, which turned out to be surprisingly good (especially the beginning of the track). Ancient Oak is an instrumental one-man band, whose only member adheres to DIY ethics and left wing (anarchist) political views. The main sources of inspiration for his music are paganism and Norse mythology. Besides that, not much is known about the project.

Autumn Discomfort Fest II

2011-09-17T23:57:00.003+04:00

So, the 2nd event in the line of Discomfort festivals is going on right now near Moscow! Just like the 1st Discomfort Fest, it's organized by the members of our RABM community. Line-up:

Moscow heretics:

Kora (atmospheric black metal/RABM)
AxidancE (neocrust (early), blackened crust/RABM (now))
Fatum (stenchcore/blackened crust)
Emancipation (old school crust)
Nimrud (post-metal)
Mutagen (hardcore punk)
Virulent Mass (hardcore/crust)
ConVince (d-beat/neocrust)
The Zavod (oi)
еГОр (psychedelic punk, cover band)
DJ Pizdec (electro-folk)
Fucking Paralytics (mystical noise)

Guests from SPb:

DJ Distonn (breakcore; samples from Wolfbrigade, Skitsystem etc.)
Krivda (raw black metal/crust/grindcore)
Откаты (raw black metal/sludge)
Adrianocelentano (booze d-beat)
Distündrum ("ravepunk")
Acid Vicious ("ravepunk")

event page on last.fm

As you can see, the lineup is big and diverse: there are RABM bands (sadly, not many - but they're headliners of the whole event), crusties, classic punks (including relatively well-known bands like Mutagen), and performers of extreme electronic music - both from Moscow and SPB. Finally, not only Colombians can have their own red&anarcho metal festivals ;) Good to see our RABM community grown so big and active within less than two years. If only our political situation would improve such fast...

(btw, not so long ago M.Verbitsky wrote an article which pretty much summarizes my own disappointment in politics and society. I'll translate it at least partly, if I'd have some free time tomorrow...)

P.S. Kudos to the designers of that flyer - it's the first time I see a punk or metal show flyer made in khokhloma style!