DER BLUTHARSCH - FLYING HIGH

Der Blutharsch once did the sort of cold martial style that I've never been able to relate to. I'm far too American to handle that stuff. The more recent shift into collaboration and dark psychedelia has led to sounds that I've been kind of enamored with lately. Here's the most recent LP, a fairly light and airy effort under a name with a gloomy reputation.

I'm not sure if the dude's a nazi, so if you think so, here's your link: Download

Nazi sympathizers link: Handmade Birds

WHITE RING - CHAIND VOL. 1

Is it possible to write about White Ring without touching on the whole Witch House thing? Nah, it's really not. We all need to make excuses for things we like. This is the internet.

Witch House is/was a visibly passing trend among the general miasma that has swept the country along with the implied mantra, It Is Now Okay To Wear Black Again. Chopped and screwed Houston shit is often cited, but I really track the whole thing to Burial's albums. Regardless of influence, it makes sense that a rebooted Goth subculture would use something to get eyeliner'd types dancing besides post-punk or the later Wax Trax backbones that once dominated. So why not hip-hop?

What we got was a genre far too specific to grow into anything interesting. This is why bold declarations of genre don't really work too early on. Remember when dubstep was the "undefined genre"? Even that fell victim to THE WOBBLE SYNTH as soon as people managed to pin the whole thing down. Meanwhile Witch House got tied up into lazy Burial imitations and lots of un-Googleable names. Because that's what everybody was doing, I guess? It's the best recent example of a scene that never really was, just a collection of unimpressive bedroom beats with some meaningless occult imagery to go along with the whole thing.

Goth kids moved on before it really got anywhere. Blogs followed it for a good five months or so before dumping it all. Now that I've gotten what is essentially a giant excuse out of the way:

White Ring has been left standing. They've put out only a small handful of tracks, but their work stands above the rest. They wear a proud gangsta rap influence, with gunshot samples on prominent display. Theirs is a more organic sound, song beats and synths, very little reliance on horror tapes or gloomy samples in general.

They just released a series of remixes. The sound is unmistakably theirs. If you can get over the witchy associations, it'd be worth playing for some people to dance to.

Learn To Love The Ring, Not The Witch: Download

ABYSSGALE - THE COMING PLAGUE

Typically monolithic black metal with an open appreciation for bands whose names start with "Dis". I don't really know much about this besides it coming out in 2006 and being their only release. Wrath from Dodsferd was involved. When it goes punk, it does so seamlessly. I usually listen to this when I wonder what a modern Darkthrone would sound like if they didn't just plaster crust punk and old school metal tics into their new records. Fenriz is easily the best dude, he's just more concerned with having a good time than making good records. Which is fine. The Coming Plague is a good record.

That cover is great. I love how guys playing horns is the perfect medieval touchstone. Make the guys skeletons and you have just made a metal cover.

Here's a part of a great interview with Wrath ( on Dodsferd, but I can't resist posting a few choice pieces):

What is the purpose of functioning as a one man band? Is it a matter of not being able to find suitable like-minded musicians? Or this simply better suits your modus operandi?

Modus fucking what?

...

You are a nihilist, so what constitutes Dodsferd’s black metal?

I have my own view of nihilism! I have my own theories and philosophy! Hate, pain and disgust constitutes Dodsferd's black metal! You can also add irony, a lot of irony!

...

If nihilism argues that ‘being is without objective, meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth or essential value’, what is the purpose of Wrath and Dodsferd? Why not just sit on a bench and wait for a tsunami or some shit?

I cannot understand the meaning of your questions! Despite of your provoking attitude I am still answering this interview!

Check out the whole interview, it's second only to Famine from Peste Noire in terms of hateful stupidity. Great stuff.

Despite of your provoking attitude Abyssgale will not stop playing! Unless you hit the 'pause' button! Abyssgale is not for sale! Use eBay if you want! I personally do not give a fucking shit!: Download

YOGA - MEGAFAUNA

Megafauna is Goblin worship of the sort we've been hearing more and more of, with a black metal edge buried under layers of damp VHS tape. It's a very good summation of how much scarier that kind of soundtrack work sounds on some seventeenth generation tape your uncle left in his basement for awhile.

These sounds evoke diurnal knife-murderers in summer killing fields, victims rotting and spitting up black stuff and bleeding a red far too bright for blood.

People shouldn't make anything like black metal for this time of year.

Play this while vultures circle overhead while you stave off heatstroke: Download

Raise Awareness For Putrefaction: Holy Mountain

SIEGE - DROP DEAD

So far every post has had some connection or another to the previous. Neat, huh? Yeah, I only noticed that just now. (Dropdead got their name from Drop Dead.)

Siege were one of those multi-genre touchstones that seems much bigger now than they ever did while active. Music for musicans, even if that wasn't their goal. See: The Misfits before Metallica covered them and others showed their appreciation in interviews; Repulsion after Horrified (a compilation, don't forget) was cobbled together; and a shitload of bands that broke up after a member died, thus giving them unexpected morbid attention.

They started in high school and broke up soon after; their vocalist didn't show up for their first CBGB's gig, and that was that.

When they did reunite, they did so with Seth Putnam (Anal Cunt) taking the old vocalist's slot. It didn't last.

Much like Horrified before it, this is one of those compilations that stands as an album for most people. It takes some twists and turns because of that, even ending with a saxophone-driven post-punk dirge (that's probably the best part of the whole thing). Also like Horrified, it serves as one of the major precursors to grindcore.

Listen loud, don't bump your fucking head on something: Download

Don't forget some guys might get to eat if you pay for this: Relapse

DROPDEAD - 2nd LP

Dropdead's second LP is a lot like the first one, or like anything they've ever done (shrill, to-the-point hardcore), with the needle leaning further into the red. This is as much of a blunt force trauma as hardcore is capable of delivering without crossing over into metal territory. Oh, and there's some Masonna ear-bleed shit at the end. Absolutely a classic.

Seth Putnam of Anal Cunt apparently had some beef with them over their carebear liberal politics. This far into the post-90's apolitical, unemotional era of music, I wouldn't mind some new bands getting pissed about something the way these guys do. I'm down with new music, but these posts are reaching back mainly because I'm not feeling how the best current bands sound like breathing iPod playlists. I'll take hamfisted Discharge and Dropdead lyrics over generic babble about permafrost and google-fueled occult knowledge.

Listen to the track US AND THEM. I've probably blasted through that one a few hundred times.

Anyway, enjoy listening to this on your iPhone: Download

Hardcore tithing: Bad Skulls

VOX POP - JUST LIKE YOUR MOM

I guess Vox Pop has been referred to as a joke band; I'm not sure if that's really the case. It's pretty much 45 Grave shuffled to new instruments and a couple more people. They're best known as the band that got the Germs' drummer kicked out because they weren't serious enough to share members. Darby Crash sounds like a fucking prick. Prancing around in a dress was involved? I dunno. The mysteries are just as enticing as the pretty damn rock 'n roll punk on this single.

I don't think Dinah Cancer sings on either of these tracks, so keep your dick in your pants.

Steal this, nobody's making money off it anyway: Download