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

BURNING IMAGE - 1983-1987

Burning Image are best described as a deathrock band today; at the time, they weren't exactly of the same "release the bats!" fake-blood style as many of the proto-goth punk bands were. There are no Monster Mash choruses. There isn't a single moment that conjures up images of Bela Lugosi sneaking around a dance club.

There's a fulminating anger bursting through the seams on every track. The sound is more connected to hardcore than anything, yet it's mostly moody and mid-tempo. It's misanthropy without halloween imagery, or anything resembling the nature worship similar lyrics are treated with in other genres. There is no solution given for the issues laid bare. Burning Image gives you the truth of man and doesn't tell you what to do with it. People are lying to you, they're immovable, they're worthless, walking drones and you can't do a thing about it.

I'm going to compare this with some other bands I really love to get to the point: Glen Danzig at his best still had his dick too far up his own ass to say anything on this level with Samhain. 45 Grave were too busy having fun in some imaginary splatterhouse. Burning Image give you a version of deathrock that lives up to the promise of a strain of punk that meditates on misery.

These are the classics, with some new tracks at the end (you'll hear the difference; they're just as good as the old material). Keep sharp objects out of reach while listening.

The inevitable result of internet music culture: Download

Support Burning Image (they're active and just as good): Alternative Tentacles