Merzbow - Tauromachine

I really like this release of Merzbow. It's raw and noisy and a very good listen when I'm in depressed. Yeah.
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Yellow #5 - Demon Crossing

Once again, a band with an impressive list of members: Dave Catching, Brant Bjork and Molly McGuire. Now, Molly McGuire is one interesting person. Unlike Smolken, she displays a wide variety of genres. She played bass in Nick Olliveri's insane punk extravaganza Mondo Generator. She formed The Spores, a band so pop, that I'm ashamed to listen to it. And here's Yellow #5's only album, Demon Crossing. And wow.
I mean, WOW. Her voice is great! And as a songwriter, she is equally good. This, with the amazing musicianship of Catching, Bjork and McGuire herself results in one of the best pop-rock records I've heard recently. Interesting and varied and CATCHY AS HELL. One of the album's highlight, "ICFCFBM", sports a chorus which hooked me on instantly. There's the punkish "Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee", the mellow "Screaming Mimi"... Etc etc etc.
I love this album.
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Wolfmangler - My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Wolves

Another Wolfmangler release (the other). Four songs this time, very similar, with drones and stuff, maybe more distorted. OKKKAY, I admit, it's the same shit. The same fuckin dronefolk shit. But it's great. Of course, it sucks when an artist sticks to an algorithm and releases a shitload of identical albums... Smolken (the guy behind the music) belongs to this kind, unfortunately. Still... His stuff (Wolfmangler, Dead Raven Choir) is a great listen.
I didn't get a bunch of albums released under his projects for nothing.
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Oh, vote in the poll.

earthlings? - earthlings?

When I found this album, I felt like the luckiest man on Earth. And not only on Earth. In the whole Universe! And more!! Yeah!! Space is no limit!
Actually, I fell in love with this space/desert rock supergroup without hearing a single track. The list of contributors was enough for me, especially back in that time (a year ago I was gay for the Palm Desert Scene. I still am, actually). This s/t album by the earthlings? is great!! Very psychedelic, lots of interesting beeps and spacey sound layers over the tiight, hypnotic drumming... Yeah. Okay, I admit, sometimes they go too far: I mean, every single track has those wooowooooo spaceship!! sound effects BUT WHATEVER!! I love wooowooo spaceship!! sound effects.
I hope there's intelligent life out there. And I hope it's portayed well by the earthlings?.
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KHLYST - Chaos is my Name

Guitar drone/ambient (James Plotkin, ex-Khanate) with female death growls (Runhild Gammelsaeter, ex-Thorr's Hammer). Wow. This is truly disturbing stuff. Thorr's Hammer is one of the groups I simply can't listen to... The vocals are too much for me. Strange, in this format (without doom metal), it's more interesting and, uhm, pleasent? No that's not the right word. Whatever. KHLYST's Chaos is my Name is good. Especially tracks "I", "III" and "VII". Sadly, this is the only release.
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Wolfmangler - Dwelling In A Dead Raven For The Glory Of Crucified Wolves

Chello-strangling* mind-twisting music. Acoustic sludge? With elements of black metal? Hell yeah, I *love* making up labels for bands. Wolfmangler's great. Very atmospheric. And droney/sludgey/doomy. Without stepping on the distortion pedals. Honestly, I don't understand the presence of 6 tracks on Dwelling in a Dead Raven etc. Sounds like one big song for me. A big, depressing, 50-minute eulogy (eulogy of humanity and everything. You know the drill)
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*My bad, there's no chello in it. Just a bunch of chello-sounding instruments.

Soulsavers - It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land

Mark Lanegan is a god? Yes? YES.
This album is really one of the best from 2007. Nice atmosphere, good music and Lanegan's voice. Gospel-electronica-rock. Yeah. It's such a pity I missed their live set on Summercase festival...
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Godflesh - Us and Them

Another good album. 5 minute long Jesu tracks with more drums, basically. "I, Me, Mine" is one of my favourite songs right now... Too tired to write a normal description, so I'll just stick to the adjective+noun stuff: industrial metal, cool drum patterns, aggressive vocals. Download, enjoy.
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Church of Misery - The Second Coming

This is what you get after some delay: a kick-ass album by Japanese band Church of Misery. The Second Coming, which is waaaay superior to their first release imho, contains seven fuzzy, raw and heavy-as-hell songs about serial killers. Yeah. Mass murderers, notorious rapists and co. are the Church of Misery guys' obsession. As in every stoner/doom outfit, there's a healthy amount of Black Sabbath, but in a faster and dirtier way.
Damn, what's up with Japanese bands and stoner/doom metal? Seems like the southern gods of America moved to the east. Boris, Solar Anus, Church of Misery - all great stuff and as doom as it gets.
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