VOMITORY - Redemption (1999)

The Swedish have always been pretty handy at this death metal lark. If you asked someone to compile a list of favourite death metal bands then surely at least one would be Swedish. Its just the law of averages. Today's post, Vomitory, are Swedish and play death metal.

Redemption is the follow up to the primitive Swede-death brutality of  1996's debut, Raped In Their Own Blood. Catchy stuff, but Vomitory refined the brutality and blasted those teenage Venom and Slayer influences into shape with this album. Catchy, thrashing buzzsaw guitars, drums that shift between all out blasting and d-beat, some monstrous breakdowns and those depth of hell vocals combine with a pretty flawless production job courtesy of Henrik Larsson. From the opening blast of "The Voyage" to the crushing tempo shifting finish of "Partly Dead", there is no let up whatsoever. Swedish death wins again.

GET IT

Encyclopedia Metallum

BRUTALITY

Desekrator - Metal for Demons (1998)

If you have not heard of Desekrator, then you must! These guys rule! I mean, with an awesome band name like that they are guaranteed to rule, am I not correct?! Desekrator were formed as a side-project in Bergen, Norway in 1996. The group formed mainly for shits-and-giggles apparently, and consisted of none other than Ivar Bjornson and Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved fame, Infernus and Tormentor of Gorgoroth fame, and a few other local Bergen all-star bros. They released a demo and a single but only managed to put out one full length on Hammerheart Records.

So what do they sound like, you ask? I'm not really sure to be honest. This is no fancy metal, not by any means! Ha! I've heard gutter punks off Haight Street in SF produce better tunes than this... OK, well perhaps that is an overstatement. Honestly, they remind me of a black metal version of Cranium in a way, only with a more drunken and less focussed direction, sort of like that one band from that one city... What were they called again??

Hey, there are some similarities! Just sayin'...

Desekrator are listed as "thrash" but they're all over the place really. The closest I can describe them is a combination of Cranium and Gorgoroth, with elements similar to Plaag and Tankard perhaps... Actually, I have no way of describing Desekrator accurately. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I only listen to them when I'm drunk? Hmm...

Anyways, certain tracks are solid and well executed while others are intentionally chaotic if not sloppy (ironically akin to something I vaguely remember recording back when I was 15 years old). With song titles like "Texas Joe", "Take us to the Pub", and "Revenge of the Hellhammer" you can't expect anything more than pure ingenious decadence I suppose.

It's obvious that these guys were doing this for a few laughs. Nothing beyond the seriousness of their more established bands at least. In either case, this is an overlooked album with respect to the Norwegian scene.

It's nice to see some of black metal's elite take a break from their kvlt status and have a little fun. I'm not sure if they had intentions to continue this gig or if this was a one-off thing but if you dig your metal on the less serious-side of things, you're sure to dig this!

The best way to listen to this album is when you find yourself completely hammed and want to piss off your neighbor or roommate. If there was a soundtrack to hell this may very well be it, particularly when your roommate is hammed and cranking it at 2am (try falling asleep to it, it just doesn't work).
Point is, this is a great album to throw on to piss off your lady friend and impress your bros with.

This is metal for drunkards. This is metal for bros.

This is metal for demons.

Buy here and here.

Metallum / Last.FM

Karma To Burn - Almost Heathen

Words cannot begin to describe how much I uphold this album! It simply rocks! I recently found it on vinyl at a record store here in my hometown. I remember getting a copy of this album when I did my stint as a DJ at KHSU-FM and while it wasn't technically "metal", I could not stop listening to it! There's crushing, doomy riffage abound, no vokills, a classic rock vibe, and a steady and even paced drive to this recording that blends itself well with the band's overall approach. And for going against the norm even further, they have numbers in the place of song titles! What more could one ask for? Unfortunately, and probably due to the promo coming in a "slip-disc" case (i.e. cardboard sleeve, no jewel case), my CD version is scratched to shit thus I was stoked when I happened across it in vinyl form. I almost figured they were no longer together so I was surprised the band was listed as still 'active' on Metal-Archives and even more surprised that they released a new album titled, V in 2011.

Hailing from West Virginia, Karma To Burn show both their southern roots and their influences on Almost Heathen. They are an obscure band. Roadrunner initially picked them up, and they were forced to record their debut with a vocalist at the demand of the the record company. Almost Heathen was put out by Spitfire Records and this gave the band a bit more freedom to do what they wanted. They have since left Roadrunner and moved to greener pastures at Napalm Records. They are completely instrumental and it's a breath of fresh air to listen to something without vocals (I'm a vocalist, so bear with me here). This album rocks on so many levels! This is what "stoner metal" is all about! (In my opinion at least).

Fans of Corrosion Of Conformity, Down, High On Fire, Dragged By Horses, Machete, Pentagram, and the like will undoubtedly like this album.

So without further ado, I am simply going to allow you the chance to check it out for yourself. I'll even give you a download link (how's that for being nice?!) just don't be a a complete hippie and simply download it... Buy it man, dude! (Wait, I'm asking the IllCon readership to do what again? Ha! I must be high...)

Buy here

Download here

Metallum/Last.FM

Website/Myspace

Blue Öyster Cult - s/t (1972)

And you may be wondering to yourself why you should give this a chance. A reader of this fine blog, obviously worldly and well-schooled by their choice of internet diversion, probably thinks they know the score. But seriously, forget whatever associations you may have picked up over the years. Forget “Godzilla”. Forget the accrued distaste classic rock can leave in a young punk or metalhead in the middle of nowhere, when such things are deemed normative and your Morbid Angel or Dead Kennedys t-shirt is seen as an indicator of the worst sin imaginable: that of difference. And for fuck's sake, forget Christopher Walken and cowbells. Forget all these things and the genius of the first Blue Öyster Cult record can make its grandeur known to you (well, really any BÖC from the '70s is pretty killer, but the first one is heads and tails beyond any of 'em).

Consider:

• The use of umlauts in a band name – How many rock bands did this before BÖC? I can count on a closed fist. How many did it after? Couldn't count on all the fingers in the world.

• The band's name itself – taken from a poem by manager Sandy Pearlman referencing a group of aliens who secretly control Earth's affairs.

• The band's logo – taken from an alchemical symbol denoting lead (the heaviest of metals).

• The (unsubstantiated but hopefully true) rumor that, during the early '90s the band's popularity had plunged to the point where their show guarantee was $200. I've seen bands play living rooms and get paid more than that. Meaning, that at one point in time, it was conceivable that Blue Öyster Cult could have played your living room. They didn't. And probably wouldn't. But it's closer to the realm of possibility than with many comparable bands.

Alchemy? Aliens guiding mankind's destiny? Umlauts? I'm actually surprised this record hasn't gotten any coverage on Illcon before. Theirs is a weird shadow world, a world of Satanic biker gangs (“Transmaniacon MC”), of drug deals gone fatally wrong (“Then Came The Last Days Of May” - apparently based on the murder of three of singer Buck Dharma's friends [and let's consider that name for a minute – how many rock and roll frontmen had a name that was a play on words regarding the transcendence of several religions' concept of universal harmony and balance? It's fucking brilliant in a way that such showbiz rechristenings pretty much never are]), of the power of music as destroyer (“Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll”) and redeemer (“Redeemed”). And then along the way a few detours into bondage-inclined Canadian Mounties, astrological/alchemical musings, and what seems to be a paean to violent foot fetishism.

This.

It can be difficult to understand how to take this weird cross-pollination of ideas. It could be that they were simply trying to move past the initial era when rock and roll had to mean something (maaaaan), before the conceptual side of the music that had started so innocently bloated up into prog rock's worst excesses. But I like to think that there was a more unified vision at work, a manifestation of the dark turn that the era of peace and love had taken by 1972. Perhaps not exactly a literal representation (though much of the drug-related material seems to have had some basis in the tangible world) but an extrapolated vision of star-crossed losers, the ones who had cast their lot with the aspiring world-changers and had come up radically short. It's an almost Pynchonian narrative, a nebulous cluster of ideas in which connecting lines are not drawn for the listener, one that might seem like a forced, inchoate melange of weird-for-weird's-sake iconography if it weren't for the fact that it's treated with some degree of gravity.

Not this. Never this.

While BÖC was intended to be the American Black Sabbath, rarely did their debut album indulge in that kind of heaviness (“Cities On Flame...” is about as close as it comes). Instead, the band showcases a musical versatility that their later albums lack. There are a few musical detours, some jaunty, syncopated lounge jazz rhythmic devices, some lead guitar work that almost sounds like it could've come from a Buck Owens song – but the real heaviness is a sort of slow and eerie atmosphere that sounds like the sonic equivalent of a lava lamp and a black light, Sabbathian only in the sense that it's not far removed from “Planet Caravan.”

So let the good name of Blue Öyster Cult be clearly understood. Scour the dollar bins for copies of this record (but don't pay more than five dollars, if you do you're almost as foolish as somebody who doesn't own the album at all). Let rock and roll raze our cities and let the messages of lust and derangement guide our puny lives as our alien overlords had so obviously intended.

--

Blue Öyster Cult -s/t

Cranium - Speed Metal Slaughter (1998)

Man, has this week sucked. I mean really, really sucked! I feel like my head is about to explode. Yesterday I had been up since the break of dawn, literally. My goal: trying to get caught up on reading, assignments, and HW for all of my classes. Finals are approaching and I have been overwhelmingly busy. And it sucks 'cause all I really want to do is slack off, drink beer all day, and listen to metal. The previous day saw me do the same thing though - I was up from dawn to dusk. I purposely avoided the phone, closed the blinds, and basically gave the rest of the world the middle-finger. The shit we students do to earn a degree, shit!

So last night I was working on some silly assignment for one of my classes. Realizing I wasn't going to garner any more success in completing it and I had had it with numbers, equations, text books, and papers, I set aside the books and went out to grab some dinner and a couple brews.

Lately I have been getting into darker and heavier beers such as this, which I highly recommend! But at over $10 a bottle, that can make a pretty significant dent into the pocket book! So, rather than opening the last bottle I had and digging into the "stash" I have hidden from my roommate, I decided to go to the store up the street. After a quick, painless walk to a pizza joint around the corner, I proceeded to the store for brew. Since I already had eaten, I was mainly on a mission to simply get beer. While this so-called "marketplace" has had a few new beers in stock recently, I wanted something different from the norm... Something I hadn't had in a while. I looked... and looked... and looked. But nothing appealed to me. They don't have that large of a selection but as mentioned, they get some new stuff in on occasion. When I was about to say "fuck it" and simply grab what I usually go for, I saw this was hiding from view! As was this! Saweeeeeet! Knowing fair well I still had shit-ton of stuff to do the next day I only picked up a couple bottles, one of each. While I have had significantly better brew from Germany, for the price ($3-4 a bottle) you really can't complain. Both beers are great for when you simply want something that tastes unique but isn't overpowering either.

Now Optimator is not that high in alcohol and neither is Ayinger but if consumed on an empty stomach, one can get a fairly rip-roaring buzz. Optimator tends to be dark-amber in color, with medium carbonation for a slight head that is generally off-white in color; it is a big malty brew that possesses a medium body that has hints of caramel, dark fruits (prunes, figs, raisins), and coffee in its nose and finish. Ayinger's Oktober Fest-Marzen tends to be copper in color, with a slight creamy, white head that settles quickly; it is a medium, light bodied beer that has the aroma and taste of sweet caramel malts that lead to a light, syrupy yet crisp aftertaste. Both beers have the consistency of a well-crafted lager and are only, very slightly hoppy. Needless to say both are, or rather, were quite refreshing!

Well, those two beers obviously didn't last long! Apparently I got such a rip-roaring buzz that I never got back to studying and quickly found myself listening to some tunes. I began with some Teutonic metal, which I thought was appropriate for the occasion. German beer goes really well with German metal, right? Subsequently this evolved into listening to some of this as well as this. At this point, I was more than just two beers deep as I got into my "stash" and with my iTunes library on random when I happened across this! Fuck yeah!! CRANIUM!!! I almost forgot I had this! Even though they're not German in origin, they might as well have been. For the next hour, I listened to most of Cranium's back-catalog and as a result, my beer "stash" has diminished in volume (funny, I'm not hungover today).

So what about this band called 'Cranium', you ask? Cranium hails from Sweden and was more or less a side-project of Dawn. Take the best of Destruction circa 1988 (i.e. Release From Agony) throw in a little Exciter, add some Kreator to the mix, and maybe throw in the tongue-in-cheek humor of Tankard and you have one of the best thrash bands to have surfaced during the retro-thrash resurgence of the late 1990s. Actually according to Metal-Archives the band "formed in 1985 by brothers Philip and Gustaf von Segebaden. The band later changed their name to Legion and reformed in 1996 as Cranium." They originally had been on the now defunct Necropolis Records, thus much of their material is now out of print and hard to find - at least, I haven't had any luck in finding it. They are relentless in their approach, are obscenely funny, and shred to boot! I could go further into their sound, or perhaps even provide further background, but I'll just let you listen for yourself...

Plus with an awesome band name like 'Cranium', who wouldn't want to check them out?!

So go out to the nearest local store (preferably one that specializes in stocking the aforementioned imported beer), get yourself a couple brewskies, and crank your Cranium!! Oh yeah, and quit being a poseur!

Prepared to get slaughtered!

Metalum/Last.FM


...fuck, my head hurts...

G.I.S.M. - M.A.N. (Military Affairs Neurotic) (1987)

Punk has a long history of disparaging artists who forsake the aesthetic upon which they initially based their sound, to the extent that one of the most grievous sins a punk band can commit is to “go metal.” On one hand, this is a fairly ludicrous condemnation, as punk and metal have informed each other since the start, whether that was Lemmy playing in the Damned (or touring with Amebix), Anthrax covering Discharge, or any of the cross-genre mutations that have sprung up when less restricted musicians have seen fit to break down the oppressive and artificial boundaries established by the more tight-assed in their midst. On the other hand, while examples of punk bands who have turned towards more metallic tendencies are legion, examples of bands who have done it well are few. This was the sort of jumping ship that produced SSD's How We Rock, Discharge's Grave New World, and everything Corrosion of Conformity did after 1986 (amongst many others). This, however, isn't to say that no bands could make the transition, and it would take one of the most abrasive and extreme to do it well.

Tokyo's G.I.S.M were among the first punk bands to pop up in Japan, having started in 1980. Their music showed some metallic tendencies from the start, but the performances were chaotic and the recording quality of early releases leaned towards a low enough fidelity that most specific components of their sound were difficult to discern. Early releases like Detestation possessed a ramshackle energy that manages to be menacing in the way that many such bands aspire to and few achieve (aided in no small part by the violent propensities of singer Sakevi Yokohama. Then there's the broken English of songs like “Endless Blockades For The Pussyfooter” and “(Tere Their) Syphilitic Vaginas To Pieces” [sic] – titles that may not have made much sense on a conscious level, but on a visceral level are difficult to top.

The band's follow-up, 1987's M.A.N. (Military Affairs Neurotic) – the band loved their acronyms, with even their name variously representing Guerrilla Incendiary Sabotage Mutineers, God In The Schizophrenic Mind, Gnostic Idiosyncrasy Sonic Militant, and other monikers that may or may not make sense – was not as well-received. The songs were slower with more emphasis on melody, the production values somewhat cleaner, the approach more varied. Even die-hard G.I.S.M fans often have a hard time with M.A.N as it is often seen as work that lacks the abrasive gut punch of Detestation, but listening to the album clear of preconceptions reveals that these judgments are unduly harsh – while it may not have been the manic whirlwind of misanthropy and distortion that characterized its predecessor, it's actually a prescient metal album characterized by a marriage of guitar harmonies and shrieked vocals that would resonate throughout the metal world in the decades to come.

It's easy to try boiling M.A.N down to a formula – Iron Maiden guitars, vocals not far removed from the early Scandinavian black metal bands starting to make noise half a world away, and galloping drums all captured in the sort of tinny, reverb-heavy production preferred by discerning low-budget metal bands of the day. And that's a large chunk of what was going on with the album, but it's not quite the apt summation it might at first seem. What is most easily ignored is that M.A.N was imbued with a songwriting sense that many such bands fail to grasp. The songs weren't just a string of riffs, they were compositions that ebbed and flowed under their propulsive thrust. It's an attention to structure that's imbued in the album as a whole as well, not simply the individual songs. The record builds and releases tension, with the occasional eerie interlude that sounds not far removed from the creepier moments of Whitehouse or Throbbing Gristle. It was an embrace of structure and melody as a means of pushing an extreme agenda rather than as a step down the road to selling out and it was one that, while not always appreciated by their fans, was a testament to the band's creative power.

There's little question that their earliest work inspired legions of crustier hardcore bands but it's difficult to say what influence the band's later work had on metal bands that ended up playing music with similar characteristics. Whether G.I.S.M was aware of these bands is a matter of debate, but the fact that drummer Ironfist Tatsushima has played in traditional black metal band SSORC suggests that, at some point at least, there were some dots connected. Conversely, it's not hard to hear echoes of M.A.N in early Dissection or At The Gates, though such bands may or may not have been aware of G.I.S.M's work and definitely lacked their versatility, experimental tendencies, and sonic menace. Ultimately, G.I.S.M was always a cult band, one shrouded in mystery and notoriety, the type spoken of in reverent terms out of equal parts love and fear. Their influence might rear its head from time to time in unexpected places, but they constantly challenged both their detractors and supporters, making some killer records in the process.

--

G.I.S.M. - M.A.N. (Military Affairs Neurotic)

SCROTUM GRINDER - THE GREATEST SONIC ABOMINATION EVER (2001)

THE FIRST WORD IN ALL OF YOUR GROUND SCROTUM NEEDS.





19 songs in just under 24 minutes. The first and only "full-length" from this semi-short-lived Tampa, Florida hardcore/grindcore quartet. Prepare your anus.



Download HERE

Purchase HERE



Last.FM

Naming Your Girl Band: 1980's Edition

It’s the 80’s and let’s face it, thanks to the groundbreaking stateswomanship of First Lady Nancy Reagan, you chicks are going places you’ve never gone before. But if you're going to do all the stuff that dudes do, you had better be careful. Not all that long ago a chick playing music might have been punished by drowning in the Tigris, but we can't do that anymore so I’m going to take this opportunity to give you a little advice in coming up with a good name for your own girl band. As you probably didn't know, the name of a band is almost more important than what you actually play. You could probably come up with a totally rad band name and totally suck, but people would still come to your shows. The reason is that words are associated with images and ideas in people’s heads, they can generate all sorts of meaning, both good and bad whether or not it is explicitly there in the arrangement of letters. That’s why it’s crucially important to be strategic with your girl band name choices.

Cherry Bomb from 1986's Howard the Duck

Diaper Rash from 1984's Hardbodies

First of all, since you’re treading on territory that has until recently totally been the sacrosanct turf of dudes, be careful not to point this out. That’s totally like the fox advertising to the farmer that he’s all up in the chicken coop, it’s threatening and likely to backfire. Go for something that reassures the male need for dominance and control, a word that suggests vulnerability and a need to be taken care of. Innocence and weakness in women totally makes dudes feel like they’re strong and in control, like their power isn’t being threatened. Diaper Rash’s name is totally loaded with subtle meaning and is a primo example of excellent girl band nameage. The word “diaper” brings up both infantile helplessness AND of course babies, both of which reassure men that this girl band is not challenging established gender roles, even though they rock.

Vicious Lips from the 1988 film of the same name.

Second, and closely related to the first point about innocence is sex. Dudes are going to be thinking about boning you whether you like it or not, that’s what dudes do, so it’s important to use this to your advantage. Advertising your sexuality is a good way to get attention, using words that suggest it without explicitly saying it is a lot like wearing a lexical halter-top. Vicious Lips is a rad example of this principle because the word “lips” brings up lots of wet and warm thoughts that dudes totally dig. Cherry Bomb is another excellent girl band name because “cherry” suggests not only sex but, as above, innocence and inexperience which goes a long way toward reassuring a dude that he will remain dominant. When sex and power are firmly in their grasp, dudes will rock out to your girl band too.

If you look closely you can see dudes rocking out to girl band Diaper Rash (played by an early incarnation of Vixen)

Totally vicious' and yet, nonthreatening.

Now that you’ve gotten all of this down, I want to bring up what is perhaps most important point of all. You may have noticed that I only addressed half of each of the example girl band names above. The other half of those names are just as important in ensuring the success of each of these girl bands, as it will in yours. After cooking up all these ideas in dudes heads we still have to remember that even though they like the sex and innocence, you’re still usurping their place on the stage. Your girl band is, if not literally, figuratively in competition with their regular band. Your lack of a cock is subconsciously threatening to men, it reminds them that theirs could get cut off. It’s important to remind dudes that you’re still playing the same game, you’re not changing the rules or anything, that your “power” is not really a threat to theirs. This unspoken threat of emasculation can be easily countered by the use of man imagery and wordery. Thus “rash”, “vicious” and “bomb” are like dude symbols; violence, power and the military remind us that everything is OK. They say to people, without actually saying anything of course, “the status quo will remain unchallenged chicks and dudes in the audience!” Think about it, if your band's name was Vicious Rash Bomb, you would probably be dudes in a regular band. Conversely if you were called Cherry Diaper Lips, no dudes would ever come to your girl band’s shows. A careful combination of both sex and reassurance is the best way to make it as a chick in this topsy turvy business we dudes call music.

BORN AGAINST - THE REBEL SOUND OF SHIT AND FAILURE (1995)

Plenty of Illogical lip-service has been bestowed upon the mighty Born Against in the past (see THIS and THIS), but I must once again stress the importance this band has held in my own personal musical development, the enduring enjoyment I derive from their music, and the degree to which they have been unjustly ignored by the "music cogniscenti" (probably a good thing, to be quite frank). Born Against were, quite simply, purveyors of excellent music, purposefully stupid and sloppy at times, but always possessing an underlying vibe of humor and intelligence, a sense of irony and angst through all the in-jokes and buffoonery (see: "Lillian").
There is no higher recommendation for a band (in my mind, at least) than saying it sprang from the same creative force that also spawned Men's Recovery Project, but it can also be a misleading statement, as the two sound nothing alike. But whatever. Either you know and love Born Against already or you've slept on one of the finest hardcore bands of all time, period. If you are part of the latter group, Shit And Failure is a great place to start--a semi-comprehensive collection of B.A. tracks from compilations, splits, and radio appearances that will make you laugh, think, and shit your pants simultaneously.

Download HERE
Purchase HERE
The Loom of Ruin

BA/Last.FM

KILLER FOX - ORGASM OF DEATH (1990)

Oh man, do I have a treat for you guys today.
Killer Fox (also known as Killer Foxx) are an enigma trapped within an anomaly enshrouded within a vortex of mystery--a mindfuckingly awful yet compellingly listenable experimental/techno/death metal trainwreck replete with Vocoded narration, frenzied screaming, drum machines, extended acoustic guitar passages, and a confusing medieval (above)-meets-Motley Crue (below) visual aesthetic. Quite simply, Killer Fox defy any sort of tidy categorization, existing in the esoteric realm of Outsider Metal, where they rule as undisputed Kings.
Although it's exceedingly difficult to extract any sort of coherent storyline from the Killer Fox continuum, it does appear that they released an impossible-to-find debut album entitled Going Under (also known by the titles All You Can Eat and The Night) in 1986, at which point half of the band (Vivian Fox and KK Fox) promptly died in a car accident, leaving the surviving members (guitarist Mick Stryker and drummer John Deacon) to create the absolutely baffling Orgasm of Death in 1990 before evaporating into complete obscurity.
Attempting to quantify exactly how much of this album is a joke and how much is quote unquote serious is a futile endeavor, as just about anyone could discern after 30 seconds of listening. There is simply no way to put adjectives to the Killer Fox experience, although one reviewer described it as "... nonsensical, never-ending songs, 'vocals' like a ranting old hag and weird and totally unmotivated sound effects. Like if THE RESIDENTS had made a Sci-fi concept Metal album." YES. The Residents meet... Old Lady Drivers? Fuck. I don't know.
Orgasm of Death was released by the mysterious and obscure Metal Enterprises label out of Germany, who also boasted (?) a "White Power Oi-Metal" band fronted by a black dude (FUCKER), history's only "Grind-sploitation" band (EXREME NAPALM TERROR--see yesterday's non-mixtape), and the terrible Steely Dan+reggae+German thrash abomination GODZILLA. I promise to explore the Metal Enterprises back catalog in greater detail very soon.
Meanwhile, let Killer Fox fuck you in your ear-pussy.

Download HERE

Metallum/Last.FM

Check out a succinct yet very thorough history of the Metal Enterprises Chamber of Horrors via The Corroseum HERE.

SLUGATHOR - UNLEASHING THE SLUGATHRON (2003)

It is no secret that Finland has a certain inimitable talent for crunchy, soul-nourishing OSDM. I mean, look at the evidence: Demigod. Demilich. Excrement. Phlegethon. Abhorrence. Adramelech. Convulse. Necropsy. Purtenance. Lubricant.

I could go on and on and on, but I think you get the picture.
Slugathor hails from a long tradition of excellence and brutality, and Finland is the reason. No big surprises here, but ONE question still looms:

SLUGATHOR
(left)

VS.

KRABATHOR
(right)

WHO WILL PREVAIL!?!?!

Download HERE
Purchase HERE

Metal-est bass ever?

Metallum/Last.FM

PREGNANCY TEST

I'm not even sure where to start when discussing the underground cultural hip-hop/cock rock/punk/techno phenomenon known as I Hate You When You're Pregnant. Comprised of only one member (6'5" Flagstaff, AZ resident Phil Buckman), IHYWYP was part performance art, part abstract pop-culture-referencing postmodern poetry, part G.G. Allin, part motivational speaker, part Rock God, and part rap messiah. I've had a slim cross-section of Buckman's music in my iTunes library for years (courtesy of former Flagstaff resident Erik Del Tigre), but I recently unearthed his entire discography and felt the need to share it immediately. Many of you will recognize the genius herein and become instantly addicted. Many of you will dismiss it as hipster garbage and fail altogether. Such is the polarizing nature of I Hate You When You're Pregnant.
Buckman began his journey in 2002, while roadie-ing for friends of the blog Stab City Slitwrists (above left). As the story goes, Stab City found themselves in need of an opening act one night in Portland, and coaxed Phil into going onstage and making an ass out of himself in a Speedo. The rest, as they say, is history.

Lyrically, I can't think of a single artist that could stand up to IHYWYP when it comes to pure abstract magic. According to Alex at Hotdogstorm.com (where I finally tracked down these 5 demos): "IHYWYP WAS A CULTURAL REVOLUTION. IN MY OPINION PHIL BUCKMAN IS THE MOST IMPORTANT SINGER/SONG WRITER OF OUR GENERATION. SUCK AN EGG IF YOU FEEL DIFFERENTLY." I tend to agree, but it isn't just the words that set IHYWYP apart from the outsider/underground/weirdo art pack. Phil's screaming delivery, his physical intensity, and even his weird minimalist techno beats (composed entirely on a Zoom RhythmTrak 234, which was also his only stage accompaniment) push the entire package from "mere curiosity" into the realm of "pure brilliance", and while I can't guarantee universal appreciation of his aethetic (Huge Man In Tiny Underwear has yet to catch on with the metal crowd), I defy you to ignore the raw emotion present in songs like "Desiree", "The Furr's Is Gone", "Peter Frampton Must Die", or "There Is Stuff In This World".
But my words are superfluous. I recommend beginning with the second demo (my initial jumping off point with this "band") and moving outward from there, giving yourself time to absorb each release separately. Unfortunately, Phil "broke up with himself" and disbanded IHYWYP around 2005, but I've seen footage of him performaning from as recently as 2010, so not all hope is lost. This guy is an insane vortex of creativity, a gaping abyss brimming over with the exuberance of pure fucking ROCK. Cultural revolution indeed.

"... If 911 was 1-800/
and 1-800 was a one-armed man/
and if a one-armed man was Heinz 57/
THAT'S EMERGENCY KETCHUP!!!"


FIRST DEMO (circa 2002)

(couldn't find the actual cover art)
HERE


SECOND DEMO (circa 2002-'03)

(couldn't find the actual cover art for this one either)
HERE


THIRD DEMO (circa 2003-'04)

HERE


FOURTH DEMO (2004)

HERE


FIFTH DEMO (2005)

HERE

"Sleeveless" (second demo):



"Hackeysack!" (fifth demo, live 2005):



IHYWYP tribute page/Last.FM/Myspace/lyrics/etc...