Built to Spill - Perfect from Now on

Genre(s) - Bit grungy alternative rock
Origin - United States of America
Year of release - 1997
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 48.88 MB

This is not a band I know and love since ages, or connect with on a spiritual level, or any of that shit. But at the best moments the singer sounds like he has just been beaten to a pulp in a dead-end alley, ruptured a few organs, can't get back on his feet, and is crying miserably out for help to the rain-soaked streets, but nobody hears him, and even if they do they'd avert their eyes and hurry on anyway, not so much because of the rain or because they got stuff to do but because it's just some dude in an alley, right, what business is that of mine and probably the next fellow will help him. And there's a cello too. I like it.

1. Randy described eternity
2. I would hurt a fly
3. Stop the show
4. Made up dreams
5. Velvet waltz
6. Out of site
7. Kicked it in the sun
8. Untrustable part 2 (about someone else)
   

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Iron Fire - Revenge

Genre(s) - Power metal
Origin - Denmark, actually
Year of release - 2006
Bitrate - 96 kbps (might warrant repost)
Size - 44.27 MB

Look at that name, that front cover, those track titles. You'd think these chaps play power metal or something. It doesn't stop there, either. The riffs, the choruses, the voice, the lyrics... Iron Fire do it by the book and they could recite it by heart. There's nothing wrong with a little bit of traditionalism if it's done well, and I's sharing it, aren't I? Trust me. They make use of all the clichés with skill and flair. Tracks like Wings of Rage, Fate of Fire, and Stand as King are simply anthemic, leaving you no choice but to shout along, bang your head and/or throw the horns. There's no more effective way of summarising Iron Fire's music (and not just this album, mind you) than to state that it's simply a whole lot of fun to listen to. And that, dear friends, is what power metal is for. Please enjoy; I would be sad if you didn't.

1. Wings of rage
2. Ironhead
3. Metal messiah
4. Whirling of doom
5. Savage prophecy
6. Fate of fire
7. Stand as king
8. Brotherhood of the brave
9. Alone in the dark
10. Mindmachine
11. Icecold arion
12. Break the spell
    

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Two black metal splits

The idea behind uploading these splits was to post them together to showcase four decent Québécois black metal bands (except Monarque who are more than just decent) by way of one or two songs each. They'd make a perfect pair: they're even from the same year. Only then I realised Mortualia is actually Finnish. So yeah. Here's three decent Québécois bands and a Finnish one. Good enough, right?

Angstorm & Aurore - Haine et Tragédie

Genre(s) - Black metal
Origin - Québéc
Year of release - 2008
Bitrate - 96 kbps (hey, it's black metal; sound quality should not be a concern)
Size - 9.91 MB

1. Angstorm - Misein
2. Angstorm - Hais moi
3. Aurore - Dans le sang et le fer brulant

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Monarque & Mortualia - Hymnes Funeraires des Rois

Genre(s) - Black metal
Origin - Québéc/Finland
Year of release - 2008
Bitrate - 160 kbps
Size - 14.9 MB

1. Monarque - Aux confins de ses abîmes
2. Mortualia - Death serenity
   

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The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Genre(s) - Gothic rock
Origin - United Kingdom
Year of release - 1987
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 54.81 MB

This Corrosion. The reason this album is up is This Corrosion. I recommend First and Last and Always to everybody. Floodland ain't got a shit on that one. Except for one. One shit. And that shit is This Corrosion. Sure, Dominion is good, but it's coupled to the rather bland Mother Russia. Everybody knows Socialism in one country can't be done. Stalin talking out of his ass again. Most people only figured that out in 1989, but not me. Lucretia is just fine too. But is it enough to save the album? Tis not. Then what is? I think you already know. That's right, This Corrosion is. And it does more. It makes this album cool. That's right, this album is fucking awesome, because of... can you fill in the blanks? Of course, if 1959 (WTF! worst year I ever lived through) had been replaced by Temple of Love I'd have had a roaring orgasm right now. We'll have to make do with This Corrosion, already making me leak precum by the milliliter. Did you know it's like, ten minutes long? That's awesome. That's fucking awesome. I bet you're going to download the album now. Awesome.

Q: what makes Andrew Eldritch so awesome?
A: wearing sunglasses at night, son. Wearing sunglasses at night.

1. Dominion/Mother Russia
2. Flood I
3. Lucretia, my reflection
4. 1959
5. HEY NOW HEY NOW NOW BRING THIS CORROSION TO ME
   
6. Flood II
7. Driven like the snow
8. Never land
9. Torch
10. Colours

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Les Discrets - Les Discrets

Band/artist - Les Discrets
Genre(s) - Post-rock, shoegaze
Origin - France
Album - Les Discrets EP
Year of release - Pas du tout!

"At this time, no release from Les Discrets has been released. A so-called EP seems to have been released in 2007, but the musician himself even doesn't know it! This "EP" you can download on web blogs, portals, p2p clients is a fake, a poor rip of Myspace draft songs that were at time on that page.
The so-called cover is actually a shot from my animated short film that i used as Myspace main picture. Nothing to do with a cover!!
The first release of Les Discrets will be an album that will be recorded from the 1st to 19th June in Drudenhaus Studio in France, and it will be released via Prophecy Productions in Autumn 2009."
- Fursy Teyssier

[This is a repost. As recent, thorough investigation points out (it was on the project's Myspace page), this is not actually an EP but a collection of tracks downloadable from Myspace, making this a very unofficial "release". I personally was just too glad to find this on Soulseek, and subsequently too eager to hear and share this with you to be critical. To be honest, it was me who took the then-official Les Discrets myspace image as a replacing album cover, and since I was the first to publish the non-EP, it kind of got spread around the instawebs as an official cover. I'm not going to take down the post at this news - I hope it will lead a lot of people to consider buying the album when it comes. There's reason to hope so; at the moment, this is the single most often downloaded file in the history of this blog.]

Les Discrets is the platform from which the multi-talented Fursy Teyssier whom you may also know from his contributions to Alcest and Amesoeurs, releases his music, art and animations. The musical side of this project so far consists of just this EP but I've heard a full-length is in the making. Alcest definitely shines through in the music's mood, but this is more minimalist in the softer parts, whereas the louder parts are more typically post-rock in their building up and releasing of audial tension. In fact, Les Discrets is very similar to The American Dollar, not a coincidence because Fursy has cooperated with said band on a number of levels. In all it's quite a beautiful EP, though mostly on the force of the first two tracks. The last three are a bit understated, and I have the feeling Fursy can do even better than this. I consider this a most pleasant appetizer for the coming main course.

You should also check his site where you can watch his wonderful animated short called Tir Nan Og (where have we heard that title before?), an allegory on dying with music from The American Dollar.

1. Corbeaux automne ciel gris
2. Les vieux ne meurent pas
3. Pensées sous les nuages
4. Song for mountains
5. Urban disease (unfinished)
   

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Helrunar - Baldr ok Iss

Genre(s) - Black metal
Origin - Germany
Year of release - 2007
Bitrate - 256/320 kbps
Size - 81.57 MB

Hardly a month ever goes by here without at least one album of darkly shining German black metal. Our neighbours in the east must have some secret ingredient in their beer or something. Here's another powerhaus from Nordrhein-Westfalen, faithfuly following the pattern I love so much since I got to know Lunar Aurora. An untakable wall of sound owing both to dense and capable instrumentation and a delightfully heavy production, and a focus on an immersive atmosphere that takes an almost totalitarian hold on the brains through a good pair of headphones. Helrunar sometimes tend to be labelled under the term melodic black metal, but in terms of the extreme, all-encompassing listening experience and sheer force these men display, those labellers are selling a release like Baldr ok Iss tragically short.

1. Dickichtgott
2. Loka lögsaga
3. Schwarzer Frost
4. Baldr
5. Íss
6. Winter
7. Glámr
8. Hunta und Boga
9. Til jarðar
10. Baldrs Draumar
    

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Lycia - The Ghosts of Lycia

No cover art; so here's Mike & Tara with a rake and some maize

Genre(s) - Ethereal/shoegaze/dark ambient
Origin - Arizona, USA
Year of release - Never officially released
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 26.42 MB

Some very early material by that darkest of darkwave bands, Lycia. There's not a lot of information on this "release" but apparently it's a collection of very early demo tracks that were released unofficially... somehow and years later. I can't even recall how it ended up on my computer though I remember, back when I was still shuttling back and forth between uni and my parents' place, dozing off to this in the train regularly, watching the winter scenery drift by as the sun came up. It'll work for you too if you let it. It may be distressing music but it's unobtrusive enough to just fuzz out your brain into a blissful, druggy half-sleep. Of course it's only a short spell of music and its age is abundantly clear - it's more frail and unfocused than any of their official releases (among which, for instance, this one), but Lycia fans absolutely need to hear this. And for the rest it may not seem like the best introduction to the band, but it sure did it for me.

1. From foam (original version)
2. Torment
3. In the wake of nothing
4. This sacred place
5. Dismissal
6. The beginning of the end
7. Decline
8. Blinding white fire
   

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The Redskins - Live 1985

Genre(s) - Soul/punk
Origin - York, United Kingdom
Year of release - 1995
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 60.68 MB

This is a band I've been obsessing about and infecting others with for a few months. The name will tell you why. This is a different kind of "redskins" than Johnny Cash sang about: they're skins, and they're red! Actively involved with the SWP* they protested through benefit concerts etc. South Africa's apartheid regime, Thatcher as well as the concessionist Labour line, and supported the miners' strike. To top it all off they play some fine, fine music that'll do well this time of the year. No angry oi! from these blokes, but bouncy soul-punk that can pick you up when you're down any old time and you could even use it to throw a party with. Air-cushion drums propel the sultry guitars, that have only a limited role when the brass section is tearing it up with their contageous melodies. The other centerpiece is the soulful voice of Chris Dean, burning with passion and perfect for delivering his heartfelt revolutionary lyrics. For those who are not yet convinced by this description or the words Socialist Skinhead Soulpunk, I embedded the official videoclip for Kick over the Statues.

*) I am with their Dutch (little-)sister organisation so some advertisement would be in order.

1. Lean on me
2. Reds strike the blues
3. Hold on
4. Unionise
5. Kick over the statues
6. Ninety-nine and a half won't do
7. Take no heroes
8. Let's make it work
9. Keep on keepin' on
10. It can be done
11. Turnin' loose
12. Plateful of hateful
13. Bring it down
14. Don't talk to me about the weather
15. The power is yours
    

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Kataxu - Hunger of Elements

Genre(s) - Black metal
Origin - Poland
Year of release - 2005
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 43.22 MB

I like Emperor, I really do. But sometimes they could be a little bit exhausting to listen to. For the people who agree with me on this, as well as the people who don't, I present Kataxu's latest full-length, Hunger of Elements [sic]. You'll probably recognise those 1994-stylee synth effects immediately, and the mysticism behind Emperor's first two albums is copied here perfectly. Copied perfectly, get it, as in it may be perfect but it's still just a copy. It's still dense, too, but it doesn't jump from idea to idea and it's altogether a bit more comprehensible for a sluggish mind like my own. And I realise that that's a Wolfsangel and that I'm again posting a nazi band - no conspicuous lyrics though - but it could have been worse, they could have been christian-democrats. So, anyone up for a flawless In the Nightside Eclipse clone?

1. In my dungeon!
2. In arms of the astral world
3. Below the tree of life
4. Night sky
5. The manifesto of the unity
6. The breath of Atlantis
   

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Metallica - Symphony & Metallica

Genre(s) - Heavy metal, hard rock
Origin - SF/LA, USA
Year of release - 1999
Bitrate - 128 kbps

Free Metallica albums! Get your free Metallica albums here! Download them illegally! Hello little girl. Do you want a free Metallica album? How about this one. It's made up of two cd's, so you'll get twice as much music for your zero dollars. And it's live, which is almost always way, way better. There's an orchestra in there, too, which really stuffs tracks such as For Whom the Bell Tolls, Wherever I may Roam, Outlaw Torn and The Call of Ktulu with extra luxurious padding for the explicit enjoyment of the sophisticated layman. You like the whole symphonic merger or you don't, of course, but in these and more songs, there are moments that it really adds to the dramatics, and it seems quite clear they have included those songs in their setlist which mix with the violins best. My parents gave me this album once after a very good report card ten years ago and I've practically grown up with Metallica's symphonicised songs, so to me this is just one big orgy of nostalgia. So get your free Metallica album here and remember kids, paying for stuff is for losers! And if you really have to, save your money for a band that isn't already rich.

Disc 1 (60.58 MB) - Load it down

1. The ecstasy of gold (Ennio Morricone)
   
2. The call of Ktulu
3. Master of puppets
4. Of wolf and man
5. The thing that should not be
6. Fuel
7. The memory remains
8. No leaf clover
9. Hero of the day
10. Devil's dance
11. Bleeding me

Disc 2 (59.85 MB) - Load it down

1. Nothing else matters
2. Until it sleeps
3. For whom the bell tolls
4. -Human
5. Wherever I may roam
6. Outlaw torn
7. Sad but true
8. One
9. Enter sandman
10. Battery
    

And now for something completely bitchin'

Here are some Cossacks (they dance like Cossacks, at least) in the first All-Russian Red Army Dance-off in an attempt to determine the multiracial future of Western Capitalist youth culture through a historical-materialist extrapolation taking into account the dialectical interaction between class composition, increasing levels of cultural and economic imperialism and rates of institutionalised discrimination of minorities.

Look at 'em go... like small, fleshy windmills on X. Love it. Of course, I wish they would dance collectively and not so competitively. Then again, we wouldn't have had a dance-off.

Found at English Russia by a friend of mine who coerced me into posting it here. Everybody say, "Thank you Jan!"

The Great Society - Live at the Matrix '66

Genre(s) - Psychedelic rock
Origin - The Mecca of Psychedelia (SF, Ca)
Year of release - 1990
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 91.65 MB

If you have any idea about rock music history at all, you know Grace Slick, hippiechick extraordinaire and frontwoman for Jefferson Airplane. Before the Airplanes had the catch of their lifetimes with taking her in, she was with the illustrious group The Great Society, unburdened by fame and inter-member rivalry. It was for this band that she originally (co-)wrote the LSD-hits White Rabbit and Somebody to Love, both in a bit more sedate versions, but already as trippy as making an interstellar journey on a magic carpet (it's soft and fluffy, and I think I'm sinking into it). There are songs on which things are shaken loose and even where hyperspace-mode is engaged, such as the Airplane-worthy Grimly Forming and Father. This live album is a rare and sparkling diamond, or indeed, a lost nugget. Help me in saving it from obliteration and the claws of time, it's worth being cherished.

1. Sally go 'round the roses
2. Didn't think so
3. Grimly forming
4. Somebody to love
5. Father Bruce
6. Outlaw blues
7. Often as I may
8. Arbitration
9. White rabbit
10. That's how it is
11. Darkly smiling
12. Nature boy
13. You can't cry
14. Daydream nightmare
15. Everybody knows
16. Born to be burned
17. Father
    

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Blodsrit - Helveteshymner

Genre(s) - Black metal
Origin - Sweden
Year of release - 2004
Bitrate - 160 kbps
Size - 46.34 MB

A modest little band that have been working their ass off for over ten years and just never seem to get the attention they're due. I've held on to this release for a good few years and it simply doesn't get old. Blodsrit are audibly Swedish, but take a sideways glance at the Norse sound from the mid-nineties to keep themselves grounded instead of becoming some kind of instant-gratification Marduk/Dark Funeral clone. Every beat is a bludgeon to the skull, and the riffs here are truly blazing, and form the heart of the music. The production's just a fraction too sterile, but cold and vicious regardless. The latter half of Helveteshymner, careful of not becoming too much of a good thing, has a few pleasant surprises for us in stock: Illdjarn features a mysterious sung refrain that's beautiful in melody but manages not to brighten up the track, and immediately after, they whip Candlemass' half-epic, half-clownesque Solitude into a tantrum of black metal carnage. Neat.

1. In melancholy
2. Griftevisa
3. Själslig självdöd
4. Vanmakt
5. Horns
6. Ridding a pest
7. Illdjarn
8. Solitude (Candlemass cover)
   
9. Praise suicide
   

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Man Lifting Banner - We Will Not Rest

Genre(s) - Hardcore
Origin - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Year of release - 1995
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 31.13 MB

I got fired from work today (over the telephone, no less) so here's some super-angry SxE Trotskyist hardcore punk.

RIYL: super-angry hardcore punk, Leon Trotsky, no beer

1. Commitment (to communism)
2. Never
3. Sister
4. Donkey shot
5. Rage
6. Blow your brains out
7. If
8. No compromise
9. End the fear
10. Willing
11. Balance the books
12. Consume and kil
13. The other
14. New October
15. Empire
16. Blood
17. Spirit
18. One of them
19. Myth of Freedom
20. Sister part 0

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Johnny Cash - Bitter Tears (Ballads of the American Indian)

Genre(s) - Country
Origin - United States of America
Year of release - 1964
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 28.49 MB

Let's be totally honest here, this isn't Cash's best release ever, but thematically it appeals to me enough to make this a mandatory share. Johnny at first mistakenly believed he had partial Cherokee heritage, but when he learned he didn't, this did not diminish his affection for the indigenous population of the Americas. The continuous mistreatment of these people brought him to write a near-concept album about the subject, a few years in advance of the reignition of the Indian struggle for self-determination under the American Indian Movement. The more defiant tracks are the best, most notably Custer, its wry lyrics ("Now the general is silent - he got barbered violent!") delivered perfectly, and the proud and hopeful Drums. If you're interested in this subject and like country and folk music, you might want to try out some Buffy Sainte-Marie along with it: here.

1. As long as the grass shall grow
2. Apache tears
3. Custer
4. The talking leaves
5. The ballad of Ira Hayes
6. Drums
7. White girl
8. The vanishing race
   

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God Dethroned - Bloody Blasphemy

Genre(s) - Blackened death metal
Origin - The Netherlands
Year of release - 1999
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 35.63 MB

In metal circles the Dutch excel at two very divergent substyles, being death metal and female-fronted gothic metal. God Dethroned obviously belong in the first category, and this release must be my favourite ever to come out of our native metal scene. More so than any other album by this band from the province of Drenthe ('k bid nie veur bruune bon'n!), the music lends its razor sharp edge and an epic feeling from black metal. It's steeped in melody and atmosphere, things the bulk of their peers are missing out on, and they don't just sing about guts and gore either. The songs are remarkably easy to keep apart despite the pummelling that does lay at the heart of the music. Remarkable tracks are the awesome opener Serpent King, the epic midtempo Soul Capture 1562 and the orgasmic Firebreath, telling the true tale of Michiel de Ruyter's laying waste to London in the 17th century, sporting a marvellous solo that miraculously flows back into the epic chorus. In my humble opinion, this album seriously rivals Dissection's Storm of the Light's Bane and God Dethroned would not attain such a level of songwriting until their latest release, the World War One-themed Passiondale.

1. Serpent king
2. Nocturnal
3. The execution protocol
4. Boiling blood
5. A view of ages
6. Soul capture 1562
7. Under the golden wings of death
8. Firebreath
9. Bloody blasphemy
   

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Gym Class Heroes - As Cruel as Schoolchildren

Genre(s) - Hip hop/indie rock
Origin - United States of America
Year of release - 2006
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 41.88 MB

So Gym Class Heroes are essentially a hiphop group, yeah, but with some footnotes. For one, they use live instrumentation - No DJ, an actual band. Bass, guitar, acoustic drums, the lot - something to be admired in a scene controlled by turntables and drum computers. And with such an approach, bright melodicism and fresh sounds run about in this remarkable musical hodgepodge. The presence of an emo/indie-ish drummer also involved in the songwriting is most noticable in some segments of Shoot Down the Stars, with its strong positive message, and the beautiful sung refrain of 7 Weeks. You're probably aware by now this is totally incomparable to the dark and ultra-serious modus operandi of most political hiphop or gangsta rap. With the album structured like a day at high school, one question rises in my mind: do you really have such long school days in the USA?

My upload does not contain the hit single and partial Supertramp-cover Cupid's Chokehold that was included on the rerelease, but I uploaded it separately. Get it here.

1. 1st period - the queen and I
   
2. 2nd period - shoot down the stars
3. 3rd period - new friend request
4. 4th period - clothes off!
   
5. Lunch - sloppy love jingle (pt. 1)
   
6. 6th period - viva la white girl
   
7. 7th period - 7 weeks
   
8. 8th period - it's ok, but just this once
   
9. Study hall - sloppy love jingle (pt. 2)
   
10. 10th period - biters' block (speech)
    
11. Yearbook club - boys in bands (interlude)
    
12. 12th period - scandalous scholastics
13. 13th period - on my own time (write on)
14. Detention - sloppy love jingle (pt.3)

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