Genre(s) - Black metal Origin - Québec, Canada Year of release - 2005 Bitrate - 160 kbps Size - 58.54 MB
Québécois black metal has its own sound as fans of the province's scene will acknowledge, and Brume d'Automne are a good example. It is, however, hardly exceptional and there is little about the music I should specifically direct your attention to. Hmm, just the one thing. Those easily overlooked traditional interludes? Very cool. Numéro II especially is so unreal it seems to change the mood of the whole album. It is difficult to keep from doubling back to time every time it rides the airwaves. On se roule, on se roule... une fille abandonnée!
Genre(s) - Blackened crustcore Origin - Sweden Year of release - 2005 Bitrate - 192 kbps Size - 53.43 MB
Okay, so Martyrdöd are a blackened crust band from Sweden (where else?) and their music is, well, solid as a brick and twice as hard-hitting. No breathing holes. Fucking fast, filthy, pissed-off shit that stops at nothing, never once (okay once) relents the barrage. These guys sound as determined as they sound desperate and I mean REALLY like playing as loud and fast as they can is the only thing still keeping them alive. If that makes you think the music is a bit one-dimensional you may be right, but the raw anger is intoxicating and somehow you can't stop thinking this is what punk was always meant to be like. The sound is filled out a bit by letting the tones flow over into each other and I guess that's the black metal influences right there, else I can't really pinpoint them. Who cares. "The power of crust compels you", and you can take that literally.
Genre(s) - Traditional doom metal Origin - Sweden Year of release - 2002 Bitrate - 128 kbps Size - 50.48 MB
I'm eating so in the meantime I might just prepare an entry for your enjoyment and schedule it for somewhere this week.
A supergroup of sorts, Krux is manned by (ex-)members of such bands as Candlemass, Therion, Opeth, Entombed, and other giants of the Swedish metal scene that teamed up to play some colossal doom. Very. Colossal. Doom. Stuff from the old school, the kind that has to be really convincing it it wants to impress me. And that it does. The music strides with confidence, and maybe just a pinch of arrogance (can you blame them? In fact, would you dare?), and it tramples the earth where it goes. All that without losing the catch - check out the refrains in Popocatepetl and Omfalos. If you hadn't extracted it from the above: this stuff is huge and you deserve it.
Genre(s) - Psytrance, ambient Origin - Sweden Year of release - 2006 Bitrate - 192-256 kbps
Sorry dear people, my exam week is upcoming so I have had even less time to post than is usual lately, and this will probably be the only entry in the coming week. Don't forget about me in the meantime!
This is a duo from Sweden that weave very warm, lucid dreamworlds together out of electronic sounds, moving back and forth between ambient and psytrance a bit indecisively. Archipelago is clearly more on the trance side of the spectrum, but easingly so and never rushing things, earning the label morning trance if you ask me. There are more ambient tracks on here as well such as the beautiful Tierra Azul and Late Winter Storms which isn't as cold as it sounds, really, while Sweet September is the most memorable trance track my inexperienced ears have ever heard. They're all very engaging atmospheres with a lot of natural grace and melody that make it more than just a pleasant background noise. It was too big to share so I had to snip it in half, make sure you take both!
Genre(s) - Punk/oi! Origin - Various parts of the British and non-British Isles Year of release - 2006 Bitrate - 256/320 kbps Size - 56.97 MB
The first album in punk history produced entirely in Scottish Gaelic (yes, also SS Politician, which btw has a great little folk number at the end) was released only three years ago by the "green anarchoi!" band Oi Polloi! I consider myself a green socialist rather than an anarchist, but it is good to hear sounds that do make the connection between ecological disaster and capitalism. Not only has the blind hunt for profit been largely responsible for the impending climate change, it is holding back effective measures right now. So I hope to see a large anticapitalist block at the Copenhagen summit in december. But on to the music. Well, it's solid punk with slight oi! influences - not quite enough for my taste though - and what more do you need? Best tracks are the opener, the aforementioned SS Politician, and Union Jack.
The blog entry title is right and the RAR and folder title is wrong. My mistake.
Genre(s) - Stoner rock Origin - United States of Amerijuana Year of release - Unreleased bootleg Bitrate - 192 kbps Size - 88.37 MB
Monster Magnet are a rock band. You can say that again. They're a drugged up hard rock band with balls as big as their riffs and that's saying something. They exemplify the big fuck-you finger to all and everything that rock music is supposed to be. When I saw them live at Graspop this year they were better than they sound on here, much more droning and jamming and playing monstrous riffs for minutes on end. Man, I loved that shit, it had my mind spinning. This is great as well though, with all the fan favourites it gets the adrenalin flowing like a mountain stream. Rampaging psychedelic goodness guaranteed. Or to speak in the lyrics to Atomic Clock: so won't you put my dick in plastic? They make it sound like an awfully good idea.
Genre(s) - Twee pop Origin - United Kingdom The Deirdres are a bunch of hand-knitted puppets from Britain that play endearing, loosely-played noisy twee pop of a sort that jumps at you from unexpected corners. They don't stick to the plans and are all the more refreshing for it. Dinosaurs That Can Swim has a cool diy-cover courtesy of that wonderful little label WeePOP! who always have great ideas like this. The other demo, Poor Harmonies and Communal Clapping (which is exactly what it is!), seems untraceable on the webs but features the great Electro Magic and Sir Michael of Aspel, which rock my world with their deadly hooks and exquisitely poor harmonies. Yes!!
Dinosaurs That Can Swim (2007, 22.39 MB) - Load it down
Claire, are we safe to be on our own?
Hopeless is the venue
Fun to pretend
Poor Harmonies and Communal Clapping (200?, 16.40 MB) - Load it down
Genre(s) - Black metal Origin - The Netherlands Year of release - 2003 Bitrate - 192 kbps Size - 49.13 MB
Some pretty standard black metal from the province of Gelderland, hardly mindblowing but worth the try if you like stuff that sounds like it was recorded in 1993 but the master tape got lost in someone's basement and was only found ten years later. People trying to write grim lyrics in Dutch usually turn out sounding extremely lame; so too these blokes. Plaeghdraegher? Den Duusteren Wouden?! Kom op gasten, je ziet toch zelf ook wel hoe belachelijk dat eruit ziet. Anyway, tracks like Tergernis and Hoer van de Zeven Hemelen are very well listenable and this is safe territory for those who think black metal reached its apex with A Blaze in the Northern Sky and should never have developed further. Fluisterwoud, in any case, have not.
This blog is meant to generate attention to bands that I think deserve it, and aims for a large variety of music styles. I will only share albums that I personally recommend, and do not honour requests. You won't find complete discographies here as I encourage individual research and do care about the artists enough not to offer their entire lives' work for the taking. If you notice a mistake or a wrong/broken link, please let me know so I can fix it. Thanks!
Complaints and compliments can be directed to bartromeijn-at-hotmail-dot-com but for quick messages by all means use the shoutbox and comments.
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The music I offer on this blog is for display purposes exclusively. You are not entitled to download or listen to it at all. Go away.
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