Absu - Tara

Genre(s) - Black/thrash metal
Origin - United States of America
Year of release - 2001
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 69.12 MB

Celtic-Sumerian occult blackened thrash metal, from Texas of all places. Quite unique stuff, with a very dry, trebly production that highlights the insane drumming of Sir Proscriptor McGovern and not much more. It really does not lend a good atmosphere to the music and that is a pity, because when it comes to songwriting, Absu are a fairly sophisticated bunch (much more so than what the genre blackened thrash would probably convey) and the individual tracks are strong and bound to linger in the mind for a while. Tracks like A Shield with an Iron Face and "She Cries the-eh Qui-yet Lay-hay-hake!" could be called positively catchy, while the Stone of Destiny shows a more epic side. The new album has a better production and atmosphere but I liked the songs less, maybe I need to get used to it some more though.

1. Tara
2. Pillars of mercy
3. A shield with an iron face
4. Mannanán
5. The cognate house of courtly witches lies west of county Meath
6. She cries the quiet lake
7. Yrp Lluyddawc
8. From ancient times (starry skies burn to ash)
9. Four crossed wands (spell 181)
10. Vorago (spell 182)
11. Bron (of the waves)
12. Stone of destiny for Magh Slecht and Ard Righ
13. Tara (recapitulation)
    

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Maximum the Hormone - Buiikikaesu!!

not the official cover; it was just too ugly

Genre(s) - Rare poep ouwe
Origin - Japan
Year of release - 2007
Bitrate - 128
Size - 44.70 MB

Okay. For some unimaginable reason someone decided to inject three Japanese menchildren and a womanchild with speed and monkey genes, take away their dictionaries, and lock them up in a room with musical instruments. The session was of course recorded and the result is Buiikikaesu!!. The music is insanely hectic and hectically insane, alternating between impossibly bouncy, happy-go-lucky stuff that will make your face go like ^___________^ and more aggressive parts with harsh vocals at a staggering speed. The lyrics would have been bilingual if the English parts weren't simply references to random everyday objects ("Bikini sport the monkey spanner ponchin!"). I generally hate music as angular and chaotic as this but this is just unforgivably catchy. And my brother asked me to up this. So there you go, sorry that it took about a year!

1. Buikkikaesu!!
2. Zetsubo Billy
3. Kuso breakin no breakin lilly
4. Louisiana Bob
5. Policeman Benz
6. Black power G men spy
7. Akagi
8. Kyokatsu
9. Bikini. Sports. Ponchin.
10. What's up, people?!
11. Chu chu lovely muni muni mura mura purin purin boron nururu rero rero
12. Shimi
13. Koi no mega lover
14. Bonus track
    

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Skyclad - No Daylights Nor Heeltaps

Genre(s) - Folk metal
Origin - Newcastle-upon-Tyne, North North England
Year of release - 2002
Bitrate - 160 kbps

When it comes to folk metal, if Skyclad didn't write the book then at least they were its editors-in-chief. They were far ahead of most of their peers and in my humble opinion still one of the very few to ever do it right. They're a very likeable bunch too. The music is miraculously uplifting, and sublimely Anglosaxon, building from a NWOBHM-platform instead of the standard melodic death/black metal one, and adorning it with fiddle melodies audibly native to British soil. And of course they are rooted in that wonderful British class consciousness; their lyrics are left-wing without a doubt, but drenched not so much in politics as in a very astute and thoroughly sarcastic analysis of the world around us. Oh, and since precisely this release, Skyclad even have a good singer! So for No Daylights they retooled a few of their best tracks to suit his clear melodic voice and there you have an album and a half of great, really quite harmless metal that will pick up your mood and have you looking hard if you want to find any flaws at all. In fact, would it be sad if a bastard album like this (Martin's lyrics, Kevin's voice) was the band's best material to date? Because it seems a lot like it is.

Disk 1 - Load it down (42.70 MB)

1. Penny dreadful
2. Inequality street
3. Spinning Jenny
4. The cry of the land
5. Another fine mess
6. Sins of emission
7. The widdershins jig
8. History lessens
9. Land of the rising slum
10. Single phial

Disk 2 - Load it down (23.23 MB)

1. No deposit, no return
2. A great blow for a day job
3. No strings attached
4. Building a ruin
5. Loco-commotion
   

Rammstein - Mutter

Genre(s) - Industrial rock/metal, Neue Deutsche Härte
Origin - Germany
Year of release - 2001
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 61.59 MB

Since everybody should already know Rammstein and this album will probably be taken down in no time, I won't bother with a long introduction. Maybe not the best comparison, but just as with the Korn album I've held on to this after all these years out of pure, sweet nostalgia. If you like rock music that should be reason enough to check this if you haven't before. Some great songs, that's for sure.

1. Mein Herz brennt
2. Links, 2, 3, 4
3. Sonne
4. Ich will
5. Feuer frei
6. Mutter
7. Spieluhr
8. Zwitter
9. Rein raus
10. Adios
11. Nebel
    

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Sun of the Sleepless - Demo

Genre(s) - Atmospheric black metal
Origin - Germany
Year of release - 1999
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 13.78 MB

Sun of the Sleepless is, or perhaps was, a one-man experimental black metal project that is officially still active but seems to be on its arse since releasing the split. Markus Stock is an adventurous soul in metal-land with his folk-metal-goes-acoustic-folk band Empyrium, the cinematic horror metal of The Vision Bleak and the progressive gloom rock of Noekk. It's at the marges of metal that he can work his magic best. This demo is still fairly regular: a mere three short pieces of fantastic atmospheric black metal that has everything you love about it. If your ears were for smelling you'd smell rich damp earth, pine needles and smouldering bonfires.

1. Thou, whose face hath felt the winter's wind
2. Grimme pain
3. Nebelmond

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Sun of the Sleepless & Nachtmahr

Genre(s) - Experimental black metal/black metal
Origin - Germany
Year of release - 2004
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 61.15 MB

It's on the split with fellow Germans Nachtmahr that Sun of the Sleepless really starts to set itself apart by way of some very overt electronic influences, especially after the Burzum track: Neunter November is kind of trip-hop, Spring '99 starts out triphoppy too but rises and falls in metalness (it's easily the best track off the split) and Tausend Kalte Winter is a piece of pure industrial. Nachtmahr really play quite standard black metal, but it's not bad. They would be better represented on a split with another classic style band because the difference between the two is grating and to the latter band's detriment. But perhaps you may think otherwise.

1. Sun of the Sleepless - A wolf in sheep's skin clad
2. Sun of the Sleepless - Romanze zur Nacht
   
3. Sun of the Sleepless - Dunkelheit (Burzum cover)
   
4. Sun of the Sleepless - Neunter November
   
5. Sun of the Sleepless - Tausend kalte Winter
   
6. Sun of the Sleepless - Spring '99
   
7. Nachtmahr - I
   
8. Nachtmahr - II
   
9. Nachtmahr - III
   

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Would you love me through the winter?

I once posted a Nick Drake album, perhaps as early as 2008. The "Nick Drake Estate" Bryter Music kindly asked me (they did, they were ever so polite) if I could please remove it and I complied; I'm not a bad sort.

But dammit, this blog is not complete without Nick. He was a beautiful being and I recognise a lot of myself in him (minus the talent and creativity, and he was also rather more handsome than me). His music is exquisitely beautiful and fueled by a pain that proved sadly genuine.

I want to post the one track for you. Just the one, and hope nobody notices. I sincerely hope you get as much out of it as I frequently have. If you enjoy sad music, and I mean really sad enough to make you cry then please, please, please take this song, there is no better. After hearing it hundreds of times it still works for me. In fact, if you can't cry to this you were probably the school bully, and spent your free hours setting cats on fire.

This song's for Chief Commies, curly-haired Imprint journalists, blonde Swedes that think the party is always right, their girlfriends who decidedly don't, and YOU.

Northern Sky

I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you're here
Brighten my northern sky.

I've been a long time that I'm waiting
Been a long time that I'm blown
I've been a long time that I've wandered
Through the people I have known
Oh, if you would and you could
Straighten my new mind's eye.

Would you love me for my money
Would you love me for my head
Would you love me through the winter
Would you love me 'til I'm dead
Oh, if you would and you could
Come blow your horn on high.

I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you're here
Brighten my northern sky.

Jim Croce - You Don't Mess around with Jim

Genre(s) - Folk, singer-songwriter
Origin - Philadelphia, USA
Year of release - 1972
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 29.65 MB

Here's a guy that my mum introduced me to only about a month or two or so ago: Jim Croce. A big man with a big moustache, who could have led the big life if he hadn't died in a plane crash together with his friend and second guitarist Maury Muehleisen, ahead of garnering most of his success. He was a gifted singer-songwriter and guitarist known for simple, natural-flowing songs that speak to your heart and lift you up in quick succession. I believe he was a man from the country, not the city, and seems to me like one of the most normal, down-to-earth people ever to grace the music business. My favourite track is Operator, but it's a very charming, chilled out album altogether that's finished before you know or want it.

1. You don't mess around with Jim
2. Tomorrow's gonna be a brighter day
3. New York's not my home
4. Hard time losin' man
5. Photographs and memories
6. Walkin' back to Georgia
7. Operator (that's not the way it feels)
8. Time in a bottle
9. Rapid Roy (the stock car boy)
10. Box #10
11. A long time ago
12. Hey tomorrow
    

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The Smiths - Thank Your Lucky Stars

Genre(s) - Smiths music
Origin - Manchester, North West England, UK
Year of release - Nope.
Bitrate - 160 bkps
Size - 82.22 MB

Sooooo... The Smiths. Well, I like 'em. Here's a bootleg, recorded at 28-08-1986 at Irvine Meadows, Laguna Hills, Ca. This is a very good concert and exceptionally good recording, for an unofficial one. It has some of my favourite tracks from The Queen is Dead including Cemetary Gates, The Boy and - yes! - There Is a Light, and what may or may not be a funky instrumental Cyndi Lauper cover. If you like Rank, well, I think this one just a little better (all opinions I read agree with me), but that is of course personal. Morrissey is not as savage here but the tracklist suits me fine, and occasionally the band puts some over-enthusiastic security personell back in place. Who couldn't excuse the crowd for being a bit tempestuous, I mean, it IS the Moz on that stage. If you find this review a bit understated it is because I am too enthusiastic about The Smiths to properly put into words. Rest assured this comes preposterously, obsessively, unhealthily recommended.

1. Please, please, please let me get what I want
2. Still ill
3. I want the one I can't have
4. There is a light that never goes out
5. How soon is now?
6. Frankly, mr. Shankly
7. Panic
8. Stretch out and wait
9. The boy with the thorn in his side
10. Is is really so strange?
11. Cemetary gates
12. Never had no one ever
13. What she said/Rubber ring
14. That joke isn't funny anymore
15. Heaven knows I'm miserable now
16. The queen is dead
17. Money changes everything
18. I know it's over
    

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Miserere Luminis - Miserere luminis

Genre(s) - Black metal
Origin - Québec, Canada
Year of release - 2009
Bitrate - 320 kbps

I haven't come across this on any blog yet - but not actively scoured the hundreds of thousands of BM blogs for it either - and it took me very long to find it on soulseek, but it proved its worth. I was so anxious to hear it because it features both members of Gris, who weren't featured on the first post of this blog for nothing. Third member is Annatar from Sombres Forêts whom I've never liked so much. But with two against one luckily the Gris faction had a bit more to say about the direction for Miserere Luminis and you can hear that from the deep atmosphere, which is more than simply depressive; there lurks something very unhinged and perverse at the heart that not a lot of bands can convey. It is less focused on neoclassical segments or use of grand piano, but it is equally subtly unruly, in the sense that there is usually some aspect of the music that doesn't quite do what you are expecting, and as such enhances the alien-ness and wonder of the music. Take the weird drums patterns in Ciel Tragique, which immediately drew and held on to my notoriously fickle attention. It's this kind of thing that made sure that after almost eight years of exploring this style, and after many other new musical genres in my life, entirely different friends, and a whole different outlook on the world, I have never once lost interest in the majestic art that black metal, if written and played with intelligence and sincere emotion, still can be!

The album is chopped in half due to its size. If you enjoy this, take the Gris album as well or I will hate you forever.

1. Cineris
2. Le mal des siècles
3. Ciel tragique
4. IV
5. Birth of new ages
6. The mist
7. Senectus
8. Miserere luminis
9. Exulcerare
   

Part 1: Load it down (51.86 MB)
Part 2: Load it down (62.27 MB)

The Cavalcade - Meet you in the rain

Genre(s) - Indie pop
Origin - Northwestern England, UK
Year of release - 2009
Bitrate - 320 kbps
Size - 24.83 MB

I wanted to meet you in the rain/but you never showed/I've waited for most of the day/I hope that you know. This rather passive-aggressive end to a chorus line stands in shrill contrast to the sound of this delightful EP. On Meet You, The Cavalcade play calm, bittersweet little songs (generally a bit more bitter than sweet, but not begrudged at all) that are bound to conquer your thoughts and feelings, there is just no resistance. The jangly guitar and wonderfully imperfect vocals are the centerpoint but an important part of the musical experience is the chemistry between those and the limited keyboard touch-ups. It's over before you know it and you will most likely directly be tempted to listen to it again. Do it. It's no use fighting; surrender is not a choice, it's a given. Also warmly recommended to folkies.

The Cavalcade are signed to (among others) the wonderful Cloudberry Records with which I seem to share a lot of values in life.

1. Meet you in the rain
2. Voices
3. Rooftops & chaotic streets
4. This silent town
5. Nobody's child
   

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Black Sun Aeon - Darkness Walks beside Me

Genre(s) - Doom metal
Origin - Finland
Year of release - 2009
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 39.90 MB

Black Sun Aeon are a young and hopeful new and quite melodic death-doom band and their first album definitely doesn't sound bad. They immediately reminded me of the Russian band The Morningside, who sounded more convincingly doomy and sorrowful at the first attempt than many lauded adept bands ever have. Though it could have been a bit slower and heavier, this kind of stuff is really my style, with grand, sweeping melodies in a warm tone, that succeed well in conveying the passion with which they are evidently played. Doom metal, every time you hear it it should really be a casual stroll on the path of no return. Black Sun Aeon knows this, and they are quite prepared to take you by the hand. Great effort, which leaves me wondering why this didn't end up in my list for 2009!

1. Chapter 1 (a song for the introduction)
   
2. Chapter 2 (a song for my wrath)
   
3. Chapter 3 (a song for my demise)
   
4. Chapter 4 (a song for my sorrow)
   
5. Chapter 5 (a song for my weakness)
   
6. Chapter 6 (a song for this winter)
   
7. Chapter 7 (a song for my illness)
   
8. Chapter 8 (a song for my funeral)
   
9. Chapter 9 (a song for the one who passed away 4.9.2008)
   

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