Shit...this is gonna be good. Peep this weaponry..
EXCLUSIVE Josh Homme & David Sardy b-Side from some new shitty movie. Sounds delicious to me. What you say?? have at it... 'Nobody to Love'
Opener and highlight “Bruce Lee” could inspire a whole graphic novel, or at least get optioned for a Tarantino-produced Grindhouse flick. It sets up the main ingredient on the duo’s sophomore LP, Civil Disobedience For Losers: riffs. Riff may be a four-letter word to some, but the Ontario duet have refined tastes: Queens of the Stone Age, Helmet, and Melvins all get nods in Daniel Brandon Allen’s guitar-work, whose minor-pentatonic sludge should be tabbed-up by fledgling guitarists in no time. Even the lead guitar work on the album puts the Tom Morello/Jack White octave pedal to new and good use.
Beyond the best-foot-forward songs that the riff-mining Allen and drummer Brandyn James Aikins soak themselves in, the sci-fi, pulpy tracks stretch far across a relatively small spectrum. The ur-heavy metal of “Terminal Horse” to the Lemmy-via-Scorpions ballad “Coming Home” all leave a different mark, aided by producer Toshi Kasai, whose work with Tool and Big Business are felt strongly here. There’s some filler weighing down the back half of the album, but that’s only a small leak in this colossal galleon.
“What time is it?/ it’s time for red action!” scream Allen and Aikins, early in the album. Red Action: drink tallboys, get stoned, read comics, palm-mute your Ibanez, and blast it out your Hemi. Indian Handcrafts live in the lost sci-fi fantasy world of ’80s metal, a world that under less able hands would lay flat on the back of the Algebra notebook. They hoist their banner just under Black Sabbath’s and reanimate all those familiar monsters to make them fight again, harbingers of a zombie metal apocalypse. -Consequence of Sound
As of today... Indian Handcrafts, Red Fang, and Black Tusk are out on a US Tour! So go support these rad bands on the road!! Get active.
Dates Below...
RED FANG, BLACK TUSK, INDIAN HANDCRAFTS - 2012 TOUR DATES 11/02 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern* 11/10 Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts 11/11 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom 11/12 Brooklyn, NY @ St. Vitus 11/13 Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East (Downstairs) 11/15 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom 11/16 Detroit, MI @ The Magic Stick 11/17 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean 11/19 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater 11/20 Salt Lake City, UT @ The Urban Lounge 11/21 Boise, ID @ Neurolux * Indian Handcrafts solo
Invasive Exotics crawls into your brain, buries itself deep within your medulla oblongata, and unleashes a furious noise upon your waking mind that grips your body in a numbing paralysis. Indian Jewelry make music for wandering the scorching deserts after ingesting heroic doses of peyote. As their name implies, a certain native presence infiltrates the droning dissonance that pervades their debut album. Warning: this is not an album you put on for a sunny drive through the country with your significant other, but rather suited for those lonesome excursions across highways through vast nothingness when your consciousness can be as much an ally as it is a foe. Houston, Texas' Indian Jewelry adorns their music with a sense of impending doom, a motif that is both inescapable and yet utterly alluring. It's mysterious, alien, bizarre, and feels like it should exist only in the mind of a mental patient. And that's exactly what makes listening to it so interesting. The aesthetic opposite of industrial music, while still borrowing from the likes of Trent Reznor and pioneers of synthesizer drones Suicide, the sounds on Invasive Exotics are firmly rooted in the arid landscape of some unknown wilderness, seemingly abandoned by the modern world. - M.Simpson
"Opus Eponymous" is the first album by Ghost, released on October 18, 2010. What you can hear here is heavy, doomy riffs in contrast with softer parts and choruses ruled by keyboards, all of this to create an amazing, sometimes dark atmosphere. It sounds like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple had a baby, and it kinda sounds like Blue Öyster Cult too. Some people also compare them with Mercyful Fate/King Diamond, mostly because of their theatral live performances. The band was formed in 2008 in Linköping, Sweden, and it's line up consists of vocalist Papa Emeritus and five "Nameless Ghouls": 2 guitarists, bassist, drummer and keyboardist. Kinda creative thing. The album has received mostly positive reviews, embracing fans from hardcore metalheads into death/black metal to stoner rock fans. The album also contains "Here Comes The Sun" in a heavier version as a bonus track. This is another great record from the Swedish rock scene, which I recommend you all to check it out. - iommi600
From the start thick powerful riffs intertwined with shrill horror
scream esque vocals brings this self proclaimed “old nihilistic punk
rock, but doom,” feel which grips you by the throat and doesn’t let go.
Underneath the dirty sonic crust on the surface you will find yourself a
filthy groove to bang your head to like within “Two Black Helicopters.”
The culmination of sound, bring a whirlwind of power and terror that
leaves you on the edge of your seat as you glide into the next track.
AIS plays with very simple techniques and builds them into unique
powerful songs that feel fresh. Each track feels as if you are on a
death march to an imminent doom, which is so fitting when the album’s
inspiration is provided by the bands “disdain for humanity and what
humanity, as a virus, has done to the planet.”
Personally, the Charles Manson cover was completely
unexpected but done flawlessly and fit right in with the direction of
the album. There is nothing really bad about this album, Justin Godfrey’s
shrill screams may prove to be intolerable to some, but they help
define this band and add another layer to AIS. The doom(ish) slower
pace might also become old to some after a few and yes I wish at some
points the songs would pick up more steam but what do you expect from a
band that has Sloth in its name, it would seem rather ironic otherwise.
In the end I think the things that will annoy some make AIS so unique,
yes they may sound like Eyehategod a tad or perhaps, or a slower version of label mates Gaza. -J. Terry
If Belgium act Millionaire isn't a name you're familiar with, then it
soon will be. Although relatively unknown to most, the four-piece act
released their debut album as far back as 2001 (Outside The Simian
Flock), and while it received positive feedback from the press,
Millionaire hardly became a household name. The bands luck soon changed
when while supporting Masters Of Reality, when the band's debut found
it's way into the hands of Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme. Taken
by their music, the band soon found themselves getting major exposure on
a nightly basis on tour.
Fast forward a couple of years and the connection between the two acts
continued with Millionaire vocalist/guitarist Tim Vanhamel collaborated
with Homme and Jesse 'The Devil' Hughes in Eagles Of Death Metal, who
released their debut album Peace Love Death Metal in 2004 to critical
acclaim.
Twelve months on, and with the freeing up of schedules, Vanhamel and
Millionaire (Who also consist of bassist/vocalist Bas Remans,
keyboardist/vocalist Aldo Struyf (Who recorded and toured with Mark
Lanegan for 2004's Bubblegum) and drummer Dave Schroyen) re-entered the
studio with Homme behind the console (After completing work on
Q.O.T.S.A.'s Lullabies To Paralyze) to start work on their second album.
A simple cursory listen through Paradisiac immediately tells you one
important fact - Pigeonholing Millionaire's sound is a pointless
exercise. Yes, Homme's presence is certainly felt in places, but only in
regards to giving the band a meatier sound than the sound appeared on
their more pop sounding debut. Millionaire isn't mimicking Q.O.T.S.A.,
but they certainly rock, if in a strange and unusual way.
The opening tracks I'm On A High (Which is the single) and A Lust
Unmatched are huge, thumping hook laden lazy rockers that give the
misleading impression that the band are a somewhat experimental stoner
rock act (The loops and effects add a different dimension to
proceedings), but it's the follow up track For A Maid that really throws
a spanner in the works with it's Muse like leanings within the piercing
high volumed chorus and edgy rock and roll vibe. The back to basics
primitive feel of Streetlife Cherry is a sure candidate for a future
single release, while the darker and more tempered atmosphere felt
within Rise And Fall and the acoustic Ballad Of Pure Thought affirm a
more mature outing the second time around for the group.
Providing a little more heaviness in the guitar stakes, Alpha Male, Love
Is A Sickness the creepy (Highlight of the album) We Don't Live There
Anymore, the down and dirty grit of Wake Up The Children and the bizarre
cut/patched up A Face That Doesn't Fit (Along with the uncredited
Nocturn at the end) all audibly stand apart from each other, but somehow
manage to fit under the same 'rock' banner without sounding like an
incoherent mess of different styles.
-themetalforge