Roky Erickson - The Evil One

Counting down to my 500th post and perusing the archives lately has brought to light some glaring oversights, albums I haven't posted yet that form the backbone of my musical taste.  Many of these (this one included) have remained un-posted because I listen to them so much that I can't imagine life without them.

The first one that came to mind was The Evil One, the most well known and arguably the best album by Roky Erickson.  I have posted many Roky albums here before and casually assumed that anyone perusing my little Swamp would at least have a passing familiarity with the man.  A huge percentage of albums on here are directly influenced by him, and many others have a spiritual kinship in their themes of paranormal phenomena, struggles with madness, and weird gibberish.

Lyrically, Roky draws from vintage horror movies and urban legends as much as he uses early rock n' roll's predilection for mantra-like refrains and cribbed blues motifs.  Musically, it's basically Buddy Holly and Bo Diddley squeezed through a proto-punk meat grinder.  Creedence Clearwater Revival's Stu Cook played bass on and produced much of this album, lending a layer of cosmic hillbilly mystique to a record already doomed to obscurity.

Of course now Roky is known as an essential part of any rock fan's collection and he continues to produce new material, against all odds, but this is the pinnacle.

I Walked With a Zombie

Antonius Rex - Zora

While we're on the weird outer rims of heavy metal, let's stop over in darkest Italy, home to many truly bizarre bands of all sub-genres.  Antonius Rex, the brainchild of Jacula leader Antonio Bartoccetti and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Doris Norton.  Of their many simultaneous projects, this is the darkest and most explicitly occult, enough so that they were dropped by their label and forced to self-release it in limited quantities some years later.  Mixing the baroque organ fugues and jazzy psych of Jacula with a cinematic adventurousness influenced by Goblin and Morricone, with the pair's sometimes distracting vocals and breathless narration kept to a minimum.  This version is a recent reissue containing the extended track listing of later versions but with the original, suppressed cover art intact.  One can hear influences on occult rock modern bands, especially Blood Ceremony, but nobody has the freeform batshit wildness of this monster.

Morte al Potere

Salem Mass - Witch Burning

Greetings, toad people!  Returning from a rock n' roll sabbatical, I bring you this lump of red-hot occult proto-metal from Idaho's Salem Mass.  Released in 1971, this strange hybrid of the Manson Family vibe of Coven or Black Widow with the groovy psychedelic thud of Captain Beyond.  Soulful, over-the-top vocals and the trippy organ percolate over a surprisingly funky foundation of rubberlegged bass and cowbell-happy drums.  This is another in the long line of occult rock that gave birth to today's crop of mystic longhair bands dancing naked in a circle, praising the dark forces of the universe.  

You're just a dream.

Year of the Goat - Lucem Ferre

There's a ton of this occult doom rock floating around these days, so much so that's it difficult to parse out the primo stuff out of legions of clones.  I have discovered this EP by Year of the Goat (from Sweden, of course), and it's quickly one of my most-spun over the last few months.  Fans of Pentagram, Graveyard, Witchcraft, The Devil's Blood, and Noctum will find much to enjoy here: tales of hedonism and regret, crushing fuzz riffs, flaxen hair blowing in the northern winds, and even a cover of Sam Gopal's "Dark Lord."  Hopefully they will release a full length before the darkness swallows them.

She pours cataclysm from her golden cup.

Wooden Stake - Vampire Plague Exorcism

Wooden Stake plays a hybrid death-doom style that should please fans of Hooded Menace and Acid Witch and also fans of the recent crop of female-fronted spooky doom such as Jex Thoth and The Devil's Blood. Hailing from Texas by way of New York, this duo grinds out some alternately beautiful and horrifying music, equally derived from Black Sabbath, Mythic, and sixties occult rock like Coven or Black Widow, all sheathed in the somewhat goofy vampire shtick. This is their first EP, which, while not quite up to par with the startling LP Dungeon Prayers & Tombyard Serenades which was recently released, still contains some chilling, primitive ritual doom for a dark and stormy night such as this.
Stalking in the Shadowlands

Jex Thoth - Live in Kunstverein

Well, little ones, I'm off for a few days into the wild, but this live set by the mighty Jex Thoth ought to tide you over until Monday. There's already a backlash against this type of metal, primarily among the no-fun kvlt kops, but we're not about to allow them to break the spell for us, are we?
Seperated at Birth

Reino Ermitaño

Tonight we require a bit of soothing and hypnosis to focus long enough on this flickering screen to be able to adequately communicate with my Swamplings, and conversely we had already planned to post this strange album by Peru's doom coven Reino Ermitaño. The immediate thing this brings to mind may be Acid King, as it is fairly straightforward traditional doom metal, with female vocals and entwined, melodic guitar. But whereas Acid King feels like a walk in the woods with a handle of whiskey, this album is more of a siren-beckoned stumble into black oblivion, nudging it toward the Jex Thoth/Blood Ceremony camp. Lyrical themes - as far as my rusty Spanish can be relied upon - include isolation (the band name means "Hermit Kingdom"), lucid dreaming, and witchery. This is their first album of three, with the promise of another this year, so keep the fires burning and don't forget to feed the toads, dearies.
Profundidad De Las Sombras

The Devil's Blood - The Graveyard Shuffle

This is the debut seven inch from modern occult rock combo The Devil's Blood, a witchy, psychedelic throwback to pre-metal and proto-metal bands who embraced the left hand path such as Coven, Black Widow, Blue Oyster Cult, Roky Erickson, and Lucifer's Friend. The two songs present here are candle-lit cemetery seductions, siren songs filtered through the smoke of noxious herbs, with grave dirt caked in the crannies. This year's long player by the group, The Time of No Time Evermore, is one of the most played in Casa Alhazred; if you aren't under its spell, perhaps now is the time. Fans of Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony, and Ghost will lap this up most lasciviously.
In the light of a thousand flames
I call thee by secret names

Jex Thoth and Pagan Altar split

Tonight finds your host in an uncharacteristically relaxed mode - perhaps it's the strange concoction I've been sipping on throughout the afternoon - and too restful to work up a whirlwind of adjectives and invective over anything, let alone listen to some tuneless grindcore or gibbering noise abortion. Instead, let's go sit in the backyard and listen to this Jex Thoth/ Pagan Altar split and watch the moths fatally orbit the porch light. Jex Thoth have been lighting up the metal community recently with their dreamy, female fronted, organ-heavy mutation of early Sabbath miasma, and of course Pagan Altar are elder statesmen of the doom genre, and in absolutely top form here. Yours truly maintains a weak spot for both bands, and in combination they produce a buzzing, blissful Lethian cocktail to complement the swirling orange vortex that fills my cup...
swirling....