Corrupted & Infaust split 7"

Wishes for a happy new year full of joy and peace are incomplete without a post on Corrupted, the greatest purveyors of sonic despair and apocalypse from Japan. Their track on this split, "Other Side," is a devastating piece of the heaviest possible doom/sludge with an addictive frozen black metal arpeggiated feel that increases the feeling of devastation and is proper listening during the extreme winter conditions where I am right now. On the flip-side Infaust from Germany offer a good track of sludge with a hardcore approach; it's quite good, but of course nothing and nobody can reach Corrupted. 2002 7" on Blind Date Records.

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Inverted Pentagram ‎– Thee Astral Sign of War tape

Continuing in the Xmas festive spirit, here's an ultra rare promo tape by obscure Dutch black/death metal band Inverted Pentagram, who ran for a few years in the early 1990s before changing their name to Omnihierophantom (anyone heard their album?) before reverting back to the original name quite recently, and put on real fun corpsepaint and clothing, as you can see here. While this starts out in a typical early 1990s sloppy fast Beherit/Von fashion with heavily echoed vocals, there are a few surprises under their belt. There's ultra slow dirge black/doom with nice heavy bass (lovin' the continuous bell effect on "Ritual of the Black Woods", there's fun ritual improvisation with entertaining gurgling/water bloop effects on "Nyarlathotep...The Messenger" on an attempt to fascimile a Dagon effect, there's heavy organ. Nice!! Quite close in the more experimental aspects of early 90s black metal such as Necromantia, and with the obligatory clumsy-as-fuck and almost comical musicianship of that era, this makes a really cool listen on a night when you have come back home with your metal buddies to continue the drinking. 1993 tape on Black Flame Produxions.

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Unearthly Trance ‎– Season Of Seance, Science Of Silence cd

It was on a cold December day of 2003 that I bought the debut of Long Island's faves Unearthly Trance, after having already been mindblown by the Frost Walk With Me 7" and the amazing Beast Eye Open To The Sky LP by side project of singer/guitarist Ryan Lipinsky, Thralldom, and I remember listening to it non-stop during the Xmas holidays. While in later albums Unearthly Trance would adopt a crustier and tighter approach, with more elements by black metal and hardcore, in this one they are in a spiral of heavy-like-hippo-shit doom/sludge, with undertones of black metal and drone, doses of Celtic Frost goodness, and even ritual black ambient. Coupled with a lo-fi, but strong on the bass, production by Stephen O' Malley, this is one of the best doom/sludge albums of all time, and one that again arguably proves that Relapse can turn otherwise promising bands into more mediocre outfits when they manage to get their little corporate hands on them. The slow crushing riffs, the spacious production, and Lipinsky's desperate clean vocals, as well as his sinister rasps, proved an ideal showcase for one of this blog's dictums on your right hand, the one saying that good music is the music that makes you fall asleep, and this is what this album did many a time during cold and bleak wintry days. Highly recommended, up to par with Electric Wizard's Let Us Prey, Cathedral's Forest of Equilibrium, and Winter's Eternal Frost. 2003 cd on Rise Above Records.Download

Unkerd Wood / Pact Of Ash / Gammal Sed ‎– Northern Retaliation split tape

3-way split tape by three projects with overlapping memberships: Lee Stokoe's Pact Of Ash begins the program with a 9-minute instrumental slow barrage of black metal riffing and dead-slow drums that somewhat reminds me of that awesome Murmuüre album in 2010. Unkerd Wood consists of Mike Simpson (Xazzaz, Oppenheimer, Dark Bargain, and Satanhartalt - all of which have been covered here) on bass & vocals, Jamie Stewart (Wrest, Fuckin' Amateurs Records, Oppenheimer, Dark Bargain, and Satanhartalt) on drums, and George Proctor (Legion Blotan/Turgid Animal Records, Mutant Ape, Inseminoid, ex-Skullflower) on guitar & vocals. I already liked their ultra-lo-fi, dungeon-sounding, black-hole black/doom metal, but this track is just UNBELIEVABLE,. It's a 16-minute epic of slowly grinding drums and bass, wailing and dissonant guitars, and some of the most seriously scary vocals I've heard invoking terrible swampy creatures and seems to me like a more structured version of the ritual darkness of Satanhartalt. At the 9-minute mark, everything stops and an ominous ritual dark ambient drone takes over, only to give its place after 2 minutes to one of the best riffs black metal has ever experienced, a reverbed cacophonous arpeggiated anthemic thing sustained by crushing drums and noise and a blurry psychedelic doom/blues vibe behind it that simply crushes everything. I think that this tape must be bought/listened to even just for this track. Finally, there's Gammal Sed, a solo (I think) project of George Proctor, where he plays catatonic, depressive but loud and noisy black metal revolving around a great arpeggiated riff eventually morphing into a noisy industrial/ambient chaos. All three of these groups are great, and they have released other stuff on Legion Blotan and Matching Head that deserve listening/buying. 2017 tape on Legion Blotan.

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Female Borstal (Culver/Mutant Ape/Haikai No Ku project)

As mentioned in the previous post on the Wasp Bomb/Female Borstal split tape, the latter is a project consisting of Lee Stokoe of Culver on bass, George Proctor of Mutant Ape on drums and Jerome Smith of Haikai No Ku on guitar. Their music is sort of a mix between Lee's Marzuraan super-heavy sludge and Jerome's Haikai No Ku psychedelic vastness, something like a more energetic and less sleep-inducing Bong or Let Us Prey-era Electric Wizard (my fave Wizard album btw). The riffs are real nice and there is an epic and agonizing feeling that usually culminates in noisy feedback and echo-drowned jams. Here are some of their releases:

2011 - Female Borstal cdr (Turgid Animal) - Download



2012 - Women In Prison...In Manchester 12.04.12 cdr (Turgid Animal) - Download



Live Split with Drunk In Hell - Free Download

NIHL/Female Borstal split tape on Matching Head - Get it from the label itself - get active!

Wasp Bomb / Female Borstal ‎– Live At The Dog And Parrot 28.3.14 (Fuckin' Amateurs)

Another obscurity brought to your family's entertainment by Blyth's finest record label is this live recording of Wasp Bomb and Female Borstal. Wasp Bomb was a (one-off I gather) project of Lucy Johnson (Smut, Witchblood, Indian Lady, Dark Bargain), Jamie Stewart (Fuckin' Amateurs, Wrest, Oppenheimer, Satanhartalt) along with two other people and played feedback-fog-heavy screaming punk/noise rock, and I'm not sure if I separated the tracks correctly. Female Borstal was one of the myriad projects of Lee Stokoe, accompanied by George Proctor (Mutant Ape, Karst, Turgid Animal) and Jerome Smith (Oppenheimer, Charles Dexter Ward). One of the most band-like musically ones at that, since they played a more psychedelic and energetic version of Marzuraan, that is, lysergic doom metal/drone. Expect much noise and intensity, proceed with caution. 2014 tape on Fuckin' Amateurs.

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Khanate - End: Capture & Release Live DVD

To coincide with the crucifixion of Christ, a 2005 performance of the most hateful and disgusting band ever performing both tracks from their masterpiece. This DVD came together with their last album Clean Hands Go Foul from the Hydrahead webstore.These are the vob files taken straight from the DVD, so expect the best possible quality but also a big size. 2009 dvd on Hydrahead.

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Corrupted - Dios Injusto 7"

At the request of a reader, I'm posting one of the best Corrupted releases ever. If there is one trademark Corrupted guitar riff, for me the central riff of "Dios Injusto" is the one, perhaps alongside the main riff of "Paso Inferior." But this one has this serpentine, crawling arpeggiated style that alsois equally heavy sludge and black metally like the demos of Thorns or some of the riffs of "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" Mayhem. The "guitar solo" cacophony on the second side is also just indescribable, while both Hevi and Chew are on top of their game here, the first in his Spanish curses and the second in crushing everything on the drums. 1999 7" on Frigidity Discos (<3 @ the Spanish"discos")

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Corrupted - Se Hace Por Los Suenos Asesinos cd

 

Corrupted's third full-length was equally bleak to the previous one. The first track "Gekkou No Daichi" (it would receive an epic revisit in Garten Der Unbewusstheit), is an acoustic doom-western requiem via almost Tibetan chanting and the two other tracks are characteristic Corrupted apocalypse, the latter one featuring a heavily Celtic-Frosted deathly groove. Must listen. 2004 cd on HG Fact.

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Corrupted - Llenandose De Gusanos 2XCD

Corrupted is the archetypical example of what "doom metal" should mean, and they're my all-time favorite doom/sludge band, from their early crushing riffage days to the epic and melancholic sound of Garten Der Unbewusstheit. On this two-hour-long set, we get one track beginning with a bleak piano line that keeps resurfacing through the most punishing slow and apocalyptic sludge you've ever heard and Hevi's Spanish-language curses on mankind's destructive tendencies. The second track is a 74-minute ambient environment of the world after the apocalypse.

It's a sunny and warm day out here, and my mood is perfect, but I'm posting this to celebrate a new Corrupted vinyl release that was brought out two days ago by Cold Spring and is shrouded in mystery - no samples or anything. Hopefully we'll get to hear it at some point...

1999 double cd on HG Fact.

Disc 1
Disc 2