Metal 187 Items

sampled by BDP, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J ...

High Roller Records, reissue 2023, evergreen vinyl, ltd 500, insert printed on uncoated paper, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, poster, mastered from a new source by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in May 2018. New vinyl cutting by SST! Ultimate audiophile edition of this eternal classic!

The title, nature morte, is the French term for still life paintings whose literal translation is "dead nature." Big|brave color the songs of nature morte with unease, creating an air of beauty in decay, chords suspended in contemplative stillness. Robin Wattie"s experiences structuring lyrics and song forms on The Body & Big|brave"s Leaving None But Small Birds informed her work on nature morte, creating stories that, like many folk tales, are at once specific and universal. Wattie"s voice manages to be commanding and vulnerable with impressive range and intimacy. Even her gasps carve their way through the tidal crash of Mathieu Ball"s distortion wail and the pummel of Tasy Hudson"s drums. The momentum of nature morte conjures the image of a beast collapsing beneath its own weight before resiliently staggering upright to thunder onward. Big|brave convey heft from silence as deftly as they do from swaths of feedback and distortion to cathartic ends. "Distortion is key," notes Ball The three members recorded primarily live over the course of a week at Machines with Magnets with Seth Manchester, pushing the potential of their instruments beyond expectations. For each song, the trio"s songwriting and attention to detail deliver its simple but devastating emotional power. Across the album"s six pieces Big|brave create a tension between immediacy and patience, invoking the essence of disquiet, while conveying anguish through inventive arrangements and nuanced performances. nature morte captures Big|brave at their heaviest and their mournful fury is at its zenith, an album where each moment is so immense and consuming that it possesses its own gravitational pull.

If you’re looking for a band that embody everything hardcore punk should be, then you’re looking for Birds in Row. Sonically, they’re fearless. Lyrically, they’re as poetic as they are recusant. And live, they’re a ruthless force, matching the power of their music with boundless, must-see energy. After debut album You, Me & the Violence sparked listeners’ imaginations, 2018 follow-up We Already Lost the World was an unyielding inferno of brazen ideas. Metal Hammer UK called it “intelligent, poignant art,” writing that “this downward spiral changes pace and weight at every turn.” It screamed for mutual respect in a world of increasingly extreme political divides, and used the vehicles of punk, post-hardcore and post-metal to carry its cries. Now comes Gris Klein. Birds in Row’s third full-length album is their most genre-bending and timely declaration yet. “Water Wings” opens, its scraping guitar strums a ticking clock, counting down to the inevitable barrage of hardcore to follow. “Noah” revs up over its six gargantuan minutes. Its singing slowly spirals into apoplectic screeches. “Trompe l’oeil” is half folk, half punk, and “Winter Yet” has no qualms about busting out seismic metal guitars at its climax. It’s an amorphous beast of an album: always unpredictable, but never out of character for this creative collective. Gris Klein’s lyrics were sculpted by the Covid-19 pandemic, eloquently summarizing the cruel and sometimes nonsensical nature of mental illness. “Trompe l’oeil”, for example, sings, “Most of the times I feel lonely are when my friends are around.” “This is the exact moment where you should feel like you’re surrounded by people you love and you’re not alone,” the band add. “It asks, ‘If I can’t feel loved in this specific moment, then when can I feel that?’” Gris Klein is a portrait of a world enduring its most chaotic era in a generation. Yet throughout, the Birds in Row manifesto is the same as it’s always been: love each other. “We really want people to know that they’re not alone, and that they can count on each other,” they say. “The way we treat each other is political. It’s OK to trust each other. All the movies about catastrophes show people turning against each other, but that’s not what would happen. When people are in the shit, they help each other. That’s what we’re trying to transmit with this record: hold each other’s hands.” Not even a world-shaking pandemic could damage Birds in Row’s invention, compassion and brutality. Now three albums in, they remain the model portrait of punk. – Matt Mills, May 2022

Black Sabbath – Paranoid. The second epic studio album from the band who instigated the heavy metal genre, and the only Black Sabbath album to top the British charts for the next four decades. This 1LP red and black splatter vinyl re-issue contains several of the band’s signature songs, including ‘Iron Man’, ‘War Pigs’, and the harrowing title track.

First-ever US issue of this key 2003 release from Japan's shapeshifting heavy lords, Boris. The album title says it all. Immerse yourself in 43 minutes of sonic waves of slow-building fuzz, feedback and layered dimensions where lysergic solos and unintelligible vocals compete for their place deep inside your id.

American sludge metal band Buzzov•en was formed in 1990 by Kirk Fisher, Fred ‘Fuzzy’ Hutch and Scott Majors. The band was known for being one of the founders of the sludge genre. In 1994, Buzzov•en released their second studio album Sore. Lasting over an hour, this album perhaps has the most vicious, violent sound ever recorded, but in the purest and most honest way. Sore is a legendary Roadrunner cult release and features the tracks “Sore” and “Unwilling To Explain”.

Sore is available as a 2LP on black vinyl and comes with an insert.

With their new concept album "2222", Chaosbay definitely leave their status as an insiders' tip behind: The Berlin Progressive Metalcore band pushes their unmistakable interplay of unrestrained brutality and inescapable catchiness to the extreme in the almost 45 minutes spread over 12 songs. Almost every song has the potential for an epic stadium hit that couldn't be more festival-ready. The album describes a utopia of our future world in a kind of anti-apocalypse, from the point of view of a person who finds himself in the year 2222. He is surprised how many problems that seem insoluble today have been overcome in the meantime. In the light of the new era, many things that still determine our everyday life seem bizarre. The album is also interesting because of three internationally known feature guests: "What Is War" was created in collaboration with Mirza Radonjica from the Danish band Siamese, to whom Chaosbay feel very close. The other two collaborations can be heard in the songs "Home" (with Alexia Rodriguez from the US band Eyes Set To Kill) and "Passenger" (with Jake Oni from the Canadian band ONI).

With their mind-melting eighth epos, Cult Of Luna & Julie Christmas bring you to the outer rim of the ever expanding boundaries of the cosmos, where the rules of man are not applicable and the cold, dark nothing envelops the harsh realities of the universe.

Since their beginnings in 1998, Cult Of Luna has released seven albums, been awarded the top rock/metal award at the Swedish National Radio Awards and cemented their status as one of the true progressors of the metal genre, known to most metal aficionados. In 2013, the Swedes teamed up with Indie Recordings for the release of perhaps their most successful work to date in the shape of “Vertikal I” and "Vertikal II".
These cohesive pieces of work received worldwide appraisal and only pillared Cult Of Luna to even greater heights.

For their eight effort, the post-metal pioneers join forces with the talented Julie Christmas from Brooklyn, bringing an even larger depth to Cult Of Lunas sound. Her haunting voice has fronted vital bands such as Made Out of Babies and Battle of Mice, and is one of significance in the underground sludge and post-metal scene. Furthermore, she has released two solo albums and features on tracks by bands like Mouth of the Architect and String of Consciousness. Her prowess as a vocalist is powerfully on display on “Mariner”.

Back On Black Records are set to release the official reissue of the D.R.I. "Greatest Hits" album, originally released in 2001. D.R.I.'s music has combined elements of punk rock, thrash metal, speed metal and heavy metal, while their early material has been described as hardcore punk. They are often cited as one of the key bands that helped create the crossover thrash genre, along with S.O.D., Suicidal Tendencies and Corrosion of Conformity.

Modern day Amsterdam is a bit of an oxymoron. On the one hand, the city proudly brandishes its reputation for alternative and sub cultures, pushing back against lawmakers and their incoherent policies to adopt approaches that are more realistic and levelheaded. On the other, its a place of such rampant commercial development the local government actively discourages visitors and new hotel developments. Look closely, though, and you can still feel the spirit of what, during the latter half of the 20th Century, made this place so special. Paradiso is one of those spots. A waterside cultural venue with a history first as a church, then an illegal squat, before becoming what it is today, the walls themselves seem to pervade a sense of brave, adventurous heritage. An ideal place to catch one of the most defining bands of the 1980s in their heyday, then, here Depeche Mode deliver an astounding set in a space with the atmosphere to match.

In this accompanying remix set, "Earth 2.23: Special Lower Frequency Mix", the Bug has taken a bit of "Seven Angels" and laced it with feedback and big bass, allowing grime luminary Flowdan to climb atop it with his dark, staccato visions. Responsible for many transformational records himself, Justin K. Broadrick of Jesu and Godflesh crawls inside "Teeth" to lash at it with punishing drum machines and sordid layers of new distortion, building it into some brokedown palace of industrial mayhem. Loop's Robert Hampson makes good on the premise of ambient metal with his 30-minute hypnotic beauty, while longtime Earth cohort and longtime Built to Spill multi-instrumentalist Brett Netson seems to float the sound through a benighted graveyard on his clever "Teeth" revamp. These are not obvious directions for Earth's impact. Again, Earth 2 was never an obvious record. 30 years on, have we yet to grasp the enormity of Earth 2, an album that has continued its slow cycle of influence, uninterrupted? Probably not. Hell, most of us don't even know there are horses on the cover. Very limited indies only Loser copies pressed on lovely Curacao Blue vinyl!

Did you know there are horses on the cover of Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version? There are at least three in the right hand corner, gathered inexplicably near a white canvas tent, a human possibly perched among its folds. As widescreen and vast as the cover may seem, those little details-the horses, the possible human, the faint wisp of white clouds-give it depth and wonder, something to which the imagination can return. Did you know that the music on Earth 2-repressed now for its 30th anniversary, back in its original artwork, and accompanied by a riveting set of remixes that demonstrate the reach of what Dylan Carlson long ago called "ambient metal"-works much the same way? The surface is massive and obvious, the meatpaw riffs of Carlson and bassist Dave Harwell pounding and swiping and pawing at the speakers, a true bludgeon in three-dimensional sound. Listen, though, for the details in the corners, for the finesse beneath the force, and Earth 2 reveals new levels of depth and wonder. The widespread impact of Earth 2 suggests that others have indeed been leaning in, listening to these minutiae and making something new of them. A masterpiece without many genre precedents, Earth 2 surely helped send doom metal down its more modern drone, ambient, and avant-garde avenues. Those descendants are obvious. Perhaps more surprising and gratifying are the ways it has influenced electronic music, modern composition, and even hip-hop by realigning our senses of tempo, time, and texture. Earth 2 engendered a rearrangement of expectations, regardless of preferred form.

"Rheingold", originally released in 2003, was the 11th studio album of the German metal showcase band around Chris Boltendahl. A concept album based on the lyrics of Richard Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung".

The Dark Ride is the ninth studio album by German power metal band Helloween, released in 2000.[3][4] The album's style was quite different from Better Than Raw as it had a much darker sound, very tuned down guitars, and gruffer vocals. The album was produced by renowned figures Roy Z and Charlie Bauerfeind. It is also the last studio album to feature Master of the Rings-era line-up with the dismissal of guitarist Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch after completion of the supporting tour for the album.

Rather Death Than False Of Faith (1988) was the debut album from UK thrash metal group Hydra Vein. Rather Death Than False Of Faith saw Hydra Vein hailed as the UK's answer to Slayer. The UK thrash scene at the time (and subsequently) had been lagging behind the US and Germany both in quality of output and exposure in the media and Rather Death ... was widely considered to be a decent riposte on behalf of the underdog. The album's highlights are undoubtedly the breathless title track, the stop-start "Right To Die" and the high octane "Crucifier".

After winning over new audiences with their acclaimed 2018 debut full-length “Age of Revolution” and touring relentlessly alongside fellow shredders such as Marty Friedman, Powerglove and Exmortus, Immortal Guardian gathered in Las Vegas at the beginning of 2020 to begin recording their second album. As the spread of Covid-19 and the subsequent pandemic began to ensue, each member of the band retreated to their respective hometowns. With shutdowns around the world being enforced, the band completely scrapped the record that they had been working on and were heavily inspired to write and create a new thematic record about their emotions surrounding current events. “Psychosomatic” is the next step in Immortal Guardian’s evolution while still capturing the band’s exhilarating trademark melding of melodic power metal with progressive/shred tendencies.

The group – founded by Gabriel Guardian, whose uncanny ability to play guitar and keyboard simultaneously has been showcased on MTV's “Amazingness” and on his unique dual-instrument covers of classics by the likes of Iron Maiden, Pantera and Guns N' Roses that have garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube – began building their following through multiple self-released EPs before signing with M-Theory Audio for the 2018 release of their first full-length record, “Age of Revolution.” The band has also performed live alongside some of the biggest names in metal, including Judas Priest, Dragonforce, Kamelot, Symphony X, Sonata Arctica, Slayer, Metal Church, Soilwork and Steve Vai, and in countries such as Brazil and Russia, and during high-profile performances at ESPN's X Games, South By Southwest and the Fun Fun Fun Fest.