Song: "Blessed By Nothing"
Artist: YOB
Album: The Great Cessation LP (2010)

I seem to remember hearing this song live, it being familiar but not, like so many things these days. It has a bit less outright heaviness yet more of a long-term emotional weight than the 2009 album. If you can't afford or don't do vinyl, the two bonus tracks from The Great Cessation (this song included) are wandering about the internet as of at least a week ago. If you're a YOB fan, you'll want to get on that soon...

Song: "Zombie"
Artist: Vortice
Album: Zombie (2010)

It's got to be tough trying to emulate Meshuggah so much while still being an original band.

This song doesn't start off that interesting, but two or three minutes in it becomes a clear rehashing of Meshuggah's "Bleed", more than what you could already guess. I put that song somewhere in my top five of 2008 so you can imagine how I feel about this. Confused but pleased... especially that last minute.

I suppose it'll take the edge off til Meshuggah releases a new album...

Most of you who are into Eggnogg probably will have seen this already, but if you haven't or you haven't checked out Eggnogg before, now is as good a time as any. They just uploaded their new EP to the 'net yesterday. It's full of more Alice In Chains meets beginners' Wizard, and it's totally free. Get the mp3 version, it's 320 kbps.

I'm sure by now you Nine Inch Nails fans have already seen this, but for the sake of repetition, here goes:

How to Destroy Angels - "The Space in Between"

It comes off like The Fragile... Eleven years later, still don't know any better.

I don't have any information that you can't look up yourself about this - probably less because I've avoided the project thus far. But here's their main site, and here's the myspace if you haven't encountered HTDA yet.

The new Seven That Spells album just hit the internet today.

Get it: seventhatspells.bandcamp.com

Song: "Doe Deer"
Artist: Crystal Castles
Album: Crystal Castles (2010)

Suspend your beliefs about this band for two minutes and listen to this. It's like standing next to huge arena speakers.

I started this album, having this crazy idea that I would listen to it while working on school work (argh! fuck you, school!), before it occurred to me that I should maybe kind of write my first impressions on it instead of letting it roll by without my half-retarded thoughts and comments thrown into the internet webs. Yep. Beyond that, it's been a while since I've done one of these.

Back History:

The Melvins. I knew who Buzzo was in a vague sort of way for years, I'd heard the name of the band for probably just as long, and naturally due to my affinity of Tool I'd at least gotten the impression that they were good enough considering they'd been on tour(s) with Tool. I may have even heard a few of their songs, though I didn't remember actually doing so.

In 2005, I made a list of every band I have ever heard, which ultimately ended up being just a fraction of the truth as when I asked people to help fill in the blanks for me, I was told a majority of bands I had, in fact, heard or at least heard of. Melvins made one of their lists. I looked them up and quickly learned that Nine Inch Nails had been stealing song titles from them. I downloaded Stoner Witch and Lysol.

I was soon listening to "June Bug" a lot. Most of the rest weren't doing much for me at the time and I wasn't patient anyway (am I ever), but there seemed to be something here - something I'm glad I made the effort to find instead of passing over them like the majority of my peers.

I ended up downloading A Senile Animal around the time it came out. I'm not sure how that happened because I definitely wasn't paying attention to them then, but I do remember being surprised I'd caught the album exactly on time. It went like this: OMG I LOVE THIS. First the first couple of songs on the album, then gravitating towards "A History of Drunks", and before long I was stuck on that string of amazing songs: Rat Faced, The Hawk, You've Never Been Right. I much later learned that the Melvins had toured here at the time (which I knew but skipped) and their opener was Red Fang. I could have heard Red Fang in late 2006 instead of late 2007, which is a whole year of listening I'm sure I've already made up in live attendance alone...

Some years pass. I am still listening to A Senile Animal a lot. I downloaded the rest of their discography, or at least the most of it. I found songs I gravitate towards elsewhere. Nude With Boots came out, and I like it, but it's not nearly as interesting after Senile. The Nude songs are also kind of boring live, though I'm not sure why or if perhaps it just comes down to shitty sound in the venues I've seen them in. But anyway... Even though I'm inclined to call them Big Melvins, especially since seeing Houdini live and learning it was 10x better than Big Business duo version Melvins, there's nothing but nice thoughts going on. I was most definitely looking forward to hearing this...

And it's only a month early to the 'net. What do you think, a band member leaked it? It's pretty early for a commercial leak.

So, here we go.

My Thoughts:

1. Right off I hear better/clearer production than Nude With Boots. Drums, who'd have thought with the number of videos and pictures they posted featuring drum abuse? Maybe that's just cuz I have Coady on twitter.

But yeah, this song goes FULL RETARD 1:45 in. It reminds me of Big Business' "Let's go baseball!" live intros... or the fucking star spangled banner. I wasn't sure I was listening to Melvins even though the voices are so familiar. Gotta be a joke release... Nope.

Can't say I've ever heard army stomp chants in my music before.

2. Yay heavy. Familiar to several songs I can't outright identify. Definitely sounds good. and more drum abuse at the end.

3. HA, was that a wind chime? ... and now I'm just sitting here smiling. This album is pretty animated and active so far, like a sonic cartoon. Oi to the middle after they're 'running'... What a bunch of fucking freaks.

4. Lower in mood. Sounds like Jared singing clearest, not really something I want to hear foremost in a Melvins song. Once again something crazy going on at the end... DEVO. Guess not.

5. It's fucking cold in here. I turned down the heat thinking it was fucking SPRING and wouldn't be under 40 degrees anymore, but I guess that was a dumb idea. I feel like my bones are trying to be ice. .... And yeah, there's a song here. It's mmk.

6. Big Melvins' gentle lullaby. ...but it changes. lol, jazz. Sounds like a chicken or a fucking retarded little dog.

7. BLACK METAL! Oh, maybe not. Oh, maybe so? Who the fuck is singing? This song's on crack. This compilation of personalities and ideas is a strange one, sir. I have to say I like this one best so far.

8. And here we go with the cover. Gramma, this doesn't sound like The Who.

9. LAST SONG. It was over so quick. .... LOL. Okay. In any case, ... not really a song.

Final thoughts? It's going to take me a while to get into this album as a whole product. I think those that don't like the Big Business/Melvins blend already are going to hate this, since there's a lot of the Big Business humor, especially from their live show style, in this album, plus Jared's got more front vocals than before. A few songs sound familiar to things they (the Melvins) have done before. A bunch of the songs have some kind of ridiculous outro, which has been done but it still sounds cool. Lots of focus on the drums, but that's to be expected with two drummers. This definitely sounds like there are two drummers, though. So far "The Water Glass" and "Inhumanity and Death" stand out the most. And that's what I got...

Back to school work.

Song: "Psych No. 1"
Artist: Black Land
Album: Extreme Heavy Psych (2010)

For not being original, this is pretty good. This song seems more actual "psych" than the rest of the album, which leans more in the way of traditional doom. I'm reminded of Witchcraft with this song, but comparisons to Pentagram/Vitus are fair. That being said, most of you should like it.

While doing some half-assed research tonight, I learned that Scissor Sisters is releasing a new album in late June entitled Night Work. If you go to their myspace you can stare at some guy's ass and listen to one of the new songs, "Invisible Light".

Warning: disco.

Songs like this make me realize how varied and yet simple my taste is. Thanks for being THUPER, Scissor Sisters.

Song: "Motorcycle, I Love You"
Artist: Moon Duo
Album: Escape (2010)

Holy hell is this one evil to the psych(e). There's nothing about this that is remotely interesting or new or surprising, and it's just the same fucking noise on repeat with some whispered crap in the background anyhow, and yet here I am listening to it three times in a row. 8 minutes long x 3 times in a row = 24 minutes. I could have listened to Octavarium in this time, ya jerks.

Don't get stoned and listen to this. You'll never leave your house again.

Song: "Polvere di Stelle"
Artist: White Hills
Album: White Hills LP (2010)

I suppose I like White Hills enough now that I can listen to a twelve minute song that is basically the first minute recycled twelve times. Psych and doom/drone sure remind me a ton of electronic dance music... Gotta say, though, this song is fucking comforting and totally worth the glimmering vinyl purchase I can't even play.

And to save you a translation search, the title means "stardust".

Song: "Wires"
Artist: Red Fang
Album: new album... (2010)

They uploaded a new song to their myspace 20 minutes ago. If you've not seen them live anytime in the last year, you'll not cringe at the sub-par quality. Sounds effing great live, but yeah... myspace is what we get for now.

New album soon. YAY!

Song: "Snowbud"
Artist: Zmoke
Album: Zmoke demo (2010)

Looking over concert calendars this morning, I came across a show listing of Wuzzard, Kartari, and Zmoke. Underneath the names was the word "down tempo", and I seemed to remember something or other about Wuzzard being somewhere between stoner rock and death metal, so I quickly refreshed my memory with a listen of their myspace. Yes, stoner/doom they were. Interesting. I guess that meant I'd have to update my own calendar... No, not necessarily. I don't update my calendar for just one semi-familiar band. The rest of the bill has to be relevant. So, I looked the other two up...

Zmoke stood out. They are local and right up my alley somewhere right on the Wizard Smoke/Zoroaster and pained vocals boundary between Red Fang and Electric Wizard. Why hadn't I heard them before? Because they're brand fucking new, that's why. In fact, the show I saw with Wuzzard will be their first show, ever. Even more interesting...

I guess I have to update my calendar, then.

Have you heard the new Snailface album yet?

Snailface II is pretty awesome, evident by its cover.

Written in the confines of the RPM Challenge, the first Snailface album was a decent example of what a band can accomplish in under a month. While a little silly, a lot cliche, and quite a few steps away from their original sludge project Kowloon Walled City, the four guys behind the two bands managed to quietly impress with their seemingly one-off, smirk-filled side-project.

Fast forward to February 2010. I had heard somewhere in the muck of the internet that Snailface was writing and recording again yet could find zero evidence of this actually taking place. RPM was well underway, some bands were even finished, and yet... nothing. I decided to wait until the first week of March since that's when the first Snailface hit the 'net. Being impatient, I looked Kowloon Walled City up on facebook and asked if Snailface actually got together again this year. My reply was "That is an excellent question". ?! But that is not the excellent answer!

March 11th, still biting my nails that maybe Snailface wasn't going to happen again and I'd gotten excited for nothing, Kowloon announced that Snailface II was done. Like last year, it was a free download so I was right clicking and choosing "Save Link As..." as soon as I saw the note.

Of the first writings about the album, I believe this one might be the most concise: "Thrown together in a week or two, these ten songs explore some dozen yeti myths. Mind-blowing mix work by Grammy Greg Thompson. Narration by Victor Miller. Mellotron by a free plugin." The keyword in that was "yeti".

While the first Snailface was kind of amusing from its premise of being so different from KWC, from being cliche stoner rock with some sprinkled in ridiculous lyrics, they really ran with the "yeti" thing for the entire duration of Snailface II. Every song is about Bigfoot. Every one. And, of all of the Sasquatch songs I've heard (all zero of them!) these are, by far, the best.

The album starts quiet and maneuvers into a natural-voiced song beginning with a few slightly off-kilter but not so unusual lines about someone called "Yowie". At the introduction of guitar, the stoner rock and eyebrow-raising begins. Our, to say the least, strange narrator goes on to further describe his new wild love for untamed Yowie - a yellow-eyed hairy beast who apparently has a thing for the narrator, too. What The Fucks and giggles aside, the song manages to be HIGHLY original and won me over on first listen.

"The Almasty" continues with a hard-driving sound and some not so easily discernible lyrics, causing a first time or not so conscious listener to think the talk of beasts might be over. Especially for fans of stoner rock style music in the vein of Fu Manchu and Red Fang, this song manages to be very easy on the ears.

But then we get to "The Mandate of Himalayan Blood I", a sudden shift from rock n' roll to some poetic, spoken word nonsense. You may be tempted to skip ahead on this song, but DON'T. The relatively mild humor and light mood of the album so far goes into full-on ridiculous overdrive with this unassuming fucking masterpiece. My first listen went something like this:

"Uhhh... okay.... uh... um? Maybe I should skip ahead... Wait, WHAT?! HEH! WHAT THE FUCK. HAHAHA. OH MY GOD. FUCKING BRILLIANT."

In short, <3.

And then we're back on the groovy rock train with a song about the "Wild Woman of the Navidad". Apparently the Wild Woman of the Navidad's been drinking a lot of water. "Momo, The Missouri Monster" is next, and I believe this song is the winner of the album musically and lyrically. Poor Momo is just a misunderstood outsider, and this is echoed in the second spoken-word "Mandate" about Momo's friend of the North. Finally, a gentler, not-so-heavy song we find in "The Boy Named Jerry". Well, sort of. The music is gentle. The lyrics, well... They're on par with Friday The 13th. Unsurprisingly at this point, the established theme continues in the final three tracks of exclusion, destruction, and terror.

As the laughs dwindle, you may be tempted to write Snailface II off as just a comedy album with an odd premise. Sure, for some, that's all it's going to be. However, after six weeks of sampling the album, I have to say it's fuckin' good as is - ridiculous lyrics or no. While the first Snailface album had a mediocre stoner band sound and Snailface II doesn't sound original by any means, the result is a good, polished and complete feeling, high energy stoner rock album containing next to no low points - something even the top rated of bands have trouble effectively conceiving. You have to give these guys marks for not only writing brilliant silly lyrics but setting them to a groovy, oft-visited soundtrack.

Snailface II is easily in my top ten albums of the year so far, and if it doesn't make #1 at December 2010's end, you can assume my mind was blown twice this year.

Check out Snailface yourself at wordclock.com/snailface. Keep your eyes open for a possible 2-LP release in the future (that might even mean a tour!).

Song: "Shiny And Warm"
Artist: Goldfrapp
Album: Head First (2010)

Don't listen to this if you can't stand disco or any kind of 80s electronic/dance.

Do if you like Goldfrapp anyway, especially her upbeat and oversexed stuff.

I am tempted to throw this song on a Sludge Swamp comp to see if anyone notices.

Yes, there's going to be a DVD of the last Fall Into Darkness shows. Check out the very nice trailer and laugh at the boys in their soup cans.

If you're feeling up to it, play Where's Waldo: Sounds of Sagittarius with the video. Name every band in the trailer that I've posted on Sounds of Sagittarius (whether as a song or a show review) and get a gift.

Oh, and I'm doing the Fall Into Darkness website. So far so good considering my limited resources.

Snailface finally put their new album to the internet.

http://wordclock.com/snailface

In case you didn't know or you forgot, Snailface is Kowloon Walled City version stoner rock. They put out a pretty nice album last year for RPM Challenge that I've talked about 400 times here already.

As for this year's Snailface album, active listening makes it a little better. They put effort into the lyrics, in other words. Have a listen listen.

1:07 of track 3 is the point where I started cracking up laughing.

This song is pretty easy to like...

Moses - "A Life Like Death"

Apparently they will live to kill again.

Get it from the 2010 album Horse. Yes, they're trying not to be searchable on the internet. Nevertheless, you can find that song in their site's sidebar.

Droids Attack is a stoner / sludge / hard rock kind of thing.

They have a new album, out now, called Must Destroy.

You can find it streaming:

here.

Look what I "found" today, kids. An honest to goodness MSN blog article about a local band. If you read the whole thing, you get treated.

Someone's been doing some leakin', and thus the album has arrived to the internet. It's actually late considering some in Europe already should have had this, but all the same...

White Hills just released their self-titled album. Not very creative of them, but I'd put my name on this if I were them, too. It's wonderful.

If you have 13 brain minutes to spare, check out the song "Let The Right One In". I can't help but notice the similarity of this name to a recently popularized Swedish vampire movie. The lost, droney bullshit you'll find in the song fits the movie style as well. Maybe it's a coincidence, but I doubt it.

By the way, if you can tolerate this song, go listen to Headdress.

I was wrong. [This. changes. everything.]

Diesto's best song off their new album is "All Eyes Upon You". The title song is just a bit easier on the ears, easier to get into without a base.

No worries, I'll change my mind again in a month.

Or whatever. It doesn't matter what's "best". I just keep listening to it. Must be that long outro bit.

It's weird how music changes with time even though recorded music stays the same, in present day case, forever.

New White Hills album in a few days if you're from Europe or internet-capable. Otherwise, 2/23!

Buy it. It's their self titled.

And while you're setting up this thought in your head, go listen to 3/4 (Three Quarters). It's like you never left Mars...

And now I'm listening to the new Rob Zombie. Who knew this day would ever come. I didn't even know he had a new album coming out until the other day. I think I stopped really caring what he was doing musically at approximately the age 18, the week after I got "I'm Your Boogie Man" stuck in my head. I remember telling an ex that the song was stuck in my head and he had never heard it, so I sent him to Napster. Jesus Frankenstein, indeed. One of these days I'm going to get all nostalgic about the Swamp and that guy Spiritbeggar, who posted this album...

So. Here we go.

1. Starts like a stereotype of "current" metal, ImmOpeshUggaHammer (bad comparisons, oh well)... and then moves into something else more classic sounding. Freakin' unfocused. I like the bass riff thing in the non-"hey" vocal parts. My guess this has made it to the radio already... I haven't listened to the radio in probably a year, so... who knows. Maybe you do.

2. Oh boy, a movie/sound track. Holy moly, that sounded familiar for a second there. It changed. Hmm. I'm taking it that this album won't be available at Walmart. What a weird concept... Oh, there we go with the familiarity again. What song is that? Electric Head? Yeah... a slowed down Electric Head. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm having issues here trying to identify the exact thing I'm hearing.

3. Another piece of movie. And what's this, Manson Magnet of Reality? I think I've heard this before... Wikipedia is telling me yes, I have. It's pretty easy.

4. Now we're gonna get southern/country emotional. Long intro, or...? lol. Okay, long intro. I like how bands think they're innovative by having completely irrelevant intros to songs. I wonder how long it took Rob to remember the lyrics to this song. He's getting old, I'm thinking two lines is one too many at this point.

5. More random familiarity. I think the proper way to say that was "when the night comes", not "when the night come" because now I'm wondering what the hell day come is. Perpetually 14...

6. Church bells = virginity. Oh shit, we're going black metal on your ass. Gotta dress in black rags and prance around the damn trees now, brb. WHITE PAINT. I HAVE STICK. DEATH FACE.

7. ... Well, it's groovy. Nice?

8. Wiki told me I may have heard this one. I'm not recognizing it so far. It sounds... like a song.

9. Fairly typical almost-the-end-of-the-album drawn out slower track... The undefinable borrowing is getting to me, though.

10. Another groovy style track...

11. Classical music meets metal: That's never been done before. Fairly good intro, though, and at least it works as its presented in the rest of the song. The [seeming] drum outro is a bit..long... though it comes back to song, song. Drum solo, then.

Sarcasm aside, it's alright. Nothing shitty, but nothing that'll blow your mind either. Younger people or those who've only just barely touched on Rob Zombie (or metal of any kind) won't know the difference, and Rob Zombie's "image" will make it work, so I'm guessing it's going to do well and get good general reviews.

Mendozza has two new songs on their myspace from their upcoming (1/29) album Cabra Noche: "Sludgehammer" and "Witch Hunt".

Nah, that second one's not a re-title of "Fairies Wear Boots", nope.

Red Sparowes' new album is due out April 6th. Here's a pretty teaser:

New High On Fire track. In case you hadn't already heard. It's better than that shitty live video that was going around.

Snakes For The Divine = February 23rd.

This won't exactly follow a "first time's the worst time" format because I've heard over half of the album already, in pieces. For what I haven't heard in recorded format via Diesto's myspace, I've heard live. Instead, this'll look more like an actual review. Semi-professional writing here at Sounds of Sagittarius?! GASP.

To repeat myself and have an intro, Diesto was/is:

- one of the first local (Portland) bands I listened to/liked
- post-torrents/blogs, one of the few bands I've bought from without listening to their album(s) or seeing them live first
- the second or third band I posted to the internet
- responsible for my first take-down notice
- containing the first person I knew other than me who liked Red Fang
- really nice because they sent me High As The Sun to "review"...

High As The Sun is their new album. It's been recorded, but I don't think it's been turned into a consumer product yet as their former record label appears to be dead... Or something like that. Either way, it's not been "released" yet and I'm not sure when it will be. That sucks, but what can you do.

Recorded & Mixed in July & August 2009
Recorded by Adam Pike
Mixed by Alex Newport
Cover art by Sam Ford & Kirk Evans

Tracklist:
1. Beyond The Graves (8:35)
2. All Eyes Upon You (11:06)
3. High As The Sun (6:43)
4. Lowlight (10:40)
5. Waiting For The Fall (10:11)
6. The Longest Day (9:23)

For fans of: Isis, YOB, Baroness, Neurosis, Electric Wizard, current PDX/Northwest metal...

After listening to a few of these songs several times before this week and giving the album a couple of full front-to-end "spins", one thing is obvious about the new album: High As the Sun is far more introverted than Isle of Marauder and Outland, and I'm assuming Doomtown as well. The songs are more gentle and, overall, much longer than songs they've written in the past. On first listen, it seemed like an awkward, possibly "inspired" change in style after having grown used to what they put out with Isle - the album I discovered them with.

Over the last few months that they've had the song "High As The Sun" up on their myspace, however, I've grown to really like it. Though it sounds little if anything like Isle of Marauder material in its strange feeling of (possibly ironic) optimism, it just stands out. It may actually be their best song to date, though I suppose I should give it a little more time to make such a statement. Still, if you haven't heard it yet, I recommend you do so even if you don't listen to anything else from the album.

Perhaps second best and the first song of the album, "Beyond The Graves" starts out a bit like "Marauder" from Isle, but instead of going into bass-heavy, relatively speedy drumming, it stays low and slow. "Beyond The Graves" comes across as self-conscious and brooding even when the song picks up with a standard doomy march. The mood shifts somewhat with initial drunken rambling vocals that I'm not sure actually fit the song, but the vocals towards the middle of the song fit the slower changes well.

An instrumental theme of this album seems to be a particular high, almost piercing guitar sound. In some songs, it's part of the intro or otherwise momentary, but in "All Eyes Upon You", it's immersed in how the song moves and changes. It becomes a bit of an overkill for me towards the end of the album ("Waiting For The Fall"), but some people like that, and it does add to the overall central feel of the album.

Once the second track "All Eyes Upon You" hits around the two minute mark, it turns into a slow, groovy, non-violent headbanging doom-a-thon fans of Isis, Electric Wizard, and YOB will find easy to appreciate. After about five minutes, the song suddenly quiets paving the way for some super sad, shrill guitar and gradual fade-out. Followed by "High As The Sun", which comes across as stupidly happy regardless of all that bass, the songs are in direct contrast of each other. Instead of being awkward, the songs actually sit back-to-back quite well.

Next comes "Lowlight". Here, the semi-optimism from the previous song becomes unhappy camper once again. The sadness from "All Eyes" seems to be more of a fearful distrust and self-hate here, particularly once it finds a background of semi-psychedelic instrumental psychosis one might find in the midst of a Wolf Eyes track or set to a horror movie scene where the protagonist has lost all hope.

"Waiting For The Fall" then momentarily returns to a doomy beat and a comparatively lighter feel. Short of the tense intro, though, it's probably the weakest song of the album.

Last song "The Longest Day" is what's typically expected of a final track. It takes a while to warm up, but once it does it comes across as one of Diesto's best. It's also the first on the album where you can almost clearly hear the lyrics short of the title words... and I mean "almost", as nearly all of the vocals on High As The Sun are well blended into the music and thus intellectually distant and ethereal rather than meant to be heard literally.

Overall, High As The Sun is a good album. It does what it does well, the mood is built upon and maintained throughout the album, and it stays instrumentally familiar while still providing something new with each song. You may need to have a history of listening to doom, slower stoner, or prog/post-metal bands to approach High As The Sun at its level, but people who are simply new to Diesto won't have any trouble with this album. In other words, if you haven't heard them yet, this is a good place to start.

Once again, this album has yet to be released, but you should go listen to "High As The Sun" on their myspace regardless. In the meantime, they are playing a free show on Saturday, January 23rd at Duckett's (825 N Killingsworth) with Seattle metal band Hellgrammite and Portland's Honduran. I'm sure they'll play a few of these tracks for a better-than-myspace sampling...

MYSPACE
BUY ISLE OF MARAUDER

- Sounds of Sagittarius

Edit: It seems Google's spoiling it for you all anyway, so: Diesto.net. Don't forget to support the band, folks.

Song: "Antler Wings"
Artist: Ancestors
Album: Ancestors/Graveyard split (2010)

Hey, like, this song doesn't bore me to death. Congratulations, Ancestors. It's a first.

And possibly also a first for Ancestors to fit a whole song on a single side record... This split comes out sometime in 2010 from Volcom. I suggest you head on over to Volcom right now and sign up for their split vinyl club.