DAMAD & KARST

A double whammy post for you here, Damad were a band from Savannah, Georgia in the U.S. that existed from 1994 - 2000 after they split up 3 members went on to form Kylesa, Unfortunately Damad and founding Kylesa member bassist Brian Duke died from an epeleptic seizure during the recording of Kylesas debut album and now  Philip Cope is the only remaining Kylesa member formerly with Damad.Vocalist and provider of artwork for Some of Damad and both of Kart's releases Victoria Scalisi and drummer Scott Duke went on to form Karst. Right that's the Kylesa connection dealt with onto Damad... So Damad had a very unique sound for the time, super heavy sludgy guitars mixed with a touch of industrial, and a big heaping of fat metal riffage, some spoken political samples and electronic noises add this Victoria's fucking brutal vocals and you had one serious wall of noise, though never quite reaching any serious "Fast" tempos their fanbase was mainly based in the political/crusty punk scene and along with Neurosis in my opinion are pretty much resposible for the sound that would later be known as Post Metal. Not that it's all just sheer noise there are some great structures and riffs plus some more "gentle" passages where Victoria is almost singing however if you're not familiar with the band i can assure you they are not an easy listen however if you have an ear for the more original and unique end of heavy music then this is definitely for you and the influence of Damad can be heavily felt in the early Kylesa recordings in fact when i heard Kylesa's first album i was convinced that they had just changed the name! Laura Pleasants of Kylesa and Victoria Scalisi being in my opinion the most BRUTAL female vocalists in heavy music!

So this is not quite a complete Damad discography I have been unable to obtain their "Dam Ol' Flag" EP their demo cassette or their Plus Equals Minus cassette (however i think 2 tracks off this were used on the "Rewind" 7" which is contained here) So here's what you get The First link DAMAD EP's contains their side of a split EP With In/Humanity, "Rewind/Manmade" 7" the "Centric" EP Their 3 Tracks from their Split CD with Meatjack and their track from the "Destroying Southern Tradition" Comp EP I have also uploaded first album "Rise And Fall" and 2nd and final album "Burning Cold". The Damad side of the Meatjack split and both albums are taken from my own CD's and are the usual 320kbps quality, the ep's and the comp track are from decent quality vinyl rips.All of these are great recordings theres not one bad track amongst them theres some great ideas and enough original and fuck off heavy riffage to satisfy any fan of heavy music!

DAMAD EP's - Mediafire

RISE AND FALL - Mediafire

BURNING COLD - Mediafire

So onto Karst... Karst as I've said were formed after Damad split and only released an EP and one album, both of which are not that far removed from what Damad were doing Victoria's vocals are still as brutal as they ever were except I would say whilst Karst are still heavy as shit their guitars are not quite as downtuned and sludgy as Damad's were and there's a slight upshift in tempo's as well making them a little more frantic and less of a bulldozer of sound like Damad overall there's a slightly more hardcore feel to the music (When i say hardcore think of the more original bands like Dead and Gone, Born Against, Econochrist etc) but overall i could not see anyone who liked Damad not liking Karst.

So I have uploaded both the "Receive the Void" EP and the "Vision Of Insane Hope" album for you both at 320kbps from my own CD's which is everything they did. 

RECEIVE THE VOID EP - Mediafire

VISON OF INSANE HOPE - Mediafire

I don't know what Victoria Scalisi is up to these days I think she still does artwork for bands and i think some a member of Damad or karst may have been in Baroness but if anyone knows feel free to comment! In the meantime enjoy a double dose of some really original musical brutality!

WOBURN HOUSE

Woburn House are an unusual German band, but before I start ...I have used the genre "post metal" quite a lot in the last few posts I've put up, if you're not sure what I mean by this i would describe it as... bands who do generally lengthy songs taking the structures of post rock music like Godspeed You Black Emperor or Mogwai meld it with the heaviness and brutal attack of metal. (there are a plethora of bands i  love that play what is known as post rock but most are very obscure and unknown I keep using Godspeed... and Mogwai for comparison as they are the best known and closest to what I'm trying to describe)  I would put Woburn House in that category however they employ a far lighter touch and much less heavy approach to their music than some of the Post metal bands i have mentioned in the rest of todays posts, In fact i would actually say they are closer to post rock than post metal it's too heavy to be the latter but too light to be the former!, They have lengthy songs which progress and build but where you'd normally expect an avalanche of extremely heavy guitar to kick in it doesn't, they play it quite differently building the songs with good playing and dynamics without resorting to overdriving everything for pummeling effect prefferring to gently lull the listener in, whilst they do have reasonably heavy guitars here and there you really couldn't put a "metal" tag to this as it's far too melodic (The only truly "heavy" parts are in 1st track off their 2nd album). That being said Woburn House produce some utterly stunning and beautiful music their singer has a great smooth,melodic and easy on the ear voice more akin to a stoner rock type style than the usual quiet/loud roaring growls also some of the guitar textures are kinda sharp and chiming with the sort of wall of guitar melodies you'd expect from someone like early Husker Du or early Wire and the pace is generally mid-tempo throughout but the different styles of drumming deployed keep it interesting and are essential in the building up of the songs along with keyboards applied minimally but with great effect along with what sounds like some quite political movie samples which are pretty cool though i don't know what movies they took them from but the delivery of the voices on the samples make me think they come from old movies or mayber documentaries or lectures?.I especially like the sample used at the beginning of "Oil" from their 2nd album. All these elements together makes for a really fucking nice sound all round fresh and well produced and not too hard on the ear! I hear so many little bits that remind me of other bands in their music not that they are directly ripping anyone off or stealing riffs or beats just little things that make me think hey that sounds like they've been listening to.... However these are again one of those truly original bands that are a bit harder to pigeonhole however i would also say they maybe have a very slight Jesu edge to them in places without being as bombastic and full on layers of guitar upon guitar as Jesu.

So I've uploaded the first 2 of their 3 albums to date simply because their 3rd and most recent album "Sleep Summer Storm" in my mind isn't a really BAD album per se it just seems they have veered far to far into melodic territory and lost the original edge they had on the first 2. So you have "Message To Ourselves Outside The Dreaming Machine" their debut 4 tracks clocking in at 54 minutes the songs are fairly lengthy I would say it's maybe very slightly heavier than 2nd album "Monstrous Manouveres In the Mushroom Maze" which has 5 tracks that clock in at 58 minutes total so again the songs are lengthy but theres not much to add to the descriptions i've given above both albums are equally as good but i generally play "Monstrous..." More than "Message..." maybe because I heard that one first. Give these a try because again no one seems to have heard of them and their albums are just fucking LUSH and brilliant! Go try something new....

Message.... - Mediafire

Monstrous... - Mediafire

INFAUST

Infaust from Germany (NOT to be confused with what appears to be a black metal band using the same name) existed in the late 90's they did one album a 12" inch and a split 7" with Japanese sludge/drone extremists Corrupted. Unfortunately i don't own the vinyl releases i do however have their one and only album "Muster" which i've uploaded here for you (320kbps from my own CD) again another obscure overlooked and forgotten band heres what it says on Discogs about them....

" INFAUST rose from the ashes of HYPOCRITICAL SOCIETY. INFAUST is influenced by english industrial hardcore like Godflesh or Pitchshifter), later Amebix and mid-time Neurosis. Their German lyrics are unfriendly ("Arschgeburt"), abstract ("Muster") and mostly work up their personal post-industrial depressions. "

I would pretty much agree with that except i don't  hear "Industrial" as much in the sound as i do a definite "Souls At Zero" Era Neurosis influence which was pretty unique at that time because back then Neurosis were the ONLY band that sounded like Neurosis!! I also definitely think they fit nicely with some of the darker less "crust" bands that were on Profane Existence around this time like Christdriver & State Of the Union. This one and only album was released on German Hardcore/crust label Epistrophy records and was originally played to me by Ste of Extinction Of Mankind (Cheers mate) my point in mentioning that is it will appeal to both fans of crust and post metal alike!

Anyway this is a great album and it's a shame they didn't do more i have the album for about 13 years and i still play it quite often it's a classic in my opinion and has stood the test of time as well. I will say that the production is a little quiet and lacks bottom end a little as well but i suppose they probably couldn't spend too much on recording it but if you turn up the bass and the volume just a little I'm sure you will find this to be a GREAT album!

MUSTER - Mediafire

Snowblood

Snowblood were a Scottish Post metal/Post Rock type band who existed from 2002 - 2009 who I know very little about (can you tell when I'm lacking information about bands cos I always start the post in the same way!!) I heard the name somewhere and then when i was ordering something from the awesomely cheap and friendly Super Fi records i discovered that Snowblood were releasing their final Self titled album on the Super Fi label and they were a Scottish band which appealed to me immensley!! and decided to check them out I was not disappointed, after hearing their 3rd and final album I tracked down the first 2 rare and hard to find albums on CD immediatley they are that good!
So I decided to upload their 3 albums for you unfortunately that's all there is from this amazing band so first album "The Human Tragedy" is a fairly short (36 mins) starts as a blistering exercise in Brutally heavy dischordant hardcore however as the album progresses the last 3 songs on the album mix up something not unlike someone like say Slint or Codiene with a dash of  Isis thrown in for the heavier parts beautifully sung almost angelic vocals come to the fore battling against the sheer screaming anguish of their usual vocal styles there is plenty of chug-heavy riffarama throughout the album but it's the mix of these with the quieter more melodic parts and sung vocals that seperated the band from the pack for me! second album "Being & Becoming" is a much longer affair at nearly twice the length of the debut (63 mins) this is where the band start to open up their sound and is my favourite of the 3 albums, again the formula is the same brutally heavy with screamed vocals against angelic vocals and slow melodious parts however on this album the slower more melodious parts tend to be more precvalent than the brutality and it's this use of more of those achingly beautiful vocals and semi acoustic guitars that really draws me to this album if it weren't for the heavier parts here and there this would without a doubt be a purely post-rock album. This is definitely in the same camp as some of the Neurosis/Isis type bands when they started to progress and use more melody and start singing rather than growling  (Think "In The Abscense Of Truth" Era Isis or Red Sparowes with Singing) Don't get me wrong there's enough contrast between the light/heavy sounds and enough howling anguished vocals to keep the most jaded heavy music fan satisfied! So 3rd and Final album "Snowblood" this contains only 4 tracks but clocks in at a hefty 62 minutes! The 2nd and 3rd tracks (all 4 tracks are untitled) almost forgoe the heavy parts altogether favouring the more epic building style 3rd track builds from effected semi acoustic and what sounds like a hammond organ to a wall of chiming dischordant guitar and screaming vocals then eases back down to the merest suggestion of guitar and the organ to the forefront! however 1st and 4th tracks are the opposite and feature little of the building quieter passages and go for a full on wall of utterly sludgy brutal heavy guitar and vocals!
All 3 albums are great (And uploaded from my own CD's at 320kbps of course) This is one fucking jawdropping and amazing band they never fail to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and tho there are many heavy bands doing the quiet/loud thing it all seems a bit samey to me but Snowblood stand out majorly from the crowd and were miles ahead of the explosion of all this kinda music! I genuinely think that instead of being influenced by other bands who play the same style of music these guys influences went well beyond the small world of "heavy" music (tho it's undoubtedly part of their sound) the heaviness they create is more reminiscint of the suffocating heaviness of something like early Swans rather than the more macho heavy for heavy's sake of a lot of more metal type bands and i can't tell you how spine meltingly gorgeous the more "epic"/melodic vocalled parts are! I can't say enough good things about this band go check em out as they are really obscure and you can download these and play them to your heavily bearded, bespectacled, trucker cap, rucksack and specs wearing scenester mates and watch their faces fucking drop cos they never got onto this band first (Cos anyone "In The Know" about this type of music I've mentioned them to has never fucking heard of them)!  ENJOY....

The Human Tragedy - Mediafire

Being And Becoming - Mediafire

Snowblood - Mediafire

Actually I have just checked on Discogs and you can actually pick all 3 of their albums used on there from £3 - £6 which is a lot fucking cheaper and easier than it was for me to buy them when I was hunting for them! go get em here if you want the originals....

http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?artist_id=632619&format=CD

(if you prefer on vinyl just change the search at the top of the page)

Momentum

Momentum Are a UK band who were supposedly formed from the ashes of Fall Of Efrafa (See Post HERE ) But I can't find any evidence to support that however I think they do contain members of Light Bearer maybe that means something to you? I'm aware of Light Bearer but never got round to listening to them yet! Anyway Momentum have released 2 albums and have now decided to break up or at least they are saying that 2nd album "Herbivore" is their last! It's a shame really because these guys are blistering vegan hardcore!  These albums (esp "Whetting...") are not a million miles away from the sounds coming from the newer bands in the crust scene fast almost d-beats, good chunky riffing overlaid with great melodies that bring to mind some of the better bands of the melodic hardcore style, however the vocal style and the fact that the guitars aren't quite as thick, heavy and downtuned as "crust" type bands firmly pushes them towards a more hardcore sound, generally i'm not a big fan of modern hardcore but these guys are a real exceptionn as they don't fall the usual generic boring rigid hardcore format, don't be put off by the fact i use the words melody or melodic becuse this is fast and intense stuff maybe comparable to someone like The Holy Mountain (see HERE) If you're into modern crust type music chances are you will like this as much as i do if you're more into your hardcore you could do a helluva lot worse than give these guys a spin! I'm sick of genre-ising here just check these guys out they gave both their albums away free to download pre-release and the link i've given for 1st album "Whetting..." is their link the one for "Herbivore" is mine! Go get em TRUST me you will not be dissapointed.

Whetting Occam's Razor - Mediafire

Herbivore - Mediafire

Fall Of Efrafa

Fall of Efrafa were a concept based hardcore/metal band from Brighton UK who existed from 2006 - 2009 They released a trilogy of albums as well as a split 12" and a rework/remix 12". I say concept based because Their trilogy of albums is called "The Warren Of Snares Trilogy" and the lyrical themes and concept draw heavily from Richard Adams book "Watership Down" amplifying the political overtones of his writing with their own takes on authoritarianism and social hierarchy, adding atheist & vegan themes and more. So... the music, what you get is some intense, heavy and political stuff I tend to put these guys in the same sorta bracket as the likes of Neurosis or Cult of luna or bands like that however there is a far more hardcore element highly prevelant in their music which along with the politics and the sheer heaviness of the band has won them many fans from the "crust" scene (I actually bought one of their CD's from anarcho distro Active dsitribution so if you know Active you'll know that this is no run of the mill metal type shit otherwise they wouldn't stock it.) This is dark heavy and at times epic music it evokes very sombre moods at times and deals with it's themes in an intelligent and refreshingingly original way you'll find plenty of hardcore and touches of post rock and sludge. These guys are not an easy listen and it's certainly not something that will just wash over you whilst i have said it eveokes sombre moods some of the more "Soaring" passages of the music are truly beautiful and the occasional use of strings is a welcome addition without sounding too trite.Along with the faster hardcore the longer tracks show great use of dynamics and i would certainly say the members are very good musicians and write and arrange the music well. On a personal note i heard these guys I just totally loved what they do and when i saw their packaging and read the lyrics it all came together really well and they have been a huge fave ever since
So what i'm giving you here amounts to their whole discography. the first file is the Fall of Efrafa Demo + the +  indicates that to save me uploading 3 seperate files i have put together their demo plus their 12 min track from their split 12" with Down To Agony and the ultra rare "Tharn" 12" which is a 15 min rework/remix of their track "Dominion Theology" by an artist called Paper Aeroplane, I don't generally like remixes when it's a heavy band but this remix/rework is brilliantly handled and takes nothing away from the power or heaviness of the original, so that's your first lot so next up is the 3 albums that make up the "Warren Of Snares" trilogy first Up is "Owsla" from 2006 which contains re-recordings of all 4 tracks from the demo plus an short intro and an short interlude I will however say the album is far superior to the demo i only include the demo in this post for the sake of making this post a complete discography.Next up is "Elil" from 2007 this is a MIGHTY album 3 tracks 20 + minutes each in length this is where you start to see them develop as a band the length of the songs allows for some beautiful instrumental and semi - acoustic passages along with the utterly crushing heaviness and sheer anguish being displayed! Lastly we have 3rd and final album " Inle' " this album is a 79 minute epic containing both shorter and longer length songs mixing the hardcore edge with the slower heavier passages and with great building parts all blended perfectly, the best way i can sorta describe what these guys do over the 3 albums is Imagine if Godspeed you Black Emperor or Mogwai were to have a jam session with someone like say Dystopia it might sound a little like this,however this is well written and original music not just mere borrowing of other bands riffs/styles!
The 3 albums and the Split 12" are all taken from my own CD's so ripped at 320kbps for best quality, The Demo & "Tharn" are taken from net downloads and are excellent quality,I'm sorry if I'm not doing a good job of describing this band but I'm guessing not many people read these blurbs anyway and probably come to find the music through file search engines or google but if anything i've said even remotely strikes a chord then you must download this essential, unique and highly missed band (I have heard that members went on to form vegan melodic crust/hardcore band Momentum I'll do a post on them and link you up with their 2 albums later!) ENJOY!

FOE DEMO + - Mediafire

OWSLA - Mediafire

ELIL - Mediafire

INLE' - Mediafire

The Warren Of Snares trilogy vinyl Boxset includes everything except the demo that I posted on here yours for a mere £136 used on discogs ltd to 200 copies damn i wish i had a record player!