STONER DOUBLE BILL!

Well I have recently got some decent headphones for an mp3 player I bought months ago, when I first got it i didn't know if it was the cheap Taiwanese mp3 player i bought off ebay or the headphones that were shit however having just spent £12 on the player i was unwilling to risk another £10 - £15 for some half decent headphones in case it was the player so i stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it! Recently i was in a shop and some headphones caught my eye and i remembered the mp3 player and the fact that my hour journey to work was very tedious and decided to just bite the bullet and buy em! I got home and tested them and yup turns out it was the headphones not the player that sucked! I was chuffed to fuck to have music "on the move" again! Where am i going with all this you might be scratching your head and asking! Well having these long journeys to work with an mp3 player using headphones has given me a new appreciation for music and just last week i decided to have an all (ahem) "Stoner" playlist...INTERLUDE.... Right i use the word stoner a lot to describe certain styles/bands within rock music however as lame a genre term and as lame as many very weak sub par almost grunge type bands have made it i'm afraid in these multi genre times when bands are splicing together all sorts of music a quick easy genre term is a handy way to save time for you the reader and give you an idea about what I am talking about so for the uninitiated the term "Stoner" to me applies to bands who look to the sounds of heavy 70's rock specifically early Black Sabbath for their influence,in most cases smoke lots of weed and play fairly slow and damn heavy!.....END INTERLUDE..... So whilst enjoying my all Stoner playlist two bands stood out in particular these bands were Sigiriya and Thorr-Axe both of whom just utterly slayed my ears on the bus/train journeys to and from work and my exact thoughts were and I qoute "FUCK I Need to blog these bands!"

So lets start with Sigiriya These guys are from of all places Wales (I just found this out, I can fucking SEE Wales from the top of my road!!! for some reason i thought they were Swedish) and have members who have served time in such mighty bands as Iron Monkey, Black Eye Riot, Dukes Of Nothing (See my Post on them HERE), Acrimony and Helvis (See My Post On Them HERE) If you have heard of or heard any of these bands then you will know that the members of this bands know a fucking titanic riff slab when they hear one and their combined experience should say enough but I shall continue I present here their debut album from 2011 "Return To Earth" (their new album "Darkness Died Today" is out any day) and what i like about these guys is the fact they have worked hard to get a sound that is completely bottom end but the guitar sound is something a bit different to your usual bands of this style it's really thick and heavy but has a kinda sharp sorta fuzz to it so whilst it rumbles your bass bins the riffs do not get lost in the mud plus their vocalist has a really pleasant voice in the mid to high range which works really well against the mountainous riffs and makes for a great mix, the songs are memorable and apart from the 10 min plus closer "Death Trip To Eryi" all clock in around the 3 & 1/2 to 5 min mark so they avoid the pitfalls of this style of music by not running a riff into the ground till you're bored to death with it and believe me there are plenty of great riffs on here! There is nothing completely startling here and stoner is kind of a restricted genre however these guys do the style way better than the vast majority of their contemporaries and deserve the 35 mins of your time it takes to check this album out! Which you can do for free right here....

Sigiriya - Mediafire

So onto Thorr-Axe Hailing from Indiana in the American Midwest these guys are a different bongload of "stoner" altogether from their bandcamp page.....

"Thorr-Axe is a raiding party comprised of three men with a mutual love of heavy music. We belch forth tales of dragons, wizards, frost giants, and vikings putting axes through people's skulls."

Whilst that description alone would have me reaching for the download button immediately I feel i owe you a little more, whilst these guys do have the heavy riffage and pace of stoner for the majority of their sound these guys are more akin to the heavy muscular metal that the likes of High On Fire or Lord By Fire (see My post On them HERE) do, whilst there are plenty of groovy riffs in their that would have them sit nicely in the stoner camp they tend to up the pace more often than most bands of that style do, plus this time round this bands singer does not have a pleasant voice he spews forth his lyrics in a style that's not far from the more brutal metallic hardcore type bands and works brilliantly with their sludgy attack,I find their riffs to be utterly addictive and have me reaching for the volume button whilst my head involuntarily starts to nod! If you are seeking the sun baked stoner style of something like Kyuss or Fu Manchu then scroll back up and download Sigiriya if you like your stoner/metal with a bit more bite to it then go ahead and download this and feel the Thorr-Axe whistle past your head! In the file you will find their demo "Roots Of The Mountain" and also their debut album "Wall Of Spears" whilst 3 of the 4 songs from the demo are redone on the album it would seem a bit redundant but i just figured why not as there is a big difference between the demo and the sound of the album however both are utterly great and worth having even if just by comparison plus this file gives you everything they have recorded so far and by now you know what I am like for completion! Anyway here's your link go get it now as i think I hear a band of warriors wielding swords and shields coming over the hill!!!

Thorr Axe - Mediafire

BL'AST! UPDATED

So I'm Kinda going back on my word here after saying SST was a done topic! However even tho they were on SST i don't always think of BLAS'T! as an SST band due to the fact that they were way more "hardcore" than the majority of SST fare and because i got into them through the European Roadrunner pressing of their Wishingwell Records debut album before their association with SST so i always saw them as a unique Hardcore band first and an SST band 2nd!

I deleted my original BLA'ST! post when 4shared killed my SST links however with certain recent events i decided it was time to treat them to a post of their own! All shall become clear read on friends....

So where to begin as this is kinda a re-post/update I fear repeating myself to my regulars on here but I'll try to not bore everyone...... Evolving from a band called M.A.D. who contributed 1 track to the seminal Alternative Tentacles/Maximum Rock 'N' Roll compilation "Not So Quiet On the Western Front" from 1982 along side many other hardcore heavyweights of the day changing the name to BL'AST! they debuted with 2 tracks on the Boner records comp  "Them Boners Be Poppin'" in 1985 I personally came to BLA'ST! after hearing their debut album "The Power Of Expression" around 1985/6, I bought it on the strength of the "popping neck veins" live action photos of the band on the album which looked like these guys were fucking fast and intense and one of them was wearing a Corrosion Of Conformity T-shirt (This is back when that was a GOOD sign of speed and intensity!) I got home with the LP and the sides were mis-labelled so I hit side 2 first the opening chord and riff of "Break It Down" just utterly floored me! It wasn't the high speed hardcore i'd been expecting but this was something really fucking powerful without resorting to pure speed to make it's point from then I was a confirmed fan! Anyone who reads this blog regularly should know that Black Flag are my all time favourite band (but if you're a newbie then now you know) and there are obviously some comparisons to be drawn between Black Flag and BLA'ST! however although it'd be dumb to deny it I still think that BLA'ST! had something of their own to offer and how many bands could take the sound of something as utterly devastating and unique as "Damaged" as a template and make it their own? And in my opinion any slinging of "clones" at them should have ceased when they released their 2nd album!

I'm not gonna overdo the in depth write up here it's BL'AST! and it's second time on here so I'll leave you to do your own investigation but here is some info on your links...

First up is their debut 2 tracks from the "Them Boners Be Poppin'" comp from 1985 you get an early version of "Time To Think" and an unreleased track called "S.S.D." both killer.

Then you have 1st album "Power Of Expression" the SST CD version, it is ripped at 320kbps but the tracklist for this is wrong both on the CD and when you put the CD in a PC the online provided track list is also incorrect i have re tagged the album so you have the correct track list and running order. However the SST version has the track "Surf + Destroy" tacked onto the end of first track "Time To Think" and doesn't even mention it on the cover as it's only a very short song blink and you will miss it!!! The other thing about this SST version is that the mastering is terrible leaving the album a bit dull and flat sounding, however if you have any respect for this album at all the best idea would be to take a minute to adjust your graphic equalizer a bit, or bass and treble if you don't have a graphic equalizer and turn it up LOUD! but an even better suggestion would be to read ALL of this post to the bottom!

Next up is "It's in My Blood" 2nd album and SST debut for BL'AST! continues where "Power Of Expression" left off this is still a heavy and powerful listen but the production and playing is much slicker and cleaner here however i feel this very slightly detracts from the raw power of the debut don't get me wrong this is still a blistering and awesome album and there are re-recorded versions of "Something Beyond" & "Look Into Myself" from the "Power..." album given a bit of a tighter workout here, this is ripped from my own CD at 320kbps the sound of the CD is a little quiet but the quality is there just turn up the volume, I have seperated and retagged the "Schools Out" 7" from the CD and given it a separate upload and it's proper cover there's the version of the Alice Cooper standard plus a Germs cover and one original "Your Eyes"

Lastly for the SST stuff there is "Take The Manic Ride" I posted this upon request last time as I only had a 128kbps vinyl rip but since I last posted on BL'AST!  i have bought it on CD however this album has really weak production and is again a quiet mastering job on CD so using an equalizing program on my computer i have ripped it from CD and given it a bit of a EQ brightening and boosted the overall volume I personally think it sounds MUCH better however if you disagree please leave a message and i will get the original un EQ'd version uploaded for you instead, the songs are there the band are tight just the production on this album is non - existent still BL'AST! and still really good but definitely not the best of the three albums.

SO finally we move onto the item that has inspired me to do this re-post I have given you readers what i think is the only available  free download of the 2013 Southern Lord CD "Blood!" (I know cos i got so frustrated looking for a d/l over the course of 3 weeks till i finally i caved in and bought it!)  When all the hype surrounding this albums release started it was said this was an "Unearthed tape" and "From the vaults" etc however after it had been out a while there was an interview online that made it clearer that "Blood" is actually "It's In My Blood" taken from the original master tapes given to Dave Grohl (Apparently a huge BLA'ST! fan) to remaster and clean up however it was discovered there was a second guitar track from one William Duvall (At the time an ex - member of high speed hardcore band Neon Christ but more famous now for being a member of Alice In Chains!!!) that was not used at the time because of Duvall's short time in the band so this album whilst having been cleaned up beefed up and sounding utterly immense is actually a remastered version of "It's In My Blood",not some lost recordings etc which i found a little frustrating because this was never made 100% clear before it's release why I don't know? maybe I'm just a little naive but i believed this to be something like a pre-production/demo of the album not a remastered version of "It's In My Blood". however even tho i seem a bit narked anyone who is a fan of this band will know that their back catlaog is just crying out for the remaster treatment and one listen to this and the difference in production, sound and power is immediately apparent if you read what i said before about "It's In My Blood" about the production etc leaving this album a bit less powerful than their debut then this version definitely restores that utterly flooring BLAS'T! power! I just think Southern Lord need to approach Greg Ginn about purchasing/Licensing the rest of the BL'AST! back catalog from SST and give them the re-mastering/cleaning up treatment because these essential and important albums need restoring badly! If you're a little confused by my blurb here and the difference between "Blood" and "It's in My Blood" you can read about it here.....

http://m.spin.com/articles/blast-blood-dave-grohl-southern-lord-album-stream-black-flag-sst/

*UPDATE*

So... Here is why this post has been moved up to the top of the blog even tho this is now 3rd time round for this post! Well much to my surprise tho prob not completely unexpected Southern Lord announced in March that they would be re-issuing BL'AST! debut album "The Power Of Expression" as "The Expression Of Power" now what I also didn't know that before the final version that was released in 1986 BL'AST! had made 2 earlier attempts to record the album and this new Southern Lord CD issue contains the 2nd attempt session on the CD and both the 1st Attempt and 2nd attempt sessions on the triple vinyl issue all of which has been awesomely remastered by Brad Boatright of Audiosiege I as you know do not have a record player however at the bottom of the page I have given you a link to this new Remastered version and it's so worth it this remaster has given this album a new lease of life it's sharp clean and powerful and all the tracks are there in the correct order plus as a bonus as i mentioned there is the 2nd of 3 studio attempts to record the album so you get the album in 2 versions all in one handy file and the early version whilst a bit ropey quality wise are an interesting look into what is one of the best albums in hardcore history! and have also been remastered by Brad Boatright of Audiosiege.

So there you go that is the complete collection of released BL'AST! studio recordings and probably the best free versions out here in blog land! I hope this post satisfies the old fans and finds them some new ones as i'm hoping some of the young Southern Lord records fans will be out there looking for more BL'AST! since the release of "Blood!" and here's hoping they will find themselves here as these guys are probably one of the most underrated and overlooked bands of the hardcore era and worthy of more respect than the shit they get as being mere Black Flag clones! One listen to any of this will set you right on that score! ENJOY!


Them Boners Comp Tracks - Mediafire

The Power Of Expression (SST) - Mediafire

It's In My Blood! - Mediafire

School's Out 7" - Mediafire

Take The Manic Ride - Mediafire

BLOOD! - Mediafire

The Expression Of Power - Mediafire