THE BLOOD OF HEROES & SUBMERGED

(I couldn't find a picture of the band but I did like this piece of art from the inner of their latest album)

Ok so this post is a bit out of left field here and another one of those ones that I am putting up here more for the internet than just my specific audience! We have two artists that are linked so one justifies the other read on.....!

The Blood Of Heroes came to my attention because it was a project featuring Justin Broadrick (See posts On his remix work HERE & as Jesu HERE) who readers will know i am a big fan of however upon investigation I also found among others I hadn't heard of at the time Bill Laswell was also involved and as he is a MASTER of the bottom end i was sold! However when their first self titled album was released it was a real shock to me blending elements of Drum 'N' Bass, Dub, Industrial, Justin's Trademark Guitar and occasional vocals plus a serious bottom end provided by Bill Laswell's organic along with Kurt Gluck (aka Submerged) & Lynn Standafaer (aka Enduser) Electronic bass making for some serious speaker quaking!!! Most of the vocals throughout the album are provided by Dr. Israel who I know nothing about but who appears to come from the New York Illbient/Drum 'N' Bass scene and his rough mc/dub style vocals work well with the other elements.

I'm going to say right now that this is not the kind of stuff I would normally post on here and without Laswell & Broadrick's involvement this would be more of a  standard Drum 'N' Bass type album however the mix of the Organic and Electronic elements works in this bands favor and of course Justin's guitar work is stellar and heavy and he has never made a secret of his love of breakbeats (see some of Godflesh's later work and his side project for evidence) but if like me you are open minded and willing to give something new a try then these are definitely for you. Plus all the members of this band whether primarily or occasionally have been involved in making electronic music as well as playing in bands.

I have given you both of The Blood Of Heroes albums (their self titled album from 2010 and the more recent "The Waking Nightmare" from 2012) to date plus the Remix album "Remain" which accompanied their self titled debut which features remixes by Justin Broadrick, Bill Laswell, Enduser & Submerged (all 4 are members of The Blood Of Heroes) plus further remixes by the likes of Dälek (awesome producers/artists in their own right) and due to the involvement of 4 of the members is more of a de-constructing/re-interpretation of the album than a standard remix affair and works really well.

I am trying to broaden the scope of the blog and not just post heavier guitar based stuff all the time as i have said many times to say my tastes in music are wide ranging is an understatement and i do go through phases of listening to different music and if i like it enough it merits inclusion in this blog and i felt it was long overdue that some electronic based music was represented and the involvement of Justin Broadrick and Bill Laswell in this project made this an ideal starting point!

So I will can the chat and let you check this stuff out for yourself here's your links......

The Blood Of Heroes - Mediafire

Remain - Mediafire

The Waking Nightmare - Mediafire

So this leads me nicely to the 2nd part of this post which is what i was referring to at the start about this post about it being for the internet rather than readers of this blog so i shall explain further.... basically The Blood Of Heroes part of this post was put here because I actually wanted to a post on Submerged (aka Kurt Gluck pictured above) however i felt without The Blood Of Heroes part it would make less sense as to why I am doing this post!

As The Blood Of Heroes is made up of people who all have careers in their respective fields of music and i was already aware of the work of Justin Broadrick and Bill Laswell i decided i would check out the work of the other members as I liked the music behind Blood Of Heroes a lot so this led me to discover Submerged, now let me be clear Submerged are a straight up Drum 'N' Bass project and is the main moniker for the majority of Kurt Gluck's musical output now whilst i like most people who have had a lifelong passion for music, since it's major breakthrough in the late 80's/early 90's it would be impossible to have avoided dance/electronic music it seeped into almost every part of musical culture and still does even to this day and I was heavily involved in that scene through the mid - late 90's and still have an interest in it today however i am extremely choosy about what i like and rarely if ever check out anything new (most of the dance/electronic music I like is stuff i was into at the time and not really anything recent) however I did decide to check out Submerged as i liked the name and figured if Justin and Bill would work with him he must be doing something pretty good! and i was right although he does make Drum 'N' Bass/Breakbeat type music he does it with a wholly different and unusual approach and has a dark and nasty edge to it which appealed to me immensely.

When i started looking for some Submerged music I could only find "Pay" downloads (at the cost of $10/£6.50 an album) so i used this nifty little site I have as a last resort for finding individual mp3's if i can't find a rar of an album and i had to download almost all of the music in these links track by track from there then i had to pay for "Ghost Dope" (though at nearly 2 & 1/2 hrs long i think the $10 was justified) so as i said this is a "give it up for the internet" here's all the (digitally) available Submerged stuff free of charge so you don't have to spend the best part of 2 days like i did finding the mp3's compiling them etc....

So what you get below are his two "stand alone" albums "Before Fire...." and "Stars Lights..." plus "Ghost Dope" which is a 2 & 1/2 hour compilation of tracks culled from his vast back catalog of 24 12" vinyl releases (the 12" being the primary format for Drum 'n' Bass and dance music) then a further compilation from the vaults "Violence As First Nature" which has a further 15 cuts from his back catalog and also comes with a bonus DJ mix featuring all these tracks plus another 13 tracks seamlessly mixed by the man himself. However it does not end there purchasers of "Before Fire..." were given a free download from the label (Ohm Resistance) entitled "Before Fire...Supplemental Material" which has a further 2 tracks plus a 31 min track by someone called Robert Mariani entitled "Astral - Cassette Tape #01 (1985)" I cannot find any information about what relevance this artist or track bears to Submerged or the album but it's in there should you wish to check it out. And "Stars Lights..." contains a bonus remix of one of the album tracks.

So just quickly i want to say that there is a lot of regular if above average drum and bass type stuff here mainly on "Ghost Dope" which is not surprising as it is culled from 12"'s mainly targeted at a club environment however both his albums plus the "Violence As First Nature" comp contain some insanely nasty,grimy and intense stuff which puts me in mind of some of Aphex Twin's more crazy stuff and his cutting up of beats is just nuts as well as some of the intense bass,noise and just general electronic brutality that borders on the industrial. I have listened to it on my mp3 player this week and it was just great so that's why I decided it was worth blogging I really feel you don't have to be out of your head on drugs on the dancefloor to enjoy this stuff it is varied and interesting enough to stand listening to at home.

So here you go my first posting of purely electronic music I have spent more of this post justifying and explaining why i posted it rather than describing the music I guess that's just my personal guilt that i have posted so much heavy stuff here that I feel like I had to explain also i don't really know how to describe the depth of a bass tone or how good the TB303 waves and 808 beats are I only know i liked it a lot, it provoked a positive response and that's why it's here, In closing i will refer you to a qoute from the very 1st post on this blog .....

"The main thing is to have no expectations of this blog because even I don't know what I'm gonna put on here yet you can expect to find anything from acoustic and experimental music to jazz and grindcore whatever I'm enjoying that i think is worth sharing I'll put it on here I place no labels on myself or my music tastes."

So there you go more justification ha ha here's hoping i don't lose the majority of my readers and some people will enjoy this crazy music....

Ghost Dope - Mediafire

Violence As First Nature - Mediafire

Before Fire I Was Against Other People - Mediafire

Starts Lights The End - Mediafire

THE KOOLAID ELECTRIC COMPANY

SO this band were a bit of a surprise discovery for me I downloaded a compilation called "Reverb Conspiracy Vol 1" it was billed as "A European Psych collection co released by Fuzz Club Records and the Reverb Appreciation Society" I was mainly after the download for the exclusive Dead Skeletons track on it (See my post on Dead Skeletons HERE) however after downloading I had it on in the background whilst doing something and one song really grabbed me so I checked the track list and the song was "Dreams" by The Koolaid Electric Company so a quick net search and i discovered they had an album out called "Random Noises And Organised Sounds" and a further net search netted me a download of it but it was so good i managed to get in touch with them through their facebook page and i manged to purchase one of the very few remaining copies of it from them and as it's completely out of print and very hard to come by for a reasonable price I asked for their permission to upload the album for you guys and they were kind enough to let me do so.

It would appear that at least one member of this band is from the long standing indie/shoegaze band The Telescopes but I have to be honest I didn't pursue information on this further but i suspect the fella i've been in touch with on Facebook Dave "Rusty" Gryphon would be the one.

So why all the fuss? well as you all should know i am a huge fan of the current wave of modern psychedelic music or "Psych" as it's referred to and most of it is borne of a similar template krautrock-ish passages and loud guitar freakouts however these guys were approaching the "Psych" sound from a completely different and altogether British angle whilst still having plenty of the hallmarks of psychedelic music these fellas are leaning more towards the sounds of Loop (See post HERE) Ride, (early) Jesus and Mary Chain etc and a bit of the style known as "Dream Pop" think Mazzy Star (See Post HERE ) etc and also there's hints of 60's garage/pebbles type stuff as well this is all wrapped up in loud effected guitars, and makes each song standout as different from the next and keeps things interesting whilst most psychedelic bands tend to slam you to the wall with intense builds and extended guitar freak out these guys happily drift along lazily and dreamily and whilst they still have great builds and are more than capable of some good loud guitar in the right places it's more of a shimmering guitar ride that whilst still plenty loud is a far more relaxing affair than their contemporaries and is just so lush it will melt your spine! I defy anyone to not be bowled over by the sheer beauty of this album. I know there is quite a bit of "Shoegaze" revival going on these days but the way these guys blend it with their psychedelic influences is just genius and this album has been one of the best things I've heard this year (although it has been out since 2011!!!)

So below I have a given you a fully authorised link to their album uploaded by me at 320kbps from my CD I cannot stress enough that you should check this album out I am listening to it right now as i type this article and the acoustic strumming and effected guitars of the intro to the track "home" just made me stop, go limp and go ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's a truly beautiful listen track after track of just great songs that are also completely memorable every time I hear a song I go"Ahhhh I remember this one it's great"  then the next one comes on and I go "Ahhhh I remember this one it's great" A truly terrific album 9 songs of utter aural delight and worth 50 minutes of anyone's time at least anyone with a heart and a brain and a love of great music... Enjoy!

The Koolaid Electric Company - Mediafire

LECHEROUS GAZE

This is a completely redone version of the old post I decided that it needed re-doing rather than updating because firstly they have had a GREAT new album out since it was originally done and secondly because I just them live!

So...Anyone who reads this blog regularly should know that i am a huge fan of Annihilation Time so when they broke up and 3/4 of the final version of A.T. formed Lecherous Gaze my expectations were high but at that time (2010) firstly I didn't like the name and secondly I just couldn't get into them to start with I had hoped they'd keep their Black Flag/BL'AST! edge and i just didn't hear it and found their new more rockin' style just a little too "rock" for what I had wanted/expected!

So though I kept up to date on what they were doing and thought they were kinda "OK" they were never really a favorite especially when they had a change of vocalists. However last year I dunno how it happened but after I heard they had a new album in the works and were touring I decided to have a re-visit and lo and behold the clouds parted the sun shone upon me and i finally "got it"! I have since purchased the EP and both albums on CD and decided it was time for a proper post! So the high praise this band receive in this post is a product of my re-visit!

Lecherous Gaze were formed by ex - Annihilation Time (See My Post on them HERE ) members Graham Clise (Guitar), Chris Grande (Bass) along with Noel Sullivan (drums) who played drums on the last Annihilation Time album "III - Tales Of The Ancient Age" Their original vocalist Lakis Panagiotopulos (Who bore an uncanny vocal resemblance to Glenn  Danzig) only appeared on their debut Demo/EP and was replaced shortly thereafter by Zaryan Zandi I mention this straight away because originally i couldn't understand how their vocalist had gone from smooth toned Danzig style to sounding a lot like a manic Captain Beefheart!! And thought it best to save you from the same confusion.

They released their "Audio Testament" demo (pictured below) with original vocalist Lakis Panagiotopulos in 2010 this would later get tweaked and re-issued as the "Lecherous Gaze" 12"/CD the only recording to feature their original singer. It's a cracking debut taking off where the last Annihilation Time album left off but a bit less on the punk side and adding a bit more garage and 70's rock which is pretty much sets the standard for everything to follow.

At this point I think there's little to be had from going through each LG release individually as whilst they have had a few EP's between the debut and 1st album and a couple between  the first and second albums they have been a fairly consistent unit there's been no groundbreaking changes in their sound since they started they have just continued to release consistently good records and just got better and better at what they do so in the spirit of shorter write ups more music here's a quick breakdown of your links.....

"EP's" this is the original link from the original post and it contains the debut "Lecherous Gaze" EP but also contains their "Bagagazo" EP "Born On A River" 12" "Animal Brain" 7" and their tracks from the 3 way split 12" with Danava and Earthless now originally I had thought that these were worth having but it turns out that apart from their debut EP ALL of the others contain mostly tracks that would later turn up on their albums and they are exactly the same versions as the album versions however there are 2 tracks in there that don't appear on the albums "Feathered Fish" from the "Bagagazo" EP and "Get You Some" from the 3 way split so if you, like me, want to be completist then these tracks are definitely worth having plus you most definitely NEED their Debut EP so don't skip it!.

So that being said I have given you their 2012 debut album "On The Skids" which is a great debut and is a non stop rock 'n' roll wild ride I have to be honest as i said near the start that it took me a while to get into the new vocalists "croaky" Beefheart style but the music is just unbelievably great there are not enough bands blending the best of 70's rock with a healthy dose of Stooges/MC5 craziness and a dash of grimy early USHC and these guys by far are the best at it I said in my original post on these guys that i figure even if Annihilation Time had kept going this is what their next album would have sounded like anyway. This is tight and well played, the musicianship is impeccable and it shows that the core of this band have been playing together for quite a while and it can't be said enough how great a guitarist Graham Clise is he is a non stop hot rock lick machine! Whilst this is an excellent debut their latest album from this year "Zeta Reticuli Blues" takes the template and just makes it even better the songs are even more rocking and memorable and they even do a cover of old blues rock standard "Baby Please Don't Go" and their version is just scorching all i can say is if you thought "On The Skids" was good then this will blow you away! As far as I can tell this is the only place this is available for free on the net because I tried for months after hearing it was being released and after it was released and in the end had to give in and buy it ha ha!

So there you go the complete story so far and having seen them live recently it's obvious these guys LOVE what they do as they certainly looked like they were enjoying playing as much as we were enjoying watching them so i doubt this is the last we will hear from them and personally I can't wait for more! Enjoy!

EP's - Mediafire

On The Skids - Mediafire

Zeta Reticuli Blues - Mediafire

And just for fun here's some pics me and my Girlfriend took with our phones of Lecherous Gaze live at the Blade factory Liverpool....

SNAKEBiTE

I Have often mentioned the fact that I had a renewed interest in Hardcore in the early millennium and it led me to discover a lot of great bands who were either short lived or just disappeared completely without at trace one of those great bands was SNAKEBiTE. I have often used them for reference in other posts but i never really thought about the fact that having only had 2 x EP's about 13 years ago that most folk wouldn't have a clue who they were. I had often wanted to rectify this but i only had vinyl rips of their 2 EP's and they were fairly atrocious quality but recently I came across a bandcamp page which had both their EP's uploaded and from what I can tell the source wasn't vinyl and they sounded a lot better than my own rips. So here I present you the "discography" (does 2 EP's count as a discography??) of this great short lived and overlooked band!

These guys were, if memory serves me, from New Jersey in the USA I got interested in them because they had an ex member of Down In Flames but then discovered one of them went on to be in Forward To Death and another member was in a short lived but excellent Hardcore band called Survivors who again did one EP and that was it. I also mentioned in various posts that the internet was in it's infancy/dial up era back then and often labels would have small websites and they would offer 1 or 2 tracks from each release they had for download and i used to download everything and make mix CD's of it to listen to then decide what stuff I wanted to buy and that's how i came across these guys, they were on Don Giovanni records who started out releasing mainly hardcore but have become quite a big underground/Indie type label but at the time their current releases were SNAKEBiTE, Kamikaze, Talk Hard and a couple of others and they were all so good I bought all the EP's.

So I got these 2 Ep's mainly on the strength of the Down In Flames connection however I was quite surprised when I heard them because instead of the Fast thrash i expected what i got was some GREAT mid paced/Fast hardcore with more than a nod to the likes of Poison Idea. What i like most about these guys is tho they have quite shredding and Intense vocals the music is nice and chunky has a classic old school feel while still managing to sound contemporary rather than retro also the songs they wrote were very memorable with great riffs that get your head nodding and just stick with you for days!

So in the link below you have their 1st EP "Every Bad Idea Is A Good Idea" and 2nd "Feel The Buzz" there's only 4 tracks on each and the total playing time of both is a mere 15 mins however it's a seriously great 15 mins and i find it criminal that these guys never did anymore music as although according to discogs.com all of the members are in other bands SNAKEBiTE were one of those frustratingly short lived bands that just make you go ARGGGGHHHH why did you break up when you were SOOOO good!

I Hadn't listened to these in a while before i got this post together and it has struck me that these guys are in quite a similar vein to recent hardcore revivalists Obliterations so if you like that sort of thing then these guys are definitely for you. So now anyone who follows all the posts on here can download these EP's and make sense of the comparisons I make when I mention these guys! Both EP's are high bitrate not quite 320 but high enough I have separated them into individual folders for each EP withj the correct artwork etc so go download and enjoy this GREAT band.



SNAKEBiTE EP's - Mediafire

OBLITERATIONS

Ok so Obliterations are a new band from California that I was only alerted to about a couple of weeks ago because a friend of mine is trying to put a gig on for them in Liverpool so i decided to check them out luckily I haven't missed out too much by these guys so I'm quite glad to have found out about them now! Featuring members of Black Mountain, Saviours,Bluebird,Yaphet Kotto to name but a few I have to be honest having only heard of Stephen Mcbean of Black Mountain who is in the band i didn't know what to expect I kinda thought maybe some sort of cool Psych/Stoner type stuff but I was WAY off the mark these guys play an absolutely ferocious modern take on old school American hardcore not unlike maybe a supercharged version of Annihilation Time ( see my post on them HERE ) however that being said it's not without it's modern touches as well! They list their influences as simply Black Flag and Black Sabbath! and to be honest when starting a band what more do you need? and seeing as those bands happen to be my 2 favourite bands then I am automatically gonna give a thumbs up before I've heard a note!!!

So Far these guys have only released 2 x 7" EP's 8 tracks total but they have an album out called "Poison Everything" on Southern Lord on 14/10/14 which i will add to this post when it comes out. But for now here are their 2 EP's in one handy package Their self titled debut EP from 2013 and latest EP from this year "The Hole" what you get is 8 tracks of loud distorted everything turned up to 10 dirty nasty hardcore however as i say this is hardcore looking back to early 80's California (think early Black Flag, Circle Jerks etc) with some more slightly "Rocking" touches (think early 00's hardcore like Suicide File or Snakebite or something along those lines) I post a lot of this retro hardcore type stuff on here and I genuinely feel there is not enough of it around but I only pick the best of it to put on here as it's not easy to capture that "Dangerous" feel of the early 80's USHC you can pillage Black Flag riffs as much as you like but unless you really know your stuff you're just wasting your time these guys however have taken that sound and feel and brought it kicking and screaming into 2014 and added their own spin on it without taking too much away from the core sound! This is intense loud and nasty hardcore done the way it should be without going crazy on the speed or adding heavy guitars or whatever! Having found these guys was a real pleasure for me and I hope you readers will enjoy them too I cannot WAIT for the album!

On a final note here's some trainspotting for you....  if you doubt these guys credentials as a hardcore band you may be interested to know that although Stephen Mcbean is best known for his Alternative/Stoner band Black Mountain and his Acoustic alias Pink Mountaintops I just found out that he was also in an old Canadian hardcore band called Mission Of Christ who did one demo tape and a split EP with Fratricide (Fratricide would later do a couple Of EP's and record a split album with Neuroot for the legendary Pusmort records which never got released) And i remember very clearly that back in 1987 that Fratricide/Mission of Christ split EP was a highly sought after 7" by many collectors of hardcore myself included I eventually got a copy and it was a great EP! So there you go it may have taken him a long time to come back to hardcore but like every other fan of that kind of music you never lose your love for it!

*UPDATE* So as i mentioned these guys were preparing to release their debut album when i did this post and I promised I'd add it when I got it but try as i might i could not lay my hands on it pre-release! It was killing me cos i have played the 2 EP's to death, so "Poison Everything" carrys on where the EP's left off again if you have read the rest of this post then you should have a good idea of what they sound like however unleashed from the confines of the EP format and given a whole album these guys have exceeded even my expectations this is an utterly shredding killer of an album aside from the influences i already mentioned that i heard through the EP's on this album i hear touches of Motorhead in places and the title track is a slow sludgy groove with such intensity that it easily matches the more ferocious faster tracks with ease and even the faster tracks are faster than some of the tracks on the EP's ! also notable is the other longer slower track on this album "Shame" which is a super crushing jam with a groove that is like Greg Ginn  jamming with Celtic Frost circa 1985!!! Sound insane? well it totally works and completely floors me! This album has enough originality, variety and twists and turns within it's chosen style that although the majority of the 13 tracks are fairly fast paced they are memorable and stick in your head which is unusual for most hardcore. These guys are masters of their craft and this album is a real killer! Southern Lord are just killing me these days with the quality of their current bands and I hope they continue to release bands like this and Baptists among the many other gems they have uncovered! Again this is definitely one of my top 5 best of this year YEAH it's THAT good! Enjoy....

Obliterations EP's - Mediafire

Poison Everything - Mediafire

P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S.

Well I discovered this band through Brad Boatright's (From Ashes Rise etc) Audiosiege download label he had a load of stuff up for free download mostly things he'd been involved in the engineering or mastering of (Audiosiege is also his studio) as an offshoot of the awesome Moshpit Tragedy website, most of the other stuff that he had put up had been on the heavy hardcore/crust side of things but these guys were a different proposition altogether featuring Kelli Haliburton on bass who is known for bands like Detestation and Severed Head of State among many other crust legends and Dean Johnson who played drums for Poison Idea during their most revered 83 - 86 period ("Pick Your King", "Kings Of Punk" & "Record collectors are..." era) and 3 other fellas who are new to this band! This is classic catchy memorable loud and distorted punk fucking rock with a nod to Motorhead and a Stooges/MC5 edge to it. Now don't be put off by my use of the word punk rock when i say that I'm thinking (again) the slower stuff by Poison Idea and the sorta garage/punk/metal crossover bands that were popular in the 90's like Hellacopters or Glucifer not gobbing spitting obnoxious oi oi shit! As I've grown to dislike most Punk music in my later years! Anyway this is loud thick and in your face stuff that will have your head bopping in a second!

This file contains the CD version of their album which has the whole album and very neatly adds their 1st 4 7" singles as bonus plus an extra track of them covering "Evil Woman" which i would attribute to Black Sabbath but  Sabs version is also a cover but I can't remember who did the original!!!So that's 18 tracks and 50 mins of music! anyway it's a really good quality direct download and back to you so no probs with quality! Go get this and have a rocking time with something a bit different from the pack!

*UPDATE* OK so a user of this blog mentioned that the original link i provided for this album was dead Thank you anonymous user for that I really like when people alert me to dead links otherwise i can't fix it!

I was recommending some music to a friend of mine recently and said he should check out P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S. and as the link was down as luck would have it I uploaded it for him but I had just also acquired the recent P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S. Mexican Tour CD Which compiles all the material since the 1st album which amounts to 8 tracks taken from 2 x Split EP's a 7" and a flexi.

So below is your link to a file containing the CD version of the album with the Bonus EP's AND the Mexican Tour CD (pictured above) so that brings you bang up to date with everything that has been done by this band so far, and believe me the 8 new tracks are every bit as good if not even more ferocious than their predecessors! It's a 150mb file but even with an average internet connection you should be able to download it in about 5-8 minutes. Enjoy....

P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S. - Mediafire

MORE HAMILTON HARDCORE ( LEFT FOR DEAD, THE SWARM & RUINATION )

 Ok so as you know I've been posting a bit of hardcore these days and recently i did posts on Bands related to the scene revolving round the city of Hamilton, Ontario in Canada (have a look at those posts on Haymaker, Cursed and Pick Your Side HERE) It's a fertlile scene and an incestuous one, the main players have been on the scene from what would seem to be it's inception and have been in various important and influential bands both in their hometown and globally. I have to admit this all started with the band Haymaker for me (see the link above their post is there)  and though I was vaguely aware of that bands history my knowledge is/was lacking a bit and the "Family Tree" of the scene is way too complicated one to get into but if you wish to do your own research as i did you should got to http://www.discogs.com/ and type in any of the band names from this post or the linked post and click on some of the members names to find out who's in what band etc. I have already done this and discovered that the 3 Bands that this post is about all pre-date Haymaker and feature members of that band so that being said and once again in the spirit of "shorter write ups more music" i will let you decide if you want to do your own research I've given you the links so that just leaves me to give you a brief overview of what's here and why!

LEFT FOR DEAD - First off it has to be said that Chokehold were probably the band that started the whole Hamilton thing however their omission from this post although they are important for historical reasons is simply because i do not like Chokehold's music and I would not be able to give them an enthusiastic write up and this blog is for sharing music I like so even tho this post is about the history of the other Hamilton bands i have posted I would feel fraudulent uploading and sharing something on here i don't like so onwards... After Chokehold some of their members went on to form Left For Dead who to my mind were the first of the Hamilton bands to produce that really dirty,heavy, sludgy nasty sound that endears me to that scene so much, their brief existence from 1996 - 1998 produced a mere 18 tracks that were used on 2 separate split 12"'s and a split EP there was also a live 12" but I haven't included that because I don't own it and it's a vinyl only release! Left For Dead play in a similar vein to Haymaker heavy downtuned guitars fast hardcore with the occasional blast in there too, fronted by Chris Colohan (who fronted all 3 bands in this post) who's shredding yet youthful sounding vocals suit the music perfectly! Their brief yet explosive discography was remastered recently and I bought it so now that I had a 320kbps rip from CD I decided to share it with you, I had some pretty ropey vinyl rips of their stuff but it wasn't till i purchased this CD that i truly got why this band are so revered and why their influence on hardcore in their local scene and globally is so important! But the story doesn't end there i dunno what's going on over in Hamilton but 2013/2014 saw both Left For Dead and Haymaker return with new EP's Left for Dead's 2013 EP "1" contains 8 tracks of their trademark face ripping hardcore and shows that these guys have not lost any of their passion for hardcore in the years since they last played together and is utterly blinding!!! The link below contains the discography ripped from my own CD and separated into it's relevant releases all tagged with artwork and it also contains latest EP "1" which i got a vinyl rip of it's not as great quality as the other stuff due to the source but hey this is hardcore you can't expect the best quality all the time!!!

Left For Dead - Mediafire

THE SWARM (A.K.A. KNEE DEEP IN THE DEAD) - Next up we have another short lived band The Swarm this was unwittingly the first Hamilton band i heard I bought their "Parasitic Skies" 10" simply on the strength of a review i read and when i heard it although it wasn't in line with what i was into at the time It was heavy and aggressive and i loved it! Carrying on pretty much where Left For Dead finished this has quite a similar sound to Left For Dead, Thick heavy Guitars great vocals (again by Chris Colohan) etc and if you liked Left For Dead then you will love this, They released only "The Parasitic Skies" 10" a split EP with Morser, a split Pic Disc EP with Force Fed Glass and a final EP "Ol' Blue Eyes Is Dead"between 1998 and 1999 and they were gone! The split with Morser was added as bonus tracks on the CD version of "Parasitic Skies" it was recorded at the same time as "Parasitic.." so in your file you get Parasitic Skies with the tracks from The Morser split all together then separate folders for the Vinyl rips of the split with Force Fed Glass and "Ol' Blue Eyes Is Dead" the latter 2 aren't the best quality but i include them in the file for completions sake, In fact even the CD rip of "Parasitic Skies" is a bit quiet even tho it's a 320kbps rip straight from my own CD I suggest you turn it up loud and let the discography of this brutally heavy hardcore band annihilate you!

The Swarm (AKA Knee Deep In The Dead) - Mediafire

RUINATION - And lastly we get to Ruination who are a different prospect from the first 2 altogether I'm not sure what is going on with this band as they seem to have had their base in Ann Arbor Michigan USA (once the home of The Stooges!!!) However as well as being fronted once again by Chris Colohan (maybe i shoulda called this post Chris Colohan??) they also feature one Mike Haliechuk better known as 10,000 Marbles guitarist for Canadian hardcore superstars Fucked Up but also notable is the fact they have Ebro Virumbales in their ranks who has served time in such hardcore legends as Charles Bronson, Los Crudos and Punch In The Face and has quite the Rep in hardcore circles! Ruination only existed again a short while between 2000 and 2001 and released 2 EP's a Split EP with They Live and contributed 3 tracks to the "Deadly Sins" 7" Box set comp on Hater Of God records and they were again gone! As for the music well this time around it's a completely different style to the previous 2 bands these guys play more straight up Hardcore/Fastcore which is a perfect representation of the time it was recorded and reminds me of some of the better bands from this time such as The Rites (see my post on them HERE ), Cut The Shit, Snakebite (see my post on them HERE) etc. there's not a great deal of this kind of hardcore i like but these guys are definitely among them it's well played tight and infectious stuff! The link below contains their discography ripped from my own CD and as it's such a short discography i have left the bonus full live set that is extra on the CD in there as well I have lumped all their comp tracks together in one file tagged as Comp tracks plus the 2 Ep's and the split all separated into their own folders with relevant artwork. Enjoy

Ruination - Mediafire

I wanted to say this write up and post is not really up to my usual standards but I did promise shorter write ups and more music these days and i am trying to stick to that, and linking together the history of the various members of these bands and the other Hamilton bands would be futile because i would just be regurgitating what i learned myself recently from discogs.com and i have given a link to that site many times and again in this post so you can do your own research the reason is not simply laziness it's because it's great fun to find out things for yourself and I am here to share the music mainly more than give in-depth histories as i would never claim to be an expert i'm just a decent standard trainspotter of music!!! I can't claim to have been in on the ground floor where these bands are concerned (with the exception of The Swarm who i came across by chance in 1999 and had no idea they would relate to music i would get into years later) i backtracked these bands simply by looking for more music like Haymaker!! one of the main reasons for doing this post and this has become a recurrent theme is when i did do my research and got downloads of Ruination and Left For dead I could only get 128kbps downloads which were shit quality and really detracted from what is cheaply recorded music anyway so because i liked them i wanted to share them on here especially as it linked to other posts I had done and I went off on the net and luckily both bands had discography CD's available so i bought both for my own pleasure and so i could do the bands justice by uploading better quality downloads here than were available online when i was looking for them and this is not the first time i have bought CD's with the idea of uploading them for my blog so that would be mainly for YOU the reader!!!! So I hope you enjoy some vintage hardcore and that after listening to these bands will see why they are important and why people still talk about them now! Hope you enjoy it!

*UPDATE*

So This Morning I was just browsing my blog as i do checking for any spelling mistakes etc and i decided it was a bit cruel of me not to give you more info on the Hamilton scene with these posts so i quickly put together a list of the main players and what bands they are in. Unfortunately without a serious research of my CD's and google i can't tell you who plays what instrument as some of them have played instruments in one band sung in another etc but here's my list of who is in what band (note Burning Love are a current Hamilton band who play a heavy brand of early USHC/Garage influenced hardcore i have not done a post on them yet and Our War were a short lived project by members of Haymaker etc again not featured on here as i don't have the one EP and  demo they did) also some of these guys are in multiple other bands that i know nothing about and have yet to investigate so I'm only mentioning bands I know about that they are in not everything also seems like a couple of them have played in Fucked Up at one time or another but I can't confirm when or on what they played. this is the basics...hope this is helpful.....

Jeff Beckman – Chokehold, Left For Dead, Our War, Pick Your Side

Matt Beckman – Chokehold, Left For Dead

Chris Ansley – Chokehold, Pick Your Side

Christian Mcmaster – Chokehold, Cursed, Haymaker, Left For Dead, Our War, The Swarm

Curtis Gordon – Haymaker, Left For Dead

Sandy ??? – Chokehold, Haymaker

Chris Colohan – Left For Dead, Ruination, the Swarm, Cursed, Mature Situations, Burning Love

Mike Maxymuik – Cursed, Left For Dead, The Swarm

This is just the basic info I got from linking bands and names on discogs so DO NOT fucking push your glasses up your nose and give me a fucking "I think you'll find such and such was in such and such a band briefly..." my info comes from discogs so any mistakes are theirs not mine if you think my info is no good go start your own blog I've no time for geeky fucking know-it-all's tho any pleasant conversation is welcomed :-)

SLINT - SPIDERLAND

So a band like Slint should really need no introduction their 2nd album "Spiderland" is probably one of the most unique and important albums of the 90's and pretty much invented the sound known as "Post Rock" without them the vast amount of bands who have developed that style would most likely not exist chief among them for example would be Mogwai!!!

I have not the inclination to go into the history of Slint or the individual works of it's members who have been involved in many other influential and important bands since their involvement in Slint or rant on about their importance if you are a regular reader of this blog then you surely must know who Slint are? If not then i suggest you go to the link at the bottom of this post and download immediately and also go to  SLINT wikipedia and read up because the importance of this band on pretty much every facet of good underground music from Indie to Metal cannot be understated even in the slightest.

Slint only existed for a very short time and broke up in 1992 and the material they released was sparse, 2 albums debut "Tweez" a 2nd "Spiderland"and a self titled EP containing 2 tracks recorded between "Tweez" and "Spiderland" however it is quality over quantity in this case but it doesn't stop fans like me wanting MORE!

Slint have reformed once in 2005 to curate an All Tomorrows Parties festival again in 2007 to perform "Spiderland" live at Primevera Sound Festival nothing was heard other than that over the years but in 2013 Slint reformed once again to do a full tour I was lucky enough to catch them on this tour and it was an absolutely stunning performance! To coincide with this tour Touch & Go records put together a lavish remastered deluxe box set of the "Spiderland" album (see pic below) which not only contained a remastered "Spiderland" but also a further 14 tracks of demo's, outtakes and live tracks!!! when I first heard this was happening I was beyond excited because if ever an important album needed a remastering it was "Spiderland" and due to the sheer lack of material by Slint the prospect of 14 extra tracks had me salivating!

There is a bit of a catch tho whilst this is a long overdue revisit to a classic and important album the CD version comes packaged with the remastered album plus the documentary "Breadcrumb Trail" and though you get a download card to access the bonus material to me that's not quite the same as getting a full deluxe CD treatment, in order to own the complete package in physical format you have to buy the deluxe box set which contains no less than 3 vinyl albums, 2 X CD's ( a repeat of the vinyl tracks) and the DVD the problem is this box set is limited and prices start at £150 ($243.00) so really it's beyond the reach of most of us in these austere times. I will also say that though the amount of bonus material far exceeds the actual 6 album tracks and whilst the bonuses are an interesting glimpse into the process of the creation of such an important album and a great listen there's nothing startling here simply some demo versions and rehearsal versions of the album songs which are not vastly different to what was released but they are worth hearing otherwise i wouldn't have done the post.

So this post like the Hard-Ons one i did is simply here because even though this deluxe version has been around for months now and i have been searching for a download regularly since it was announced I had been unable to source one other than those scamming bastards that let you download but then you have to go online and give your personal details to unlock the file etc and finally today i found an accesible one and again it was on one of those horrible file hosts that fuck you around and take forever to download files (who wants to wait for 2 hours for a download NOT me) I have uploaded it to my own account so a download should take no more than a few minutes with no fuss,scams or viruses!!!  to So here instead of a big blurb on the history and importance of this band and this album i shall let the music do the talking below is a link to the deluxe and remastered "Spiderland" in glorious 320kbps quality it's a stunning and utterly peerless album and without it underground music as we know it would be much different.....

Yours for the starting price of £150 (If you're lucky!)

Spiderland (Deluxe and Remastered) - Mediafire

HARD-ONS

Australia's Hard-Ons have been a band I have had a soft spot for for decades I was introduced to them around 1986/1987 when my good friend Brian received a tape of all the early Hard-Ons singles from none other than Mitch Dickinson of Heresy/Sacrilege/Unseen Terror fame back then and they were one of those bands that although they didn't sit well with my thrash/hardcore sensibilities that you could not help but fall in love with! They were always pegged with the "Australian Ramones" tag however i just never saw that and maybe it's just me? I am a huge fan of the Ramones but I hear very little of them in Hard-Ons sound, I always thought they had more in common with melodic hardcore bands like Descendents or The Stupids. and classic rock like AC/DC, Kiss etc. and having been releasing records for 30 years come next year and continuing to stick to their trademark sound regardless whether there was an audience or a place for them is a testament to their commitment and the fact that these guys are some brilliant musicians and songwriters.

I feel that going into a huge rant about the Hard-Ons music and history is not necessary this post is in the spirit of shorter write ups more music, I just discovered this week that Citadel records keepers of the garage/punk flame in Australia had since 2012 been reissuing massively expanded editions of the early Hard-Ons material these reissues are apparently a series of 5 and so far 4 have seen the light of day now i could have hung around waiting on the 5th before doing this post but these 1st 4 expanded versions cover the entire period of Hard-Ons from when i originally heard them ( Their early singles and debut mini album "Smell My Finger" 1985) up to the point where i stopped following them ("Yummy" 1991) not that they disappeared in 1991 or started making shit records they just kinda seemed to become a bit less popular and a bit quieter globally as i say they have continued to release  great records all the way from then up to 2010's "Alfalfa Males Once Summer Is Done Conform Or Die" however it's the 1985-1991 period that holds the most interest to me because i was there at the time they were released.

So the reissues well the albums covered are "Smell My Finger" (1986) "Dickcheese" (1988) "Love Is A Battlefield Of Wounded Hearts" (1989) and "Yummy" (1991) however each album has been expanded beyond what any fan of any band could ask for, each double CD contains anything from 51 tracks at shortest to 66 tracks at longest these 4 reissues pretty much cover every scrap of released and unreleased material from this entire period including every single and EP  every Session and a ton of live stuff to boot! I have done my research and believe me NOTHING is missed plus it's all remastered as well!!

But you may be asking why? why would i bother to do a post on this band? well the simple answer is this... I had a FUCK of a hard time downloading these for myself I spent the best part of 12 hours over 4 days finding and downloading these and when i did i had to download them from various fucking BASTARD hosts like uploaded, rapidgator,turbobit y'know those total bastard hosts that take over an hour to download one disc of a 2 disc set and only allow you one download per 3 hrs so you download one disc of the set and then have to wait 3 hrs to do the next then because they were big files it took HOURS to upload em as well? So i say FUCK THAT to all those fucking horrible sites and hosts here are the 4 expanded and remastered Hard-Ons albums no captcha's, no wait, no fucking around and you can do simultaneous downloads you can have the lot in about half an hour max! This post is here simply because i really like the Hard-Ons and especially this period of their music and so that anyone else either the curious or the long time fan instead of spending 12 hrs like i did finding them and downloading them can just come here and help themselves to the ridiculously complete 8 CD's of PRIME Hard Ons material in a matter of minutes also as per usual UTS standards these are all presented in glorious 320KBPS quality too!

So below are your links they are large files but I decided as i can upload larger files that I'd not break them down into parts and trust me if you are a fan of the Hard-Ons then these are the definitive reissues there's nothing missed and SO much added and the quality is brilliant! so here it is for the diehards the ENTIRE works and more of the Hard-Ons from 1985 - 1991 I wish more bands would do reissues like these as they really are just great and they may not be the most popular or serious of bands but hey someone must want these they wouldn't bother going to all the trouble of remastering,expanding and re-issuing them otherwise. So..Here they are! Enjoy..

Smell My Finger - Mediafire

Dickcheese - Mediafire

Love Is A Battlefield Of Wounded Hearts - Mediafire

Yummy! - Mediafire

CONJURO NUCLEAR

Conjuro Nuclear from Barcelona Spain are an unusual and compelling band I often get notifications from the awesome http://www.cvltnation.com/ site of their regular feature "6 bands you MUST hear this week"  where they put up 6 bands generally from bandcamp and review them and because of cvltnation's wide ranging tastes in dark and unusual music i usually listen to theem all and if there's anything I like i check them out further although they generally put up the heaviest of doom and sludge and the bleakest of black metal sometimes you get the odd gem and Conjuro Nuclear are one of those gems.

It is hard to describe the sound of these guys because it's a mix of styles that is quite unique blending shades of VERY old school black metal (think early Celtic Frost or "The Return" era Bathory) with keyboards/synths that along with the basic beats add a definite psychedelic feel and a touch of something like 70's horror movie soundtracks and very occasionally delving into an almost 80's pop synth sound and coming out with an utterly amazing and completely unusual sound. Whilst my above description may seem like the sound would be a bit messy they put it all together well also the vocals are mixed low but are kind of an ethereal sounding bark which again harks back to the black metal influence i mention before but nowhere near as brutal as you'd get with most of those terrible shrieking corpse-painted fools from the majority of black metal! There's plenty of thrashy atmospheric riffing and accents which would satisfy the fans of things on the heavier side but as i say the keyboards are as prevalent as the guitar so this prevents this falling into total black metal territory.

I can't tell you much more about this band their facebook page,bandcamp and net presence are all quite low key and my description may be a little "off" but I find these guys to be a totally compelling listen they have not left my media player since i downloaded them and i have returned to their music often as i think these guys have hit on a combination of sounds and instruments that is highly memorable and sounds very little like anything else and combining modern psychedelic sounds with the riffage of early proto-Black metal is just inspired making them something that both fans of heavy and non heavy music can enjoy!

They have 2 "albums" available free on bandcamp (I feel weird using the term album when there's no vinyl or CD but they have issued both of their recordings as cassettes) and both are great but I have listened to their latest self titled album from this year more than their debut but trust me there's not much in it between the two they are both consistently great I have mentioned Black Metal a few times in my description do not let that put you off as I'm talking REALLY old school sound here there's not a 1000mph blast or a hell raising shriek anywhere on these albums and they are definitely to my mind a far more pleasant listen than anything from that scene. Here's your links as i say they are both free and well worth your time to check out, do yourself a favour and give these guys a chance because you are unlikely to hear anything else like this and i am positive it's something readers of this blog will be glad i put them onto....


Luna llena y radiación - Bandcamp

Conjuro Nuclear - Bandcamp

ACROSS TUNDRAS & T.G. OLSON

ACROSS TUNDRAS

Across Tundras are band I've been into for about 4 years I was a bit late to the party with these guys they had been around 5 years before I got onto them and I don't even remember how i found them now! Tanner (T.G.) Olson : Guitar & Vocals was originally a member of a math/noise metal band called Examination Of The.... but has been doing Across Tundras now since 2005 and solo material since 2011 and boy are both sides of this guy prolific.

Across Tundras are a strange beast, hailing from Nashville TN whilst you could call what they do "metal" there's by far a huge influence from their homegrown musical traditions and historical traditional influences as well as plenty of elements of Blues,Psychedelia and Americana and to wrap all this up in a sound which is essentially "rock/metal" based is a serious testament to the talents of T.G. Olson.

Across Tundras have done 7 official albums 2 EP's 4 x album length collections of demos & outtakes a split 7" and a split album! all of which are GREAT! As there is gonna be a mega post of music I am not breaking down the albums individually here I will say if you like your metal with a little bit more individuality and talent and you like the sound of my description above you need all of this but my personal favourites are the "Old World Wanderer" album and latest albums "Sage" and "Electric Relics" are also favourites but there is nothing that i don't like by this band.

So not only being a great band they are very generous as well you can download their entire discography from bandcamp except for their 2010 demo's and outakes collection " Moonshinin' " which i have kindly uploaded to mediafire for you. they are all free/pay what you want on bandcamp just click download and put "0" in the box to get it free if you wish to pay a little something then that's up to you I have bought everything on CD my conscience is clear ha ha! I'm not a fan of "pay" downloads but the quality of music here is high and as AT are not some HUGE metal band with big label backing I'm sure throwing them whatever you can afford would be appreciated.
So here's the discography i have linked you directly to the individual pages for each release rather than just to the main page so you can pick and choose what you want...

Divides EP - Bandcamp

Dark Songs Of The Prairie - Bandcamp

Full Moon Blizzard (Outtakes,Demos & Live) - Bandcamp

Western Sky Ride - Bandcamp

Lonesome Wails From The Weeping Willow - Bandcamp

Herds Of The Fathomless Valleys (Outtakes,Demos & Live) - Bandcamp

Moonshinin' (Outtakes & Demos) - Mediafire

Old World Wanderer - Bandcamp

Metatotem EP - Bandcamp

Sage - Bandcamp

Tumbleweeds (Outtakes & Demos) - Bandcamp

Split 7" W/ Hellbender - Bandcamp

Electric Relics - Bandcamp

Split LP W/ Lark's Tongue - Bandcamp

(See My Post On the AMAZING Lark's Tongue with their discography HERE)

So there you go the complete Across Tundras discography listed in chronological order you will also find that the "demos and outtakes" tag is a little misleading i mention this cos these collections do contain demos but generally they are all worth having as most have a full albums worth of non album material on there as well as i said this band are prolific but believe me the quality of the music doesn't suffer because of it.

So Moving on as i said at the beginning Across Tundras main man T.G. Olson has had a busy solo side to his work so moving on.....

T.G. OLSON

So T.G. Olson has 2 sides to his solo work there is the ethereal solo americana/acoustic vocal releases then there are his more experimental guitar/drone releases I am going to look them individually as while there is some common ground between them i find the former far more appealing than the latter however both are aspects of the man's music and deserve looking at.

So first solo offering "Muddy Water Dredge Company" appeared in 2011 and i found it a bit hard to get into at first but after a while i really began to enjoy his ethereal and dark take on americana/country styled music and if you are a fan of Across Tundras and don't mind their more sedate moments then i definitely recommend any of his solo work to you! however there have been 5 solo albums as well as 5 x 2 track singles (4 of which are compiled on the "Colt .45 singles" release linked below) and although they are digital only i suspect that's a nod to the old days of Nashville music when the 2 track 7" single was king! He states that all music is created with "Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Bowed Slide Guitar, Drums, Bass, Electric Tremolo Guitar" and the sounds and effects he gets are pretty damn good!The "Ramble Hill Sessions" contains cover versions of Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, The Rolling Stones and more showing a hefty nod to his influences and obviously the "Songs Of Woody Guthrie" speaks for itself the rest are pretty much all original compositions. There's not a lot more can be said it's one guy and guitar if you like that sort of thing then this is for you if not stick to Across tundras!! I would definitely say fans of the more alternative country music such as Magnolia Electric company and Bonnie Prince Billie/Palace Brothers would definitely enjoy this but don't rule this material out because it's not "Rock" based this is some real heartfelt passionate solo music that deserves a listen.

Acoustic Solo

Muddy Water Dredge Company - Bandcamp

Ramble Hill Sessions 1 & 2 - Bandcamp

Colt .45 Singles - Bandcamp

Ruined Temple Blues - Bandcamp

Songs Of Woody Guthrie - Bandcamp

Lake Bottom Blues b/w Shots Rain Down (Single) - Bandcamp

Hell's Half Acre - Bandcamp

The Badlands To Cross - Bandcamp

So lastly we have the more experimental side of his solo material and whilst being a fan of his work it's around this point i wish he would employ more restraint and a bit of self editing but in the interest of fairness we'll take a look at the concepts etc behind this more experimental material. First up was the "The Blown 6L6 String Quartet" which is more of an EP than an album clocking in at only 3 tracks in 26 minutes this is all guitar drone stated as... 

" improvised and recorded live by T.G. Olson @ Ramble Hill Farm in December of 2012. The recording process utilized 4 tracks of 6 string acoustic and electric guitars, a blown 6L6 tube, harmonica, and a teapot"

doesn't get more experimental than that!! the sounds he gets are enjoyable but personally i find this sort of thing a little boring more atmospheric background music than  something you could give your full attention to. same would go for the absolutely mammoth set "The Complete Blood Meridian For Electric Drone Guitar" whilst the intention behind this release was a solid and interesting concept i find that 24 mostly lengthy pieces clocking in at 4 hrs 10 minutes is a bit much for anyone to take (it was also released as a handmade 6 x CDR box set) here's what the man himself has to say i thought although i don't like it that much it is not unlistenable but i find his commitment and the concept to be a worthy one....

"Blood Meridian For Electric Drone Guitar" - an acid western musical interpretation of Cormac McCarthy's violent masterpiece, set to improvised electric guitar drone and other analog sources of sound. Improvised, played, and recorded completely live by T.G. Olson at Ramble Hill Farm - Goodlettsville, TN 2012-2013. Not a mere "inspired by" set of songs. Armed with novel in one hand and droning guitar in the other to lay the groundwork of the tracks, page by page and sustained note by note. Defleshed out with ghostly field recordings of coyotes, rattle snakes, gunshots, crackling fires and other unique audio representations of actual events happening in each chapter. This epic sound recording follows every massive landscape and every bit of dirt and grime and every senseless murderous act in the name of Westward expansion that is found in the actual pages. The infinitely vicious circle of life. No glorification. The pure revelations of knowing we may amend"

So there you go reading the paragraph above made me want to go listen to it so perhaps you will give it a chance i do have it in my files but i know i have never listened to it all! Lastly we have "Sonata For The Outlander & Dark Sign Loner" a single track 44 minutes long in a similar vein to both the above releases this time all recorded live no overdubs and no further description required!

Drone/Experimental

The Blown 6L6 String Quartet - Bandcamp

The Complete Blood Meridian For Electric Drone Guitar - Bandcamp

Sonata For The Outlander & Dark Sign Loner - Bandcamp

So that's it a complete look at the work of Across Tundras & T.G. Olson. If you have never heard Across Tundras I would definitely say they are one of the most unique bands around playing "Heavy" music their sound whilst bearing many familiar hallmarks of the metal/rock sound transcends that by utilizing many sounds and influences that are not, it evokes an atmosphere and a uniqueness that is missing from a lot of the more "unusual" post whatever metal type music around and the fact they have been consistently great over a large amount of releases is again something that many bands with prolific releases lack. Same goes for his solo stuff whilst singer/songwriter type music is  vast field and has been for decades T.G. Olson has a style that is all his own and again like his band has influences that give him a sound that is familiar and enjoyable but just has that little something extra to lift it above the crowd. I have been listening to a lot of the A.T./T.G. stuff over the past few days which is why i decided to do the post hope some of you will be open minded enough to check out some of this stunning music especially since the artist himself who has poured his heart,soul and talent into this music is happily giving it away free should be an indication of how great this music is and not an indication that it's not of great worth and I hope enjoy it as much as i do.

Föllakzoid

So this is kind of a sister post to the one I did on Dead Skeletons (HERE) I mentioned the band who played with Dead Skeletons when i saw them and this band were Föllakzoid and just to be clear I was at that gig for BOTH bands it was definitely a double header for me more than a case of support and main act! Hailing from Chile of all places it's not the place that automatically comes to mind when thinking about psychedelic music but hey I have been proved wrong here.

Föllakzoid are a great band I have heard them described as Krautrock which is a pretty fair point as while these guys do break out in plenty of bursts of psychedelic guitar the body of their sound does most definitely follow the precision metronomic approach of bands like Faust,Can and Ash Ra Tempel and more than a nod to Hawkwind! However with song titles like "Arabic Hash" and "Pulsar" you definitely know where these guys are coming from! Obviously talented musicians these guys really have a fantastic sense of rhythm and dynamics allowing the songs the pace and space they need to develop and build but at the same time even over their longer pieces they keep your attention from the beginning.What I like about this band a lot is they gently lull you along through a song but the builds are so subtle than when they do reach a crescendo it's such a great payoff but never breaks out into sheer guitar noise freak out territory even the peaks of their songs are measured and considered which definitely prevents it from becoming jarring when they do peak which can be a bit of a tool that many bands rely on.

So not the most prolific band but i can see why as their music is obviously very carefully constructed and well played so better in this case that it's quality this high than quantity! So there are 2 albums "Föllakzoid" , "II" and 2 EP's "EP" & "II RMX" EP the remix EP has 2 songs from their 2nd album remixed by psychedelic powerhouses Moon Duo and Psychic Ills and that's all there is. So I'm not gonna break down each release individually as my description above pretty much covers their sound which is consistent throughout all their releases.

So below you will find links to their entire discography so far check these guys out as they are definitely deserving of your attention because as you know with this blog i don't do half arsed posts on mediocre bands! Definitely a good listen for one of those lazy Sundays in the garden but far from mere background chill out music you can ignore! Their great rhythms and fantastic builds will have you instantly hooked!

Föllakzoid - Mediafire

Föllakzoid II - Mediafire

EP - Mediafire

II RMX EP - Mediafire