Howard Shore - "The Lord Of The Rings Original Soundtrack" (2001, 2002 and 2003)

Okay, so this obviously isn't metal by any stretch of the imagination. But it's still a lot heavier, darker and more ominous that what most heavy bands manage to fart out. Howard Shore may look like a cross between Mr. Magoo and a turtle, but by god he sure knows how to write some seriously sinister shit.

When people like Celtic Frost, Deathspell Omega, Dimmu Borgir and countless other "extreme" bands incorporate classical pieces on their albums, this is exactly the kind of shit their trying to get at. And failing, most of the time. And I swear to God (or Satan?) that I heard a melody on Watain's last album Sworn To The Dark that was identical to the Minas Morgul theme. Or maybe I heard it in a Deathspell Omega song...? One of the Kénôse tracks perhaps? Well, it was either Watain or Deathspell Omega, that I know for sure. I just can't really remember which. You'll have to take my word for it.

It makes perfect sense though for either of those bands to reference to Minus Morgul, it would fit in perfectly with their ideologies. You know, since Minus Morgul was once a good, happy, beautiful place (originally known as Minas Ithil, built by the Gondorians) and then taken over and horribly corrupted by the evil forces of Mordor, now eerily silent and housing the nine ringwraiths, led by the Witchking of Angmar. Alright, that's enough nerdery for now.

Onto the music (these are all highly recommended):

(mp3) Howard Shore - A knife in the dark

(mp3) Howard Shore - Treebeard

(mp3) Howard Shore - Shelob's lair

I was planning on just posting three tracks, one from each movie... But fuck it, this shit is too good, so here's another one from The Return Of The King:

(mp3) Howard Shore - Minas Morgul

Buy the Lord Of The Rings soundtracks @ Amazon.com.

One last thing: If you download, you better leave a comment. You greedy bastard.

10 Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #8

(mp3) Judas Priest - Winter retreat
Available on Rocka Rolla (1974)

(mp3) Bossk - Define
Available on 0.2 (2007)

(mp3) Disfear - Judgement day
Available on A Brutal Sight of War (1993)

(mp3) Aeon - Living sin
Available on Rise To Dominate (2007)

(mp3) Totalt Jävla Mörker - Rasist i uniform
Available on Människans Ringa Värde (2004)

(mp3) Leaf Hound - Freelance fiend
Available on Growers Of Mushrooms (1971)

(mp3) Opeth - Patterns in the ivy
Available on Blackwater Park (2001)

(mp3) Envy - A warm room
Available on Insomniac Doze (2006)

(mp3) Cretin - Walking a midget
Available on Freakery (2006)

(mp3) Pitchshifter - Underachiever
Available on Infotainment? (1996)

Misery Loves Co. - "Not Like Them" (1997)

A fantastic (if not flawless) band I've previously blogged about here. Click that link for band history and such shit.

This was their second album out of three, and on this one they were beginning to find their own voice. Whereas on the first album they were quite often a Ministry clone, on this one they began to incorporate influences from Joy Division, The Cure (who they would cover on their next album Your Vision Was Never Mine To Share) and XTC (who they covered on this album).

By the time Not Like Them hit the shelves, Misery Loves Co. was no longer a full-on industrial metal machine kicking your face in with grinding guitars and cold mechanical mayhem, but rather a more organic, darker kind of metal which at times sounded and felt downright suicidal. Earlier today I blogged about Korn, and you know how they can seem really fake in their torment sometimes? Well, not so with Misery Loves Co. MLC lived up to their name without ever feeling like the fashionable "O woe is me" type that was so trendy with heavy bands in the late 90s.

No, MLC were 100% genuine, and Not Like Them was so introverted and self-destructive that Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral felt life-affirming and inspirational in comparison.

It was truly the pinnacle of Misery Loves Co.'s career.

(mp3) Misery Loves Co. - Complicated game (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Misery Loves Co. - Infected (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Misery Loves Co. - Them nails (highly recommended!)

Buy Not Like Them @ Amazon.com.

Korn - "Issues" (1999)

Apart from their selftitled debut from 1994, this is the only Korn album I can stand these days. I was first exposed to Korn when I saw the Blind video on ZTV in 1995, an account I'll probably talk about in detail when I blog about that album in the near future.

I proceded to purchase every Korn album the week it came out, and while I rocked out like crazy to both 1996's Life Is Peachy and 1998's Follow The Leader at the time, I can't listen to either now. They just sound too damn dated, and the songs on them aren't very good either (with a few exceptions - Reclaim My Place, Ass Itch and a couple of others still own). Issues is a different story all together. Two songs, Falling Away From Me and Beg For Me, were premiered on the live, worldwide broadcast from the Woodstock festival 1999, and the album followed four months later.

When looking back at Korn's career I've had this theory: They were fucking sloppy and lazy sometimes, and it showed. Whenever they allowed themselves to put some time and effort into an album it would turn out great, and whenever they rushed the writing and recording of an album it would be shit. Well, that doesn't really hold up, and I hate to admit that one of my theory doesn't hold up. Life Is Peachy was rushed, and was shit. A lot of work and effort went into Follow The Leader and it was still shit. Issues was also written and recorded pretty quickly, and it's been Korn's sleeper album. It sounded good when I first got my hands on it almost nine years ago, but the way in which it has grown is fascinating. At first it seems to be just another Korn album with angsty lyrics, a bagpipe or two, and guitars tuned so low they're practically being dragged in the dirt, but upon closer inspection there is something else going on here.

The album is oddly sombre and dark, with lots of repressed anger. The album always feels like it's going to erupt but it never does, creating this creepy tension of emotions and rage boiling just under the surface. In fact, Trash contains the only scream from Jonathan Davis on the whole album, unlike Life Is Peachy on which he screams his nuts off most of the time, which got old really fast. After Follow The Leader it was quite refreshing to hear a Korn album without hiphop beats, guest rappers and guest singers, and the album had a slightly otherworldly quality, thanks to producer Brendan O'Brien. The alien/X-files type video that was made for Make Me Bad sums up the feel of the album quite nicely. There's something wonderfully spacey about large parts of the album, without ever sounding over-produced or over-indulgent.

As stated already, Issues and S/t are the only Korn albums I ever spin these days. Korn gets a bad rep by some, and perhaps it's justified: the band has produced massive amounts of shit over the years. But Issues does not in any way belong in that category.

(mp3) Korn - Trash (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Korn - No way

(mp3) Korn - Dirty

The video for Make Me Bad:

Buy Issues @ Amazon.com.

Haystack - "Slave Me" (1998)

This is a pretty obscure one. Unfortunately, considering how damn good it is.

Haystack was born in the mid 90's when Entombed's guitarist Uffe Cederlund decided he wasn't getting enough of his ideas across in his main band. As Entombed started getting sick of playing metal in general and death metal in particular, guitarist Alex Hellid and drummer Nicke Andersson started moving the band more and more towards rock 'n' roll (Entombed's "death 'n' roll" peaked with 1997's To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth), Uffe felt he needed another outlet for all the music he was writing that didn't quite fit into what Entombed was doing at the moment.

While Alex and Nicke went nuts over New Bomb Turks, Roky Erickson and Rocket From The Crypt (Nicke formed The Hellacopters to fully let his rawk flag fly, and Alex started his own label, Muse Entity, with bands like stone rockers Misdemeanor on their roster), Uffe drifted more towards strange underground bands playing music that wasn't easy to categorise. Bands like The Jesus Lizard, Upsidedowncross, God Bullies, The Melvins and especially Unsane became more and more influential to him in his songwriting, as evident on the track Wound on the aforementioned To Ride... album, which sounded more like Unsane than anything Entombed had ever done. After Nicke left the band in 1997 and Uffe took over song writing duties for the follow up, 1998's Same Difference, the rock 'n' roll went out the window and the quirky weirdo rock truly came the forefront.

As a result the album was hated by fans because it contained no death metal whatsoever. Same Difference has always been a favorite of mine, and it's incredibly sad how misunderstood it is. People just didn't see the point. It's been seen as Entombed's sell-out album, an attempt to broaden the audience by releasing an "alternative rock album". Bullshit. The album is probably the most uncompromising thing the band has ever released, and anyone accusing Entombed of trying to become famous simply doesn't know anything about the band, and they certainly don't know anything about the stubborn, pig-headed bastard Uffe Cederlund, the grumpy, curly-haired little man who always goes in the opposite direction of everyone else.

But I digress. Haystack (which apart from Uffe on vocals and guitar consisted of Johan Blomqvist from Backyard Babies on bass and Johan Lundberg from A-Bombs on drums) released their first album, Right At You, in 1996, which according to the band members themselves sold about 300 copies. Their second, last and best album Slave Me, came out two years later and didn't sell either. After this album the band split up, since Uffe felt he suddenly had an outlet for all of his songwriting in Entombed after Nicke left. A few years ago he left Entombed to join crust punk legends Disfear.

There is nothing even remotely original about this band, and they never tried to hide the fact that they were basically an Unsane/Melvins tribute band - albeit with original material. But as always, I'd rather listen to an unoriginal good band than an original bad band. You get three songs from Slave Me, as well as the Unsane-inspired Entombed song I mentioned. You're welcome.

(mp3) Haystack - Burn-out

(mp3) Haystack - This is the day (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Haystack - An object I can't control

Bonus track:

(mp3) Entombed - Wound (highly recommended!)

Buy Slave Me @ Amazon.com.

Ministry - "Filth Pig" (1996)

Too hungover to write. Just download the damn songs.

(mp3) Ministry - Reload

(mp3) Ministry - Filth pig

(mp3) Ministry - Lay lady lay (highly recommended!)

The video for Reload:

Buy Filth Pig @ Amazon.com.

10 Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #7

(mp3) Come Sleep - Be the end
Available on The Burden of Ballast (2007)

(mp3) Eternal Torment - Temptation of mind shutdown
Available on V/A - In Crust We Trust (1993)

(mp3) Comatose - Fuck em all to hell
Available on V/A - 100% Adrenalin (1997)

(mp3) Entombed - Crawl
Available on Monkey Puss - Live In London (1998)

(mp3) The Accidents - All time high
Available on All Time High (2004)

(mp3) Volkspolizei - May Lars Lindström die a slow and gruesome death
Available on Synthetic Lo-Fi Terrorism Vol. 4 (2004)

(mp3) Within Y - Face down
Available on Extended Mental Dimensions (2004)

(mp3) Skitsystem - Snutstat
Available on Enkel Resa Till Rännstenen (2002)

(mp3) The Haunted - Smut king
Available on rEVOLVEr (digipak version, 2004)

(mp3) Wolf Eyes - The driller
Available on Human Animal (2006)

Mary Beats Jane - "Locust" (1997)

If you have any interest in modern metal, I'm sure you're familiar with Peter Dolving. If not for his throat shredding performances in The Haunted, then perhaps for his rants on his MySpace Page; rants which frequently make the news section on Blabbermouth.

What you may not know, is Dolving's past. You see, he used to be the singer of a metal band called Mary Beats Jane. Dolving was asked to join the band in the early 90's. At first he was hesitant, because he thought that by "metal" they meant lame stuff like Guns N' Roses, but when the band started namedropping bands such as Mudhoney and Black Flag, he was won over. Funny thing is, MBJ sounded absolutely nothing like either Mudhoney or Black Flag. Their first album S/t from 1994, has a Pantera meets Rollins Band kinda vibe, and their masterpiece, Locust from 1997, sounded like a dirtier version of Tool, only much, much better (bring your wrath, Tool nerds - I'll take on every last one of you).

I give you three amazing tracks from Locust, along with Brinn, a track MBJ recorded with B-Thong/Transport League/Mnemic vocalist Tony Jelencovich for an obscure compilation entitled 100% Adrenalin. It's by far MBJ's heaviest and most extreme song, as well as the only one they ever recorded in Swedish. MBJ reunited in 2004, but has yet to produce a follow up to the majestic Locust.

All these four songs are highly recommended. They only hint at the brilliance that is Locust, an album that must be heard in its entirety. Make the right choice and buy it today. Or just download it from somewhere, I don't care.

(mp3) Mary Beats Jane - Blackeye

(mp3) Mary Beats Jane - Flowered

(mp3) Mary Beats Jane - Cradlewake

Bonus track:

(mp3) Mary Beats Jane feat. Tony Jelencovich - Brinn

Buy Locust @ Amazon.com. (this Amazon link contains a review by someone who claims MBJ's debut is much better than Locust - that person is a knobhead. Don't believe them.)

Opeth - "Still Life" (1999)

Got me a tattoo today. Yeah, that's right. After 26 years (10 of them spent thinking about it) I at last went and got myself one. A couple of the tiniest details were just too tiny to tattoo, so a compromise or two had to be made. But do I care? Not likely. Rodrigo Rodriguez (his parents must be sadists) did an brilliant job, and after about an hour and forty five minutes I left Blue Lotus Tattoo in Norrtälje, Sweden 1,200 crowns lighter with a very sore, tender ink-filled scar that will soon itch like a bitch.

The inside of my left forearm is now and forever adorned by the mighty Opeth's 'O' logo, 12cm by 9 cm. In inches, I think that's about 5 by 3 and a half. I could be completely wrong though. Either way, it's stinkin' awesome and this is where I would post a photo of it if my camera didn't express its hatred against me by malfunctioning.

In honor of me, Opeth, and my Opeth tattoo, I give you two songs from their 1999 masterpiece, Still Life. By some considered their best album. Not by me; Blackwater Park from 2001 is still #1 in my book (check the archives for my post on that album - a post which also features two mp3s to download). But still a fucking good album, like all Opeth albums.

It's a concept record about a dude who got banished from a Christian town for not being a Christian. Or something. In The Moor, the flawless opening song, he returns after fifteen years in exile for Melinda, the woman he left behind. I'm not gonna ruin the ending for you, but they both die.

Oops!

(mp3) Opeth - The moor (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Opeth - Serenity painted death (highly recommended!)

Face of Melinda, live in France 2005:

Buy Still Life @ Amazon.com.

Soundgarden - "Louder Than Love" (1989)

Random thoughts:

Louder Than Love is a great album, but it would have been even better if it had ended after Uncovered, leaving off Big Dumd Sex and Full On (Reprise). Uncovered is obviously the perfect final track.

This is probably the hardest Soundgarden album to get into.

As someone who grew up in the 90s and adored everything Seattle as a spotty teen, the Faded Flannel website is a stellar find. Even if some bands are missing - where's Some Velvet Sidewalk? Dickless? Little Bears From Bangkok?

Ramen noodles are awesome.

I miss Hiro Yamamoto's songwriting in Soundgarden. The songs he wrote for Louder Than Love (Power Trip, I Awake and No Wrong No Right) are all great. Certainly much better than any contribution Ben Shepherd made to the band.

How is it possibly that someone who was as kick ass as Chris Cornell turned into such a diluted hack? He was a god to me for about seven years (1993-2000). I adored everything he did, I couldn't imagine anyone cooler, anyone with a better voice or better songwriting skills. Everything up to his first solo album Euphoria Morning (1999) is absolutely brilliant. Then came Audioslave. Then came embarrassing Audioslave tours on which Chris rapped to old Rage Against The Machine songs. Then came even more boring Audioslave albums. When he finally left to make a solo album, he even managed to fuck that up. The haunted, unique beauty of Euphoria Morning was long gone, replaced by mediocre, run of the mill FM rock with his ever decreasing voice. This is the guy who made Badmotorfinger for fuck's sake! I'm ashamed of you, Chris Cornell. Fuck you and the loss of talent you rode in on.

Chris Cornell 1964-2000. Rest in peace.

Here's three songs in his memory.

(mp3) Soundgarden - Hands all over (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Soundgarden - Gun

(mp3) Soundgarden - Uncovered

Buy Louder Than Love @ Amazon.com.