The video of the year!

...perhaps the video of the decade! Pure genius, sheer brilliance.

(mp3) Nine Inch Nails - Discipline

10 Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #11

(mp3) Korn - Shoots and ladders
Available on S/t (1994)

(mp3) Unbroken - Zero hour
Available on Ritual (1993)

(mp3) Slayer - Angel of death
Available on Reign In Blood (1986)

(mp3) Bl'ast - Look into myself
Available on The Power Of Expression (1986)

(mp3) Damnation A.D. - On a pale horse
Available on Misericordia (ep, 1996)

(mp3) Skid Row - Youth gone wild
Available on S/t (1989)

(mp3) Therapy? - Auto surgery
Available on Shortsharpshock (ep, 1993)

(mp3) Sepultura - Meaningless movements
Available on Arise (1991)

(mp3) At The Gates - Blinded by fear
Available on Slaughter Of The Soul (1995)

(mp3) Naglfar - The darkest road
Available on Harvest (2007)

Ministry - "Animositisomina" (2003)

This album was easily Ministry's best since Psalm 69. "That's not saying much, is it?", murmurs the morons at the back.

Well, I liked both Filth Pig and Dark Side Of The Spoon, so that is saying much. Assholes. Don't be so negative. On this album Ministry went back to the punky, industrial mayhem of their late 80s/early 90s work, as well as demonstrating some pretty cool and unexpected post punk/new wave influences. They brilliantly cover Magazine's The Light Pours Out Of Me, and as if that wasn't enough: Shove sounds like a Joy Division cover, only it isn't. It's an original.

Maybe tomorrow I'll post another installment of the 10 Songs That Get My Juices Flowing series. Maybe.

It might just contain Slayer, Unbroken, Therapy?, At The Gates, Korn, Sepultura and Skid Row. It just might. I guess you'll just have to check back in tomorrow and see for yourself.

(mp3) Ministry - Animosity

(mp3) Ministry - The light pours out of me (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Ministry - Shove

Buy Animositisomina @ Amazon.com.

Teddybears Sthlm - "I Can't Believe It's Teddybears Sthlm" (1996)

The propaganda for Teddybears' early years continues! And yes, the photo on that album cover is exactly what you think it is.

I figured I might as well post some track from their amazing second album that I mentioned my previous post. On this one the Teddybears had moved on a bit from their debut. It's still heavy and tongue-in-cheek, but it's heavy and tongue-in-cheek in a different way. The production is a bit fuller and in your face, and the funk influences of the first album are gone. Patrick Arve's voice sounds more Caribbean than ever, and his semi-ironic faux reggae style vocals mixed with the innovative raging hardcore/rock makes for a sound I've never heard before or since. Here and there you can hear the electronic elements that would take over their sound completely four years later. Hell, they even cover Kraftwerk on this one!

A fantastic video was made for Magic Finger, I still have it on some old VHS tape. I'd upload it to YouTube and share it with the world if I only knew how. In 1996 a young up-and-coming singer called Robyn was the new star on the Swedish pop sky and for this video lead singer Patrick Arve had fully adopted her trademark hairstyle for full comedic effect. A decade later Robyn would cover Teddybears' track Cobrastyle. Don't you just love how everything keeps working in cycles?

(mp3) Teddybears Sthlm - Magic finger

(mp3) Teddybears Sthlm - Two time nation (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Teddybears Sthlm - Kanzi

Buy I Can't Believe It's Teddybears Sthlm @ Amazon.com.

Teddybears Sthlm - "You Are Teddybears" (1993)

Are you familiar with a song called Cobrastyle, known from tv-shows like Entourage and many other places? Or perhaps Punkrocker featuring Iggy Pop? Or Hey boy featuring Swing Fly, also featured in a number of high profile tv-shows? Well, those were Teddybears song. In 2000, Teddybears released their third album Rock & Roll High School, which introduced the world to their new style of blending pop, electro, hip hop and anything else they could think of. But on the other side of Y2K, the Teddybears was a very very different band.

Originally formed as a grindcore punk band called Skull, they regrouped and changed their name to Teddybears as a reaction to all the death metal and black metal going on at the time. And since there apparently already was a band called Teddybears, they added Sthlm (short for Stockholm).

But the name isn't the only purposely silly thing about this band. The cover is an image of a pentagram in the colors of the Swedish flag, the back cover features a little blond kid with "Burn rubber" written on his forehead, and the booklet shows photos of the band bowling, cycling, bathing and posing shirtless in front of a burning pentagram. They became a minor hit, opened for Faith No More, and made a cool black & white video to Taken By Surprise (someone needs to upload that to YouTube NOW!).

Now don't go thinking this is some sort of joke band - quite the opposite. They just had a strange sense of humor and liked messing with conventions. The grindcore edge was gone, although some song still has a grindcore elements, such as blastbeats. Teddybears Sthlm played some sort of light hearted hardcore punk with some funky slap bass thrown in (very typical for the era), with Patrick Arve's reggae inspired howls on top.

This album and its follow-up, 1996's I Can't Believe It's Teddybears Sthlm, are two of the best albums of the 90's and while I still like the kind of stuff they're doing today, this is the Teddybears Sthlm I grew up listening to, the one that will always be close to heart.

Just listen to Move It Vomit and hear for yourself. It will be the best 37 second song you hear today.

(mp3) Teddybears Sthlm - Move it vomit

(mp3) Teddybears Sthlm - Taken by surprise (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Teddybears Sthlm - Big stuff

Buy You Are Teddybears @ Amazon.com.

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #10

(mp3) The Awesome Machine - Hunt you down
Available on The Soul Of A Thousand Years (2003)

(mp3) Burnt By The Sun - Dracula with glasses
Available on Soundtrack To The Personal Revolution (2002)

(mp3) Napalm Death - When all is said and done
Available on Smear Campaign (2006)

(mp3) Regurgitate - Abducens eminence
Available on Sickening Bliss (2006)

(mp3) Maze Of Torment - Breach the wall
Available on Hidden Cruelty (2007)

The Haunted - "The Dead Eye" (2006)

This post goes out to Lou, who posted a very kind comment to my previous post. Of all the people I've encountered today, Lou is my favorite.

This is The Haunted's best album. Bring down thy wrath, thrashers! I'll take on every last one of you beer-guzzling, camo-pants wearing neanderthals.

(mp3) The Haunted - The reflection (highly recommended!)

(mp3) The Haunted - The fallout (highly recommended!)

(mp3) The Haunted - The failure (highly recommended!)

Buy The Dead Eye @ Amazon.com.

You wanna know how popular this blog is?

It's so friggin' popular my bandwidth has once again been exceeded! \m/

The links to the zip files containing Mary Beats Jane and Cathedral (see below) work just fine since they're on a different hosting account. So download away!

The rest of the music here will be restored May 7th.

Mary Beats Jane - "Old" (single, 1994)

I've previously blogged about Mary Beats Jane here, where I did my best to hype up MBJ's second album Locust. Go to that post for some history on Mary Beats Jane and their frontman Peter Dolving (now singing with The Haunted).

Today I offer you a long since deleted single: Old from 1994. Tracks 1 and 2 were also included on their self-titled debut album where as track 3, No Illusion was an exclusive track not avaible anywhere else.

While I prefer MBJ's later works (Locust, for example), there's no denying the power and pure blunt force of their early work. With more testosterone than Henry Rollins, groovier grooves than Pantera, Mary Beats Jane sure was a force to be reckoned with. Just listen to the title track of this single; it's possible not to chant along to the chorus ("Same!!! Old!!! Stooooooooory!!!") and put the intro on repeat just so you can play air cowbell one more time.

1. Old (2:57)
2. Corn (2:31)
3. No illusion (4:52)

Download .zip file (9.3 mb)

Buy S/t @ Amazon.com.

Cathedral - "Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)" (ep, 1995)

Make this your soundtrack for the weekend.

1. Spoken intro/Hopkins (The witchfinder general) (5:37)
2. Fire (3:30)
3. Copper sunset (3:05)
4. Purple wonderland (4:45)
5. The devil's summit (9:25)

Download .zip file (24 mb)

More Cathedral right here: The Ethereal Mirror (1993).

10 Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #9

(mp3) Korn - Fake
Available on S/t (1994)

(mp3) Motörhead - Overkill
Available on Overkill (1979)

(mp3) In Flames - Scorn
Available on Colony (1999)

(mp3) Entombed - Revel in flesh
Available on Left Hand Path (1990)

(mp3) Slayer - Piece by piece
Available on Reign In Blood (1986)

(mp3) Arch Enemy - Beast of man
Available on Stigmata (1998)

(mp3) Angry Samoans - Lights out
Available on Back From Samoa (1982)

(mp3) Death Militia - Begin the last rites
Available on You Can't Kill What's Already Dead: Anthology 1985 - 1988 (2007)

(mp3) The Haunted - Leech
Available on The Haunted Made Me Do It (2000)

(mp3) The Stooges - TV eye
Available on Fun House (1970)

Three links you didn't know you needed

This blog gives you everything you need, we all know that. But other blogs have useful things too. I know that doesn't happen very often, but sometimes it does.

Invisible Oranges not only gives us two fantastic tracks from Skitsystem's swan song Stigmata, but also links us to Skitsystem's website where their entire catalogue is avaible to download for free!

Ohmpark gives us an acoustic gig with Queens Of The Stone Age, straight off the soundboard at a gig in Switzerland in 2002. The Roky Erickson cover owns me. Not entirely acoustic though, Troy is obviously playing electric.

Lo-Res Viscera has Converge's masterpiece Jane Doe. Yup, the whole thing.

At The Drive-In - "Vaya" (1999)

Groove groove groove to the Texan afro beat!

(mp3) At The Drive-In - Heliotrope (highly recommended!)

(mp3) At The Drive-In - 198d

Buy Vaya @ Amazon.com.

Watain - "Sworn To The Dark" (2007)

Once again I am going to copy and paste someone else's text. Not out of lazyness *cough* but because this review at PopMatters put it so much better than I ever could:

It’s always a huge gamble whenever a noteworthy black metal band decides to stretch its sound outside the ultra-strict confines of what many scenesters deem "true" black metal. On one hand, it’s a chance to win over those skeptical listeners who think black metal is nothing but sad misanthropes screeching onto a poorly-mixed four-track recorder in their suburban basement, but with any bold stylistic shift, whether it’s Nachmystium’s ingenious injection of psychedelic rock, Dimmu Borgir’s complete abandonment of their early sound in favor of a much more bastardized style, Dissection’s eyebrow-raising turn towards the accessible on their final album Reinkaos, or Ulver’s stunning use of subdued elements, there are always the defiant cries of, "Sellout!" from those who consider themselves among the truly grim and frostbitten. Watain is yet another underground darling that’s decided to expand its black metal sound, but although the Swedish band has made some bold moves on their highly anticipated third full-length album, they remain fervently devoted to the genre.

Much has been made about Watain’s indebtedness to the serpentine guitar melodies first heard on Dissection’s landmark albums The Somberlain and Storm of the Light’s Bane, first on the roughly produced yet intricate 2000 debut Rabid Death’s Curse and subsequently on 2003’s spellbinding follow-up Casus Luciferi, and while the influence is still as discernable as ever on Sworn to the Dark, the new album has Watain settling comfortably into a style all their own, thanks in large part to some astounding improvements, not only on the production side of things, but in the songwriting and guitar work as well, not to mention one of the more blistering drum performances we’ll hear all year.

Watain is receiving a lot of attention for its visual (not to mention olfactory) presentation, with their ghoul-like appearance, animal blood caked on their corpsepainted faces and torsos, and rotting animal skulls displayed onstage, but the band, led by the core trio of bassist/vocalist Erik Danielsson, guitarist P. Forsberg, and drummer H. Jonsson, know more than a thing or two about song dynamics, especially when it comes to delivering a thrilling epic, as proven by the sensational opening track "Legions of the Black Light". Complex, but with a bevy of tempo shifts that keep us on the edge of our seats, it’s an eight minute descent into the bleakest of black metal mood, lyrical themes, and musicianship. Its minute-long intro of tremolo picking and throttling blastbeats is certainly nothing new in this genre, but the song shifts gears early and often, launching into contagious midtempo grooves, propulsive passages that hint at thrash, slower sections reminiscent of Celtic Frost circa 1985, an effective churning mid-song breakdown, and a climactic melodic solo run by Forsberg. Jonsson anchors this lengthy exercise in controlled chaos, his beats taut enough to evoke comparisons to the great Norwegian drummer Hellhammer.

Vocally, Danielsson is above average, eschewing the requisite screech in favor of a more death metal-style growl, his robust voice actually surprisingly intelligible throughout the disc. Consequently, we’re left with memorable refrains that we just can’t help shouting along in liturgical unison: "Into the starless night, I follow the stench!...God! Of! Death!...Open now, abode of Satan’s powers!"

Elsewhere on the album, Satan’s Hunger is dominated by a blindingly fast 6/8 gallop that sounds more lurching than propulsive, while "The Light That Burns the Sun" actually manages to swing while Danielsson proselytizes about all things Beelzebubian (hey, they may be Satanists, but that doesn’t mean they can’t shake it on the dance floor). Perhaps the most faithful Dissection homage, the searing "Underneath the Cenotaph" opens with a gorgeous, haunting melody by Forsberg before exploding into a phenomenal, old school black metal maelstrom, but not before tossing in a more contemplative section for some welcome variety. After the grandiose guitar melodies of "The Serpents Chalice", the much more primal "Darkness in Death" (sic) goes for the jugular, the brute force offset by Danielsson’s subtly melodic bassline. Preceded by the disarmingly pretty instrumental "Dead But Dreaming", the climactic "Stellarvore" marks a return to the epic style of "Legions of the Black Light", but is much more theatrical, starting with an otherworldly chorus that answers Danielsson’s demonic intercessions with the refrain, "Agios Daimon", and continuing with monstrous chords made all the more effective by the pregnant pauses that follow them.

In August of last year, after serving seven years in prison for felony murder, and mere months after the release of Reinkaos, Dissection mastermind Jon Nödtveidt went to his apartment, stepped into a circle of lit candles, and with a Satanic Grimoire by his side, shot himself in the head. Watain, both ideologically and musically, are determined to carry on the legacy that Dissection created (going so far as to cover "The Somberlain" at their live shows), dedicating "Lords of the Black Light" to his memory. While the band already has long commanded the attention of the stodgiest of black metal devotees, the fact that this huge-sounding, surprisingly accessible opus has the potential to rake in sales heretofore unthinkable to Watain and its followers, just might be the band’s masterstroke.

--- Adrien Begrand

(mp3) Watain - The light that burns the sun (highly recommened!)

(mp3) Watain - Underneath the cenotaph

(mp3) Watain - Darkness and death

Buy Sworn To The Dark @ Amazon.com.

The Hellacopters - "Supershitty To The Max!" (1996)

Alright, bitches! Time for some motherfuckin' RAWK!

The Hellacopters were formed by Entombed drummer Nicke Andersson in 1994, and this there debut LP followed two years later. This was Nicke's second venture into the frontman/singer role - he had previously sung in a shortlived and rather obscure project called Leadfoot a few years prior (not to be confused by the Karl Agell-led band of the same name). On this album and the follow-up, 1997's Payin' The Dues, The Hellacopters became known for bringing RAWK! back to where the RAWK! was supposed to be all along: in dirty garages and tiny piss & beer stained clubs in Hicksville. MC5, The Stooges and Motorhead were the guiding stars in their pursuit of the baby Jesus known to them only as RAWK! and the world saw that it was good.

The Hellacopters mellowed considerably with each release, but never failing to bring the RAWK! to wherever it needed to be brought. In 2007 the band announced they will be breaking up later this years after one more album (their seventh) and one more tour. Although the Hellacopters are very dear to me and I love all their work (Supershitty To The Max! and 2002's By The Grace Of God being my favorites), their latest album, 2005's Rock And Roll Is Dead was a total fucking bore. Dull songs, dull production, it didn't sound like the band even tried that hard. Why they put so many boring, forgettable songs on the album while leaving off amazing RAWK!ing tracks like It Might Mean Something To You and Positively So Naive (both eventually released as b-sides) is a mystery. But I have no doubts that they will go out on a high note and give us one more masterpiece, filled to the brim with RAWK!.

Anywho, time to let the RAWK! do the talking:

(mp3) The Hellacopters - Bore me (highly recommended!)

(mp3) The Hellacopters - Didn't stop us

(mp3) The Hellacopters - Random riot

Bore Me live Toronto 1998:

Buy Supershitty To The Max! @ Amazon.com and RAWK! like it's 1970!