Therapy? - "Troublegum" (1994)

Alright, since I mentioned the greatness of this album in the Infernal Love post below, I thought I might as well prove just how good it is.

Troublegum is easily one of the top 10 albums of the 90's, although I always felt it was a little too long. 14 tracks are a bit much, and although the last three tracks (Femtex, Unrequited and Brainsaw) are by no means bad, it just feels like the natural conclusion of the album is track 11, Turn. So that's usually when I turn it off.

Some total Therapy? classics on this one, such as Nowhere, Die Laughing and Trigger Inside. The band still plays them live, as well as Screamager which I offer you to download here today. The first time I remember taking notice of Therapy? was when I saw the Die Laughing video in 1994 on MTV Europe (yes, MTV was good once) and thinking the song title was in German.

Later that year I saw the MTV Europe Music Awards in (I think) Berlin, where the band performed the song live, and I remember being struck by how fucking hard the drummer Fyfe Ewing was hitting, this dude was Dave Grohl times ten. Sadly, Infernal Love would be his last album with the band.

(mp3) Therapy? - Screamager

(mp3) Therapy? - Unbeliever

(mp3) Therapy? - Turn

Die Laughing at the 1994 MTV Europe Awards:

Screamager live at Pinkpop 1994:

Unbeliever live at Brixton Academy 1994:




The video for Turn:


Buy Troublegum @ Amazon.com.

Therapy? - "Infernal Love" (1995)

This was them Irish lads' follow-up to their breakthrough album Troublegum, released the year before.

Main man Andy Cairns has said something to the effect of "Everyone who likes it should be shot". A bit harsh, but I probably made that quote up. He does hate the album though, at least he used to. The critical reception for this was (as I remember it anyway) much more mixed than that for Troublegum, but more and more people are recognising it for the great album that it is. It did quite well sales-wise, and the Hüsker Dü cover Diane is still played on rock stations around the world.

Infernal Love (which I for years thought was called Infertal Love - a superior title if you ask me) follows in the same "pop metal" vein as Troublegum, but the mood here is decidedly darker. This may not be as good as Troublegum, but it's pretty fucking close.

(mp3) Therapy? - A moment of clarity (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Therapy? - Bad mother

(mp3) Therapy? - Diane

Buy Infernal Love @ Amazon.com.

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #21

(mp3) Taint - Hex breaker
Available on Secrets & Lies (1997)

(mp3) Tool - Intermission
Available on Ænima (1996)

(mp3) Neurosis - Locust star (live at Ozzfest)
Official studio version vailable on Through Silver In Blood (1996)

(mp3) A Human Condition - Tear the walls down
Available on Rehearsal demo (2008)

(mp3) The Hellacopters - Tab
Available on Supershitty To The Max! (1996)

At The Drive-In - "Relationship Of Command" (2000)

This was the album that took Texan emocore (I think that's a genre, but I'm not sure) heroes At The Drive-In out of the underground inner circle of emocore-ness and made them a household name.

Not long after the release they split up and Cedric (vocals) and Omar (guitars) formed the masterful Mars Volta, while the other three created Sparta, the musical equivalent of narcolepsy. Avoid the latter at all costs. Apart from their first demo, that was pretty good.

Elitist? Moi?

I normally only post three songs from regular studio albums, but I honestly couldn't settle for just three. All these four songs are 100% flawless masterpieces in their own right. So I had to include all of them.

And you should download all four of them. If you know what's good for ya, that is.

(mp3) At The Drive-In - Enfilade

(mp3) At The Drive-In - Quarantined

(mp3) At The Drive-In - Cosmonaut

(mp3) At The Drive-In - Non-zero possibility

Buy Relationship Of Command @ Amazon.com.

Guns N' Roses - "Appetite For Destruction" (1987)

Where could I possibly begin to write about this milestone in rock 'n' roll?

Should I talk about how every song is perfection, how the production beats most straight up metal records in terms of sheer density and heavyness?

How Axl Rose sounds like every annoying kid with an attitude and a sneer that just rubbed you the wrong way in school, but whom you never had the balls the beat shit out of because he was just a little too strange and unpredictable?

How the snare drum sounds and feels like someone shooting you in the face with a shotgun?

How Slash's guitars skillorz are so amazing they make you overlook the stupid hat?

How Guns N' Roses completely blew it after this album, and became a big sad spectacle of pretensions and music videos of Axl swimming with dolphins? How they completely forgot to rock and raise hell?

How You Should Be Mine was the only truly good GNR song they made after this masterpiece? How all other subsequent GNR songs were just enjoyble because of the cheese factor?

How Chinese Democracy, upon its release in 2016, will be a piece of shit?

Nah. I'll let the music speak for itself:

(mp3) Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the jungle (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Guns N' Roses - Nightrain

(mp3) Guns N' Roses - Mr Brownstone

Mr Brownstone live in 1988:

Buy Appetite For Destruction @ Amazon.com.

Mastodon - Live at the Masquerade in Atlanta, GA, December 1st 2002

I've been having a lot of fun with DVD Audio Extractor lately. Wonderful little program.

I downloaded it to rip the bonus track that were included on the dvd that came with the special edition of Opeth's masterpiece Watershed (which you can download in its entirety here, with all bonus tracks included), and ended up ripping pretty much every music dvd I could find in my vast collection. The Machine Head post a few weeks ago was a result of this indulgence, the recent Godzilla post another.

For this one I ripped the dvd that came with the digipak special edition of Mastodon's debut album Remission which was released in 2003. The dvd contained a gig in their hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, where they opened for The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Enjoy. I know I will. For this is the mighty 'Don in their pre-Leviathan/being-praised-by-every hipster-under-the-sun days. When Brent still had long, curly Dimebag Darrel-hair and Troy's humongous Rasputin-beard was only half as impressive.

(mp3) Mastodon - 1. Ole' Nessie

(mp3) Mastodon - 2. March of the fire ants

(mp3) Mastodon - 3. Hail to fire

(mp3) Mastodon - 4. Where strides the Behemoth

(mp3) Mastodon - 5. Battle at sea

(mp3) Mastodon - 6. Mother puncher

(mp3) Mastodon - 7. Burning man

(mp3) Mastodon - 8. Workhorse

(mp3) Mastodon - 9. Crusher destroyer

Buy anything Mastodon @ Amazon.com.

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #20

(mp3) Disfear - The horns
Available on Misanthropic Generation (2003)

(mp3) Napalm Death - Twist the knife (slowly)
Available on Fear, Emptiness, Despair (1994)

(mp3) Massgrav - Blåst på konfekten
Available on Hatfylld Och Nerpissad (2003)

(mp3) Motörhead - Sucker
Available on Kiss Of Death (2006)

(mp3) Machine Head - The possibility of life's destruction
Available on The More Things Change... (digipak version, 1997)

Murder Squad - "Ravenous Murderous" (2003)

No, I really couldn't find a bigger pic of the album cover, but thanks for asking.

What do you get if you take the singer and bass player from prominent Stockholm death metal legends Dismember, the drummer and guitarist from even more prominent Stockholm death metal legends Entombed and let them go nuts with drugs, alcohol and cheap instruments in a shabby studio with Chris Reifert, the most prominent death metal legend of all?

You get Murder Squad's second album Ravenous Murderous, that's what.

Their first album, the brilliantly titled Unsane, Insane And Mentally Deranged from 2001, was so influenced by Autopsy they figured they might as well just the Autopsy guy to guest on the follow-up. And so it was, none other Chris Reifert himself flew in from the states and not only shared vocal duties with Matti Kärki, but also played guitar here and there, and even played drums on a few numbers (including the boner-inducing Spunkslut):

Cutting away – at your lips
To widen the hose – for my seed
Rabid jizz – of festering bile
Slurping it all – up with greed

Spunk slut, spunk slut
You beg me to cum all over your face
Spunk slut, spunk slut
Gagging on hot cum… you love the taste

Intravenous cum… replacing blood with sperm
Succulent death – of virgin heat
Scream and suck – harder you worm

Slicing through – your wanton womb
To make room – for my cock

Have you ever read lyrics more brilliant? No, I don't think you have. If you like death metal the way it used to be played (the way it should be played!) you will enjoy these three tracks immensely. Death metal that's as noisy and raunchy as old school punk, as fast and nasty as old school hardcore, as abrasive and filthy as old school rock 'n' roll, without a blastbeat in sight.

The result? Old school death motherfucking metal. The kind that stinks of sewage, vomit, piss, and maybe some bongwater that someone spilled on the couch the night before. The kind that never gets laid and will die with a beer gut.

(mp3) Murder Squad - Spunkslut (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Murder Squad - Hellish blasphemy

(mp3) Murder Squad - Masterpiece in morbidity

Buy Ravenous Murderous @ ???.

"Godzilla" (1954)

How fucking heavy can you get?

Fucking Godzilla heavy, that's how.

(mp3) Akira Ifukube - Main theme from Godzilla

Buy Godzilla @ Amazon.com.

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #19

(mp3) The Crown - Zombiefied!
Available on Possessed 13 (2003)

(mp3) Dark Tranquillity - Monochromatic stains
Available on Damage Done (2002)

(mp3) The Devin Townsend Band - Gaia
Available on Synchestra (2006)

(mp3) Khoma - Stop making speeches
Available on Tsunami (2004), later re-recorded for The Second Wave (2006)

(mp3) The Sex Pistols - Belsen was a gas
Performed at their last show in San Fransisco, January 14th 1978.

Kyuss - "Wretch" (1991)

Ooooooh look what I got for ya! ZOMG !!!!111 it's the first Kyuss album!

Kyuss released their "real" first album in 1990 under the name Sons Of Kyuss before they shortened their name and made this one, which included re-recorded versions of some songs on that "real" first one. Some say the Sons Of Kyuss versions are better, but I haven't heard them so I wouldn't know.

On this album the classic Kyuss line-up was solidified, with singer John Garcia, guitarist Josh Homme, drummer Brant Bjork and bassist Nick Oliveri. On Sons Of Kyuss Chris Cockrell played bass, and he also plays bass on two tracks on Wretch. He is not to be confused with Chris "Leave Britney Alone" Crocker. That'd be fun though, if Chris Crocker was the bassplayer of Kyuss. Close your eyes for a minute and picture that now.

The Kyuss as we know and love it today can clearly be heard on Wretch, but they're weren't quite there yet. They didn't arrive at that classic bass heavy sound until they hooked up with Chris Goss for the follow-up, Blues For The Red Sun a year later. One gets the feeling the producers of this one didn't quite get Kyuss and the sound that was needed for this kind of music (which I refuse to call "stoner rock") to be presented in the most flattering way. Thus, the production on Wretch is a bit weak, but there songs are there. Mostly.

Wretch does however present the band's punk roots, and while I can't claimed to have counted, I'm 90% sure this album contains more fast numbers than any of the subsequent albums. Some songs even sound like the could have been written by The Ramones.

Which, of course, is neato.

(mp3) Kyuss - (Beginning of what's about to happen) HWY 74

(mp3) Kyuss - Katzenjammer

(mp3) Kyuss - I'm not

Kyuss playing I'm Not and Choke in 1990:

Buy Wretch @ Amazon.com.

R.I.P. Natasha Shneider 1956-2008

"On July 2nd, at 11:11 AM, Natasha Shneider passed away. She ended her time in this Life with the style and poetry that she lived all the days previous, crossing over while held in the arms of her closest and dearest. No words can encapsulate the unwaivering strength she provided, adversities she overcome, the talents she possessed & nutured, the sharpness of her wit nor the beautiful complexity of her intellect. We are so thankful for her influence & the gift of her friendship.

A celebration of Natasha Shneider will be held in Hollywood at the Henry Fonda Theatre on Saturday, Aug 16th. Further details will be released shortly. All proceeds of the benefit and donations made will go to the relieve the burden of Natasha's fight against cancer. To donate, go to NatashaShneider.org

Now is all we have. May you all make the most of it.”

—Josh Homme

Eleven performing Reach Out:

Queens Of The Stone Age (feat. Natasha and her partner Alain Johannes) performing I Never Came:

Nasum - "Grind FInale" (2005)

The first Nasum release after frontman/guitarist/singer Mieszko Talarczyk died in the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia (the second being the recent Doombringer live album).

This 2CD boxset includes every non-album track Nasum ever recorded. Demos, split 7"'s, compilation, b-sides, outtakes, previously unreleased stuff... This is a fucking goldmine from beginning to end.

Nasum were the by far best grindcore band in history. Yes, better than Napalm Death (whom they cover on this compilation by the way), Carcass, Repulsion, Pig Destroyer, Brutal Truth, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Terrorizer, Rotten Sound, you name it.

It's all a matter of taste of course, but to my ears Nasum always more memorable songs. They always made sure to, amidst the blastbeat chaos, throw in moshy riffs and/or a catchy vocal line that would rip your face off. Just listen to the fucked up riff 11 seconds into Losing Faith. Thats pure headbanger material right there. You gotta bang your head pretty fast though.

If you haven't discovered Nasum yet, it's high time.

All these five tracks are extremly recommended.

(mp3) Nasum - The real (Refused cover)

(mp3) Nasum - Losing faith

(mp3) Nasum - Krossa

(mp3) Nasum - Fear of the China syndrome

(mp3) Nasum - Fury

Nasum grinding like no other in Malmö 2001:

Buy Grind Finale @ Amazon.com.

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #18

(mp3) Queens Of The Stone Age - Medication
Available on Lullabies To Paralyze (2005)

(mp3) Mastodon - This mortal soil
Available on Blood Mountain (2006)

(mp3) The Mars Volta - Concertina (live)
Available on Scabdates (2005)

(mp3) Foo Fighters - Weenie beenie
Available on S/t (1995)

(mp3) Peace, Love And Pitbulls - Black dog bliss
Available on 3 (1997)

Defleshed - "Fast Forward" (1999)

The fastest thrash band in the world?

Maybe. These guys whip up such a storm it almost turns into grindcore at times. MATTE MODIN FTW!!! Re-released a few years ago with thrashtastic bonus tracks, such as a cover of Sepultura's Beneath The Remains.

Thrash or be kinda thrashed.

(mp3) Defleshed - The return of the flesh (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Defleshed - Snowballing blood

(mp3) Defleshed - The iron and the maiden

Buy Fast Forward @ Amazon.com.

Machine Head - "Elegies" (2005)

My first posting of a DVD! Woohoo!

It's only the audio from a DVD, but still. Total landmark. This is the mighty Mushy Ned's only DVD to date, and it's spectacular. A live gig filmed at Brixton Academy in 2004, a documentary about the making of their "comeback album" Through The Ashes Of Empires, music videos and other lovely nuggets.

Buy it, fool.

(mp3) 1. Intro

(mp3) 2. Imperium

(mp3) 3. Seasons Wither

(mp3) 4. Old

(mp3) 5. Bulldozer

(mp3) 6. Days Turn Blue To Gray

(mp3) 7. The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears

(mp3) 8. Ten Ton Hammer

(mp3) 9. The Burning Red

(mp3) 10. In The Presence Of My Enemies

(mp3) 11. Take My Scars

(mp3) 12. Descend The Shades Of Night

(mp3) 13. Davidian

(mp3) 14. Block

Buy Elegies @ Amazon.com.

Alice In Chains - "S/t" (1995)

I got this for Christmas in 1995. I had asked for Dirt but I got this one, which suited me just fine.

This was by far AIC's darkest work. Where Dirt flirted with death, drugs and destruction in an almost chic hipster newly-found love kinda way, this album was about the honeymoon being over and being cornered by death, drugs and destruction and calmly realising that you won't be able to escape it. In that sense it reminds me of Johnny Cash's last album, American V: A Hundred Highways. It has exactly the same bleakness of accepting death. You know you're dying, you know you're fucked, and this is what knowing that sounds like.

Layne Staley didn't die until 2002, but being released with Kurt Cobain's still recent suicide (no, he wasn't murdered, you fucking idiots) still fresh in everyone's memory, I remember reading the reviews for this one where the reviewers would rhetorically ponder who the next grunge casualty would be: Scott Weiland, Courtney Love or Layne Staley. Sounds morbid in hindsight, but it makes perfect sense given the atmosphere of this album. This sounds like Layne's last will and testament, recorded on his deathbed. At times it really does sound like he could go at any moment.

On this album Layne didn't have the same confidence in his voice and was backed up by Jerry Cantrell's vocals more than ever. Very rarely does he push his voice like he had in the past (Shame In You being one exception - on this track he almost sounds like he did in his prime). I have no evidence what so ever to back this up, but it's pretty safe to say he was in such poor shape they had to hide him in the back somewhere, doubletracked and covered in reverb to make his voice sound bigger. Which only adds to the claustrophic, desperate mood.

This would be Layne's last studio album with AIC, and it sure shows. But what a way to go.

On a complete side note: that Christmas I also got Theme Park for my SNES, and that game and this album will forever be linked for me after playing both day and night the weeks following Christmas. Listening to Brush Away, I am always reminded the little handy-man dressed in red sweeping up trash from the ice-cream stand. You didn't need to know that, did you? But I told you anyway.

(mp3) Alice In Chains - Brush away

(mp3) Alice In Chains - Shame in you (highly recommended!)

(mp3) Alice In Chains - Frogs

Buy S/t @ Amazon.com.

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #17

(mp3) Earth - Omens and portents I: The Driver
Available on The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull (2008)

(mp3) Desert Sessions - You think I ain't worth a dollar but I feel like a millionaire
Available on Volumes 5 & 6 (1999)

(mp3) The Haunted - The exit
Available on The Dead Eye (2006)

(mp3) Bloodbath - Mouth of empty praise
Available on Unblessing The Purity (2008)

(mp3) the Melvins - A history of drunks
Available on (A) Senile Animal (2006)