That Entombed post I forgot all about last month

A month ago in my excellent Entombed side-projects post I promised more Entombed the following week. Well, that never happened for reasons unknown even to me.

The post I had planned was this one. A thirteen track, forty-five minute compilation chronologically presenting Entombed's career so far. It has tracks from all of their studio albums:

The death metal milestones Left Hand Path and Clandestine, the significantly rockier Wolverine Blues, the even rockier DCLXVI: To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth (which I've decided is a horror punk album more than anything else), the amazing but horribly misunderstood Same Difference, the garage-y shenanigans of Uprising, the thrashy Morning Star, the dark noise of Inferno and the sort-of-back-to-the-roots-but-not-really Serpent Saints.

There's also random material from EP's and stuff sprinkled through-out for added flavour.

Here I could rant against all those obviously deaf douchebags who keep going on about how those first two albums are the only ones worth owning and how rubbish the "death 'n' roll" of the latter albums was. How Entombed sold out and turned their back on death metal and blah blah blah.

But I won't. For these people are douchebags whom I do not wish to waste my time on. Did I mention they're also deaf? Possibly mildly retarded as well.

I mean, if you don't get the mastery of To Ride, Shoot Straight... or Same Difference there is something seriously wrong with you. You're missing out on a scale too grand for the human brain to comprehend. Yes, I too salivated over Daniel Ekeroth's Swedish Death Metal and Albert Mudrian's Choosing Death, but for fuck's sake climb out of that sad little hole of nostalgia and douchebaggery you've dug for yourself and get with the program.

Satan laughs as you eternally masturbate to Like An Ever Flowing Stream using your own tears for lubrication. Come and join us in the reptile dance. Dance with me and the devil. We fucked it up, fucked it up, and we'll keep fucking the Boss Heavy Metal up your ass as we level. You douchebag.

Uprising is another fine example. If you can't appreciate the brute force of Say It In Slugs (which is what Kyuss would sound like if they gave death metal a try) I want you to stop reading this blog until you get a fucking clue.

(zip) Metal Bastard's introduction to Entombed (59 mb)

1. Drowned (1990)
2. Evilyn (1991)
3. Dusk (1991)
4. Serpent speech (1993)
5. Full of hell (1993)
6. Like this with the devil (1997)
7. March of the S.O.D./Sergeant D & the S.O.D. (1997)
8. The supreme good (1998)
9. Say it in slugs (2000)
10. About to die (2001)
11. Young & dead (2003)
12. Carnage (2006)
13. Warfare, plague, famine, death (2007)

Buy all things Entombed, you pillock.

So... the new Cathedral album then

Could someone kindly explain to me what the fuck is going on on disc one? Disc number two is quite standard fare, but regarding the first one I am at a loss for words. Except one: "bonkers".

It's as if they took the drug-addled "anything goes" 26 minute track The Garden from 2005's The Garden Of Unearthly Delights and stretched it out over a whole disc. I'm pretty sure there are some Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band songs edited into this album at random intervals.

I think I like it, but I have no idea what to make of it. I have a feeling this a grower, not a shower. Have Cathedral made the most amazing album of their career or have they just been sucking a bit too hard on Big Chief Mary Jane's peace pipe lately?

Have they taken one step too far and sharted out their very own Cold Lake, or have they indeed given us the Shape Of Punk To Come of doom?

Only time will tell.

(mp3) Cathedral - Funeral of dreams
(mp3) Cathedral - Cats, incense, candles and wine

Available on The Guessing Game (2010)

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #81

(mp3) 36 Crazyfists - Bloodwork
Available on A Snow Capped Romance (2004)

(mp3) LOK & Hardcore Superstar - Staden Göteborg
Available on Staden Göteborg (single, 2001)

(mp3) Ancestors - Mother animal
Available on Of Sound Mind (2009)

(mp3) At The Drive-In - Sleepwalk capsules
Available on Relationship Of Command (2000)

(mp3) Pearl Jam - Crown of thorns (Mother Love Bone cover)
Available on Live At The Gardens (dvd, 2003)

It's a human being that hides in your wardrobe and eats an entire jacket in a day

More Pilkington! More! Here's one of the absolute classics, from Ricky Gervais' show on XFM 104.9.

Karl misunderstands a question which leads the tremendous trio down a whole different path of absurdism and genetically modified insects.

(mp3) Ricky, Stephen & Karl - Cloning mammoths
Originally aired on August 24h 2002.

Earth Hour? Bwahahahaha!!!

Fuck Earth Hour. Seriously, fuck it right up the ass.

I have already been yelled at by six seperate parties of mindless douchebags for not turning off all electrical appliances for Earth Hour. And the weekend isn't even over! Maybe if we work hard enough and pull together we can make it to ten separate parties of mindless douchebags before Monday.

They were absolutely right, I won't turn off all electrical appliances. On the other hand, I won't turn a bunch of extra shit on either as an act of pure defiance against this douchebagitude, but I sure feel like it.

You see, turning everything off for an hour does nothing. I'll type that one more time just to make sure everyone gets it: Nothing.

A third time? Okay.

NOTHING!

Especially in this ol' country of Sweden where we are still somehow in the middle of winter, starting everything up again would waste even more power than if I left the heat on. When the six separate parties of mindless douchebags were told this, they insisted I could at least turned the lights off. I will have the TV and one small light in one window on, just like every night. That's all.

Apparently three polar ice caps melted last night because I wanted to watch the rest of A Clockwork Orange without an intermission. Sorry 'bout that.

There are too many mindless douchebags in the world who think that sitting in the dark for an hour does something for the environment. It makes them feel good about themselves, they've actually done something for once. This is serious business, we're saving the world here!

It makes my heart leap with elitist joy to picture these nimcompoops sitting the dark with a candle counting down the minutes 'til they can return to their normal lives.

"3... 2... 1... Mission accomplished! Now turn the jacuzzi back on, honey, I'm in a bubbly sorta mood."

These are the same people who rave against plastic bags in grocery stores because switching to paper bags will fix everything that's wrong with the planet. These are the same people who boil with rage because a supermarket sells products that have chemical additives in them beginning with "E". These are the same people who think transfats are like the Communist Party, only sneakier.

The point of Earth Hour is not to conserve energy, it's meant to make people take a step back and ponder about the energy they spend and then perhaps do something about their wasteful lifestyles, but the act itself is pointless. It does no good if everyone doesn't make significant changes.

I already waste nearly no electricity at all, I don't drive a car, I eat as little meat as possible, I don't waste any resources that aren't renewable or buy items that aren't recycable or will last a lifetime - in fact, the only way I could live in more harmony with nature would be if I moved into a treehouse and married an otter.

Earth Hour is a good initiative. Unfortunately it overestimated the intelligence of mankind.

Holier than thou? You bet your fucking transfat hating ass I am.

You cunt.

(mp3) Switch Opens - The electric hour
Available on S/t (2009)

(mp3) Clutch - Electric worry
Available on From Beale Street To Oblivion (2007)

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

(mp3) Sunna - Power struggle
Available on One Minute Science (2000)

(mp3) Meshuggah - Electric red
Available on ObZen (2008)

(This is a re-post from last year because sadly it's just as relevant as it was twelve months ago. In other words: People are, generally speaking, still clueless douchebags.)

The Bammer

Maria Bamford is my future wife. She just doesn't know it yet.

(mp3) Maria Bamford - Free clinic
Available on Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome (2009)

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #55

Seldomly do I reach out for a helping hand from you, dear reader. Now is one such occasion.

I am currently in the process of compling an "Evolution of Dave Grohl" post that follows his humble beginnings in Dain Bramage and Scream to the rock star years of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, all the way to Queens Of The Stone Age, Probot, Killing Joke, Them Crooked Vultures etc.

There are however a couple of gaps that need to be filled in.

One such gap the soundtrack Grohl provided for the film Touch. The second gap is the new selftitled album by Slash, on which Grohl contributes to one track. I have been unable to find either of those and I would be much much much obliged if you could help me out.

Do you have a link for either of those two? Let me know at monkey_bastard at hotmail dot com.

(zip) MP3 Shuffle #55 (63 mb)

1. American Nightmare - God save the queen (2001)
2. Intensity - Un mundo mejor (1996)
3. Machine Head - Wolves (2007)
4. B-Thong - Prison mirror (1996)
5. High On Fire - To cross the bridge (2005)
6. Sourvein - Septic werewolves (2008)
7. Disfear - Captured by life (1998)
8. The Cumshots - Psalm 109 (2003)
9. Triptykon - A thousand lies (2010)
10. Insision - We did not come to heal (2004)
11. The Haunted - Shadow world (2003)
12. Demigod - Trail of guilt (2004)

Pay for your music.

The Love Cow of Metal has arrived!!!

Finally my dear Finnish friend has launched his own blog!

You will find this blog here. Go there. Right now, click here and download two excellent albums by the excellent Barren Earth. Right here. And bookmark that shit, add it to your Google reader or whatever, cause this shit will be worth reading on a regular basis.

All you need to know about this gentlemen is that he is Finnish, incredibly homosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that), looks like Jay (as in "Jay & Silent Bob", which in fascinating since I bear an uncanny resemblance to Silent Bob) and has an impeccable taste in music.

Apart from the fact that he likes The Devil's Blood for some strange reason.

So go here right now.

HERE!

(mp3) Barkmarket - Visible cow
Available on L. Ron (1996)

(mp3) Nasum - Like cattle
Available on Shift (2004)

(mp3) The Melvins - Cow
Available on Bullhead (1991)

(mp3) Primus - Shake hands with beef
Available on The Brown Album (1997)

(mp3) Nirvana - Milk it
Available on In Utero (1993)

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #80

(mp3) Sepultura - War (Bob Marley cover)
Available on Blood-Rooted (compilation, 1997)

(mp3) Entombed - Somewhat peculiar
Available on DCLXVI - To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth (1997)

(mp3) Clawfinger - Back to the basics
Available on Use Your Brain (1995)

(mp3) Paradise Lost - One second
Available on One Second (1997)

(mp3) Ebony Tears - Inferno
Available on Handful Of Nothing (1999)

The Accidents - "All Time High" (2004)

Whenever I hear The Accidents I suddenly get very thirsty.

I want to drink myself into oblivion, ride with the top down and shout at the top of my lungs. The Accidents tend to have that effect on people. With their mix of raging punk and rockabilly they have busted out three albums (All Time High being the first and best one) and a string of seven inch singles, all chock full of the happiest music I can think of.

It's as if The Supersuckers and Reverend Horton Heat joined forces to hump, grind and sweat their way through the party music to end all party music. As if that wasn't enough, The Accidents are just about the meanest fuckers around. See for yourself:


Have you ever seen a shadier, more criminal looking group of people? I got ten bucks saying they're planning an armed robbery as we speak.

I thought nothing could give me a summery feeling in this dreary, endless winter, but within seconds The Accidents make me feel the warm sun on my face, the blue skies stretching as far as the eye can see and on the horizon I detect nothing but good times with good friends and even better booze. In twenty nine minutes The Accidents burn through twelve high octane tracks that make you curse the volume button for not going any louder.

I want to shave my beard into the world's mighties sideburns, pour half a gallon of pomade into my hair, hijack a Cadillac and punch a stranger in the face.

Do I even need to add that all of these four songs are very, very, very recommended?

(mp3) The Accidents - Too much to drink
(mp3) The Accidents - All time high
(mp3) The Accidents - Last sigh of summer
(mp3) The Accidents - Pan America (Hank Williams cover)

Buy it.

Rammstein - "Reise, Reise" (2004)

It took me a long time to warm up to Rammstein.

While their live shows were always exciting and a source of great amusement, their music was apart from a song or two uninspired, dull and forgettable. Show me one riff on the first two albums that wasn't a watered down Ministry rip off and I will explain in detail just how deluded you are.

I was probably way off, but to little ol' me it just seemed like the band simply used various on-stage antics (such as setting themselves on fire) so that no one would notice how poor the songs were.

But somewhere around the third album Mutter in 2001 something happened - Rammstein suddenly wrote proper songs. Mutter, still regarded as their best album by many fans, displayed a new-found maturity in the songwriting. Their material was now, for lack of a better word, open, fresh and dynamic. A big reason for this was Till Lindemann actually singing instead doing his Hitler impersonation. And above all it was the band's bigger step thus far towards an own identity.

The songs breathed a bit more, and the album as a whole just feels a lot more alive, probably because many of the "industrial" elements were replace by a much more organic sound. For the first time Rammstein sounded like five warm blooded humans as opposed to two yodeling androids and a drum machine.

Their perverse sense of humor with more puns and double entendres than you can shake a stick at also became increasingly prominent. Which was nice. Also, their blatant flirtations with Third Reich imagery has always been highly entertaining and is not to be overlooked. You'd think being German the last thing you'd wanna do is purposely make people suspect you of fascism, and for Rammstein to embrace it and exploit it for both laughs and provocations in equal amounts takes lead-plated balls.

By the time Reise, Reise was released three years later I was a devoted fan, and while I greatly enjoyed 2005's Rosenrot (which largely contained material written for Reise, Reise) and last year's Liebe Ist Für Alle Da as well, this for me is the pinnacle of their discography. This is the album where almost everything clicked.

Still, Reise, Reise is not without its flaws - the single Amerika is just silly, and letting Amour finish the album was a big mistake. It's a good song, but the album clearly should've ended with the epic penultimate track Ohne Dich, one of the Rammstein's best songs period.

The video for Meil Teil:

Random thought sort of concerning Mastodon

I'm a little bored so here's a random thought for no particular reason:

It's with songs like Watcher Of The Skies you realise how big an influence Genesis have been on Mastodon, and more specifically just how important Phil Collins and his style have been to Brann Dailor.

That's all I got for you today.

(mp3) Genesis - Watcher of the skies
Available on Foxtrot (1972)

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #54

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the denial of Johnson's appeal. The court's March ruling acknowledged that Johnson's first lawyer might have been mentally ill during his trial, that he did not press hard to admit certain testimony and that he behaved unprofessionally during jury selection.

(zip) MP3 Shuffle #54 (56 mb)

1. The Gits - Sign of the crab (1993)
2. Fireside - Interlace (1995)
3. The Accidents - Afterburner (2005)
4. The Hidden Hand - Lightning hill (2007)
5. Carusella - Star quality (2008)
6. Deftones - Sextape (2010)
7. Kyuss - Catamaran (1995)
8. Mustasch - Homophobic/Alcoholic (2001)
9. Zen Guerrilla - Peppermint (1999)
10. Bigelf - Madhatter (2003)
11. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Widower (2010)

Pay for your music.

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #79

(mp3) Alice In Chains feat. Chris Cornell & Mark Arm - Right turn
Available on Sap (ep, 1994)

(mp3) Cypress Hill - Get out of my head
Available on Skull & Bones (2000)

(mp3) Descendents - Everything sux
Available on Everything Sucks (1996)

(mp3) Coal Chamber - Maricon puto
Available on S/t (1997)

(mp3) Audioslave - The curse
Available on Out Of Exile (2005)

V/A - "Punk Covers" (2002)

I've bought tons of punk compilations of the years. Not sure why, as they all tend to feature the same songs and the same bands anyway. About four years ago however, I bought a rather interesting 10 CD box set of old punk songs from the 70's and 80's, entitled Horrible Punk - God Bless This Box.

Each CD had its own theme, like “Punk Live Classics” (live recordings so lo-fi you can’t tell one song from another), “Extreme Punk” (bands like Chaos UK, Driller Killer, Chaotic Dischord, Blitzkrieg and External Menace) and “Punk Indie Chart Hits” (Peter & The Test Tube Babies, Spizz Energi, Johnny Thunders etc).

Anyway, the best and most interesting of these 10 CD’s was the fourth one “Punk Covers”, which I offer you here in its entirety.

The quality of these track range from excellent (One Way System, The Wall, The Vibrators ones and the Vice Squad ones) to excruciating (Disorder, Sid Vicious) and everything in between.

(zip) V/A - Punk Covers (43 mb)

1. Anti-Pasti - I wanna be your dog (The Stooges)
2. Sid Vicious - My way (Frank Sinatra)
3. The Vibrators - Jumpin' Jack Flash (The Rolling Stones)
4. Vice Squad - The times they are a-changin' (Bob Dylan)
5. One Way System - Cum on feel the noize (Slade)
6. Hollywood Brats - Then he kissed me (The Crystals)
7. Erazerhead - A teenager in love (Dion & The Belmonts)
8. G.B.H. - Pretty vacant (The Sex Pistols)
9. Disorder - Joleen (Dolly Parton)
10. Angelic Upstarts - White riot (The Clash)
11. Eater - Jeepster (T. Rex)
12. Vice Squad - Teenage rampage (Sweet)
13. Suburban Studs - My generation (The Who)
14. The Vibrators - Gimme some lovin' (The Spencer Davis Group)
15. The Drones - Be my baby (The Ronettes)
16. The Wall - Day tripper (The Beatles)

Dave Grohl in FRESH POTS!!!

(mp3) 76% Uncertain - Coffee achievers
Available on Estimated Monkey Time (1984)

(mp3) Faith No More - Caffeine
Available on Angel Dust (1992)

(mp3) Black Flag - Black coffee
Available on Slip It In (1984)

Even more Gervais/Merchant/Pilkington stuff. I'm officially losing my mind.

Oh my god, I can't help it. I know I should probably write about music, but I literally cannot stop myself.

Here's a snippet from the second episode of the first season of their XFM show. It begins with Stephen asking the other two a trivia question about birds, and before you know it it's turned into a competition to see who can get away with the saying the dirtiest words on the air.

(mp3) RSK - Getting around censorship laws
Original air date November 17th 2001.

And here's one that aired a couple of weeks later. Listeners are urged to call in an win tickets to Kerrang Magazine's K Fest, and it is revealed that none of the three have ever heard of Nile.

Shock! Horror!

Turns out they haven't heard of Behemoth either!

Gasp! What planet are they living on?!

And as if that wasn't enough, they have no idea who Mark Lanegan is. I don't know about you, I'm disappointed. Very disappointed.

(mp3) RSK - K fest
Original air date December 18th 2001.

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #53

Blah blah blah yada yada humpty dumpty. Great mix this week blah blah you gotta check it out shoobie doobie doo lots of great tracks on here yabbadabbadoo.

(zip) MP3 Shuffle #53 (61 mb)

1. Fear Factory - Martyr (1992)
2. Amon Amarth - Where is your god? (2008)
3. Opeth - Bleak (2001)
4. Cannibal Corpse - Frantic disembowelment (2004)
5. Darkthrone - Cromlech (1991)
6. The Melvins - Blessing the operation (1986)
7. Dropkick Murphys - On the attack (1998)
8. Final Exit - Bent out of shape (1997)
9. Desert Sessions - Punk rock caveman living in a prehistoric age (1999)
10. Marilyn Manson - Cruci-fiction in space (2000)
11. Roadrunner United - The rich man (2005)

Pay for your music

As if I didn't love Stephen Fry enough already

Thank you, Stephen Fry. You are a god amongst men.

Preach on, brother! Preach on!

(mp3) Sonic Youth - Catholic block
Available on Sister (1987)

(mp3) Mike Patton - Catholic tribe
Available on A Perfect Place Original Sountrack (2008)

(mp3) George Carlin - I used to be an Irish catholic
Available on Class Clown (1972)

(mp3) Carnivore - Angry neurotic catholics
Available on Retaliation (1987)

(mp3) Scott Kelly - Catholic blood
Available on The Wake (2008)

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #78

(mp3) Volkspolizei - Interlude (DHGM mega super fucko straight outta Gyllinge mix)
Available on Synthetic Lo-Fi Terrorism Vol. 2 (2004)

(mp3) Deftones - Say it ain't so (Weezer cover)
Available NOWHERE!

(mp3) Kellermensch - Moribound town
Available on S/t (2010)

(mp3) DVDA feat. James Hetfield - Hell isn't good
Available on (1999)

(mp3) Filter - Under
Available on Short Bus (1995)

Chuck Pahalahinahlhnuick

I just started working my way through Chuck Palahniuk's latest book Pygmy, and holy fuck is it a hard read. I won't bore you with the details, just know it's written in a style that's very hard for me to get used to. I'll hang in there though until I get into the swing of it, I'm only 20 pages in.

Palahniuk is the most interesting thing that's happened to American fictional literature since Luke Rhinehart gave us The Dice Man nearly forty years ago, so I'm sure it will be worth the effort. He hasn't disappointed me yet.

Here is the man himself recorded at Barnes & Nobles in New York on December 9th 2003 reading the chapter "Guts" from his collection-of-short-stories-disguised-as-a-novel Haunted.

(mp3) Chuck Palahniuk - Guts
Excerpt from Haunted (2005)

Was thinkin' of The 'Tallica the other day...

Sometimes I get strange thoughts stuck in my head.

Not long ago a Metallica related scenario caught my attention - What if Dave Mustaine had never been fired? What if Cliff Burton hadn't died? What if John Bush from Armoured Saint (later Anthrax) had accepted the offer to be the band's singer?

Certainly an interesting line-up, and we would've had a very different Metallica. I'm not going anywhere with this, I just thought it sounded intriguing, that's all.

Alright move on, people. Nothing to see here.

(mp3) Metallica - Leper messiah
Available on Master Of Puppets (1986)

Grunge is dead. Long live grunge.

I just finished Greg Prato's Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music, the best book I've read on the subject.

The book does exactly what it says on the tin - it's nearly 500 pages of first-hand accounts chronicling everything from the early days of The Sonics in 60's, Three Whiz Kidz in the 70's, the birth of what we know now as "grunge" in the 80's, to the mainstream successes of the 90's, all the way up to present day.

It goes pretty in depth about everything from the good times of crazy shows and various backstage hijinks and indulgences, to the low points such as the deaths of Andy Wood, Kurt Cobain, Mia Zapata and Layne Staley. A compelling read from beginning to end.

So I just had to take a leisurely stroll down memory lane with a little compilation of some of my favorite tracks from the era and the region. Yeah, there's no Alice In Chains or Pearl Jam or Mother Love Bone or Nirvana.

Why? Because. That's why.

The Seattle scene was notoriously incestuous, with everyone playing in a number of bands. I was gonna do a little run-down of how these bands are connected before I realised that run-down would be anything but little. Seriously, I would take me all fucking day just to type it.

If you're interested in knowing who played when and what in which band, you could always go to Wikipedia or something, because I honestly couldn't be bothered. If you're not interested enough to look it up, just keep in mind as you're listening that a lot of these bands share so many members that you're essentially hearing the same people over and over.

Most of these tracks are from 1985-1995. Others aren't.

(zip) V/A - Pacific Northwest Compilation (68 mb)

1. Fecal Matter - Laminated effect
2. Swallow - Zoo
3. TAD - Wood goblins
4. The Fartz - Idiots rule
5. Green River - Hangin' tree
6. The U-Men - Dig it a hole
7. Malfunkshun - With yo' heart (not yo' hands)
8. Skin Yard - The birds
9. Mudhoney - Sweet young thing ain't sweet no more
10. Dead Moon - 5440
11. Screaming Trees - Love or confusion (Jimi Hendrix cover)
12. Soundgarden - Tears to forget
13. The Melvins - Grinding process
14. The Blackouts - Idiot
15. The Supersuckers - I say fuck
16. Cat Butt - Big cigar
17. Some Velvet Sidewalk - Mousetrap
18. 7 Year Bitch - Knot
19. The Wipers - Return of the rat
20. The Gits - Second skin

Buy the music.

Buy the book.

Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" is about a bloke in a wheelchair and that

Oh the fun stuff around here just never ends.

Here's the bald, round-headed Manc genius explaining why he thinks Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight is about "this crippled fellow in a wheelchair".

From the 5th episode of the 4th season of The Ricky Gervais Show on XFM, which aired on June 25th 2005.

(mp3) Ricky Gervais & Karl Pilkington discuss the meaning of Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight
Song available on Slowhand (1977)

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #52

This week's mp3 mix is a bit of a campaign, really.

A campaign designed to make more people realise how fucking great Wrathchild America and Kiss It Goodbye were, that Taint is one of the best bands in the world, and that Radio Friendly Unit Shifter is one of Nirvana's top five best songs.

The brilliance of everything else on here should already be known to you.

(zip) Friday MP3 Shuffle #52 (63 mb)

1. Nirvana - Radio friendly unit shifter (1993)
2. Clutch - Mercury (2004)
3. Taint - What the crow saw (2007)
4. Mötley Crüe - Looks that kill (1983)
5. Wrathchild America - 3-D man (1991)
6. Kiss It Goodbye - Fire drill (1997)
7. Meshuggah - Rational gaze (2002)
8. Bloodbath - Wretched human mirror (2008)
9. Celtic Frost - A dying god coming into human flesh (2006)
10. Entombed - Wreckage (1997)

Pay for your music

New Opeth track

So here's the new Opeth track, from the God Of War soundtrack. The EP also contains new tracks from Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Dream Theater, Taking Dawn and Mutiny Within, but who gives a shit.

Frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt had the following to say about the song:

"Song is very odd, it's good I think, or for my taste it is, but even I can understand it's very....odd! Produced and recorded it from scratch and I'm happy with the sound if I may say so myself. Fred laid down a killer acoustic solo and Per laid down an amazing twiddly tweet moog solo. It's not a very metal song, I'm saving up for that..later.....yet it's got a metal ‘mentality’, or what I remember metal used to do to me. I can feel it, even though it's not a ‘metal’ song per definition."

No, The Throat Of Winter isn't very metal. In fact, it wouldn't have sounded out of place next to some of the mellower pieces on 2008's Watershed or even 2003's all mellow Damnation. Perhaps it has one too many strange transitions between parts that don't necessarily go together that well, but on the whole I'm digging the song big time. But I'm a fanboy, that's to be expected.

What sold me on it in the end were Åkerfeldt's amazing vocals - I can't seem to get over what an improvement he's made, both in the growling department and in regards to his clean vocals. Hard to believe it's the same guy who delivered the feeble, insecure vocals on Orchid fifteen years ago.

(mp3) Opeth - The throat of winter
Available on V/A - God of War: Blood & Metal (2010)

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #77

(mp3) Rodrigo y Gabriela - Oogie Boogie's song
Available on V/A - Nightmare Revisited (2008)

(mp3) Uriah Heep - Look at yourself
Available on Look At Yourself (1971)

(mp3) Pagan Altar - In the wak of Armadeous
Available on S/t (1982)

(mp3) Andrew W.K. - Pushing drugs
Available on Close Calls With Brick Walls (2006)

(mp3) Leviathan - Through the womb of the moon
Available on Verräter (demo compilation, 2002)

I love 2010 already

We're only two months and four days into the new year, but I'm already confident that 2010 will be no less excellent a music year than 2009. Chances are my "best of 2010" list in December will be just as long as the one I just posted a couple of months ago.

We've already had little previews of the new albums from Deftones here and The Dillinger Escape Plan here, and a bit of High On Fire here and here. Khoma also have a track from their upcoming album here, check it out.

2010 is also shaping up to be quite an interesting black metal year. After initially being a bit dubious about the new album from Ihsahn, it's growing on me slowly but surely. Spastic nutcase metal with freeform jazz saxophones is the new law, and On The Shores is its enforcer.

(mp3) Ihsahn - On the shores
Available on After (2010)

Then there's Burzum's first album since Varg Vikernes got released from prison. At first the album felt like one long anticlimax - the dude gets to record his first metal album in 16 years, and this is all he can come up with? But just like the Ihsahn album it needed some time. It's no Filosofem, far from it, but there's a lot more going on here than you can take in on the first listen.

(mp3) Burzum - Sverddans
Available on Belus (2010)

There's also the new album by Ov Hell, featuring songs Ov Hell had originally written for his previous band Gorgoroth, then for his new band God Seed. After that fell apart he recording the songs with a handful of black metal celebrities and released them under his own name. I like the album quite a bit although the production is bit too squeaky clean. I didn't care for last year's Ghaal & Ov Hell-less Gorgoroth album, and The Underworld Regime blows it completely out of the water in my book. In my sad, lonely little book.

(mp3) Ov Hell - Devil's harlot
Available on The Underworld Regime (2010)

Lastly, we have Darkthrone. Oh, Darkthrone... How much more ass could you possibly kick? After the transformation from pure Norwegian black metal into some sort of drunken punk heavy metal, my appreciation for them has only grown. This is their best album post-change of direction.

(mp3) Darkthrone - I am the working class
Available on Circle The Wagons (2010)

I, the fresh-faced whippersnapper

Earlier today when I dragged my nearly 30-year old ass down to the liqour store to fill up the empty-looking cabinet o' booze (because it's Little Saturday, a weekly Scandinavian holiday), the lady behind the counter asked to see my ID.

You know what that means, don't you? It means one person in the world thinks I still look like a teenager.

Yeah, baby!

(mp3) ZZ Top - Beer drinkers & hell raisers
Available on Tres Hombres (1973)

(mp3) The Mars Volta - Drunkship of lanterns
Available on De-Loused In The Comatorium (2003)

(mp3) Street Dogs - Drink tonight
Available on Back To The World (2005)

(mp3) AC/DC - Have a drink on me
Available on Back In Black (1980)

(mp3) Thin Lizzy - Whisky in the jar
Available on Vagabonds Of The Western World (1973)