Free Metal Monday: Cemetery-Demo

Self-Release/Independent*
2011

Chicago death rock band Cemetery (who are all kinds of gloomy goodness!) released this demo
back in August of 2011.  It has three tracks ("Reptile Walk", "Voices in the walls", and "Cask") and it is free for the taking. For comparison's sake this is kind of like a punk rock take on Christian Death, but way more darker than that might imply. While it's not technically "metal", "Demo" here should appeal to some doom and goth metal fans.



 * In February of 2014  Mass Media Records released a (re-mastered) collection of all of Cemetery's material. The digital version costs eight dollars and the LP is fifteen dollars. You can find out more about the collection by heading here.  

Pendulous-A Palpable Sense of Love & Loss

Self-Release/Independent
2015

Now signed to Baneful Genesis Records*, Pendulous** is a doom metal band from Los Angeles, California that was formed in 2011. Having shared the stage with the likes of Evoken, Bell Witch, Primitive Man, Windhand, Atriarch, and Mournful Congregation (among countless others) this popular (and frankly rather innovative) L.A. band made it's studio debut in 2013 with "Mirrored Confessions". That 21 minute EP was just the beginning for Pendulous though as nothing could have prepared fans and critics for an album like "A Palpable Sense Of Love & Loss"! At nearly sixty minutes(!) this is the kind of release a band like Pendulous needs in order to make the leap from local favorites to national treasure. With the addition of second guitarist Nicholas Rocha (Deathkings) and a expansive catalog of influences from which to pick and choose (everything from funeral doom to dark metal) the band's full-length debut has so much to offer for the discerning doom metal fan. We'll get to that bit shortly. First things first. Let's talk about the overarching sound of "A Palpable Sense of Love & Loss". The album was recorded, mixed, and mastered by John Haddad at Trench Studios (Intronaut, Exhumed, Phobia, Abysmal Dawn, Hirax) and for Pendulous it's a near-perfect backdrop for the story that they wish to tell. To that end one simply couldn't ask for a better "storyteller" than lead vocalist E.R.M. (Eric Rezső Mendoza ). This former Dona Eis Requiem front-man moves effortlessly between clean and harsh vocals and with someone as all-capable as he is leading the way there's no telling just how far this band will go! With a surrounding cast of characters that makes all-encompassing death metal mood music for the doom metal minded this L.A. act is clearly on the rise. All of which brings us to this album. A lengthy spoken word intro opens things up on the appropriately-titled  "A Palpable Sense of Love & Loss" before the nearly nine minute(!) car-crusher that is "A Faltering Will" works it's way into the picture. It's not the longest track of the lot (as that would be "Closure" with it's run-time of 11:48!), but it does the job that it was hired to do and it does it oh so well. And that job would be slowing grinding the listener under the weight of it's overpowering and oppressive boot while sadly humming a melancholy tune! Sounds pleasant right? You bet your life it is! Much likes "40 Years" it's all about squeezing the most of the music while making sure that there is always one eye focused on the prize. Everything about "A Palpable Sense of Love & Loss" is aimed towards the bigger picture. It's the idea that doom metal can be miserable and menacing. It can be overpowering and naturally oppressive. It can crush it's enemy and bury it's bones under rubble. But that does not mean that it has to be pure noise. It can have structure and be well-conceived. "A Faltering Will" is heavy alright, but it's also full of purpose and it has it's own distinct charm. Then again so does "Hibernal Sun". Unlike "A Faltering Will" though it's not so much about death/doom as it is post-rock. It's a different side to this band and yet it fits perfectly with the overall atmospheric vibe that Pendulous was aiming for. The same can be said of "Pendant World". It's more in line with death rock, but it to fits a pattern that is started early on with Pendulous and their debut full-length and it's one that ends with the subtle, piano-driven beauty that is "Memoirs". Without a doubt this is one of the most compelling doom metal albums of 2015 as well as one of the most genre-splitting. Doom fans are going to want to check this album out.

*Independently-released, "A Palpable Sense of Love & Loss" is due to receive a special vinyl treatment thanks to Baneful Genesis Records.

**pen·du·lous adj \-ləs\
1 : poised with no visible support, or hanging downward.
3 : marked by vacillation (between polar opposites),and uncertainty. 

The New Jacobin Club-Soldiers of the Mark

Manticore Music Group
2014

Well Toto it seems as if we've lost our way again. It's not just that we're not in Kansas anymore. I've got this strange feeling that we're not even in this dimension anymore! Where oh where should we begin? With The New Jacobin Club it's a sure bet that all bets are off. That's a given, but when it comes time to add another Canadian act to overgrowing collection of odds and ends is there at least a starting point? The band obviously owes a huge debt to all things Glenn Danzig. From The Misfits to Samhain and of course Danzig itself this bohemian collective of musicians, poets, painters and performance artists adds it all up before knocking the whole house of cards over thanks to additional elements with far-ranging kitsch appeal. While  opener "The Mark" could have served time on the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" TV series's soundtrack "Champagne Ivy" takes the Misfits and gives it a psychedelic once over in Black-era Metallica! But then again so does "Garthim" with the only difference being that where the first relies on front-man The Horde's ghoulish voice a number like "Garthim" instead leans heavily on Sci-Fi samples! With influences that run wild and free (Horrorpops, The Ramones, B-52s, Alice Cooper, Christian Death, ELO, The Cure, The Smiths, B.O.C., Jane's Addiction, etc.) and band-members that willingly go out of their way to go into the great unknown "Soldiers of the Mark" defies strict genre definitions, instead choosing to go at it alone wherever the next beat takes it! Psychedelic death rock hopped up on Jesus Chrysler transforms itself into post-Soundgarden rock where The Cramps dance about with glee and it all makes perfect sense here!

 

(Clockwise starting from the top right)
The Horde - vocals/guitar , Mistress Nagini - backing vocals/keyboard, The Ruin – bass, The Luminous – cello, Rat King – drums, Poison Candi - Vocals/theremin/percussion
Photo credit: Kathryn Trembach

 

Using both male and female vocals, The New Jacobin Club (a band that has actually been active since the late nineties!) excel at their craft. The music of  "Soldiers of the Mark" is as catchy as it is devilishly charming. And it's care-free attitude only adds to the appeal! The New Jacobin Club act as if they have no limits and no boundaries. Anything and everything really is fair game! It's funny how a band like this can remind you of The Misfits one minute and then The Rezillos the next! And yet, during all that time and amidst all the rapid musical changes of this Matthew Facca-produced album where crazy is the new normal, they sound exactly like The New Jacobin Club! And that's a damn fine thing! Due to be released on the second of September, "Soldiers of the Mark" makes for a fine addition to one's music collection. And that goes for punks and bangers alike! For more information be sure to head over to the group's Facebook page posted below.

Death Trip-Pain is Pain - The Complete Death Trip 1988-1994

Ektro
2013

 
There's a better then average chance that the name Death Trip brings up nothing but shrugs or looks of confusion. Truth be told even I had no idea who these guys were or what they'd be on about when I clicked on the link for this promo. Surprises like that can obviously be both good and bad. Whatever mystery that I had allowed to build up inside of me (in regards to what sort of sonic sensation I would lay witness to) simply washed away as the music kicked in. Any expectations I had about this compilation just didn't matter as the music had swallowed me whole. What Death Trip did was quite simply and yet completely complex. Built upon a solid foundation of fuzzed over and wonderfully distorted guitars (courtesy of influences like The Stooges, The Birthday Party, and Spacemen 3) is a top level that splits time between gothic metal and the early stages of dark metal. This Finnish group helped pave the way for many underground groups in the homeland as well as being a sensation all there own. This compilation gathers Death Trip's three 7" singles (originally released on the legendary Finnish indie label Bad Vugum) and rare demos in order to create a set of explosive, post-punk in nature, violent rants/tracks. Within music that is dark, disturbing and dangerous you find a band that had set out to destroy rock and roll and rebuild it in their own graven image. At it's very core these tracks offer up revolutionary punk-tinged metal that is hostile while also offering up hope for a generation that often felt hopeless. It's not for the faint though as this LP is track after track of built-up frustration and pain so when you listen in to the despair at hand it's all too real. Still, there's something very therapeutic about music that spills it's heart and guts all over the floor. So yeah, any expectations I had about this compilation simply didn't matter in the end. For you see, what laid behind me was music that achieved so much in such a little amount of time. It had made me feel like I was drowning in a sea of darkness and yet, in a very surreal fashion, it had made me feel free as if it were ministering to me. This one is indeed dark and yet it has it's own inert power.
www.ektrorecords.com 
www.facebook.com/ektrorecords 

Venomous Maximus-Beg Upon The Light

Napalm Records
2013

Despite having a name that sounds like some cheesy villain, straight out a eighties cartoon series with it's own set of toys no less, this Texas outfit's full-length debut album is anything but cheap and plastic! With a pair of demos, and not to mention a compilation CD, preceding this release the time has now come for this Texas band to truly make their mark on the scene. For their first act, or this full-length debut album if you will, the band has signed their names in blood for this unholy collection of tracks. But, first things first. For the record "Beg Upon The Light" looks as if it was originally released back in October of 2012. Somewhat fittingly in time for Halloween no doubt!. So, from the looks of it all you ghouls and goblins, Napalm Records is now just handling the mass release for this album that is drenched in blood. As for what kind of poison Venomous Maximus has concocted?  Well, here we find a rather tasty little metal treat for those who like to have unearthly soundtracks humming around them as they walk under the moon's chilling glow. That's especially true if you like your midnight (black) mass music to contain metal that's darkly-tinted and overtly occultist in nature. For you see Venomous Maximus, a 4-piece outfit and/or demonic reckoning, offers the listening public corrosive, doom-lavished, dark metal with a smokey aftertaste and a loud proclamation that the devil calling out for you to be his co-pilot. Stoner rock meets occult rock through an ad in doom lover's monthly newsletter? That might work, but it gets even weirder when you consider that lead singer Gregg Higgins, in a fashion that sends shivers down your back, often time channels the ghost of Rozz Williams. For you younger readers, out there in the dark cold recesses of time and space (or the Internet if you will), that's the late front-man of Christian Death. Yes, it's the same man whose album, "Only Theatre Of Pain", helped established deathrock as a religious movement and in Gregg's hands, well, let's just say that Rozz has plenty more to say. In other words, that right there (this eerie, uncaring, cold and dreary rock/metal) is the stuff horrifying nightmares and late night ghost visits are made of. Is this music a house haunting in the making? Does it travel back to a time in which listening to rock music and heavy metal was the solo reported cause of societal downfall? Does it, like so many evil albums before it, help lead to a gateway to other-side? Not alone it probably doesn't. But what of the fiery pits of Hades? Gregg Higgins's ghoulish delivery sure makes it seem all the more real and closer at hand then ever before! The sound that results from the toxic combination of Gregg's singing and the band's unnerving dark metal is like something trying to crawl it's way into our world. It comes off as downright creepy. As this album uncurled itself like a famous snake of old (think Genesis kiddos) the tracks just go deeper and deeper and you feel at a loss as you find that your travels have taken you further from home then you ever dared imagine. Looking back all you see is darkness and the only sound at all that you can hope to make out is this album fading into nothingness. That's the gist of "Beg Upon The Night" right there. Sure, on the suffice, it might just come off as some doom, a little dark metal, maybe some death rock to spice things up and, of course it's obligatory these days, some heavy stoner rock riffing, but it's more then meets the eye. Scratch the suffice and this one is ghastly and just not of this earth!

Chains-Dancing With My Demons 7"

Svart Records
2013


Chains was formed in 2010 by Etienne "Hellscream" Chelleri (Bleeding Fist, Naberius ). With Chains he is known as E. Chains and, prior to the recording of this limited 7", he handled all of the instruments and vocals. joined by Hour of 13's Lord Samhain. On "Dancing With My Demons" Lord Samhain, who actually joined up with E. Chains after the release of Chains' sole full-length recording, "Of Death", plays drums and end the result is rather chilling and eerie.  Reportedly earlier recordings (which also included the 9+ minute demo/single "All the Colors of the Dark") where similar in nature to Sunn O))), Moss and Urfaust, only with the added elements of 70's horror movies. Those 2 releases certainly sound like they would be worthwhile tracking down as the earlier recording were also said to be influenced by bands like Death SS and Paul Chain! Here though the music, which has this musty vibe to it, come creeping out slowing like a ghoulish skeleton from an old 70's Euro-thriller! On this 2-track release Chains experiments with not only drone and doom elements, but vintage death rock and horror rock. Toss in some dark metal and give the whole thing a ghoulish vibe and you've got "Dancing With My Demons".  With another full-length album due out in either 2013 or 2014 this 2-track 7" only serves as an appetizer for all the ghouls and boys out there!



https://www.facebook.com/ChainsOfficial?fref=ts