Dropkick Murphys Week, Thursday: "Blackout" (2003)

Day four of Dropkick Murphys week!

On Blackout the band kept moving towards the more classic rock sound that had become more prominent on 2001's Sing Loud Sing Proud (see Tuesday's entry) and really ran with the whole traditional Irish music influences which at some points makes the album feel more like it belongs in the "world music" section of the record store, as opposed the "punk rock" one. Whereas in the past the Murphys had sounded like The Dubliners mixed with Gang Green and The Business, here they sounded like The Dubliners mixed The Rolling Stones, Thin Lizzy and The Clash.

I've been a bit dubious over this album since it first came out. The main reason being that I feel bass player Ken Casey takes the mic way too often. If you have such a perfect singer and frontman like Al Barr, why have someone else sing?

This was also the first time I'd heard a Dropkick Murphys song I didn't like - both third track The Outcast (sung by Casey) and the opener Walk Away sounded a bit washed out and dull to me, and they still do. I think this rather (to me ears anyway) weak opening had tarnished the album for me for quite some time. It was only a year or so ago I realised just what a brilliant album this is. And I've even grown to like Ken Casey singing.

The Ed Pickford cover Worker's Song is a personal favorite of mine, the acoustic World Full Of Hate is another and The Dirty Glass, on which Stephanie Dougherty supplied some excellent guest vocals, is a classic. Gonna Be A Blackout Tonight features lyrics for an unplublished song by Woody Guthrie, which caused quite a bit of publicity when the album came out. Prior to this only Billy Bragg and a couple of others had been given the privilage to use Guthrie's words.

While I may have accepted Blackout for the great record that it is, I must say I don't care for the bagpipes on it. The album was recorded after Spicey McHaggis left but before current bagpiper Scruffy Wallace had been recruited, so the pipes were handled by Joe Delaney who also provided some pipe action on 1999's The Gang's All Here.

Is it just me or do the pipes sound quite out of tune? I'm sure Delaney is a fine piper, but he ain't no Wallace or McHaggis, that's for sure.

(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Buried alive (recommended!)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Fields of Athenry
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Kiss me, I'm shitfaced

Buy it @ Amazon.com

Buried Alive live in 2003:

Dropkick Murphys Week, Wednesday: "Live on St. Patrick's Day from Boston, MA" (2002)

Day three of Dropkick Murphys Week!

The liner notes say "Dropkick Murphys don't give concerts - they throw parties" and ain't that the truth. I don't really have much to add to that, it sums it all up. You'd be hard pressed to find a Murphys gig where the audience is as important as the people on the stage. Half the time the audience is on the stage, but still.

Dropkick Murphys St. Patrick's Day shows is the stuff of legend in Boston, where the band annually spends an entire weekend performing. That seamless blend of band and audience is most definitely felt on Live on St. Patrick's Day from Boston, MA, which was recorded during three explosive shows at the Avalon Ballroom in 2002. This live recording was also included in their dvd On The Road With The Dropkick Murphys in 2004.

Singalongs and crowd interaction are a given in pretty much every song. Curse Of A Fallen Soul (from 1999's The Gang's All Here) gives me chills every time I hear it.

(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - For Boston/Boys on the docks
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Curse of a fallen soul (recommended!)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Skinhead on the MBTA

Buy Live on St. Patrick's Day from Boston, MA @ Amazon.com.

Buy On The Road With The Dropkick Murphys too while you're at it. Right here.

Dropkick Murphys Week, Tuesday: "Sing Loud Sing Proud!" (2001)

On this their third album, Boston's sort-of-Irish folk rock punk dudes changed their line up quite a bit.

Original guitarist and founding member Rick Barton took a hike, and was replaced by not only a new guitarist, but two of them. They also added a dude on tin whistle & mandolin and stuff, as well as the legendary Robbie "Spicey McHaggis" Medeiros on bagpipes. This was the only album that featured McHaggis and he was only a member for a couple of years before leaving to spend more time with his family, but his impact (and his bodymass) was so huge that his spirit still lives on within the band to such a degree that some even think he's still in the band. The fact that this album has a song (The Spicy McHaggis Jig, a big live favorite among fans) written about McHaggis and his penchant for "chicks over four hundred pounds" probably has plenty to do with it.

The addition of then 17-year Marc Orrell, appropriately nicknamed "The Kid", was a huge improvement in my opinion. Not only did he have classic rock licks to spare, but he had an effortless, fluid playing style that Barton lacked and which suited Dropkick Murphys' ever-evolving sound as they grew into more of a Celtic rock band with punk flourishes as opposed to a Celtic punk band with rock flourishes. He was also a fucking firecracker on stage and made their already mad live show even more energetic. Orrell left the band in 2008 to pursue other musical horizons.

The result of all these changes in camp Murphy? Their magnum opus, that's what. People always tend to think the follow up, 2003's Blackout, is the best Dropkick Murphys album. Those people are drunk. Don't pay any attention to them.

While Blackout is a most excellent album, this is the one where everything clicked; this album has the best songs, the best production, the best party atmosphere, the best shout-along choruses, the best of everything. On the albums before and after this one the combination punk rock vs. Irish folk music has always tipped over in either direction. Not so here, the two styles mix perfectly.

This album rules, I cannot praise it enough. It's the kind of album that makes you wish you were Irish. Or at least from Boston.

Or at least have any sort of Celtic affiliation so you wouldn't feel like such a tool when you stumble around in a scally cap on St. Patrick's Day with green beer on your shirt.

(mp3) (mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Heroes from out past (highly recommended!)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Forever
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - The gauntlet

Buy Sing Loud Sing Proud @ Amazon.com.

The Gauntlet live in 2002. Marc "The Kid" Orrell is the one on the far left in the black shirt - what a star.

Dropkick Murphys Week, Monday: "The Gang's All Here" (1999)

Welcome to Dropkick Murphys week! Woohoo! I'll be going through one Murphys record a day for the next seven days. I already wrote about their 1998 debut Do Or Die during the countdown of the top 30 albums of the 90s (where it ranked #23), so we'll skip that one and leave room for others.

Their second album The Gang's All Here came out in 1999 on Hellcat Records and was produced Rancid guitarist Lars Fredriksson who also produced their debut. It's the only album the band did with both singer Al Barr (formerly of The Bruisers)and guitarist Rick Barton in the line-up.

Barr had joined in 1998 after original vocalist Mike McColgan left to pursue a career as a firefighter, and Barton left prior to the follow-up 2001's Sing Loud Sing Proud, which we'll get to tomorrow.

To me there are two phases in the Dropkick Murphys timeline, the first from 1996 to 2000, the other from 2000 to today. Early Murphys was a bit harsher, no doubt thanks to McCoglan rough vocals. Songwriting wise they were also distinctly more punk, while still having leanings towards Stiff Little Fingers, Thin Lizzy, The Pogues etc, influences that would come into full fruition on Sing Loud Sing Proud, where the band hit full leprechuan mode with jigs, The Wild Rover, The Rocky Road To Dublin and the whole bit.

This album is the transition piece between these two phases, where the songwriting is still mainly rooted in punk (plenty of Celtic influences though, make no mistake) but with a more powerful and well-produced Rancid-like sound that in many ways they still use.

While I think all Dropkick Murphys albums are great in their own way, this is one of my favorites. Mainly because it was my first acquaintance with the band, but because the aforementioned evenly balanced mix of hardcore punk and the Celtic sounds of their heritage. I also think this is where Al Barr and his drunken sailor vocals were at their best.

(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Boston asphalt (recommended!)
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - Wheel of misfortune
(mp3) Dropkick Murphys - The gang's all here

Buy it @ Amazon.com

The video for 10 Years of Service:

You know what?

This blog gets hundreds of hits and downloads each day, but the comments are few and far in between.

It's about time all of you lurkers and sneak downloaders start showing some appreciation up in dis muddafugga.

What did I tell you?

Didn't I fucking tell you? Damn right I did.

"He's just another man", huh Brett? Just another man who beat you at your own game and knocked you out like a bitch. Go on, cry about it why doncha.

Fedor is the Alexander Karelin of MMA and he will not be stopped. Especially not by a cocky, trash talking punk like Brett Rogers.

Watch and enjoy:

Fedor vs. Rogers - There will be pwnage

Tonight's the night - Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers at Hoffman Estates in Illinois. If you're in the U.S., watch it on CBS. If you're somewhere else, watch it online at Omnisport.

And I strongly encourage you to do so. You wouldn't want to miss Fedor beating the snot out another helpless hopeful, do you?

Yeah yeah yeah, I know Rogers has won all of his ten professional fights (five knockouts, four technical knockouts) and has been called a "knockout machine", but that won't help much when he's on the floor with Fedor figuratively (and perhaps literally, who knows?) buttfucking him all the way back to Minnesota.

The most badass thing about Fedor is not even his unmatched skills, but his complete indifference in the ring. He's like a plumber with a pipe to fix, it's just another day at work for him. You know the scene in Silence Of The Lambs where they talk about how Hannibal Lecter chewed someone's face off and his heartrate didn't even go up? That's Fedor for you.

A wee build-up for tonight's event:


And a tribute the big man himself:

(mp3) Skeletonwitch - Stand fight and die
Available on Breathing the Fire (2009)

(mp3) High On Fire - Master of fists
Available on The Art of Self Defense (2000)

(mp3) Thin Lizzy - Fight or fall
Available on Jailbreak (1976)

And perhaps most fitting of them all:

(mp3) Elton John - Saturday night's alright for fighting
Available on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #36

Zamišljen je kao konceptualni album, a tema pjesama je uništavanje zemljinog okoliša, te potreba čovječanstva da to zaustavi prije nego što bude prekasno. Za pjesmu "Metal Bastard" je snimljen i videospot kojeg je režirao David Snusgrop, Badass Blogger Extraordinaire.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

(zip) MP3 Shuffle #36 (38 mb)

1. Venom - The evil one (1997)
2. Motörhead - Live to win (1980)
3. Moistboyz - Great American zero (2002)
4. Poison Idea - Welcome to Krell (1990)
5. Voivod - Insect (1995)
6. Fu Manchu - Evil eye (1997)
7. Gojira - From the sky (2005)
8. Arch Enemy - The immortal (1999)
9. Corrosion of Conformity - Fuel (1996)
10. High on Fire - Return to N.O.D. (2007)

Buy 'em @ Amazon.com.

Daemon - "Seven Deadly Sins" (1996)

(re-post from February 10th 2008)

Ah yes! One more rarity from the vaults! Yet another criminally overlooked and sadly forgotten metal gem, just waiting for Metal Bastard to spread the word to the rest of mankind. You're welcome, world. You may thank me later.

Daemon was a death metal side project started by guitarist/vocalist Anders Lundemark (Konkhra) and drummer Nicke Andersson (Entombed, The Hellacopters, Death Breath). Their first album Seven Deadly Sins came out a year after the movie Se7en, and is obviously inspired by it, with one song for each sin (and an instrumental "Eighth Sin").

The album even ends with a sample of Morgan Freeman listing the seven deadly sins. It also has assloads of samples from that crap movie The Name Of The Rose (which would have been less crap if that talentless block of wood Christian Slater hadn't been in it). And also a little thing or two from Pulp Fiction.

The album was written and recorded in virtually no time at all in Stockholm's Sunlight Studios. The relaxed sessions combined with the noisy, trademark Sunlight sound gives the album a very loose, almost punkish quality, familiar to all fans of the Stockholm death metal scene of the 90s. This ain't Nile or Vader, folks. Those looking for technical precision death metal need to look elsewhere.

This is death metal of the old school, with all that that entails in terms of rawness, aggression and attitude. With, of course, a few flourishes of that signature, hellraising rock 'n' roll groove of Entombed. The album was made during Entombed's struggles with record labels and fits just right inbetween 1993's Wolverine Blues and 1997's To Ride, Shoot Straight, And Speak The Truth. Take the song writing from the former and mix it with the sound and production of the latter and what you get is Seven Deadly Sins.

My favorite song here is probably Envy, with its classic first verse: I’ve built around me a castle of dreams/What I have is what you want/I bought a gun to protect my property/I pull to kill on every occasion/So in court when they charge me, I say/“Judge, it was only for protection”.

After this album Nicke Andersson left due all his other commitments, and Daemon released their second album The Second Coming in 1999. In 2002 they released their latest (last?) album, Eye For An Eye, which isn't very death metal. It's a lot thrashier with a definite Bay Area tinge, and also quite often reminds you of Strapping Young Lad. But Gene Hoglan played drums on it, so I suppose it makes sense.

So folks: you get no less than three mortal sins. Buy the album and get the other five. Buy it today, or else God wins. And we wouldn't want that, would we?

(mp3) Daemon - Wrath
(mp3) Daemon - Lust
(mp3) Daemon - Envy (highly recommended!)

Buy Seven Deadly Sins @ Amazon.com.

Bonus:

(mp3) Morgan Freeman - Seven deadly sins
From Se7en (1995)

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #63

(mp3) Catacombs - Where no light hath shone... (But for that of the moon)
Available on In The Depths Of R'lyeh (2006)

(mp3) High On Fire - Last
Available on The Art Of Self Defense (2000)

(mp3) Latitudes - Hunting dance
Available on Agonist (2009)

(mp3) Rammstein - Zwitter
Available on Mutter (2001)

(mp3) Breach - Breathing dust
Available on Kollapse (2002)

The Devin Townsend Project - "Addicted" (2009)

So it has arrived, the second installment in Devin Townsend's series of four albums. After Ki, which by Devin standards was so mellow it took me three or four listens before I even knew what the hell I was listening to, he's now back to familiar, compressed wall of noise territory. Anyone who thought Death Magnetic was loud should stay away from this one. The red lights on Townsend's poor mixing desk must be worn out by now.

Devin claimed this was his "Nickleback" record. Luckily he was't referring to Nickleback's music but rather their well-produced, radio-friendly sound. Thank fuck for that. I'm not hearing much of that either though to be honest, it sounds more like 1997's Ocean Machine (his "Foo Fighters record") and 2001's Terria (his "Helloween record"). I never thought Townsend would make a positive, happy sounding record, but I guess I was wrong.

Just like Ki, this one also has a female guest vocalist, by none other than Anneke van Giersbergen from The Gathering.

The opening title track was released as a teaser and I wasn't crazy about it then and still not too fond of it. It has a nice stomping beat, but I don't feel it's going anywhere. Second track Universe In A Ball! is as silly as its title, but from the third track onwards it's some of Townsend's best work in some time.

With Bend It Like Bender!'s disco beat, keyboard noodling and female vocals, it's hard not to think of Pandora and 2 Unlimited, but somehow it works. I'm not the kind who dances voluntarily (at least not where anyone can see me) but if I was at a club and it came on, it's not unlikely that I would drop 'em like they're hot til the sun came up.

Numbered! (yes, all song titles have exclamation points) is another scorcher with its huge soaring choruses and powerful climax. It also gives Townsend another chance to prove he could easily become an acclaimed opera soprano if he ever gets sick of metal. Ih-Ah! is the only song on here with the potential to become a hit on the rock station. It sure hope it does, if for no other reason than to hear all those annoying radio hosts sound like donkeys when they say the title.

The pinnacle here though for me is track #5, Hyperdrive!. A re-write of the song of the same name from Ziltoid the Omniscient (2007), which with van Giersbergen's vocals becomes so unashamedly melodic and huge that Kylie Minogue could have a world wide hit with a less noisy version. When that chorus kicks in after only 40 seconds I curl up in a fetal position on the floor and weep sweet tears of happiness.

I'm taken right back to 2000 when I first heard The Gathering's masterful if_then_else and immediately fell in love with that stunning voice. Picture that album mixed with Ocean Machine. Hyperdrive! is that fucking huge and amazing. It makes me want to run around the neighbourhood and kiss everyone and never listen to another song again.

It's also a reminder that enormous, bombastic rock is what van Giersbergen should be doing, not the bland shenanigans she's up to in Agua de Annique. Addicted and Giant Squid's The Ichthyologist show that perhaps doing guest vocals suits her the best.

As much as I (eventually) loved Ki, it does tend to drag - it has a few songs too many and several songs are too long. Not so here, Addicted clocks in at a handy 47 minutes and most songs are around the four minute mark.

Easily one of the best albums of the year, a solid 8/10. It comes out November 17th. Place an order right now.

And buy Ki too while you're at it, and start saving up for Deconstruction.

(mp3) The Devin Townsend Project - Hyperdrive! (extremely motherfucking recommended. And make sure you crank it up!)

(mp3) The Devin Townsend Project - The way home!
(mp3) The Devin Townsend Project - Numbered!

My Halloween costume 2009

After giving it much thought and consideration, I had finally decided that for the big Halloween party '09, I would dress up as...

























...a grown up person who realises he's too old to prance around in a costume like a fucking child. What did you dress up as, moron?

(mp3) Scratch Acid - Monsters
Available on The Greatest Gift (1991)

(mp3) The Dillinger Escape Plan - Sunshine the werewolf
Available on Miss Machine (2004)

(mp3) Roky Erickson - I walked with a zombie
Available on The Evil One (1980)

(mp3) Morbid Angel - Chapel of ghouls
Available on Altars of Madness (1989)

(mp3) Clutch - Ghost
Available on Blast Tyrant (2004)

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #35

Damn, I can't believe I've done thirty-five of these motherfuckers.

This one is probably the softest one yet. Even the obligatory Opeth track (it feels like they've been featured on at least half of these, but they probably haven't) is from their "mellow" album. It gets a little rough with Soulfly, Shora and Will Haven, but the rest is easy listening all the way through, not sure why.

I guess we all need to chill and rest our ears once in a while.

(zip) MP3 Shuffle #35 (44 mb)

1. Deadsy feat. Jonathan Davis - Sleepy hollow (1996)
2. Soulfly - Ain't no feeble bastard (1998)
3. Fireside - Cisco heat (2000)
4. The Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia (1980)
5. Gluecifer - Black book lodge (2002)
6. DLK - Regalskeppet (1995)
7. Green Day - Brat (1995)
8. Pearl Jam - State of love and trust (1992)
9. Opeth - Windowpane (2003)
10. Lingua - You wonder why you still wonder why (2006)
11. Shora - A deviance (2000)
12. Will Haven - Moving to Montana (2001)

Buy 'em @ Amazon.com

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #62

(mp3) Desultory - Visions
Available on Into Eternity (1993)

(mp3) Will Haven - Bats
Available on Carpe Diem (2001)

(mp3) Rage Against The Machine - Bullet in the head
Available on S/t (1992)

(mp3) Opeth - The funeral portrait
Available on Blackwater Park (2001)

(mp3) Guns N' Roses - My Michelle
Available on Appetite For Destruction (1987)

Neurosis title tracks

I did this with Thin Lizzy not long ago, and I figured I might as well do it with another one of my favorite bands. If you're not familiar with Neurosis, here's a quick bio:

They started in 1985 as punk kids with Amebix patches on their jackets and piss in their hair. 10-15 years later they had transmutated into a black bulldozer with "HADES" spray-painted on the side, and by now they have evolved into the grim reaper himself with Johnny Cash on repeat in his iPod.

That about sums it up.

(mp3) Neurosis - Pain of mind (1987)

(mp3) Neurosis - Souls at zero (1992)

(mp3) Neurosis - Enemy of the sun (1993)

(mp3) Neurosis - Through silver in blood (1996)

(mp3) Neurosis - Times of grace (1999)

(mp3) Neurosis - A sun that never sets (2001)

(mp3) Neurosis - The eye of every storm (2004)

(mp3) Neurosis - Given to the rising (2007)

All available on the albums of the same name. Buy them, fool.

The Hellacopters - "High Visibility" (2000)

Why aren't more people blogging about The Hellacopters? Just click here and see for yourself over at The Hype Machine. The top 15 hits are from my blogs.

Absolutely ridiculous. After all, we're only talking about the best rock band since The Stooges. It's a damn shame. Their genius should be cried out from the roof tops and praised in every magazine, not sleazily pimped on obscure blogs like this one.

The Hellacopters existed between 1994 and 2008 and released a million singles on labels you've never heard of and seven amazing albums, one of which I dubbed the 2nd best album of 2008 and another was named the 11th best album of the 90s.

High Visibility was their 4th, and the first one with guitarist Robert "Strings" Dahlquist who now fronts his own band Thunder Express (aka Dundertåget). On this album the Hellacopters continued to evolve their sound towards the more melodic classic rock style first exhibited on 1999's Grande Rock. It also contained two of the band's biggest hit singles, Toys And Flavors and No Song Unheard. Great videos were made for both, go YouTube 'em.

Many feel this is their best album, and I'm almost inclined to agree. But just almost - in my opinion 2002's By The Grace Of God has this one beat by a cunt hair. Still a masterful release though, most bands could bust their asses for decades and never release anything near this good.

(mp3) The Hellacopters - Baby borderline
(mp3) The Hellacopters - A heart without a home
(mp3) The Hellacopters - I wanna touch (recommended!)

Buy High Visibility @ Amazon.com

Baby Borderline live in Oslo 2000:

Man-crush

I'm straight and all but the things I would do to David Gilmour if I could travel back to 1970 and have ten minutes alone with him in a dark room...

Holy shit. Someone get me a bib.

(mp3) Pink Floyd - Set the controls for the heart of the sun
Available on A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)

(mp3) Kylesa - Set the controls for the heart of the sun
Studio version (2007)

(mp3) 1349 - Set the controls for the heart of the sun
Available on Revelations of the Black Flame (2009)

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #34

So how's it going, folks? Everything good and hunky dory? Everything's just peachy and dandy, eh? Big plans for the weekend?

Good to hear, good to hear.

(zip) The Friday MP3 Shuffle #34 (49 mb)

1. Entombed - Seeing red (2000)
2. Monster Magnet - Tractor (1998)
3. Dropkick Murphys - Rock & roll (1999)
4. Soundgarden - An unkind (1996)
5. Nine Inch Nails - The hand that feeds (2005)
6. Pentagram - Starlady (1976)
7. Cable - Men on mountains (2009)
8. Taint - Brainstorm zombie revival (2007)
9. Voivod - Suck your bone (1984)
10. Venom - Sons of Satan (1981)
11. The Haunted - Burnt to a shell (2004)
12. Opeth - Blackwater Park (2001)

Buy 'em @ Amazon.com.

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #61

(mp3) Maylene & The Sons of Disaster - The mind of a grimes
Available on S/t (2005)

(mp3) The Gates of Slumber - The doom of Aceldama
Available on Hymns of Blood and Thunder (2009)

(mp3) Gorgoroth - Sign of an open eye
Available on Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam (2006)

(mp3) Curse of the Golden Vampire - Manslaughter
Available on Mass Destruction (2003)

(mp3) Amon Amarth - Thousand years of oppression
Available on Versus The World (2002)

Thin Lizzy title tracks

I was in a Lizzy kinda mood so here you go - a bunch of great tracks off albums with the same name. My favorite here is Thunder And Lightning, simply one of the most badass songs of all time. If you don't have Thin Lizzy is your life then it's about time you do something about it.

By the way, as I was flipping through the Lizzy collection it stunned me to realise just how much amazing music they put out in a relatively short period of time. Twelve albums in thirteen years, and every one is brilliant. I'd like to see band today perform the same feat.

How is it all the bands that had a part in creating what we now know as "metal" could release at least one album a year (at least!) and they were all fantastic, all considered classics today? Actually, that goes for pop bands, rock bands, punk bands, etc as well. Everyone from Pink Floyd to The Clash to David Bowie to Motörhead kept spitting out one great album after another, so many it's hard to keep track of them.

Is it the labels that force bands these days into milking every last drop out of every album and only let them release a new album every two or three years, or are bands just not as creative these days? A little bit of both?

(mp3) Thin Lizzy - Shades of a blue orphanage (1972)

(mp3) Thin Lizzy - Vagabond of the western world (1973)

(mp3) Thin Lizzy - Night life (1974)

(mp3) Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976)

(mp3) Thin Lizzy - Bad reputation (1977)

(mp3) Thin Lizzy - Chinatown (1980)

(mp3) Thin Lizzy - Renegade (1981)

(mp3) Thin Lizzy - Thunder and lightning (1983)

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #33

I've already started working on my rundown of the best albums of 2009. It won't be posted for another two months, but there's no reason to procrastinate. This is important business and you need to give it time.

Two bands that released really good material this year (thrashers Warbringer and bluesy doom rockers Spider Kitten) won't be included in that rundown, because it will be reserved for the really REALLY good stuff. Just being really good isn't good enough.

But you can enjoy them both on this very excellent compilation, alongside many other excellent cuts:

(zip) Friday MP3 Shuffle #33 (46 mb)

1. Warbringer - Severed reality (2009)
2. Nasum - Wrath (2004)
3. Breach - Leave (2001)
4. Spider Kitten - Sourfoot blues (2009)
5. Brick - Slapshot (1997)
6. At The Gates - Suicide nation (1995)
7. Morbid Angel - God of emptiness (1993)
8. Nirvana - Anorexorcist (1987)
9. Venomous Concept - Life's fine (2004)
10. Comets On Fire - The way down (2000)
11. The Jesus Lizard - Skull of a German (1996)
12. Iron Maiden - Murders in the Rue Morgue (1981)
13. Rammstein - Mutter (2001)

Buy 'em @ Amazon.com.

Metal Bastard gets drunk and kneels at the altar of Ika Nord

I don't know why I'm posting this. This is completely random and out of left field, I have no reason for writing any of this, I just need to vent.

I need to somehow express my love (and my raging boner) for Ika Nord. No one outside Sweden will know who this is, although approximately two or three of you may have seen the film Let The Right One In, in which she played Virginia, the woman who gets bitten by the little vampire girl, gets attacked by hordes of cats and then bursts into flames in a hospital bed.

Her real name is Ulrika Nord, she was born in 1960 and she was (and still is I suppose) a mime. In the late 80's she hosted a childrens' TV show called Ika i Rutan. I don't know what she was smoking when she did that show, but I want some of it.

As a child of '81 Ika i Rutan was one of my earliest television memories (apart from sitting naked two inches away from the tv watching those old racist black & white Mickey Mouse cartoons from the 30's on Sunday mornings) and Ika Nord will forever be my first love. Ever since I have been unable to resist slender women with jet black hair, especially if it's short and has a life of its own. Can't do it.

In the old days (1970s & 80s) Swedish television was very very strange, especially the shows for kids. Any Americanism was driven out of town and every kids' show had to somehow be creative and inspirational, which resulted in shows that weren't always very good. In fact they were never good. They were almost always completely surreal, and sometimes downright terrifying. Ika i Rutan leaned more towards the surreal, with minor terrifying moments. Imagine Nina Hagen getting her own show on Nickelodeon where she can just do whatever she wants. Creepy, right?

Again non-Swedes won't be able to relate to this but there was something weird about her accent. She was from Halmstad in the south of Sweden but it didn't sound quite like a Halmstad accent. It sounded more like a German accent, with a few hints of Finnish. That, combined with her exotic looks (it was Sweden in 1988, anyone with slightly slanted eyes and hair that wasn't blond was exotic) and eccentric behaviour, made her just seem really really weird. She was from another galaxy as far I knew. Her left eye often drifted off as if controlled by SATAN!

But there's nothing like a weird chick - fucking hell was she hot. Marry me, Ika Nord. I am dead serious, this is a legitimate proposal. I don't know where you are, Ika, but I will marry you on the spot and be your slave for the rest of my days.

I'm not joking. I am not joking.

(mp3) New Model Army - North star
Available on Today Is A Good Day (2009)

(mp3) Immortal - Mont North
Available on All Shall Fall (2009)

(mp3) Tomahawk - 101 North (live)
Studio version available on S/t (2001)

(mp3) The Professionals - Northern slide
Available on I Didn't See It Coming (1981)

(mp3) EndName - North
Available on Dreams of a Cyclops (2009)

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #32

Another Friday, another mp3 shuffle... This is one of the best ones yet.

Download it, fool.

(zip) The Friday MP3 Shuffle #32 (45 mb)

1. Judas Priest - Victim of changes (1976)
2. Mastodon - March of the fire ants (radio edit, 2003)
3. In Flames - Episode 666 (1997)
4. Hypocrisy - Buried (1996)
5. Skitsystem - Våld (2006)
6. Probot - Access babylon (2004)
7. Opeth - The baying of the hounds (2005)
8. Refused - Blind date (1998)
9. Motörhead - Damage case (1979)
10. The Ramones - Mama's boy (1984)
11. The Hellacopters - Spock in my rocket (1996)

Buy 'em all @ Amazon.com

Soundgarden - "Down On The Upside" (1996)

I frequently refer to this as "Soundgarden's equivalent to The Beatles' white album", and then everyone backs away slowly like they just realised there's a psychopath in the room. But gimme a minute and I'll explain my case.

I'm not saying the members of Soundgarden had stopped communicating and recorded all of their parts separately and were rarely in the studio at the same time, and was the case with The Beatles back in 1968. But I think you can tell from listening to this album that it would be the band's last, that relationship were beginning to crack a little. That they weren't a joint force anymore.

While all members of Soundgarden had always provided material for the band (though singer Chris Cornell was always the main songwriter, at least my book), their material always sort of gelled at the end, making their albums sound cohesive to the point were it was sometimes hard to tell who wrote what. Well, not so with Down On The Upside.

On this album everyone's individual inspirations and influences shone through, more so than had even been the case in the past. Sure, bassist Ben Shepherd may have contributed the two most oddball tracks (Head Down and Half) on the predecessor, 1994's Superunknown, but the rest of the album was pretty uniform. Overall it was just like every Soundgarden album before it: the sound of one band against the world. Down On The Upside was four individuals against the world, everyone going in a different direction.

Shepherd's material on here is mostly dusty, garage-style rockers (one of them appropriately entitled Dusty), not unlike what he was doing in his side-project Hater at the time. Guitarist Kim Thayil's sole contribution Never The Machine Forever is an angular, shrieking piece of metal, the only song reminiscent of their raging output of the late 80s and early 90s. Cornell is writing in a classic rock tradition with strong leaning towards singer/songwriter-ism, and his songs on here aren't far from what he did on his debut solo album Euphoria Morning three years later. Drummer Matt Cameron's songs are far looser, like the psychedelic, drugged-up weirdo fest Applebite. Cornell would never have written that one, that's for sure.

In this sense the album is in my opinion very much like The Beatles - you can tell straight away who wrote what. Four separate voices that just happen to share an album. The one exception would be Shepherd's Zero Chance, which sounds like Cornell wrote it. But you always need that one exception, don't you?

Here Shepherd contributed more than ever - out of the album's sixteen tracks he wrote a whopping six. Like I said, on Superunknown he only wrote two. Compare that to the seven tracks Cornell wrote for Down On The Upside and you start to see the shift in power that clearly went on.

When I write about albums I usually include three songs that represent the overall feel of it. Well here there's no overall feel to speak of, so I had to pick four songs, one by each member.

Three singles were released from the album, Pretty Noose, Blow Up The Outside World and Burden In My Hand, all written by Cornell and all quite Beatles-esque. Everyone's heard them, they're all over every rock station, so I didn't include them. I instead focused on the gems that not many people have heard.

In fact, it seems like not many people care for this album at all. Many own it, it sold very well off the back of Superunkown's success, but few speak highly of it. I know it may not be as iconic as Louder Than Love, Badmotorfinger or Superunknown, but if you're willing to accept a less brutal and more loose, rockier Soundgarden, then well... there is no valid reason for you not to dig Down On The Upside. An album as brilliant as it is diverse.

(mp3) Soundgarden - Dusty
(mp3) Soundgarden - Applebite (recommended!)
(mp3) Soundgarden - Never the machine forever
(mp3) Soundgarden - Tighter & tighter (recommended!)

Buy Down On The Upside @ Amazon.com

Minsk & Unearthly Trance salute Roky Erickson

I was sitting on my couch dissing The Devil's Blood (as all sane people do) when I decided there is no reason to listen to anyone inspired by Roky Erickson, since no one can top him anyway. Especially not shallow, talentless posers like The Devil's Blood. Just listen to the real McCoy, that's all I'm saying.

Covering Roky Erickson is a different story all together. Everyone from R.E.M. to Entombed have done it, and it usually sounds pretty good. Probably because the songs are so well-written it's hard to fuck them up. As in this case where noisemongers Unearthly Trance and Minsk wreak havoc on two Erickson compositions with excellent results.

(mp3) Unearthly Trance - Night of the vampire
(mp3) Minsk - Stand for the fire demon

Available on Split (2009)

And for the sake of comparison here are the originals for the uneducated losers out there who don't already know them by heart.

(mp3) Roky Erickson - Night of the vampire
(mp3) Roky Erickson - Stand for the fire demon

Available on The Evil One (1981)