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so the other night, a friend and i decided to go to the Reckless shop on Broadway, as neither of us had been to that particular location in a hot minute. dodging in from the cold rain, i immediately began scanning the Goth/Industrial section (duh) and came up with zilch. after flipping through half of the punk LPs and mostly finding re-issues of generic records, i became discouraged and convinced that i'd be walking out empty-handed. my friend, however, had snagged a copy of THOU's new 12" EP Baton Rouge, You Have Much to Answer For. i did spot a limited copy of The Cure's Pornography, but it was not all that well packaged (and $30).
needless to say, i was feeling rather salty. that is, until i flipped through a random spot in the metal section. i saw this image of a red-eyed nun with a pentagram carved into her palm and thought, "okay, okay...". then i read the description: "2009 release of the obscure 1991 'Sister Devil' demo from SIXX (comprised of the same people responsible for the legendary VON). Originally released on cassette, in an edition of 100 copies, 'Sister Devil' shows a different, yet sinister, side of VON. SIXX has elements of VON (a dark aura & obsessive, chanting lyrics), yet musically this has more in common with SISTERS OF MERCY, CHRISTIAN DEATH, SAMHAIN, FOR AGAINST, early CURE, etc. Satanic deathrock. On NUCLEAR WAR NOW! Productions" and my jaw hit the fucking floor.
while i knew NWN! had been dropping gems like DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT and the aforementioned THOU release, i certainly did not anticipate them taking interest in a side-project of this caliber. how wrong i was. my copy is black vinyl w/ a fold-out poster of the cover art (which, as you can see, is wicked), but NWN! even has a 2xLP on clear red w/ poster, sticker, patch, and supplemental zine...for $15. wtf. want.
the record moves exactly as one would expect the tape too, with that yummy, ever-present hissing and extremely tinny cymbal pings. the guitar tone is well suited for this style of release as well, as it is a twangy clean channel with most of the notes being tediously picked out and plucked harshly. mostly mid-tempo, dreary, dancey, dissonant (some songs more than others), and with a ritualistic chant introducing each track - i think it's safe to say that my $10 was well fucking spent. incidentally, this is the first record i listened to in the company of my new dog, Zero. so, you know, things were kind of perfect for about half an hour.
2. Oak - II- listen -
beautifully simple gatefold layout on this 2-track monster-of-an-album. even more props to the folks at a389 for fucking killing it right now. best label in heavy underground, imo. limited to 666 copies on dense as fuck 210g vinyl, OAK plays a satanic, doom-laden drone metal. i readily compared their feel and aesthetic to COUGH, but without wailing/note-bending vocals and psychedelic riffs. way more brooding and, well, metal sounding than that. early 90's death-metal styled "oar"s and "raaah"s. abysmal. also, came with a download code and shiny silver-on-black sticker. neat.
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to use one of those annoying descriptions about where the "music 'takes you'", not unlike the entirety of my last post, River Slaughter is kind of like watching the opening scene in Jaws. there's an eerily calm body of water under a black sky, and it hums and it moves and you feel at peace with it. sooo, you cast off your attire in a carefree fashion and become one with the scenery. your boyfriend's busy eating sand or something, anyway. so you're just kind of floating there, but then the tone turns ominous and you can't help but shake the feeling that something's not right. then a fucking SHARK GRABS YOUR LEG AND TOSSES YOU ABOUT LIKE THE WORTHLESS MORSEL YOU ARE AND SHREDS YOU APART IN A MATTER OF SECONDS. then your boyfriend is like "huh?" and the shark peaces out and if someone else were to have arrived minutes later they wouldn't have known the difference. did i mention it's an OOP diy gatefold? oh. well, it is. gnar-ly.
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mentioned these guys a while ago. they released this all sneaky-like and with very limited copies. pressing info here courtesy of Antithetic Records. a little more blackened style this time around, but a similar set-up to Amen where the b-side is just one long, epic track. totally atmospheric and beautifully minimal in design. kvlt, u no.
LOOKIT!
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