THE SAVAGE ROSE

Via friend Karina.



Okay, it must be known that this is my one of my favorite styles of heavy rock. Read up on THE SAVAGE ROSE here. Holy fuck, what a great tip! Hail Danmark!

Con Clavi Con Dio

The nameless ghouls themselves, GHOST, have uploaded a new track entitled "Con Clavi Con Dio" on their MySpace page. Nothing more needs to be said.

Needless to say, they are the band to see at the Live Evil Festival in London. If you can make it out there, do it.

Speak now from the text, pray for all die.

Labor Day

To celebrate this fine American holiday, here are some classic American tunes for your barbeque (or whatever you do today).









And of course...

DRAGONAUTA

Ho-ly shit. It's been a while.

Anyway, this latest post shouldn't be disappointing. I'm going to step away from the usual countries for a minute (Germany, Sweden, USA, etc.) and head down south to Argentina. Buenos Aires, to be exact. Here resides DRAGONAUTA, a psychedelic stoner/doom/heavy rock band that is as epic as their name.

These guys are basically an insanely fuzzed out version of Trouble, Pentagram, Saint Vitus, etc...rolled into one package. Not only will you find insanely heavy riffs, but a listen to a track like "God Half Blind" will make it obvious to you that these dudes take great care in making actual hooks as well! Michael Schenker-era UFO worship? These short bursts of catchiness and NWOBHM-inspired melodies are so effective in their execution that it just makes you want to scream. Not to mention they will make you keep coming back for more. Highly fucking recommended!

SEAMOUNT

Yet another German doom rock band! Actually, the singer, Phil Swanson, is American but whatever. Here we have sEAMOUNt (officially spelled like that) and these guys play doom rock of the heaviest order. Kinda standard doom singing, lots of open-E chugging when it's heavy and groov-y drumming. Obviously, the bass playing is good and fluid. They're a bit more rock-y than metal, much like in the vein of Thin Lizzy in terms of melodies and metal-ness and very Devil's Blood-ish in a contemporary sense. I think that paints a pretty good picture.

Not much else to say, really, other than this is doom done good. Worth listening to!

MIDNIGHT RIDER

Sorry for the giant gap between updates. There really isn't any excuse I can say for this other than me being super busy with my "real job" and other things.

Anyway, I'd like to introduce to you people Germany's heavy/doom rock/metal band MIDNIGHT RIDER. The core of the band is made up of Wayne, Cliff Bubenheim and fronted by Blumi (also of Metalucifer Germany). That in itself is pretty great since we all know how amazing and credible one must be to be in the ranks of Metalucifer. Rounding out the band as session members are Shinji "Samm" Tachi (of course, of Metalucifer) and Kenji Naruse from Japan.

Sound-wise, we get a really hard rockin', doom-tinged type of heavy metal much like the Seventies Pentagram stuff and all of the bands of that style. I also get a feeling of a little psych-rock in there, as well. Think Hawkwind.

Interested yet? You should be, since you can't really go wrong with bands that play in this ancient style. Unless, of course, you're The Sword.

Invoke the King of Hell

Out now on Iron Pegasus Records...



Holy shit! The debut 7" from Sweden's GHOST, entitled Elizabeth, is finally available - get this NOW!

SEPULCRO

I've been yearning for some "new" NWOBHM for a while and I think I found the answer! Portugal's SEPULCRO is a super obscure NWOBHM-style band that has all of the right qualities of the days of old: epic songs, amazing vocals, killer guitar work and, of course, excellent riffs! I think my favorite part about them is that they capture the essence of their time perfectly. They formed in '81 but they mixed the heavy rock style of the late-70's really well with the emerging heavy metal sound at the time. Good luck finding stuff from these guys. They only have 3 demos and split up in 1988. Damn...

TYRANT

No, this is not the same Tyrant from Sweden (obviously?)... this is the ultra-obscure heavy metal TYRANT from Australia, formed in 1982! Since forming, they put out one EP in '84 and their first LP didn't surface until 2000. Talk about a comeback.

To be honest, I'm not too familiar with their music but their latest demo track from their upcoming album is fucking killer! I'm shocked that it's listed as a "demo" since it sounds amazing. Not polished and clean-sounding like their peers and the other songs have a real 80's arena-metal feel which is awesome. Seems like time and modern trends do not affect these Aussies - much respect to them!

Check these dudes out now - summer is creeping in slowly but surely, and what's better than partying with awesome 80's metal? I thought so.

Post Apocalyptic Inquisition, part I

I woke up this morning sore as hell from carrying around a crate full of records, but it was damn worth it. Thanks to Tooth and Ryan for hookin' it up! If you haven't heard already, they're in a sick old-school heavy metal band called Natur. I wish they can play their own music on their own show. That would be something.

As for me, it was an experience DJ-ing for the first time. I got some pretty good feedback and allow me to use this post as a doorway to check out some of the bands I played. "Pick your poison" is the phrase but I say, "fuck it - pick 'em all!" You'll find some new bands, not-so-new bands, and everything in between.

*****

Ketzer - this is a band that Tooth was raving about when I played them, and he has every reason for it. These German youngsters play an insane style of blackened thrash metal that is as sinister as their debut album's artwork. You can get Satan's Boundaries Unchained on Kneel Before The Master's Throne's distro. If you're into Nifelheim or early-1349, you'll dig these guys.




Midnight - Here's a band from a few of Ohio's black rock n' rollers. Basically, these guys play 100% pure blackened rock/metal in the vein of Venom and Motörhead with some punk-feeling splashed on top. I blind-purchased their great EP Farewell To Hell a while back and it's still being spun around here. You can find it on Nuclear War Now! Productions' distro.



Skitsystem - Sweden's finest crust band! They broke up a while ago but thankfully reformed and will play shows again. Whew! These guys were the first crust band that I listened to back in like '05 and there was no turning back. Tomas Lindberg from At The Gates/Disfear and Adrian Erlandsson of At The Gates was in the initial line-up but have long since quit. These guys are as brutal as ever and you can get their albums at Havoc Records.



Ulysses Siren - These fucking guys! For those of you not aware of the glory that is Ulysses Siren, let me give you a heads up. These Bay Area thrashers only released 2 demos in their entire career and lasted for maybe 2 or 3 years total. Relentless Records just put them out in one package called Above The Ashes. You can get the super-limited vinyl version at The Omega Order. Do you like your trash fast? Look no further.



*****

Look for part II soon...

A real quick one

Here's a pretty good excuse for an update.

A cut from these fine gentlemen that no one seems to talk about around here.



Pretty heavy for '73/'74.

Bored with nothing to do?

I know that feeling. While sitting here at my desk, I was floating around the world wide web and stumbled upon (again) this amazing post from my boys in the Metal Inquisition Radio Show.

What you see are two amazing videos from two of the best CULT heavy metal/hard rock bands from the late-70s/early-80s and late-60s (respectively): France's Dum Dum Bullet and England's The Gun.



You might recognize The Gun - both Judas Priest and Girlschool covered their only hit, "Race With The Devil". You can check 'em both below.

Unfortunately, I have no idea where you can find records from both bands. Dum Dum Bullet only has one record, their self-titled, and The Gun released a self-titled as well as a second album called Gunsight . I don't even know what their self-titled debut looks like!



Enjoy those 2 videos on Metal Inquisition Radio Show's blog - they're fucking awesome. After you're done, check Priest's and Girlschool's take on the classic over here. Personally, I think both are pretty great! Yes, I actually like Girlschool - I even saw 'em in Germany!