Apocalypse Sunrise Records - 2012 Compilation

Here is a stunning compilation from Apocalypse Sunrise Records.

With the tag line of "DIY with the company of good friends

with bad taste", this album has some outstanding bands who

although are from various genres, all want to jump on your head

with hobnailed boots while stabbing your eyes with rusty knuckle-dusters.

Just the names of Godstopper, The Great Sabatini and Vilpend

should be enough to get you downloading but there are 18 tracks

from the world of hardcore, metal, sludge, punk and noise - more

than enough choice to enable you to like vast chunks of this whatever

your choice in heavy music.

Name ya price at Bandcamp

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Sonance - Like Ghosts

Band request from Bristol.

If the Mayans are right and the world will end on the

21st of December, as the universe collapses around your ears,

it will probably sound a lot like Sonance.

Screams, pounding drums, earthquake type bass riffs compete

with guitar drones that resonate deep in your bowels.

Atmospheric/doom/experimental sludge? Fuck the genres - 

these guys have created a massive slab of wonderment that

deserves to be played loud and more importantly, needs to

be heard. Spread the love around and prepare to feel

drained after listening to this!

Check all the links below and catch them live next year.......

gonna fit any London dates in?

Ben - guitar, screwdriver

Will - guitar, dictaphone, vocals

Tom - vocals

Chino - bass

Jamie - drums

LIKE GHOSTS comes in two halves, totalling just under 42 minutes. The record is available on Bandcamp (http://sonance.bandcamp.com/) and is currently drawing around 250 plays per day since being uploaded on 12/11/2012.

Each part is an atmospheric heaping of interwoven arrangements, detailed and droned stretches that subside into sludge filled chasms as the bass pushes you through the floor and lifts dust from the walls. The record was written and rehearsed in a confined practice room in which the waves of sound could literally be felt shuddering up through your lungs and out of your mouth.

So far drawing comparisons with latter era Scott Walker/Bohren & Der Club Of Gore/Godspeed You! Black Emporer/Badalamenti/Janek Schaefer/Stapleton and Tibet/Gnaw Their Tongues/Abandon/Khanate/Corrupted, the band have made a promising impact via their live shows (see Youtube link below) and have a tour of the UK and Europe booked for March 2013:

Mar 19

Bristol, UK

Mar 20

Colchester, UK

Mar 21

Ghent, Belgium

Mar 22

Leiden, Netherlands

Mar 23

Bruges, Belgium

Mar 24

Antwerp, Belgium

SONANCE started a year and a few months ago and began to find its feet in early 2012, in front of a wall of amps and live visuals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWR--Cg3XHY&list=UUvq7zC4RgNI_-3HSrl0rd4A&index=4&feature=plcp

You can find them here:

http://sonance.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/sonancenoise

https://twitter.com/SonanceNoise

http://sonancenoise.wordpress.com/

Tesa - IV

Band request from Latvia.

Tesa play post-rock arrangements but with the fire and

aggression of sludge and post-metal.

They mix ambient soundscapes with loops and noise but never

forget to play as loud as they can when they want you to take notice. 

Echoed, picked guitar rings out in desolation, like a corpse

floating down a river before finally falling over a massive 

waterfall that drowns out all other sounds. Virtually instrumental

apart from some very faint screams of desperation, the songs

avoid long drawn out passages, instead the constant ebb and

flow between loud and quiet quickly take the listener along

with mid paced tempos that brings anticipation to the next

part of the composition. 

The three tracks are best played as a whole to get the full effect

of what Tesa are trying to achieve - monolithic slabs of epic,

haunting brutality.

Buy from Impure Muzik

My Space

L.M.I. - II

Band request from Landsdale.

L.M.I. play a mixture of ska-punk with veers into hardcore

with a powerful sound and clear/shouted vocals.  

This is not really something I am into and therefore would find

doing an unbiased review hard to do. 

BUT - please give it a listen, check out the links below and

make your own minds up and support them if you can.

L.M.I. stands for Lazy Middle-Class Intellectuals. Will Hinkle and Brando Racik started L.M.I. in the summer of 2008, they both wrote songs together as a duo until November of 2008 when drummer Josh Bennet and lead guitarist Johnny McCreery joined the band. They created songs together as a 4 piece until January 2009 when Johnny temporarily left the band. In February 2009 Josh Bennet was dropped from the band lineup and was replaced by drummer Kevin Marcinek and was once again joined by Johnny McCreery. This lineup lasted until April of 2009 when L.M.I. went on hiatus for the next few months. But in November of 2009 Will, Brando, and Kevin reformed the band as a trio. In February of 2010 the band played their first show in Lansdale, PA and have been playing shows ever since. They released their first demo ep in May of 2010 with Brainblow Records. And in August of 2010 Shelby Dobbins was added to the band as the rhythm guitarist. This lineup lasted until October of 2010 was Shelby was dropped from the band and the band went back to the original trio. The lineup has stayed the same ever since and in September of 2011 L.M.I. released their first full length record titled “Sell Your Clothes, Save Your Thoughts” and continued playing shows in support of it until fall of 2012. In October of 2012 L.M.I. went back into the studio and recorded a new ep titled "L.M.I. II" which was released on November 13th, 2012. They have been playing shows in support of it to this day.

http://lmiband.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/LMIband

Three Second Kiss - Tastyville

Band request from Ryan and Sick Room Records.

Three Second Kiss occupy the space between post-punk and

math with clinical results.

Mournful vocals that hint at controlled anger and sorrow

sit on top of abstract guitar riffs that wind through angular

passages that almost collapse but are rescued by the bass and drums.

The songs have a groove that do remind you of Shellac but the

band use that template to find their own way rather than just

ripping off. 

With minimal distortion used, every twisted note can be heard

which enables the convoluted song passages to ebb and flow

from punky riffing to intricate, mathy stompers.

BIO: Co-Release with excellent Italian label, Africantape. Loose yet intricate math/noise rock ala Shellac/Uzeda/June of 44 but with a little more panache. They are already getting great press in Europe!

Born in Bologna, first record dated in 1996, six records so far, two works recorded by Steve Albini (Music out of Music on 2003 and Long Distance on 2008) and one by Ian Burgess (producers of bands like Shellac, Jawbox and Cows), 3 United States tour – one with June of 44 in 2000 and one with Shellac in 2009 – TSK are the first Italian band to be invited in 2002 at the prestigious All Tomorrows Parties festival UK, on the list together with such names like Bonnie Prince Billy, Wire, Shellac, Breeders, Smog, Shannon Wright, Shipping News and many others, and they will perform on the current 2012 special ATP UK edition (nov/dec 2012 – The Nightmare before Christmas) together with bands like Shellac, Neurosis, Melt Banana, Mission of Burma, to name just a few. TSK records have been distributed in Europe by Southern records (with the record Everyday Everyman – on 1998) and then in USA by Dischord rec. from Washington DC (with the record Focal Point – Slowdime rec. on 1999 and Music out of Music on 2003). Today the band is happily home based with the French label Africantape rec, that put out on 2008 Long Distance, our previous record, and that has just released the newest Tastyville. There is a lot of way to do. Never look back…

Buy from Bandcamp

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Black Science - An Echo Through The Eyes Of Forever

Band request from Seattle.

Black Science play space rock ......... as soon as you hear those

words, try as hard as you want, one word instantly comes into

your thoughts .......... Hawkwind. Like it or not, the revered 

All-Fathers of all things spacey are the benchmark to which

all others are compared. 

There are comparisons but Black Science have decided to also
concentrate on the "Rock" part of the genre as well, throwing
in stoner and healthy doses of psych rock to give a new slant
to things.

Lots of wild guitar work is displayed and combining with nifty
keyboards means the electronic sounds and effects never
overpower the songs. The last track is a 15 minute kraut-rock
stomper finishes off this enjoyable album in style.

The twin vocals are clean and to my ears, draw comparisons with
Vedder when he was in Temple Of The Dog - there is a warmth
sometimes missing from this genre.

Buy from Bandcamp

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Taste The Void - Sun's Heat

Band request from France.

Taste The Void sound like the Hulk picking up a guitar and

playing through 200 foot high stacks ...... HULK SMASH PUNY

MUSIC! Fusing hardcore and post-metal is one of my listening

pleasures and this band do not disappoint.

Thick walls of sound set the template to which the band can

then proceed to layer with distortion and anger. There is

brutality but tempered with pieces of delicately picked guitar

which make the crashing, thunderous climaxes even more of

a tsunami that washes over you.

Amaury Sauvé has been brought in and has mixed these 

songs with devastating results, bringing everything to 

the front without losing the power or intensity. 

My description cannot really do this band justice - listen to the

tracks below and let them wash over you - Recommended.

Buy for an absolute pittance from Bandcamp

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The Chewers - Chuckle Change and Also

Travis from The Chewers has sent me this to review and

as with their 1st album, people have to decide if it is wilfully

weird or just the way their minds work.

One of the pleasures in doing this blog is receiving music out

of the blue that you have never heard before. For a band that

play sparse arrangements with minimal soundscapes, they

conjure up a sense of slight unease - nothing drastic - just the

feeling that someone is walking behind you but when you turn 

around, no-one is there or when you use public transport and

realise that the guy in the smart suit with a sensible haircut

actually has vomit stains down his shirt and he is muttering

bible phrases under his breath.

The Chewers use hardly any distortion on the guitars, giving

a clean tone that makes every off-kilter and I suspect, illegal

chords, crawl along the song passages. The vocals are effect

ridden, sounding like a deranged preacher in full ranting 

god-praise over a badly tuned car radio.

Still sounding like country and western Devo, the early

Beefheart punk blues tracks have a slightly more cohesive

feel to them as opposed to the almost random snippets of

previous works.

Give it a go!

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Art As Catharsis newsletter

Lachlan has got a shit load of stuff going on at the moment - all of it good.

Do yourself a favour and check these items out.

Hey there progpals, dronebloods and grindchaps alike,

We've been really, really freaking busy here at Art As Catharsis, so I just wanted to share with you some of the cool stuff that's been going on -- as well as a whole heap of awesome (and free!) Australian music.

Oh and if you aren't already, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. x

Battle Pope 'Rapture Cominatchya' music video

Check out the new single from Battle Pope: the dick-slinging, soul-winning, heathen-killing Paladins of pussy and party.

These guys describe their sound like: "Little Richard wildly fucking Blood Duster, Captain Cleanoff and Elvis at a hedonist coke orgy". Serious party music.

Watch it now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob4j_O92JUY

Battle Pope vs. Jesus Christ Posse 12" LP

Two awesome Sydney bands go head to head on this incredibly sexy LP. Spin a few tracks and pre-order yours today.

Battle Pope blending elements of sludge, swing, rock, grind and doom. Jesus Christ Posseare the saviours of Sydney City Hardcore. Their music recalls early 90’s hardcore punk rock, with an aggressive edge forged through religious purity, strict abstinence and straight-edge lifestyle.

Check it out: http://artascatharsis.bandcamp.com/album/battle-pope-vs-jesus-christ-posse

Devils Kitchen music festival 2013: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane

After a four year hiatus, the legendary good time stoner-punk-death-boogie-sex-rock showcase of Devils Kitchen back, taking in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in January 2013. 

The three shows all boast awesome line-ups. Check out the details and get your ticket today! https://www.facebook.com/events/339822236114494/

Donate today and help save Black Wire Records

Black Wire Records is a not-for-profit record-store-come-performance-space that has found it's way into the hearts of countless musicians and members of the music-going public.

As a musician, promoter and avid music-fan, I really cannot express my respect-for and endorsement-of Black Wire Records highly enough. The venue is facing some difficult challenges for the immediate future, so I have taken it upon myself to help raise donations for the longevity of Black Wire, and the good of the Australian music scene. 

If you would like to donate to Black Wire Records, please send a donation via Paypal to mail(at)artascatharsis.com, and clearly mark "Black Wire Records" in the comments field.

More details here: http://artascatharsiscom.fatcow.com/?p=393

Awesome HD Serious Beak live clip

Here's a Serious Beak performing Godel !Xun and Tui/Tuo from their last live show. Awesome video and audio quality.

Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf2vtcL8lgY

Adrift for Days sell their souls with a new live album

A special gift from those psychedelic droning doomers Adrift for Days: a live recording of their set supporting Rosetta. Awesome stuff for fans of Neurosis, Earth, Pink Floyd and Boris.

Listen and download: http://artascatharsis.bandcamp.com/album/we-sold-our-souls-on-28-07-12

Stargazing under Southern Skies

Our specially curated selection of our favourite Australian ambient, post and shoegaze artists - and it's absolutely free to download.

Features tracks from sleepmakeswaves, Tangled Thoughts of Leaving, Dumbsaint, Mushroom Giant, We Lost the Sea and many more. Discover some awesome new Australia music!

Check it: http://artascatharsis.bandcamp.com/album/stargazing-under-southern-skies

Wolves Carry My Name - Amongst Ruins and Ashes

Band request from Germany.

This has all the elements I need to play again and again. 

Sludge heaviness combined with killer riffs? - Yep.

Post-metal atmospherics and a vocalist that sounds like a demon

trying to claw his way out of hell? - Check.

Fuzzed out stoner blues guitar solos with wah-wah? - Oh yeah.

Rather than fill space with empty words, just take my word

that this is heavy, thrilling and distorted. What more do ya need?

Check out the tracks and dig the free download from Bandcamp

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