Discordance Axis - The Inalienable Dreamless [2001]

In all honesty, I'm not a huge fan of this album. Sure, I like it, but I don't deify it as many latter-day grindcore fans seem to. But then again, I'm not a fan of the likes of Gridlink and Cellgraft which this undeniably influenced largely - I like my grindcore punky, not technical. That said, it clearly is a seminal album, and one of the best examples of the style it pioneered. For that reason, it's worth a listen even if you only listen to grindcore from time to time as a novelty. It will never, in my eyes, reach the level of seminality (is that a word?) of the likes of Terrorizer and Brutal Truth, let alone Repulsion and Napalm Death, but it's on the second tier certainly. Don't be influenced by the torrent of over-technical shit it spawned.

192 kbps

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Axegrinder - The Rise Of The Serpent Men [1989] and a couple of demos

Seeing as we've all been saying (okay, I've been saying) for a while that this blog sorely lacks some classic crust, I thought I'd mark my return home (and thus more frequent posts for a while) with some of it. Axegrinder is one of the classic British crust bands, and as was the trademark of that time period, there's no d-beat to be found here. Instead, there's a sound that's described much better by this post at the Terminal Sound Nuisance blog than I could ever do (incidentally, it's a fucking solid blog, you should check it out if you have the chance and are into punk music). But I'll just lazily paraphrase the post - the demos are more like Antisect while the full-length is more like Amebix. The demos included in the file (I'm not uploading separately because I'm lazy, so if you already have the full length and have a poor connection it might be best to find the demos elsewhere) are the Grind the Enemy and Live in Wimbledon demos from 1987. Sorry about the poor quality of the latter.

96 kbps (LiW); 128 kbps (GtE); 192 kbps (TRotSM)

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Sanctuary - Into The Mirror Black [1990]

Okay, I admit it, I am a power metal fan/faggot (depending on your point of view). I can't help it when some of it is as awesome as this, Sanctuary's second and last album from 1990. You see, power metal is at its best not when writing 7-hour long conceptual odysseys, but rather when they write some ballsy songs (see: Running Wild, early Blind Guardian). And here, Sanctuary write songs with surprisingly socially aware lyrics for metal music - admittedly, the 'Long Since Dark'/'Epitaph' duo isn't quite up to the par of the rest of the album, but the quality of the likes of 'Future Tense', 'The Mirror Black' and 'One More Murder' is beyond question. It's quite thrashy in places too, so could provide an entry album to power metal for those into the more extreme ends of metal. Unfortunately often overlooked when considering the genre, this album is a classic.

192 kbps

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Nurse With Wound - Rock 'n Roll Station [1994]

'Do you remember? It was 1959. The observatory. What a strange story. Rock and roll session is a session where we can do what we want to do. [...] Everything is possible.' These lyrics from the opening title track of Nurse With Wound's 1994 magnum opus Rock 'n Roll Station. Although their (well, really 'his' - it's a project of Steven Stapleton) music is fairly indefinable, to newcomers it's normally a mixture of industrial and avant-garde, but on this, Stapleton took a break from the norm to make a more rhythmic record, which was controversial among existing fans to say the least. Regardless, it's far from mainstream and is a stunning album which should be listened to again and again and again.

N.B. This is a 1996 re-release which features a remix of the closing track.

192 kbps


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Merzbow/Shora - Switching Rethorics split [2002]

So this is one of the more interesting splits you're likely to hear in the near future. If you have any knowledge of noise whatsoever you're almost certain to know of the crazy Masami Akita, otherwise known as Merzbow. On the other side of this split is the Swiss band Shora, who despite having turned to wishy-washy post-rock on their most recent album Malval actually play a decent brand of angular, chaotic hardcore in the vein of mid-era Converge here (and I believe this is the only release in which they actually use vocals). The two styles juxtapose surprisingly well (the Merzbow side is in his post-millenium style - I'd name a release but there's so fucking many). Seriously, both acts are very impressive here. Go for it.

192 kbps

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Re-upload: Cro-Mags - The Age Of Quarrel [1986]

N.B. The archive and files have the WRONG year on them.

Cro-Mags' debut is one of the quintessential albums of the New York hardcore (punk, not techno) scene. Although I'm not normally one for talk of 'Street Justice' and the like, preferring my comfortable bedroom, this is catchy and essential.

Re-upload notes: Don't think the N.B. is still true after the re-upload but I can't be bothered checking. Also, don't bother checking out any of the other material, very little of it's any good (OOH CONTROVERSIAL).

192 kbps

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Re-upload: Whitehouse - Mummy And Daddy [1998]

Along with the splendid Dedicated to Peter Kürten, this is probably Whitehouse's most celebrated work. As varied as power electronics is ever likely to get (ahem), this is something worth listening to for all fans of the odd.

Re-upload notes: Realised I hadn't posted anything for a few days so I decided to pick a page of old posts at random and re-upload the first thing that took my fancy. 'A Cunt Like You' is a splendid song.

192 kbps

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Re-upload: Discharge - Realities Of War EP [1980]

Another pre-'Hear Nothing...' Discharge release here. Discharge are pretty much the kings of hardcore punk, despite ill-advised trips to glam metal on 'Grave New World'. This EP was recorded in 3 hours, and so has a great punk vibe to it, throughout its 5 minutes.

Re-upload notes: Although it doesn't quite touch on the quality of Why or Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing, Realities Of War is certainly a solid release, even by Discharge standards. It's the first studio evidence of the d-beat as far as I'm aware (their '77 demo is just straight up punk), which adds historical value to the release.

192 kbps

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Johnny Cash - With His Hot And Blue Guitar [1957]

Down the Rock Island Line she's a mighty good road
Rock Island Line it's a road to ride
Rock Island Line it's a mighty good road
Well if you ride you got to ride it like you finally get your ticket 
At the station for the Rock Island Line

This is the most well know country man (at least that's the perception I have) and this is his first release. A classic, "Folsom Prision Blues", "Cry!Cry!Cry" and "I Walk the Line" are widely know country songs and they are great songs, But my favourite here is the opener "Rock Island Line" and that songs represents everything Cash music was at the time: a steady rhythm section extremely simple but effective (to some similar to the sound of a train), a electric and a acoustic guitar playing a few chords per song, all standard, simple but awesome. 
The best classic country there is here. 

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Swans - Filth [1983]

Blog alone for a few days.

This is Swans debut and one of the most "heavy" if not the most heavy one, in this first release Swans featured Norman Westberg for the first time Michael Gira obviously and two drummers, Jarboe was not yet in the band. The consequences of that and given that Gira was not yet using the whole folky stuff he later used never to let go completely (at least till this point) is a no wavy, noisy and repetitive as fuck release. Gira's vocals are far from melodic. For Swans fans or noisy stuff fans this might be a masterpiece for the others only a listen will tell.

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Napalm Death - Live Corruption [1990]

N.B. Yes, I know the date of the CD release was 1993, but as the VHS was released in 1990 and it's the same thing, this seems to make sense.

Probably one of the first gigs with Barney Greenway at the mic, this is one of the best live albums ever. Perenially underappreciated within Napalm Death's discography, if you ever wanted to hear fuller-bodied versions of tunes from the first couple of albums, this is where to go. The sound quality is about as you'd expect for a professionally-released live album, and the performance is tight and good without losing any of the organic feeling. For anyone who can't get to a Napalm concert at some point, this is about as close to an ample replacement as you'll get.

192 kbps

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Re-upload: Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss [1993]

To me, this is not quite Vikernes' best album under the Burzum moniker (that honour goes to the stupendous 'Filosofem'), but it certainly follows that. This was the first album on which Burzum began to take a more dreamy, almost ambient approach (although don't worry, this still sounds nothing like 'Dauði Baldrs').

Re-upload notes: Upon revision, I think I do prefer this to Filosofem, largely due to the fact that the ambient track on this one ('Tomhet') is interesting and not 26 fucking minutes long.

192 kbps (if anyone wants, I can re-rip this one at a higher bitrate)

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Re-upload: Napalm Death - Harmony Corruption [1990]

Re-upload notes: This post's clearly from when I began writing a little bit more than a couple of sentences so the initial post should provide plenty of information.

No self-respecting extreme music blog should go too long without having this gem of death/grind, and considering Napalm are my favourite band, I'm surprised it took more than ten posts! Harmony Corruption develops upon Napalm's raw grind fury of Scum and FETO, and adds death metal influences - probably derived from European and US tours with the likes of Bolt Thrower, Death, and Obituary (whose vocalist, John Tardy, guests along with Deicide's Glen Benton on 'Unfit Earth'). This is probably Napalm's most underappreciated release - after the NME 'britcore' exposure, but before the relative commercial success of the likes of Utopia Banished (which is many miles worse), but the likes of 'Suffer The Children', probably their most famed song (as opposed to whatever 'You Suffer' is) demand your attention. Now.

192 kbps

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Napalm Death - Mentally Murdered EP and single [1989]

More Napalm Death is never a bad thing. Fact. Hence why these two releases excite me so much. The single doesn't contain anything which isn't on the EP, but it's good for 'collection' purposes (or rather completion - a lot of mp3s is not a collection). This is around the point at which they began to include a much larger death metal influence in their music - evident in the odd track on From Enslavement To Obliteration  but much more so here. Obviously the title track of the two is rather famous, but each track on this has a standout feature which makes it excellent in its own right. As there isn't much more I can say here, I'll just link you to a download:

192 kbps (EP)/v0 (single)

EP:

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Single:

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Enterro - Nunc Scio Tenebris Lux [2008]

Yes, I'm aware that I've been slacking more than a little with my posting schedule of late, but that should end now - I've had exams until yesterday, but now I have a glorious thirteen weeks off. Anyway, to the matter in hand. Enterro is a Brazilian black metal band - and although there is a smattering of blasting in their music, it's mostly midpaced, although I'd say that their style is such that they're equally effective at both tempos. The album is very much in the riffing style of recent Beherit, although perhaps with a little bit more speed - certainly, though, 'All In Satan' off Engram would fit very well on this album. It's not particularly original, but it is very well done, and certainly impressive for a self-released debut album. I haven't yet heard last year's follow-up, and based on the MA reviews, it's not as good, but this is an underrated album that deserves much more attention.

192 kbps

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Napalm Death - Live In Wacken, Belgium (bootleg) [1987]

So, after a few days' delay, here comes the next part of our Napalm Death marathon. I believe I have twenty-six items to post in total which is rather appropriate. Anyway, this is a 1987 bootleg of a gig in Wacken, Belgium, which is surprisingly good quality for a) 80s grindcore and b) a bootleg. If anything, it's slightly cleaner than Scum in all its glory. Anyway, this is a short, but very interesting reminder of why Napalm Death fucking rule and why Gridlink should stop using their guitars to masturbate.

192 kbps

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Re-upload: Napalm Death - Hatred Surge demo [1986]

Although not quite grindcore at this stage, due to not possessing a capable drummer, Napalm Death still, on their most famous demo, created some fairly intense hardcore, albeit with more than a touch of post-punk to it at times. Certainly it has a rather apocalyptic feeling to it in songs like 'Abbatoir' and 'So Sad'. Different versions of Instinct Of Survival, Control, Sacrificed and Caught In A Dream are very interesting for any Napalm fan.

Re-upload notes: This should be the start of a Napalm marathon. Every full length and some EPs, demos and boots of the best band ever. Also, if anyone has any of the following, could you upload it somewhere for me (all the Napalm Death material I'm missing):

Live At Rock City
Live In Vietnam (bootleg)
And, Like Sheep, We Have All Gone Astray
Kak
Unpopular Yawns Of Middle Class Warfare
From Enslavement To Obliteration DEMO
Tsunami Benefit split
Live In Japan split

Cheers.

192 kbps

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Maze Of Torment - Faster Disaster [1998]

Sorry for the low-quality artwork but Google Image Search works suckily slow for me so I simply use MA. Anyway, I'm being a little lazy with this one because I'm uploading it for a friend (and I'll give Kuroi a shout out here), and haven't really listened to it that much. Instead, I'll quote some non-album-specific parts from a review for another of their albums, The Unmarked Graves:

'These guys are actually plain old fashioned death-thrash with ripping solos, some blast beats, screaming vox, evil riffing, the whole nine yards. And y'know what? It's pretty fucking good. They're not even Morbid Angel clones, I'm guessing they picked the name just for the hell of it.'

192 kbps

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Akira Yamaoka - Silent Hill 1-4 OST (1999-2004)

The first few games of the Silent Hill series are considered some of the best horror games around, and the soundtracks are considered some of the best in gaming, period. To match the hellish world of the games, sound designer for the first seven Silent Hill games Akira Yamaoka created a mostly ambient industrial soundtrack, broken up with some extremely emotional rock songs. These four official soundtracks (for Silent Hill 1 through 4) focus mainly on the more melodic side of the games' music, which can usually be found in cutscenes and the like.

However, Silent Hill mega-fan Fungo has created complete soundtracks for the first three games which focus more on the in-game tracks, and as such are much more ambient (and in the case of Silent Hill 3, much better than the official soundtrack). I've uploaded the first four official soundtracks here, but I haven't uploaded the complete soundtracks as you can download them for free from Fungo's website: Silent Hill Media (because he's put a ton of work into them and you should totally check it out).

Silent Hill 1 OST:

42 tracks, 1:06:49, 68.34 MB

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Silent Hill 2 OST:

30 tracks, 1:13:05, 106.02 MB

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Silent Hill 3 OST:

26 tracks, 1:16:19, 75.21 MB

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Silent Hill 4 OST:

20 tracks, 1:13:40, 137.16 MB

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Dodecahedron - Dodecahedron [2012]

The blogosphere has been ablaze of late with praise for this album. Black metal as a whole is a fairly straightforward proposition; you get distortion, riffs and harsh vocals, but the new breed has been trying to change that. The likes of Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord and Nightbringer have been bringing complexity and atmosphere to black metal in a way that wasn't previously used, and here, I have a strong suspicion that Dodecahedron have taken great steps towards the next level again. It's still very close to the likes of Deathspell Omega, but there is that little something extra, especially in the epic closing trilogy 'View From Hverfell' - it's complex, yet still recognizably coherent, and it's harsh, yet crisp and clean in both its playing and production. It's been bandied around the internet for a while now, but if you don't already have this album, here's another sterling recommendation.

192 kbps

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