Tape 2

Put together a new mix featuring great thrash tunes by the likes of Statement, KAAR, Vioblst, Atomic Force, and Conscriptor!

Best Black Metal Ep's

Black Metal is an LP lovers game and I can absolutely see why. Black Metal Music is entirely based on feeling and atmosphere, meaning that full length albums have more time to absorb listeners into that space. LP's also offer larger space for art, a huge plus when dealing with Black Metal, a genre that just loves theatre and aesthetics. This is part of why everyone remembers De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and not Deathcrush, or really loves Two Hunters and has never heard Malevolent Grain. I think it's time Black Metal EP's are given the spotlight, as some fantastic music is packed on these releases. These next 9 EP's are in no particular order.


10. Abigail-Descending From a Blackened Sky

A raw, uncompromising blast of music from Tokyo Japan's Abigail. This is a bit more than normal traditional black metal. It features heavy elements of thrash and speed metal showing that, deep inside the rotting demon corpse of this EP, is the heart of a street metalhead. An interesting listen. 

9. Ancient Rites- Evil Prevails...

An underrated gem of an EP. Very occult, atmospheric guitars and guttural vocals reverbed straight to hell. This is the sound of the ancient, bloodletting devil worship. 

8. Marduk-Here's No Peace

A late 90's slice of bestial, blasting death metal, Here's No Peace is my favorite piece in Marduk's discography. Good stuff.

7. Idiot Stroszek- Idiot Stroszek 01

Idiot Stroszek is an uncomfortable, deeply personal one-man black metal/raw punk band with one member playing a broken, two-stringed guitar and providing suitcase percussion. Idiot Stroszek 01 is a great debut, showing exactly what the artist is hear to do. 

6. Sodom- In The Sign of Evil

A stone cold classic. Nothing more really needs to be said. Vile, disgusting, brutal extreme metal.

Forgotten Woods- Self Titled

A lurching, creeping, ether piece of Norwegian Black Metal. A mature debut for a tape recorded by young teenagers.

Sarcofago- The Black Vomit

Above is a poor quality image for a very hard to find album. If you have the opportunity to listen, you'll realize just how great this EP is. The genius present on I.N.R.I. is already present here.

2. Dimmu Borgir- Inn I Evighetens Morke

Forgive me Fenriz, for I am untrue! I actually quite like Dimmu Borgir, particularly their early stuff. This EP is a smaller, more condensed version of their brilliant first album For All Tid. Symphonic, heavy, and beautiful.

1. Watain- The Essence of Black Purity 

This album, to put it simply, came from another world. This album is an act of will, a piece of magic spewed forth from something ancient and horrible. Watain captured something wonderful with their very first release, something they've built on ever since. Perfect. 

Mauloch- Angetrieben von Hasse review

Neofolk, as a genre, no longer exists. Where once it was characterized by folk instrumentation and esoteric lyrics, it has imploded into a description of a kind of  aesthetic attributed to groups playing everything from dark ambient,  martial industrial,  rock music,  neoclassical, and collage music.

Neofolk is much more than Death in June and Boyd Rice, it is a living, breathing entity given life by countless bands subscribing to the unique, ancient European aesthetic.

Mauloch, a band from Germany, rise above their contemporaries with their debut album by effortlessly fusing everything notable and fantastic about neo-folk.

 Each track is a swirly, lurching, haunting blend of repetitive drone samples, pounding wartime drums, Burzum-esque synth melodies, and wartime samples. Somehow, despite the huge amount of genre blending, each track feels appropriate. There is no awkward genre mashing here, it all feels like it comes from the same patriotic, feverish place.

A beautiful aspect of this album is just how full every song feels. They are not long, the longest being 5:20, but they all feel like tiny orchestral pieces. Um Walholl feels so dynamic even though it relies on a very repetitive synth section.

Experimentation really dominates this album. There is lots of harsh noise, but it is not noise for noise sake in the vain of Merzbow. The noise replicates concrete things, like bombs, police whistles, storms, and marshal drums. It is clever and it adds to the atmosphere of 20th century politics and radical ancient European worship that the album has.

The cream of the album is Sieg oder Tod, an exquisite aural journey into paganism and the paranoia of the totalitarian state. It brutally beats the concept of genre, drags it out back and shoots it right in the head. It is 5:07 of folk-based synth melody, chaotic, free form, yet still somehow-rhythmic pedal noise, speech samples, brutal marshal beats, and, surprisingly, a jazzy drum part. It conjures images of wartime Berlin, deep Norwegian forests, and men dying in vain. Absolutely sublime stuff.

This album, like everything I review here, is highly recommended. If you want a very dense, challenging piece of arcane music, this is for you. Stream it below.

Top 10 Labels you should probably know about

While once proud record labels like Columbia and Epitaph have long since abandoned any effort to put out any good music, underground labels are putting out fantastic, under appreciated releases. These small labels are the lifeblood of music and the bread and butter of the working musician. These next few, presented in no particular order, stand out from their peers for the sheer excellence of their catalog. Buy their records and buy back your soul!

10. Fudgeworthy Records

A Grindcore/Black Metal label run by the legendary Charlie Infection, Fudgeworthy is home to the beer-addled blackened grinders Gonkulator, ripping hardcore bastards Jesus Chrust, and thrash-grind beard-o's Goatfelch, among others. With countless releases and a rich history, Fudgeworthy is a modern jem.

http://www.discogs.com/label/45079-Fudgeworthy-Records

9. Dumpster Noise Records

The label is without a logo, but this image is from the label co-owners blog

Dumpster Noise Records certainly puts out music that fits the name of the label. If you're looking for raw, disgusting, disturbing (one of the groups is called Female Pedophile!) power electronics or noise this is up your alley. 

http://www.dumpsternoise.bigcartel.com/

8. To Live a Lie Records

The United States finest purveyor of powerviolence, fastcore, and grindcore, To Live a Lie Records is fast, cost-effective, and just goddamn wonderful. Where else could you buy that Sordo 7-inch you wanted? Or vegan patches? Or damn near every Agathocles album?

http://www.tolivealie.com/

7. Extreme Records

One of the more well-known on this list, Extreme records has been in operation since 1987 and has been responsible for releasing albums by the likes of NON and Jim O'Rourke as well as the mighty Merzbox. Recently, the label has branched out to jazz, with albums from The Antripodean Collective and Marc Hannaford. 

http://www.xtr.com/catalog/latest/

6. Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records

Brooklyn Jazz Records is one of the few modern labels I know that still focuses on Cool Jazz and Modal Jazz, instead of their, more experimental, descendants. Great recordings, great players (John Chin is a standout), and a great, old school New York vibe. Groove on over and buy some rekkids.

http://www.bjurecords.com/

5. Todestrieb Records

Just how occult do you like your Black Metal? No, no, no. How OCCULT do you like your black metal? Is using an actual honest to god tomb door as percussion occult enough for you? Fuck yeah it is because T.O.M.B, a band signed to the label above, actually fucking did that. Buy records from these guys or you're not kvlt and I'm telling Fenriz.

http://label.todestrieb.co.uk/

4. Chondritic Sound

One of the most enigmatic, challenging, and high-quality series of releases from any label, the Chondritic Sound back catalogue is simply sublime. Every artist, especially Hive Mind, is simply brilliant. There's a reason this label is a favorite of Henry Rollins. 

http://www.chondriticsound.com/

3. Deathwish Inc.

This is probably the most hyped hardcore label of all time. It is actually popular enough to garner some mainstream acceptance and it absolutely deserves it. Converge. Cold World. Punch. Nothing but the highest quality of metallic hardcore. 

4. Rainbow Bridge Records

A prolific house of experimental arts, Rainbow Bridge seems to put out two tapes a year, most of them all somehow involving label runner Justin Marc Lloyd. 

1. DIW Records

A Japanese record label specializing in Avant-Garde jazz, DIW recordings is difficult to buy from for us westerners, but any difficulty is worth it. Because of this label I own every Kaoru Abe record, and for that I am forever thankful. 

Tape 1

I've decided to make short, five minute mixes of varying different styles as pat of a new feature here on kvltovpersonality. I will focus on under-appreciated non-American bands. Stream the first below! Featuring amazing tunes by the likes of Wretched Excess, Illusory States of Happiness, //, Once Again, and Nubivagant!

Now Featuring: Death In June- Behind The Mask

Forty feet beneath Earth's surface, amongst the ruins of the New York underworld, during a harsh January blizzard, Darryl Hell speaks to Douglas Pierce, leader and sole constant member of controversial neo-folk collective Death In June. The footage is free of any of the cliches of the interview, creating a free, monologue-like journey through his life, his beliefs, and his music. Check it out below.

Tommy Ramone

On July 11th we lost Thomas Erdelyi, a.k.a Tommy Ramone, the last surviving original member of The Ramones. The Ramones and their contribution to music, fashion, and the overall milieu is simply incalculable, so there's no point in going over that again, but Tommy needs some attention. Tommy, despite drumming on three studio albums and three albums, producing the groups excellent Too Tough To Die, and managing the band to success, he is often overlooked in favor of Marky, his replacement. It's a shame, because the classic status of the albums he played on have a lot to do with his drumming and his production. Let's take a look.

Ramones

Simply classic. Four brilliant street-urchins crafting perfectly unpretentious pop with vigor and youthful abandon. Johnny, Joey, and Dee-Dee were the stars, thrashing about on two white chuck taylor covered feet, bleating and making buzzsaw three-chord nuggets. It's great, don't get me wrong, but without Tommy it would be Chris Montez with fuzz. Tommy gave punk its traditional backbeat, helping solidify a genre in the process. 

Leave Home

Featuring beefier production, faster tempos, and a brasher sound. Leave Home was more typically punk than its predecessor. It features classics like "Sheena is a Punk Rocker," "Pinhead," and "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment." Can you imagine "Suzy is a Headbanger" without Tommy's manic backbeat?

Rocket To Russia

The third studio album by The Ramones, this one is Tommy's last. Despite being a near perfect album (have you heard Rockaway Beach!) Tommy was not satisfied, feeling that the band was doomed to failure and that punk was ruined by The Sex Pistols. It was his last album as a studio drummer. 

It's Alive

Tommy played on their first live album. Recorded in 1977 and released on 1979, this is a massive, two-record slab of early Ramones. Can't go wrong with it. Live Ramones is five times faster and a thousand times more desperate than any studio recording. 

Too Tough To Die

This is the only Ramones album Tommy produced on his own and, as a result, it is the most fierce and thrashy. It is very much indebted to the burgeoning New York hardcore scene and Speed Metal. This is probably the heaviest the Ramones ever got. This is a return to the simplicity of their roots. Killer.

NYC 1978

The last piece of Ramones material involving Tommy, this is a recording of a live set at the Palladium. It's standard live Ramones greatness, with a cover of Surfing Bird!

What's your favorite album Tommy played on? Comment below!

Return From The Grave Stream New Album

Italian Heavy Rock/Doom Metal group Return From The Grave are streaming their new album Gates Of Nowhere at Terrorizor. 

The album is excellent. Groovy and heavy with a certain pulpy, hammer horror lyrical quality that I love in my doom. It was recorded entirely on analog equipment, giving it the warmth and depth of its ancestors. Highly recommended.

Stream it below and look out for the physical copy.

http://www.terrorizer.com/news/streams/stream-return-graves-new-album-terrorizer/

Sun Ra. Sun Ra. Sun Ra. Sun Ra. S-U-N R-A. Sun Ra the defier of Moloch. Sun Ra the intergalactic symbol of life and cosmic movement. Sun Ra the destroyer of only the vilest worlds. Sun Ra the creating of only the finest mental silk. Sun Ra. Sun Ra. Sun Ra. Sun Ra whose aural recordings are works of God. These 10 nuggets of truth  stand out to the writer of this column as very special vibrations. Onward. Onward!

Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy

A preemptive strike for Psychedelia and P-funk, this album was years ahead of its time. Every instrument is recorded with significant echo, making the hectic parts a regular phantasmagoria of texture. 

When Angels Speak of Love

One of the rarest Sun Ra albums, When Angels Speak of Love is also one of the most baffling in tone. At first it seems very accessible, but with repeated viewings the oddity becomes clear. With screeching horns, unnerving piano melodies, and otherworldly chanting, this is a cleverly disguised work of avant-garde music. 

Mayan Temples

One of Sun Ra's final recordings, this one is notable for heavily featuring Sun Ra's piano virtuosity and John Gilmore's fierce, atonal saxophone attack. It also includes three performances of Jazz standards, something rare in this era of Sun Ra recordings.

The Nubians of Plutonia

This album is the perfect synthesis between Ra's earlier standard jazz work and his later avant-garde, free form work. Each track accessible yet contains enough experimental noodling and drum work that it is still a challenging listen. Something I would recommend for first time listeners. 

Art Forms of Dimension Tomorrow

This album made leaps and bounds in advancing avant-garde recording techniques. Tommy Hunter, the bands drummer and engineer, was able to produce massive reverberation on the drum recording. This creates an album that is essentially Jazz-inflected musique-concrete. If it caught on it would have made a subgenre, but as it came out in 1965 and nobody bought it, that didn't happen.

The Magic City

The Magic City is perhaps the most complete sounding album of Sun Ra's discography. His other works, while excellent, can be a bit shambolic production wise. This album sounds very professional and flows very well. It is very accessible. 

Atlantis

A beautiful piece of free-improvisation, this album features bass riffs that clearly inspired Bootsy Collins. The title track is a lovely, spacious experiment in tonality. 

We Travel The Spaceways

Something about this album just bleeds 60's cool. In another world, it could be a James Bond soundtrack. If James Bond was black and from the future. 

Jazz By Sun Ra

Sun Ra's debut album, it is anything but conventional. In 1956, at the height of modal jazz, Sun Ra released a starry, groovy record. It's a daring move for a daring thinker.

When Sun Comes Out

1963's "When The Sun Comes Out" is unique in that it focuses on percussive elements instead of horn melodies, a first for Ra. Sparse piano and horn arrangements glide underneath mountainous rhythms. Congos, bongos, drums, all layered over each other in glorious church erected in the name of groove. Simply wonderful. It needs to be listened to and sampled more. 

John Lovell Interview

John Ulfr Lovell is, undoubtedly, under your radar, and that's a damn shame.  Located in the Winnipeg, the city of "Muddy Waters," John works in the medium of film. Producing short, DIY movies, he explores themes of personal darkness and despair. His work is characterized by its minimalism. He is the only actor, there is normally one camera, and there is no audio save one song that he chooses. But minimalism does not mean thoughtlessness. I talked to John about his work and his themes. "Dark" is the operative word.

I really enjoyed your piece "Empty." It's very well put together for a one camera independent film. How did you go about making it?

I'm really happy you enjoyed it, for me personally, in terms of the technical side, filming, editing, etc., it's some of my weakest work. On the other hand it's also one of the darkest, most depressing things I've created. I put it together mostly out of anger and sadness. It was kind of impromptu. No real plans or scripts or anything like that. I filmed each scene as it came to me and kept it as minimalistic as possible. I feel for what I was trying to express, minimalism is best. 

Your works come from a very personal place. What fuels their existence?

Most of my work comes, as you said, from a very personal place. Life experiences, current thoughts and feelings, and ideas of the future all are a part of the work I do. I take these powerful, strong feelings, often (but not always) very negative, and I channel them out of me through my expression rather than smashing something or roaring. The work is often very symbolic and metaphorical, as I feel there is a much broader meaning through the surreal visuals I try to create, and people can interpret that in  different ways. Overall, the strong emotion, as well as my tendency to get rather obsessed with current ideas and projects is the "fuel" of it all. 

Why film? What drew you to the medium?

I guess the first time I got into it was when I was around 11 or 12 years old. I got a video camera and started making videos and editing them on my computer. Really corny, stupid stuff, but hey, I was a kid! I dropped it for a lot of years. I picked up video making when I started my youtube channel originally called Mrcannibalspork (great name choice I know) near the end of 2010 and made music reviews. I started editing them a lot more, making them look snazzy with Sony Vegas. I am a huge fan of really surreal, dark, avant-garde film work. I'm a huge fan of  David Lynch and dark, silent films like Begotten, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, things like that. The idea of expression through film is just so powerful to me. I feel it can express a larger and broader range of emotion than just a simple picture can. In January 2013, I posted Purify, my first attempt at doing something like this, and enjoyed the process so much that I knew I wanted to do more. Although I'm still very much an amateur, I've had no proper training, I'm going to keep working with it and learning.

You use music heavily in your work, especially metal. Does the song you pick inspire the film or do you choose the music based on based on the tone of the piece?

Usually it's half and half. Sometimes I'll have an idea floating around in my head I think is good, but then it never sees the light of day. The music is huge and yes, often the starting point is the music. I'll hear a piece that really hits me in some way and often syncs up with the strong emotions I'm feeling. When I'm hit hard enough by a song, and I feel it represents my feelings, the video and the visual aspect is crafted on that structure. I guess you could call what I do music videos, but I'm not directly creating to represent the song, using the music to make my visual expression all the more powerful. That might sound a little bit pretentious, that's just the way I do things.

I've noticed your older work, at least to me, deals with themes of despair and internal conflict while your newer work "Reclaim," is more rebellious in spirit, presenting a man staking his claim against outside forces. Am I right in this analysis? Does your work have a message to others?

Very good analysis! The theme of that was definitely breaking away from something. The "Demon" character, as I sort of named him when I was editing the scenes together, represented the darkness that grows inside us when we are discontent with. That could be locationwise, jobwise, lifewise, whatever. We are discontent, but it's not that bad when people look at it, however, YOU hate it, so the sadness, anger, and impatience builds and grows into something ugly, and makes things worse. I tried to represent taking a leap of faith, whatever that may be, breaking free from this and being free. Of course I had other ideas I sewed in with it, but that is the core theme of it definitely. I don't know about giving people messages. When I make anything I'm making it the way I feel it. I'm not deliberately trying to send a message to the people, just expressing myself. These videos show my thoughts, my feelings. I'm opening up my minds eye for people to see, and if they take a message from that that makes them think, then I feel great that my work work had an impact on someone.

You seem to be a linguist, learning Icelandic. What part does language play in your work? I've noticed you use a lot of text overlays.

Ja, Islenski er frabaer tungumal! Language is of importance, hence why I use so many overlays of text. I write a lot of poetry every now and again, so I often implement that into my work. The words I use in the videos are often very metaphorical, and often vague, sometimes even nonsensical so it doesn't give away everything. It's something to think about, and also combined with the surreal visuals I feel makes it all the more atmospheric and powerful. I've only used English so far, but don't be surprised to see Icelandic make a few appearances very soon. As far as general linguistics go, I really have gotten very interested in language the past few years. I've always had a love for northern Germanic tongues but I'd love to explore more. For example, I find the Hungarian language to be very interesting. I do want to try to learn more in the coming years. 

Reclaim included animated segments. Do you consider yourself an artist in the medium of drawing or painting? Should we expect more of these segments in future works?

That was a huge experiment since I've never done any kind of animation before, so that was my first real exploration of that territory. Painting, drawing, etc. is actually one of my favourite mediums. I've been doing it for as long as I can remember. I did it heavily through age 16 to 18, and have done less of it recently, but I really want to pick it up again. I want to also combine my painting work with video. Not sure I have the ideas or know how yet, but it's in the cards so you will see more painting, drawing and what not from me for sure. 

To wind things down, what music are you currently digging?

Kind of all over the place. I've been listening to a lot of Inquisition, Thrawsunblat, and a lot of old school Death Metal, and some Neo-folk here and there. I've also been really loving the album "Fearless" by the Electronic, Dark-wave group called Legend. Brilliant album I'd recommend if you like dark, well made electronic music. The song "Runaway Train" from that album was used in "Reclaim" as well. 

Any final words?

Well thank you for the interview, great questions. They make me think, which I like. Also "Reclaim" taught me something else. Getting copious amounts of fake blood off clothing, your face, hair, and the floors is quite challenging. 

Purify: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWTyYz85-gs

Worthless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVuUeWZNnMQ

Ides of Winter- The Cinder Kingdom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTUvYQAp5g0

Dissonance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVqxzsmSnVA

Reclaim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCm--nRQqfU

Vicious White Kids

It was 1978 and the Sex Pistols were dead, slayed in San Fransisco by their Johnny Rotten, who coughed up blood and asked if we felt cheated. We were, of course. We were cheated but it didn't feel to bad. We were cheated but we attended the funeral anyway, a funeral that might have made a culture depending on who you asked. Everyone knew we had been cheated but Sid Vicous, the lanky, pale faced cheater himself. He made the horrible mistake of believing his own myth. Like a child fresh out of the stroller that runs across the street Vicious decided he needed another band, partly for fun and partly to make enough money to move to New York, where he would solidify his status as a dumb, junkie prayer candle for those that the funeral produced. 

The band was called Vicious White Kids and like any other childish movement, they were a lot of goddamn fun to watch. They didn't play their own music, of course they didn't, instead they blew through and jumped around and flailed to the music of others. Iggy Pop, Paul Revere and The Raiders, Eddie Cochran. Bam. Bam. Boom. All with the sneer and feedback of all the members previous bands combined. The New York Dolls. The Sex Pistols. Noise and feedback. They only played once and I think that was perfect. Seeing ones child walk for the first time is gratifying and the same concept applies here. They played once in London, at the Electric Ballroom. Vicious died soon after. I really can't see any other goddamn way that would have turned out. 

If you would like to listen to the aural equivalent of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and I know that you do, listen to this. It's not hard. It's been released and re-released countless times. You're already on the internet. Look it up.