Cobalt - Gin

this is the best album i've heard in 2009. the duo of Phil McSorley and Erik Wunder have completely flattened the rest of their peers within the USBM scene... where Nachtmystium and WITTR have delved more into the psychedelic nuances of black metal, Cobalt instead push forward with finding ways of communicating pure evil and hatred, which in my opinion is what quality black metal should achieve. McSorley's life as an infantryman in the Army, as well as his years spent in Baghdad, provide another enthralling and unexpected facet to Cobalt's music. what you hear sounds like it's coming from a frostbitten mountaintop, not from a desert battlefield, but it's interesting to me how his experience inspired such a thought-provoking performance. Wunder's drumming talent is remarkable, at times reminding me very much of Danny Carey (thanks to heavy use of polyrhythms). the way these songs flow over you, with such immense layers of depth... that they're coming from a mere duo is a testament to the production on this record. the guitar tone alone feels like an ocean of sulfuric acid crashing on top of you. simply put, if black metal was a museum, Cobalt's Gin belongs in the premier gallery, amidst the classics of the genre.

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Tesco Vee - Dutch Hercules

Not for the faint of heart or PC idiots out there.
It's Tesco Vee of The Meatmen fame..... I mean, what do you expect? Lots of hate, yes.

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Yaphet Kotto - The Killer Was In The Government Blankets

This album is everything hardcore, in essence, is meant to be. Passionate, urgent, aware, and damn is it loud.

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Gay Witch Abortion - Maverick

Gay Witch Abortion's debut full-length, is the soundtrack to snow-blindness, and to death by black hole—the auditory lifeline to some sightless beyond where the laws of the waking world are gruesomely atomized. This is no temper tantrum or tirade. The brutality here is intensely musical, and is directed not at the listener but in on itself. As it speeds through its 13 tracks in just over half an hour, Maverick is a planet in its volcanic age, gurgling and glowing with a heat so terrifying, it just might produce life. Details: GAY WITCH ABORTION Maverick Learning Curve Records The opening track, "Down with Giants," perfectly foreshadows the music to come—on it, drummer Shawn Walker and guitarist Jesse Bottomley exchange devastating haymakers, fighting for supremacy in the mix. It is a perfect overture for the following songs, eroding colossi in miniature that feel infinitely more expansive and fearsome than their average two minutes suggest. Luckily, a handful of abstract interludes, which feature mooing cows or looped, modulating drones decaying, break the often unbearable tension that builds from song to song and give listeners just the precious minute they need to recuperate for more punishment. Like a planet in infancy, a few minor things are still a bit out of order. Bottomley's vocals are a distraction. He's mad to compete with his own virtuosic guitar work (anyone would be), and his voice somehow seems mixed, when present, to overpower the music. "Your Own Militia," a mid-point track, droops ever so slightly, falling into a mid-tempo that seems to reference Broken-era Nine Inch Nails. But these hairs, once split, don't last long in this heat. Maverick is an album hewn from living stone.

Myspace (don't visit if you are prone to seizures)

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Kowloon Walled City - Turk Street

Sludgy, heavy shit from San Francisco.

Fans of Unsane, Black Cobra, Zozobra, etc. will really dig this.

Myspace

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