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\nJune 2005
\nby Eric Saeger<\/b>
\nEric is a former contributor to Boston Rock, Factsheet Five, The Portsmouth Herald (NH) and the seminal San Francisco punk fanzine Why Music Sucks.<\/i><\/p>\n
\nGhost Orgy, \u201cLullabies for Lunatics\u201d (Thoth Music)
\nIn \u201cLullabies for Lunatics,\u201d Filipina hottie Dina Concina has come up with some of the most misfit mall-goth in history \u2013 sort of like if your overeducated New-Ager sister were trying to give you a scare. Lots of discordant off-Broadway coffee-shop-metal soliloquies about taking poison, hanging out in coffins and whatever else little goth girls are made of. There\u2019s a viola player, too, basically to piss you off. www.ghostorgy.com\n<\/p>\n
\nNile, \u201cAnnihilation of the Wicked\u201d (Relapse Records)
\nAs anyone who\u2019s ever read this column knows, I\u2019ve pretty much given up on anything new stumbling onto the death metal sphere. The ponderous amount of interchangeable Megadeth wannabes make writing them up a resoundingly loathsome chore \u2013 what positives can one list about a band when there is near-literally nothing to distinguish them from another bunch of same-\u201cthinking\u201d chumps from Muskogee aside from the \u201ccleverness\u201d of their intro shtick?
\nAlthough this poop-bombing-bird\u2019s eye view isn\u2019t unique to me, I\u2019ll caveat here by mentioning that every critic gets jaded when they stick with a niche. Listen to too much of any sort of rock \u2013 from prog to punk \u2013 and you\u2019ll end up tossing 90% of the stuff to friends, enemies or kids in the neighborhood.
\nWith all this crap said, Nile\u2019s Annihilation of the Wicked is an earthquake in a jewel case. The double-bass drumming quickly becomes a thundering stampede of calf-straining but dead-on 1\/64 notes, and with Karl Sander\u2019s unique growl-roar (I know, I know) and the overall in-your-faceness of the production it all comes up a real winner. Having long been on an Egyptian mummy trip, Sanders successfully weaves studious Middle Eastern musical wetware into the hyperthrash circuitry, all of which results in an understated eeriness to the frenzy that\u2019s quite inspiring. Best of the lot is \u201cUser-Maat-Re,\u201d which is Metallica enough to rope in those whose tastes run screaming from sub-Slayer spike-core attempted by earnest-faced dolts. www.relapse.com\n<\/p>\n
\nHaujobb, \u201cVertical Mixes\u201d (Metropolis Records)
\nInfectious remix album spotlighting the versatility of these well-established gods of bleep-bloop runway-model-techno \u2013 you\u2019ve probably been exposed to Haujobb while waiting for the missus to try on some revealing blouses at Express. It\u2019s not so often that you\u2019ll find a synth band so (rightfully) confident about their versatility that they\u2019ll put the same song back-to-back, as seen here on the two vastly differing arrangements of \u201cS.adow,\u201d one of the songs from 2003\u2019s \u201cVertical Theory\u201d from which this collection sprouted. www.metropolis-records.com\n<\/p>\n
\nGrand Magus, \u201cWolf\u2019s Return\u201d (Rise Above Records)
\nIf Chris Cornell \u2013 rather than Glenn Hughes \u2013 had fronted Black Sabbath on Seventh Sign, this is exactly what you would have heard, and that record would have gone a lot higher in the Top 100. What\u2019s found here on Grand Magus\u2019s second full-length is sorely missing from the scene: straight-up street-metal \u2013 not thrash, not doom, not Hell\u2019s Angel blooz, but a varying speed vocalist-driven fusion of all the above. OK, friggin righteous is what it is, even if I would have brought the anthemic Mesa Boogie crusher \u201cLight Hater\u201d way up in the playlist. Do not, repeat, do not pass on this just because they\u2019re from Norway, either \u2013 I\u2019ll double your money back if you don\u2019t end up humming at least two of these tunes to yourself while testing out your coiled-snake-stare as you amble into a bar. Excuse me while I steal a Ferrari and smash it into a suburban home. www.grandmagus.com\n<\/p>\n
\nMonstrum Sepsis, \u201cMovement\u201d (WTII Records)
\nChintzy instrumental futurepop that might have scored points had the band gotten off their xenophobic asses and found any bum on the street to contribute even a laughable attempt at vocals, but as is this isn\u2019t much more than a slab of Velveeta. The Casio-kiddie hand-clap syncopation makes a nice gravestone. www.wtiirecords.com\n<\/p>\n
\nMindless Self Indulgence, \u201cYou\u2019ll Rebel To Anything\u201d (Metropolis Records)
\nUnscrewed in-your-face techno\/futurepunkmetal wild-assness recalling the spazziest of early Bowie with Darkness vocals and sampled Marshall stacks. The persuasive Buzzcockian hardcore of \u201c1989\u201d copulates well with Queen-on-crank experiment \u201cYou\u2019ll Rebel to Anything (As Long As It\u2019s Not Challenging)\u201d, and there\u2019s a piss-take of Rush\u2019s \u201cTom Sawyer\u201d in case any villagers were left not having yet taken up a torch-carrying chase after these video-gaming brats. You\u2019ll either love this or feel vaguely threatened by its space cadet dickheadedness. www.metropolis-records.com\n<\/p>\n
\nThe Auburn System, \u201cThe Auburn System EP\u201d (Five Point Records)
\nMildly compelling nu-skate-core with an obsessive-compulsive slant on speed changes and oddball internet characters. These Massachusettsans will be playing at Wakefield\u2019s United Methodist Church on June 10th and at Club Drifters (Nashua) on July 7th. www.theauburnsystem.com\n<\/p>\n
\nRecourse, \u201cWeakening the Structure\u201d (This Dark Reign\/Devil Doll Records)
\nRiff-oriented Motorhead-meets-Helmet Harley-core that should placate fans who don\u2019t readily embrace calc-metal, this leans more toward early 90\u2019s thrash and has the basics therein down to an easily digestible art. An anarchist\u2019s-eye-view of world events never hurts, either. www.devildollrecords.com\n<\/p>\n
\nP.H.O.B.O.S, \u201cTectronics\u201d, (Candlelight Records)
\nIndustrial doom tech-metal concerned more with hellish atmospherics than riffage. The heaviness here simply can\u2019t be paralleled \u2013 try picturing Ministry doing the music for all of humanity going down in molten flames. Mollusk-slow power chords over sampled apocalyptic found-sounds, slo-mo volcanic explosions and screaming. Not to infer that this French release was meant as pure noise \u2013 there are black-metal vocals throughout \u2013 but it does leave the band with two wide-open options for direction at this point: soundtrack gigs or (with no small effort to expand their guitar range) the greatest doom since Sabbath\u2019s Master of Reality. In the meantime, \u201cTectronics\u201d makes all the Obsessed cloneage look like Barney the Dinosaur. Definitely some whackos to watch. www.candlelightrecords.co.uk\n<\/p>\n
\nMetalium, \u201cDemons of Insanity\u201d (Crash Music\/Warner Brothers Records)
\n80s-style dragon-slaying pomp-metal from Germany includes keyboards from Don Airey (ex-Ozzy). Guarding Don\u2019s enchanted lair is a Bruce Dickenson Mini-Me wielding a magic sword that can decapitate a mountain troll and then slice an orange so grandma can get her vitamin C, all guaranteed by Ronco or something. www.crashmusicinc.com\n<\/p>\n
\nDaysend, \u201cSeverance\u201d (Chatterbox\/Metal Blade Records)
\nBelay the usual baby-Megadeth jokes this month as we have here a real contender competing in the Linkin Park leagues \u2013 and with marks high enough to warrant general investigation. Vocalist Simon Calabrese switches rather deftly between nu-metal sonic blasts and thrash-monster cough-drop bellowing. Songs consist of tight and well-written bombast falling somewhere between Korn and Metallica compiled with a sly eye toward commercial possibility with the hayseeds. www.metalblade.com\n<\/p>\n
\nAccessory, \u201cForever & Beyond\u201d (Metropolis Records)
\nTeutonic blend of hoarse-throated hardfloor EBM and bitter-hearted ominous darkwave; the grooves here are relentless and the sampling gives the record more than enough depth to dissuade any S&M-club hacker comparison. Compare to SITD and perhaps Hocico. www.metropolis-records.com\n<\/p>\n
\nEric is always seeking new underground bands to review. Email ericsaeger@mindspring.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
June 2005 by Eric Saeger Eric is a former contributor to Boston Rock, Factsheet Five, The Portsmouth Herald (NH) and the seminal San Francisco punk fanzine Why Music Sucks. Ghost Orgy, \u201cLullabies for Lunatics\u201d (Thoth Music) In \u201cLullabies for Lunatics,\u201d Filipina hottie Dina Concina has come up with some of the most misfit mall-goth in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}