You never quite know what will cross your path late at night while aimlessly trekking through the internet. Amidst the various obscure word searches you might just find something worth your time. This is exactly the case when I somehow stumbled upon this mixtape from Purple Tape Pedigree & Steady Bloggin’.

Screwing Yourself To Live: A Chopped & Slowed Tribute To Black Sabbath, is a collection of Black Sabbath songs that have been meticulously slowed and throwed by Geng-Grizzly.

If you haven’t the slightest clue what chopped & screwed is, it is the remixing of songs by slowing the tempo down to between 60 and 70 quarter-note beats per minute and using techniques such as scratches, doubles and stop-time to chop the song into a chopped up version of its original. This technique was first developed in Houston, Texas by the late DJ Screw and has grown in popularity into its own sub-culture.

The result of this on Black Sabbath results in something rare and successful. Why is very simple; slowing the tempo down will either reveal sloppy production or highlight exceptional production. Black Sabbath still to this day is one of the best bands of musicians ever to play. The slower/screwed tempos here put breathing room between each instrument and give them defined textures, often turning riffs into walls of distorted doom and blues. The vocals are dropped down to their lowest level with an almost non-human effect. Throw in some film samples throughout the mixtape and you have here my friends a darkly fuzzed out head trip down to the bottom of a codeine bottle.

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Sabbath Bloody Sabbath:
BLACK SABBATH
Chopped n Screwed Mixtape appeared first on CVLT Nation.

The album comes on slowly, with the first five minutes of opener “Humanity: Born In The Way Of Eternal Grief” devoted to a simmering riff backed with subtle whispers and ambient melodic touches. “Humanity…” lurches from one lynchpin groove to the next, the whole mass held together with reverb-drenched shrieks and moans that give a mournful flare to the crushing heaviness. While the riffs at times become a murky edifice of reiteration, they never lose the sense of dynamism that runs like a black vein through this whole album. The tone and timbre of the guitars changes so slowly in spots that, before you’re fully aware, you’ve gone from listening to a chugging bit of repetition to being engulfed in a bongload of atmosphere. And, just as easily, Oxtongue shift into the forceful and infinitely heavy “Anguish: Abide With Suffering,” which sets the same dragging tone as the opening track but follows a much more direct approach. It would have been easy for Oxtongue to take the path that far too many “doom metal” bands have and churn out 15 minute tracks full of bone-dry, Neurosis-aping schlock. Instead, they’ve created something that is at turns groovy, startlingly heavy, and dynamic. Oxtongue manage to strike a near-perfect balance of creativity and nihilism that stretches out into the black edges of emotion that serves as the mark of a truly talented band.

“Where The Light Is Mute” is an anomaly: a debut album that deftly incorporates the obvious influences and flourishes of bands that have come before while signing each riff with an irrefutable essence of innovation. The recording is solid and bottom-heavy while maintaining a clarity and space that’s lacking in many debut recordings. If you sleep on this album, you’re missing out on one of the most delightfully heavy experiences I’ve had in years.

-Brandon Elkins

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Of Eternal Grief: Oxtongue-
“Where The Light Is Mute”
Review appeared first on CVLT Nation.

COUGH
So here I start my super sonic marathon with Cough. It was probably one of the performances that many people were most excited to see after their cancellation last year. I had the chance to see them in Copenhagen a couple of years ago, shortly after they released the brilliant Ritual Abuse. That show was rad, so my expectations were high. The set mostly included tracks from their recent split with Windhand, Reflection of the Negative, which I hadn’t time to give a spin yet so I felt a bit blindfolded, but it was cool to discover their new songs live. Kind of disappointed they didn’t leave more room for some of their bigger “hits” like “Crooked Spine” or “Killing Fields,” but the atmosphere they conveyed was definitely as obscure and suffocating as I remembered…

METH DRINKER
Meth Drinker is one of those bands that came a long way to play the fest. The trio from Wellington, NZ has made an impression on the international underground scene since 2011, with the release of their self-titled debut album, arousing the curiosity of several bloggers and magazine Terrorizer.

The show is about to start in 15 min, and already many people rush toward Dødsmaskinen, where the band is about to play. Meanwhile, the three lads are waiting peacefully by the stage, enjoying a beer, and no one has any idea what’s about to hit them. The first song starts, and immediately the air thickens and the atmosphere becomes oppressive. These guys are pulling a show of rare intensity and the crowd responds immediately. As I’m watching them, no word other than “raw” comes to my mind to describe what I hear and see. Their sound is so primitive (yet not simple) and so thick! James and Tony’s unique voices are terrifying and plunge you into a state of horror and claustrophobia. As they are playing you can see their facial expressions distort. You see pain and insanity as they become the epitome of their own sound… Damn, that’s was some dirty filthy sludge, I feel like I’ve been rolled over.

MOURNFUL CONGREGATION
Change of atmosphere – it’s time for some first class funeral doom with the charismatic Mournful Congregation. What to say about this performance… More than a simple show, it was an astounding inspiring experience that pushed me to completely abandon myself to the overwhelming flow of melancholy that the band was unfolding on the audience. Mournful Congregation is one of those few bands that manage to drain you emotionally by their virtuosity and their fascinating, infinite creativity…

GRAVES AT SEA
I don’t know a single person that wasn’t pumped to see Graves At Sea perform their first European show that night. The band started their set with one off their newest material, “Pariah,” and already the crowd was breaking their necks to the rhythm of this seismic track. By the time the quartet started playing the legendary “Red Monarch,” the audience went wild, amongst which you could see the drummers from Bell Witch and Samothrace definitely enjoying themselves! The madness peaks when they play “Praise the Witch”! At that point, beers and people were flying from all parts of the venue, sending front man Nathan out for a little walkabout. It was late, but the audience, restless, asked for an encore that the band, physically drained, couldn’t execute, but we’ll forgive them! This gig was probably one of the craziest shows of the weekend, the kind of gig that people will talk about for a long, long time…

SHADOW OF THE TORTURER
Due to some last minute change in the program, Shadow of the Torturer was set to play last at Dødsmaskinen. Unfortunately, after Graves At Sea, most festivalgoers left and the trio from Seattle didn’t get the crowd they should have had. But some people were still in the mood for some ugly misanthropic doom and decided to stay. To sum up the band, Shadow Of The Torturer is definitely not for your dear auntie. Their distortions are enough to turn your guts upside down and their rumbling drumming just crushes you at a mind-blowing slow pace. Definitely a good reason to stay and a perfect way to end the night…

DAY FOUR
This is the last day of the festival and it shows! After yesterday’s madness, tiredness can be read on people’s face and the venue is much less crowded. In the air floats a certain atmosphere of return to the state of calm…

DARK BUDDHA RISING
The general peaceful state of mind was perfect to welcome the gloomy and mystique Dark Buddha Rising. I was very impressed by their act last year at Roadburn, and was really excited to renew the experience. The band takes the stage and delivers a long introduction before making space for the singer. As with last year, I’m still fascinated by their ability to create that distinctive cold and ritualistic atmosphere. Like an offering, the singer, stripped to waist, is drinking from a chalice and pouring blood on himself, cramping, throwing out some of the darkest and unearthliest howls I’ve ever heard, making the audience uncomfortable. Behind that very theatrical performance, four very talented dudes are building an impressive soundscape, punctuated by long passages of black psychedelia and drone. Sunday, gloomy Sunday…

MOSS
“Heavy Days, Horrible Night”. This could be the next motto of HDDT, and not the least when it comes from Moss’s frontman, referring to their latest opus Horrible Night as the band is about to begin the closing show of the festival. As I imagined, the Southampton band delivered a solid show, which was mainly was based on their newest materials and largely acclaimed by the audience. A closing with style for an event that many now consider to be the best European festival – Heavy Days in Doomtown.

Special thanks to: Karin and Natalia for the great opportunity, as well as all the other volunteers who worked their asses off to provide the best experience possible during this killer weekend!

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Heavy Days in Doomtown
Days Three and Four appeared first on CVLT Nation.

Are you ready to re-enter a psychedelic state of mind? The split record between Huata and Bitcho will be the perfect companion for your trip to places where gravity has no place and time has no meaning. Three songs from the two bands are paying homage to the psychedelic side of doom, filled with great synth sounds that will make your head spin, dreamy voices and heavy riffs.

So to break it down: Huata contribute two songs to this split album, the fifteen-minute long “The Retaliator,” with its majestic heavy sound, the 60s and 70s influenced groove and the vocals buried deep in the mix, completely out of this world sonic manipulation of synths to create an unworldly ambience that will entrap the listener with its mesmerizing quality. The repetitive themes also assist the hypnotic process; an almost Sleep-ish (from the Jerusalem era) feeling overflows from the song. The second offering of Huata is a heavier, more compact track. Still in the same style but maybe focusing a bit more on their heavy guitars and sludge background than on their psychedelic elements, which are still obviously there (and quite noticeable), but they are not the main focus of the track.

And after the devastation of Huata it is time for Bitcho to take charge and take us further into the realms of psychedelia. Suddenly the warm atmosphere that Huata brought to the album is almost instantly transformed into an industrial-like coldness and after the four minute intro into “10050 Cielo Drive”, Bitcho come out in full force, with their repetitive heavy riffs, bringing Godflesh instantly to mind, and their great synth sounds – they pin you to the floor, especially when the ritualistic chants kick in, you will be astonished. The mechanical beat entwined with the huge sounding riffs and the abnormal atmospheres are key to the sound of Bitcho, the end of the track where the sound becomes more aggressive before they almost triumphantly retreat to an even slower pace is truly awe-inspiring, and the effects on the vocals are also unreal to say the least.

That is what completely blows you away here, how these two bands are using similar elements – heavy riffs, great trippy synth sounds and repetition in their song structures – to get completely different sounds. This is a split that combines the musical abstraction of bands like Sleep and Ancestors and the cold construct of industrial doom bands such as Godflesh. I do not know about you, but I have just found two bands that I will be waiting quite eagerly to see what they are going to do next.

The split vinyl is out from MusicFearSatan and you can stream it here:

http://musicfearsatan.bandcamp.com/album/huata-bitcho-split-lp

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Huata Full Heavy Days…In Doomtown Set
Now Showing! appeared first on CVLT Nation.

There’s not much to say about Grime. Hailing from Trieste, Italy, these three dudes (they were four before becoming just three) came back in 2013 with their debut record, Deteriorate, their second in a discography that started with the self-titled EP back in 2011.

A quick search on the web will lead us to their facebook page where we can find, almost instantly, the kind of music the Italian trio plays and their goals for the music itself: “Their only goal is bringing destruction to a town near yours. Their sound is rooted into rotten burial ground and their songs are the sound of a decaying swamp filled with trash.”

Sinking our ears into the great (yeah, it is great) Deteriorate shows us a band that knows exactly what it is doing and that can transport us to a parallel universe. A few minutes in the universe of these guys and you will scream in a high-pitch/growl voice “SLUDGEEEEEE!!!!” Oh my fuckin’ god… This is exactly what we fans of old-school sludge needed.

The eight slabs of pure filth and destruction on this album are fuckin’ awesome. A drummer that pounds in your fuckin’ head like Thor with his hammer, a bass player that grooves all way around, a guitar player that delivers only addicting riffs and a vocalist that gives a very GOOD name to the genre… This is how you “sing” when you’re in a fuckin’ SLUDGE band.

What else can I say? Talk about each track? Fuck no. They’re are all great and they are filled with little details that make them unique and the record NOT boring at all… In fact it’s the other way around.

I LOVE THIS SHIT!!!! SLUDDGGGGEEEE!!!!!

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Deteriorate – Review appeared first on CVLT Nation.

On this sunny beginning of May started the second edition of Heavy Days in Doomtown in Copenhagen, Denmark. The four days DIY sludge/doom/stoner fest who made a massive impression last year is back again, with an incredible line up (five bands performed their first European show ever), bringing fans of “all things slow and heavy” from all over Europe and beyond. For those who are unfamiliar with the festival (?!), HDDT is an event organized by the “Undergrundsmusikkens Fremme” (Underground music Promotion) who has been organizing for several years the now notorious “Kill-town Death Fest”. The concept, which makes this festival so unique, is to bring the DIY principles to the doom/stoner/sludge/psych scenes that are rarely exposed to these ethics and create music and culture without having any profit involved.

Huge congrats to the organizing crew for topping last year’s event, for the top-notch organization and for making this weekend absolutely amazing. With this edition, HDDT really proved that it can compete with other renewed European festivals – so if you haven’t attended yet, this is definitely not the fest you want to miss next year!

DAY ONE
The first day started off very well at Stengade, with a sold out warm-up show enabling the public to visit the art gallery placed on the first floor of the venue. For this edition, HDDT continued in line of last year, adding even more artists to the bill. The artistic dimension is to me a great addition that provides a very unique atmosphere to this festival and showcases artists who also contribute in making the scene something more than “just” music but a culture of its own. For this day, you were able to admire the incredible works of The 13th Sign Collective (D), responsible for the fest’s artwork, Manuel Tinnemans (NL), Timo Ketola (SWE), Sami Hynninen (FIN) and assist to a book reading by Ulrike Serowy, narrated by Mat McNervey from Hexvessel.

HUATA
First time on the Danish soil for the French doomsters and not the last! I’ve had the chance to see these guys quite a few times by now and I can say that this was probably their best set I’ve seen. The Breton quartet certainly warmed up the audience in due form – a warning for the three following days of madness ahead. Huata came with no fuss, bringing their massive sound and bottle of chouchen that the singer Ronan, dressed up like a satanic priest, was using to “bless” the audience. The band played mostly tracks from the heavy “Atavist of Mann” such as the catchy “Lord of the flames” and their brilliant cover of “Black Sabbath” from Coven. Definitely a stoner/doom delivered in perfect manner. Great job Huata!

HEXVESSEL
Last performance of the night is the fine Finish quintet Hexvessel. After another success at Roadburn, it was long due for them to step on Danish soil. It was with no surprise that the band completely blew away the audience with an inspiring and mesmerizing performance. A perfect set list mixing beautifully songs from the two first albums and their latest EP with highlights such as the fabulous and heady cover of “Woman of Salem” from Yoko Ono, “Unseen Sun” and “Woods to Conjure”.

The band seemed much more comfortable than the first time I saw them, their fusion was stronger and you could read on their faces they were enjoying themselves. A superb way to start the fest that left me under the moon for a while…

DAY TWO
A new day at HDDT which is taking place for the rest of the weekend at Ungdomshuset. The sun is shining, the people and the bands seem psyched to be here.

Today the rest of the artists invited to the fest show their work in various locations of the venue. The canvases used are diverse, from screen printing, to drawing, to metal and photography. Whether it’s a coincidence or not, I’m glad to see so many female artists on the bill, such as Aminah Slor (US), Bronwyn Pandemon (D/US), Maija Lathinen (FIN), Kristiina Letho (FIN) and Frida Hulthén (SWE).

TONER LOW
I was thrilled when I heard the Dutch three piece was going to perform at this year’s fest, a great addition as the band is the epitome of what is slow and heavy. After being underrated for quite a while, the band finally gets the recognition it deserves and is now on its 15th year of activity with a third album recently released! Toner Low is a one of a kind band, they do drone/stoner but with a psychedelic twist to it. They played in the dark (not to accommodate me) with an hallucinogenic patterned illuminated on the bass drum. A very heavy and groovy and loud set that surely warmed me up for Bell Witch!

BELL WITCH
First show in Europe for the Seattle duet, a very awaited performance after they released the phenomenon “Longing,” which is a pure doom jewel. The band starts the first track and BOOM! Now we’re talking! Their sound is massive and haunting. But Bell Witch is more than a band who just spits that super sonic weight in your face, they prove their excellent musicianship: Dylan’s bass work is impressive, consisting of two hands fretting and out chord changes – a delight to watch. Adrian’s drumming is impeccable, hitting the skins very hard, like his goal was to crumble the whole place. They pulled off an amazing epic and actually quite emotional set, I would say. This drum and bass duet is probably one of the thickest of the current doom scene. Europe, catch them on tour!

CONAN
Unfortunately I caught Conan too late and arrived in front of a packed house! Nevertheless, no need to be up front though to realize how unreasonably loud the band is. It’s heavy, fuzzy it’s more of a monster machine than a band: disgustingly good!

BELZEBONG
Another band I was nicely surprised to see appear on this edition of HDDT. That night they played Dødsmaskinen and the room was filling up quickly. I make my way to the front row and the smoking machine is already in full swing! By the time the Polish quartet enters the stage, the room has transformed into a giant aquarium full of blur and other illicit substances: perfect scenery for a ritual to the bong and weedy riffs! The band begins the ceremony… Damn these dudes are already far, far out and they take us with them within a few seconds. It seems that their sound is even slower than on the album, which added to the heaviness of their set that made us bounce and bend under the heavy weights of their mighty riffs. After that rollercoaster, I left the venue a bit fuzzy…

SAMOTHRACE
The night ends up with Samothrace playing the main stage. It is no secret that CVLT Nation is a huge fan of the band and therefore I had to witness their first show ever in Europe. After being hooked by their debut album “Life’s a trade” and overly impressed by their recent opus “Reverence to Stone,” I have to say it was one of the shows I was looking the most forward to. That night, the quartet definitely exceeded my expectations and completely blew my mind away. They opened with “A Horse of Our Own,” grandiose on the album but the true power of that masterpiece only reveals itself live. Man, Renata and Brian definitely know how to hit your sensitive spot while Dylan works his magic with his bass and Joe’s drumming builds an overwhelming vibe with devastating cymbals crashes. The band surely tore my heart apart and gave me chills during the rest of the set, which consisted of “Awkward Hearts” from their debut album and the other part of their EP “When We Emerged”. What a band!

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Days One and Two
Mammoth Photo Essay! appeared first on CVLT Nation.

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Orchid – The Mouths of Madness
Full Album Stream!! appeared first on CVLT Nation.

Defined by the abhorrence of divine doctrine, Total Doom // Desecration maintains an aura of intense dispair that negate luminescent drones, and bury them in filth. Personified by torturous harmonies that dwell in the recesses of the mind, stagnating within putrid noise screeching amidst torrential waves of endless torment. Barbaric by design, this is an album that is enveloped by creeping movements that bore themselves into the chasms of your most desperate pleas, inexorably building towards a swirling downfall littered with apprehensive dread. Perverse passages give way to further doom that punishes throughout, offset by somber lachrymose undertones that hold no reverence for comfort.

An oppressive overtone is majestically displayed within the sprawling asphyxiating weight that each movement holds above a consistant ruination. Sepulchral grows and indecipherable guttural lows are laid across a scathing onslaught of soul rupturing riffs, primitive percussions, and climbing bass lines to reinforce the album’s overt harshness. At its most appealing,  Total Doom//Desecration breaks from the noise filled intervals to emit lucid periods of disparaging instrumentals that drag you down into the spanning mouth of the beast, exposing a godforsaken void that swallows you whole. Casting a malevolent gaze betwixt peaking madness and crushing envelopment, always remaining just out of sight, lurking, waiting, watching.

Ultimately, Total Doom//Desecration is well worth the wait. After 20 years of silent pondering, expectations ran very high, but Sinistrous Diabolus is a band hell bent on perfection, and perfection is what we received. Still, the debut has arrived and will bore its way into the cold, dark crevices of your mind, take control, and make you beg for more. Check out the stream below.

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Total Doom // Desecration Review appeared first on CVLT Nation.

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Artist to Artist Interviews
Sannhet Vs Krallice appeared first on CVLT Nation.

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Wizard Of War
Now Showing! appeared first on CVLT Nation.