Elegant and heavy are a combination that very few have done right. Tiger Lily is one of those few. Hailing from Fresno, California, Tiger Lily plays their own brand of sludgy hardcore. Their sound refuses to reserve itself to just that though, as bits of crust, doom and black metal are industriously distributed throughout. The whole EP is one long sinking boom that shudders through you, never relenting until the final second. Annabeth is a monster. This three song masterpiece is one of the best records I’ve heard so far this year. I don’t see Annabeth being shown up anytime soon either. It’s that good, seriously.

Annabeth is a mere three songs, but each packs a wallop that is never under five minutes in length. The music is equal in its rage and thoughtfulness. This is no mere amalgam of screams and heavy riffs, this is a damn special piece of work. Annabeth has a knack for dazzling with tender melodies and delicate string work, only to take you off guard by dropping the sonic equivalent of a meteor on you. “Heaven/Plagues” is aptly titled. A beautiful, feminine chorus opens the song and is allowed to continue for almost a minute before guitar and drums all but destroy any notion of tranquility. “In heaven everything is fine” is roared like a sorrowful curse, letting us know that everything is not so fine here on this gangrene earth. The second track, “Gold Tongue II” makes use of its status as the EP’s longest track by opening with some excellent doom passages before switching speed into deep-tuned hardcore. Roughly the last minute of “Gold Tongue II” borders on shoegaze as its riffs dance circles between thunder claps. “The Devil” opens up on a much gentler note and slowly builds itself with dueling riffs that trudge and wail. Following a wisely inserted quote from The Devil’s Rejects, Annabeth opens its floodgates to drown us in one last maelstrom.

With Annabeth being a product of skillful artists, Tiger Lily is worth keeping both eyes on and I look forward to seeing what else they have in store for us.

Are you ready to fuck up some braincells, because the new Angry Gods tape will do just that! These Midwest sludge mongers are about to release a new tape via Crippled Sound Records and it’s limited to 50 solid black tapes, and comes with a laser cut j-card fold out. Some time in the very near future the album will be released, but for right now, CVLT Nation is streaming it in full below. The album will be available to download for free when the tape goes up for purchase HERE! Smoke some of that good shit, press play and blast it loud!!! Check out the Crippled Sounds Records webstore HERE!

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Now this is a special interview, being that it was conducted by someone I respect, for a band that I really dig. haarp are super sick and their album The Filth still gets spins in our hq. Mike IX Williams did us the honor of asking the band some questions that allowed haarp to open up about their creative process. Enough of me talking, let’s get down to the nitty gritty – check out this interview below and after the jump!

Mike IX of Eyehategod interviews Keith Sierra of haarp

Your full length LP ‘The Filth’ is out now on Housecore Records. Are you happy with the finished album? When’s the next LP coming out? You are now back in the studio again recording new material, correct?

Yes, we are happy with the final result. It was a nice change to have the time to focus on all of the aspects of the album that we had to rush in the past, including art, music, sequencing, layout etc. We created the album we were hearing in our head. It’s far from perfect but we learned a little more this time and will be able to apply that knowledge to our future releases.

Everything is recorded for the new album, just waiting on mixing and mastering. The art and layout is in the works as well, everything is falling into place.

As for differences between The Filth and the new record, one thing is art. Last time the art for the album focused on one story from the songs, The Glutton King, and this time we’ll have artwork to represent all 3 of the songs as a whole. We are also working with photography this time instead of drawn art. Musically, these songs are different in a few ways. We’ve upped the tempo in certain areas and added some more aggressive parts to the songs.

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Rote Hexe’s newest release is like the feeling of being slowly bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe, directly across the face. The LA duo has found the prefect concoction of sludgey doom, blood splatters of 90′s post-punk, and a healthy dose of raw hatred. There is no shoegazey downtempo guitar, and no passages of misanthropic pondering here, just the better parts of every Buzzov*en, and Acid Bath album mixed with tincture droplets of Hot Snakes, here and there, to make one ferocious record, fit for the not-so-chill beard set. Elizabeth Gordon’s drumming keeps the stereotypical doom plod, but always to drive the pace forward, and never to fall back against it. Meanwhile, Aaron D.C. Edge’s guitar falls somewhere beneath the dungeons of drop D, and has all the fury of a buzzsaw gnashing bones. All of which is sewn together by Aaron’s glass hammered, fury ignited vokills.

The four tracks on,”Red Witch,” ease deceptively in with a phonograph laden sample from Alfred Hitchcock’s,”Music to Be Murdered By,” before punching you straight in the face with the full force of, “The Brightest Decaying Star.” More samples lead the way for the sophomorial, “Journey of the Forsaken Monk,” which creeps in, but keeps the unrelenting brutality prevalent throughout the album, especially when it comes the meat cleaving vocals. The record’s, “Red Witch,” namesake has a definite metal-cum-90′s-post-hxc feel to it, but that only adds to the dynamic and variation of Rote Hexe, who are clearly making excellent music based on their own wants and needs. Even when the track breaks down, it never gives way, with the drums and guitar still beating a bloody pulse under Aaron’s feral voice. We leave the witches to burn with a sludge-merchants southern-riffed wet dream, in the twisted body of, “Through Bramble, Thorn, and Thistle,” which happens to be the very hole I dwell in. All in all, it’s an eclectic, organic, and unified sound that the duo of Rote Hexe has thrown down on the, “Red Witch,” album. It is most definitely worth taking your time to wrap your fingers around this bleak treasure, which is soon to be released on Cricket Cemetery out of DC.

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April has not fallen short in the least bit of new music, and that can only mean fresh new reviews are in store for them. As this month draws to a close, new doors are being opened in the live front on behalf of well over half of the bands in this month’s top 5.

Kommandant – “The Draconian Archetype”

As I had previously written about Kommandant’s upcoming tour with Demonical and Horna, these guys have improved musically, taken new directions with their sound and are only getting better as time progresses. As most people would describe their music to be clumped into the “war metal” genre, their music is in fact far from bands in that genre such as Blasphemy, Conqueror, Black Witchery and so on and so forth. Although imagery and aesthetics play a roll in this factor as well, Kommandant’s lyrics revolve solely around strength, honor and discipline (which can also be easily mistaken along the lines of NSBM but to clarify: there is none of that incorporated in this band whatsoever). Regardless of misconceptions and preconceived notions revolving around this band, with their most recent full-length The Draconian Archetype, it falls no short of being one of the best black-death metal albums representing the U.S. forefront. With the departure of their old vocalist who was on their first full-length Stormlegion, he has now been replaced with guitarist M. Kolar who has taken over and has done an impressive job of manipulating the entire musical structure of the band. Although I have given Stormlegion a spin many, many times in the past, The Draconian Archetype has proven to be a big step and improvement for Kommandant’s audio and visual organized chaos. Surely a release that you don’t want to skip out on. READ MORE…

Is anyone hungry? MARES OF THRACE is serving up a big plate stir fried insects, with dirty riff noodles and a killer side of mammoth drums in their new video for their song “The Perpetrator”. This awesome visual was directed by Colin Hart and is full of twisted humor to go along with this epic tune. You can check out the review for the MARES OF THRACE album The Pilgrimage, out now on Sonic Unyon Metal, here. Hold on, it gets better, the band starts their tour today, so check out all of their tour dates after the jump! CVLT Nation has some special things in the works with MARES OF THRACE, so stay tuned. In closing, this video really is the shit, it had our 10 month old daughter jumping out of her skin, she fucking loved it and so will you…now press play below!


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I see dead people, I see the end of the world as we know it! I hear the new 7″ split by Monkey Priest & Fistula – this is why my knuckles are bleeding. Both bands take five minutes and turn it into their own filthy temple of sludge. This record should come with a bucket of water, because with each listen, another layer of filth is coating my body. This release makes total fucking sense, because both bands know how to bury your thoughts in a deep cesspool of rancid baselines and decaying distortion. You can pre-order the Monkey Priest & Fistula 7″ here from the Feretro website. It must be said that only 320 of these bad boys will be made, and the artwork was created by the forever gnarly Jason Barnett. CVLT Nation is stoked to be the place to be to hear the stream of this piece of sonic bile…peep the chaotic sounds below!

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Now this is fucking awesome…CVLT Nation got a chance to interview one of the bands that inspired us to start this webzine: The Almighty Weedeater. It was fun coming up with these questions, which took me back to my days growing up in Georgia. Not only is Weedeater a rocking band, but a cool bunch of country humans. For all those on the East Coast reading this: make sure you head out to the tour, peep the poster after the jump! Who let the weedmonkey out?

If each member of Weedeater could shapeshift into other beings, human or animal, who would it be, and how would this change the Weedeater sound?

Keko would be a Polar Bear, Shep would be an Anteater and Dixie would be a monkey. Turns out these are already our spirit animals, so our sound would remain unaffected.

What comes first when you guys are writing tunes – the riff or the bong hit?

The bong hit, of course. Then the riff, then another bong hit, etc etc.

Usually I prefer the type of music TOMBSTONES play when it’s really hot outside – not rainy, grey and cold like today. On the other hand, this three-piece is based Norway, so it makes sense again I guess. Oh, what music do TOMBSTONES play? Well, although Norway is more famous for its beastly blasting Black Metal, TOMBSTONES turn this musical concept upside down: slow, low tuned, stoned and buzzed out Doom is on the menue I’d say. Doom with massive, repetitive riffs, really good, sung vocals and a dynamic, lively production. After listening to Year of the Burial (released April 20th 2012 via Soulseller Records) for a few minutes you’ll fall into this trance-like state of mind I dig so much when I listen to music like this. Full review below the video of the opening track of Year of the Burial:

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Bädr Vogu is a band that has become a constant storm sweeping through the Bay Area of California since the start of 2010. Featuring members from the bands Strains Of The Apocalypse, Hotblack Desiato, and World Eater, Bädr Vogu continues to usurp the many souls lucky enough to witness their crushingly heavy West Oakland Blues Crust.

Read more after the jump!
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