From the planet of doom the riffs rained down onto Roadburn. This year SLEEP and Bongripper performed mind altering sets.The word in the smoking universe of heavy is that these bands torn a hole in the atmosphere with tones of their bass.So for those humans around the world that could not make to Roadburn this year.CVLT Nation is stoked to bring you mammoth video footage of both performances.Nuff respect to Walter and his whole crew for exciting another great event! Pack that bong load right now peep how SLEEP and Bongripper melted minds after the jump!

READ MORE…

As the world turns, global warming is getting worse! Living in Los Angeles, it’s a trip when you ride on the freeway and see how hardly anyone car pools (2 people in LA!) or gives a shit about how their cars are fucking up the environment. For years, punks have given a voice to issues that might otherwise go unheard, and this definitely goes for Mother Nature. This is why our favorite tumblr this moment is Fuck Yeah Bici Punx (RIDE A BIKE OR DIE!), because it highlights punks that have decided to celebrate the two-wheeled moving machine called the bicycle. So after the jump, check out the RIDE A BIKE OR DIE gallery!

READ MORE…

Deep in the pulsating earthen heart of Romania a.k.a. Transylvania, radiates some of the purest inspiration for an array of black metal and ethnic folk bands dispersed across it’ land. One can journey through it’s relic forests or hike the majestic mountain steppes, and spend time in the local village for feasting and ceremonial arts. One particular metal band has injected all this natural stimulation into their lifestyle and their eloquent music, namely Negura Bunget (“Dark Foggy Forest”). Coming out of the shadows in 1996, and reigning for 15 years years thus far, it was to be their primary journey to Canadian Soils. Their past drummer and current keyboardist, Negru and Inia Dinia were also coming with them under the banner of Din Brad (“from the fir tree”). The former of these perform melodious hymns in their native tongue, utilizing a single bass drum, a shaman drum, a panpipe, and keyboards. Inia’s lyrics resonates within those who have an appreciation for exotic language, and her voice has a certain penetrative quality to it, that can heal your inner self if you let it. Together with these two esoteric groups, were two black metal sects from the local and northerly lands of Ontario. Mark Howitt (Lord Defiler) was one who was greatly a fundamental pillar to make this night possible. Wolven Ancestry, and Eclipse Eternal supplied a harsher pagan edge to the evening’s communion.

READ MORE…

Gliding into conscious minds with 2010’s four track demo The Disruption Writ, Ides of Gemini have added to the core of the band – Sera Timms (bass/vocals) and J.Bennett (guitar/backing vocals) – by introducing drummer Kelly Johnston to provide a somewhat martial tone to proceedings. Reworking the tracks found on the aforementioned cassette, the band has turned the processed beats of old into a fully rounded and slyly dangerous entity with debut full length Constantinople.

Using moments of peace to imbue Constantinople with an undercurrent of doom, Ides of Gemini use shades of light and dark to construct a full length of blissful and dreamy folk-tinged occult rock. Sera Timms breathes life into Constantinople, a record that is reminiscent of The Devil’s Blood and Worm Ouroborus in its vocal style, her voice carrying waves of destruction in the depths and judgment in the highs. “Slain in Spirit” and the military beat that sits within slithers with a mystical essence, the band utilsing the space in the track to conjure a terrific trance-like state whilst burning with a seductive power.

Sonically minimal, Constantinople is dynamic in its use of gentle progression and the occasionally massive crunching guitar tone adds a hidden weight to the funeralistic shades evoked by this three-piece. Soft rolling beats permeate “One to Oneness” whilst Timms voice is laced with a power to invoke from beyond this reality, menacing in a sweetly delicate manner. Dirty bass lines spill on “Reaping Golden,” sauntering through the initial stages of the track before giving way to the martial kicks of the drum and flashes of fragmented guitar lines. The simple mix of instruments and voice gives Ides of Gemini a strangely apocalyptic tone. The end of the known world will not come in crashes of sound and fury but with whispers of unnerving strength. Constantinople is an album of sighs and esoteric nightmares, lulling with enigmatic subtleties and supernatural wonder.

Ides of Gemini are deadly; allow yourself to be swept along in the swells of euphoric disaster that flow from this haunting trio.

Constantinople is released May 29th on Neurot Recordings.

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…

Acephalix return with “Deathless Master”, the follow up release to “Interminable Night” on Southern Lord Records READ MORE…

Idylls and Night Hag have a short, but close history. First meeting in Brisbane with a former band about a year ago at a hole in the wall industrial district venue-come-jam space-come-home, the now defunct Sun Distortion Studios, we came to develop a tigh bond on the other side of the country with a similar approach to running DIY venues and recording. Brisbane and Adelaide are similar cities in terms of size and geography relevant to Australia’s major hubs and ‘scenes’, with both bands are involved in running DIY/home venues/jam spaces that have developed into the major AA venues in their cities. The relationship between Night Hag and Idylls has now developed into that of label-mates on Brisbane-based label Monolith.

Hey mate, how’s the LP coming along? Why the decision to track drums rather than record live like on the 7”?

The 7” wasn’t tracked live, it was just all tracked (whilst still writing) in one day and mixed that night so it kinda felt live. The rush was due to pushing a vinyl release in time for the Comadre Australian tour, in which we were under the tyranny of Zenith. In terms of tracking drums down at Capital in your town, we felt like doing something different. Tracking on an epic console in a pro studio isn’t really our thing, but it worked well. We actually booked 4 days but Tristan pretty much did the record in one day. Jimmy is a lord with drum tracking too. I found an aluminium guitar at Capital and ended up tracking mostly all the guitar there aswell. The process of this LP has been facile, we needed it to be!
READ MORE…

Review Source Gravedig

Given Trondheim’s rich history and cultural importance, it’s not much of a surprise that many bands from the area follow the chosen path of Black Metal. It’s true that Norway lost those glamorous activities to some extent over the years from let’s say when the second wave of black metal thing was going on but Norway still holds characteristic bands who are making quality music applying innovative ideas. As the whole old school revival strategy in the scene is going on, the breed of Faustcoven can be useful once they come in the limelight. Faustcoven’s sound leans more into blackened doom side of things along with the first wave of Satanic sound from the 80s- imagine Necros Christos meets Hellhammer.

It’s a little surprising that Faustcoven is still on the radar of a very specific group of fans as around ten years have passed since the band’s inception with some demos and two full length albums previously under the belt. Maybe it’s because of the fact that frontman Gunner Hansen, who handles the guitars, vocals and bass duties, is a full time Chemical Engineer if I’m not mistaken. So timing is an issue here. The addition of Johnny Tombthrasher in 2006 added strength and inevitably he became a key member. The duo made a great start on the album Rising from Below The Earth and the follow- up Hellfire and Funeral Bells carries the torch further with authorative song writing.

I have seen Arrested Development destroy many people from all different kinds of life. A.D. can come in different forms, but one of the common forms is when a young person tastes fame when they are young, and do not have the right life skills to digest it properly. Mark Gator Rogowski fell victim to the dark side of fame, and in the process took a woman’s life. The documentary Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator takes an in-depth look at how this dude had it all, and then lost it all. On a personal level, during the 80′s he was never one of my favorite skaters, but just like everyone else, I was surprised the direction his life took. I respect the way that the director chose to show this to the world. Yeah the film is about a skater from the 80′s, but the subplot is how the skating world creates these young disposable heroes and cast them aside when they are done. Now have a look at Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator after the jump!

READ MORE…

I’m not even going to write that much, just know that right here and now, you can download a full set of SLAYER, recorded live in 1985 in Eidhoven, Holland. I will say this – if you are a SLAYER fan, get this, blast it ultra loud and bang your motherfucking head!!!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Tracklisting after the jump!
READ MORE…