I’m under the spell of the majestic & magical band Subrosa – their enchanting sounds can guide you away into forever. This Salt Lake City band created one of highlights in heavy music this year with the release of their album No Help For The Mighty Ones. Subrosa used unconventional instruments as they constructed a new lane for what we know as doom. Today, CVLT Nation brings you a thought-proving interview with one of our favorite bands. After the jump, travel with us into the world of Subrosa.

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The sonic onslaught commences, and Gauze will be the axe that cleaves your skull. Gauze were an early 80s hardcore/thrash band from somewhere in the desolate neon peppered streets of Japan that had one intention: “Play as fast as possible without actually playing as fast as possible”.  They sound like what I would imagine an overspilled semi-truck of bowling balls to sound like.  With about that intensity as well. Even if you tried to stop it you’d only get your face relocated in the process. Gauze may have started as a Discharge cover band since that seemed to be the norm of the day, but who gives a shit, influence is not outcome. Below are some videos from 1982-86 of them playing in probably the basements of orphanariums. I Think these guys reunited (thank god) and are currently touring around Japan but they could just be committing a series of prolonged muggings, either way DESTRUCTION AFTER THE FALL!

Strange voice samples, blackened drum beats, and serial killer distortion join forces to create CULT. This two-piece Californian black metal/punk will be releasing a super rad 5 minute tape on one of our favorite labels, Winter & Throat, this summer. CULT brings that raw black tortured ruckus that I dig in my black metal. When listening to this tape there is no way to miss the punk vibe that infests this band’s sound. The drums on this tape are fucking awesome – they have this real primal energy to them that manifests their cool atmosphere. CULT’s vocalist comes with that dead-man-walking delivery, it seems like he ate 1000 zombies before he laid his vocals! This band has this really gnarly demented melodic groove about them that draws you into their mad mad underworld. Do your fucking job & stalk CULT atWinter & Throat to see when this killer tape drops!

I can’t front & I won’t front – I’m a junkie for Dis-Super Dis-Nuclear Dis-Beat. One band from Austin that gives me my fix is Dethrone. This band’s new album, Abandon Everything, is packed with 6 jams of crustified slaughter. Every song on this album is fucking dis-perfect. Dethrone’s drumming is the chaotic back bone for the dark yet uplifting compositions that this band composes. The way that Jake Alexander pounds those dead skins, he awakes all of the fallen revolutionaries – so capitalist pigs better watch out, the butchers are coming! The guitar riffs on Abandon Everything are blackened to the core, but at the same time they have this razor sharp vibe about them that could cut through bone. On the vocal tip, Dethrone bring it from two angles – their singer is capable of shouting out this I don’t give a fuck snarl, but then take it all the way down to a guttural grunt filled with agony. This band is raw to the core, but they still keep this awesome whiskey-soaked crust aura to their tunes. Dethrone lyrically are not afraid to say what’s on their mind – from my point of view, that’s cool with me because I dig where they are coming from. This a band that should be known around the universe for conjuring up some of the sickest d-beat in 2011. You can hear Abandon Everything here, plus you can purchase this gnarly album.

Dethrone : Lost Cause

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Dethrone : Kingdoms Fall

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I feel so low it feels good, I feel so down I feel high, I feel so dead I feel alive…now all I need is EYEHATEGOD. This is one of my favorite bands ever; they are pillars of apocalyptic blues & they do what they want without apologies. Their whiskey-drenched bass lines have turned my grey daze sunny. EYEHATEGOD play tormented southern sludge like no other band. You can hear all of the angst & despair that they have lived come out in the music they create. Since 1988, this band has been on some outlaw shit & I don’t see them stopping anytime soon. When you see them live, they take you way down into the pit of blackened voodoo doom. Today, CVLT Nation wants to share some of our favorite EYEHATEGOD posters, plus a 70 minute live set & their European tour dates.

EYEHATEGOD : Kill Your Boss

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EYEHATEGOD : Crimes Against Skin

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Today I have a plan to change the way you think about Switzerland. I agree it’s one of the cleanest countries in the world – I have seen it with my own eyes – but underneath the sunshine lives doom. An extremely heavy & original band comes from this land of chocolate & they are called RORCAL. On the real, this band takes the genre of doom to a whole other universe. In 2010, they released a 70-minute monolith track called “HELIOGABALUS,” illustrating the decadence of the Roman Emperor of the same name. This song commands you to stop everything you are doing to load up your bong, light it, then enter another realm for 70 minutes. The track starts off with tiny cymbal crashes that only get larger in scope, & before you know it this blackened voice of death is screaming at you in pain. Then the band starts to pound you over the skull with huge sticky green riffs & drum beats that slowly eat away at your flesh. RORCAL’s music transforms over time; every moment is totally different than the one before. This band’s sound is vast & expansive, so you never get bored, but on the other hand, you lose all sense of space & time. HELIOGABALUS is a song with enough changes in it that you could say it’s actually more like 20 songs. They take risks with they way they create doom; they bring an enthralling emotion to what they do with their music. The landscape of the this song is epic – it’s full of feedback caves, distortion tunnels, oceans of space & skies of the darkest doom. 70 minutes of heavy bliss can be downloaded HERE!

RORCAL HELIOGABALUS

Roads to Judah is the debut album from San Francisco based band Deafheaven. In 2010 the band released a demo as a limited cassette and digitally through bandcamp. After receiving positive reviews from various blogs, the band was picked up by renowned label Deathwish Inc. Part of what makes this band so compelling is the inability to assign them to a specific genre. They have influences that include shoegaze, black metal, post rock, screamo and are on a predominantly hardcore label. Oh, and you’ll also hear the word “hipster” being tossed around. What makes Roads to Judah so successful is their ability to take all these seemingly disparate styles and blend them into a cohesive, and more importantly, enjoyable record.

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With so many fantastic bands on the one bill, I’d been looking forward to this gig for a long time. Arriving on the Friday to the Bussey Building in Peckham, you are greeted by the friendly Scum Fest Crew. Then you head in through the graffiti covered courtyard with huge pieces by Roa and Phlegm. Previous to this I’d only ever seen Roa’s huge graffiti pieces on the internet. A really unique black and white style of decayed looking birds, skulls and bones. Really added to the whole feel of the music for the weekend. A few heads were saying all the graffiti made the place look much like the KØPI Squat in Germany. So the main words for the weekend were ‘KØPI-esque’, ‘apocalyptic’ and of course ‘crust’. Now onto the the music review and how to write this without using the word ‘crust’ every second sentence!

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In an age of ill-thought-out crappy tattoos – I live in L.A., I see those fucking lips-on-the-neck every day – it is so refreshing to find those true artists who are still making tattoos an immense commitment and dedication. Lior Cifer is a New York artist whose intense images of death and destruction make their way into breathtaking paintings, charcoal compositions, and ink under skin. Cifer brings death to life – he makes you feel the pain and suffering of his subjects. The whirlwind of movement in his work surrounds you with gusts of death stench and it’s evil power envelops you. He creates sinewy layers that are bursting with anger and pain. Cifer also experiments with painting on different objects like cleavers, saw blades and clothing – I wish I had found his metal vest way back when I was posting about them, it is definitely up there with the sickest I have seen. The people who dedicate vast tracts of their bodies to Cifer’s evil artwork are definitely deserving of our respect. Check out some of Cifer’s impressive artworks and tattoos after the jump…

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The Better Youth Organization changed the landscape of the early 80′s hardcore punk scene. This group of misfits were headed by the Stern Brothers, who also happened to be in the band Youth Brigade. These dudes meant business – BYO put on some of the best shows during this era with way too many rad bands to list. The Stern brothers were all about unifying punks from all over Los Angeles county. It was very important to them that the young punks had self-worth & felt empowered to do shit for themselves. One of the historical things that BYO did was create the film called Another State of Mind. It’s a documentary about the ill-fated attempt of Social Distortion and Youth Brigade going on a national tour. This film gives you a rad look at what the scene was like in 1982. Another State of Mind was made by punks, for punks, so you will be see things from a perspective that many other films lack. It’s pretty cool seeing a world before the internet, cell phones or even video cameras – keep in mind this movie was shot with a huge camera, not some little handycam. One of my favorite things about Another State of Mind is the innocence & conviction that the Stern brothers had, even when faced with adversity. So after the jump, step back into 1982 & watch this CVLT classic!

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