I’ve spoken about those “why didn’t anyone tell me about this band before?” moments that are actually, “I was told, but I just wasn’t paying enough attention”. The last time was Baroness, this time it’s a band very much of their ilk – Welsh rockers Taint. It’s perhaps a symptom of the fact that I’m by default deeply suspicious of melodic rock (no matter how heavy), especially if it comes from punkish roots (see this thread that goes some way to explaining why). I’m so easily bored by the stuff as it’s so often disposable and shallow. At a quick pass Taint could be bundled into the once glorious but now eternally soiled sub-genre uncomfortably labelled post-hardcore. Taint however are a different beast entirely, and All Bees to the Sea is the very case in point.

Taint clearly have a keen ear for melody. All Bees to the Sea, comprising of 4 tracks, is immediate in that sense. However, rather than shelter in cookie cutter naval gazing like much of the rest of the modern post-punk crowd, Taint have clearly been bathing in the sludge-groove experimentation of the likes of Baroness and Mastodon. These 4 razor sharp tracks display a deceptive amount of complexity that never overshadows the melodic punch. There’s a psychedelic air that at times evokes the spirit of 90’s psych-punk underdogs Warrior Soul, others the post-hardcore of Prong or Helmet. However, the EP’s true Baroness inflected beauty comes to fruition on the 12 minute prog-out that is the title track – super-sized and utterly satisfying.

All this in four songs – it’s quite remarkable. All Bees to the See is the sound of a band enjoying themselves and really flexing their creative muscle – I can’t wait to hear what they come out with next!

What I spent my hard earned cash on recently.

Worm Ouroboros – Worm Ouroboros
Canadian label Profound Lore’s obsession with eclecticism continues with the addition to their roster of Worm Ouroboros who could only be attributed to the metal genre in the broadest sense. By some definitions this could be considered post-rock, as many of these slow building tracks would stand firm without the vocals. However, the inclusion of the gorgeous female vocals provided by Lorraine Rath and Jessica Way help this transcend that oversubscribed genre and a strong folk influence sees this record floating dreamily between ethereal passages building to harder more metallic sections. There’s a sense of foreboding apparent throughout the record but it’s far from a being bleak affair. Both beautiful and haunting – a real triumph.

Cobalt – Gin
Cobalt’s vocalist/lyricist Phil McSorley can generally be found stationed with the US army in Baghdad. He’s not particularly fond of people and has seen some stuff that would mentally handicap most of the rest of us. So it’s not really surprising that Gin is a snarling, nihilistic affair. Bundling this in the Black Metal pigeonhole would be lazy, as there’s so much more here than the misanthropic BM stylings. The opening track Stomach is slimy, oozing sludge, while elsewhere we’re treated to doom, more traditional BM, proggy sections, and some good old fashioned riffathons. Ecclectic indeed, and thoroughly entertaining. Yet another gem in Profound Lore’s crown and one of the best albums of the past year.

Harvey Milk – s/t
Too many moons ago to mention the master tape of Harvey Milk’s first album was recorded and sent to a label who claimed to want to release the album. That tape, and as such the album, went into the void for the intervening years before being discovered, restored and turbo-charged. S/t is a frenzy of noise and fuzz and all out amplifier abuse, as you would expect from these noisenicks, and it sounds glorious.

Tombs – Winter Hours
Blackened hardcore? Why on earth not! Winter Hours sees Brooklyn’s Tombs trudge through bleak, nihilistic hardcore, interspersed with snarling BM passages. There’s melody and beauty within the cacophony and some slick songwiritng. Like a slightly less angry Cobalt, Tombs are taking the blackened arts into more (dare I say it) commercial climbs. Good on ‘em!

Teeth of the Sea – Hypnoticon
Teeth of the Sea’s Hypnoticon is tasty little EP of semi-electronic, droning, psychedelic rock. Sometimes evoking guitar prone electronica of groups like Propellerheads, while others moving into ambient jazz territory this is the cheery antidote to acts like To Blacken the Pages and Nadja. Fun, although not particularly essential.

Portal – Swarth
Portal’s grimy, messy and insalubrious music swelters and splutters like a corpse in a Brisbane sewer. Labelled death metal, this surreal and supremely ugly noise perhaps sits better within the BM camp (not least because of their creepy stage names and garb), however a disfigurement of the musical form such as this has seldom been achieved in that genre. There’s some real creativity in here and a dedication to sonic perversion that’s hard to knock. Swarth has a ramshackle charm and surrealist lyrics are at times hilarious, but it’s hard to see how someone could seriously enjoy listening to this. Seriously uneasy listening.

I don’t often act on (or in many cases listen to) unsolicited review requests that arrive via Myspace mail, but the one I received from Fuck the Facts caught my eye. Firstly, they actually bothered to personalise the message, secondly they offered to give out their tracks to anyone who would review (or in any way promote) them, and thirdly they mentioned that they were self releasing. I get countless grammatically dubious mails via Myspace (not to mention the ones via direct email, blog comments, etc.) that say something like “nice profile, hows trix check us out if you get a sec , if not that’s cool” (that’s a real one from a band who shall not be named) and expect me to bother spending time listening to, and reviewing their band when they can’t be bothered to even formally introduce themselves!

By chance I also saw Cosmo Lee’s review on Invisible Oranges so I decided to check them out. The music is an amusing mix of early Dillinger Escape Plan (minus the jazz/spazz) with elements of black and death metal (most notably Morbid Angel) which could broadly be described as Grindcore. A must for fans of Ted Maul and their ilk. It’s short, violent and to the point. Excellent stuff.

What’s more interesting is the way they are releasing it. They’re doing a limited run of  500 copies of the EP on vinyl, the packaging of which is hand made. Anyone who orders it gets a code to go download the the MP3’s for free. This is enterprising and very forward thinking and anyone who’s spent any time reading my overly impassioned musings on self releasing will know that I approve. It also has a real personal touch that will make the hard copies very collectable. The download mechanism is handled by a site called Bandcamp, which is totally new to me. You can stream your music and offer both free and paid downloads (including an option to off ‘pay what you want’) and well as generally promote your band. It’s an interesting service and one that I’m going to write a bit more about – watch this space.

So go give Fuck the Facts a leg up, because this this sort of behaviour should be rewarded!

For the uninitiated, Cloudkicker is one Ben Sharp from Columbus, Ohio. By day, Ben is a salary earning career man, by night a musical mad scientist. Cloudkicker’s percussive, polyrhythmic progressive metal is put together entirely on Sharp’s computer, with all instruments (and drums programmed) by the man himself. Cloudkicker’s music cost Sharp diddly squat to record.

Sharp releases short bursts of Cloudkicker’s music, given away free, to little fanfare. Currently there is 1 album and 3 EP’s, the latest of which is called ]]][[[ is both a continuation of Cloudkicker's trademark 'melodic Meshuggah' cacophany and a progression into both heavier and more melodic territories. Tracks 1 and 2 (which in keeping with the theme of grammatical symbols are named # and %) work as a single sprawling post-rocker, while track3 $ can only be described as post-thrash - frenetic, complex and stunningly original. Mr. Sharp kindly agreed to give me an interview.

Most would describe you as post-rock/metal, but you really stand out from the usual long song, slow build monotony. How would you describe your music?

I would describe it as "listenable". Anything beyond that is up to other people's musical sensibilities.

Do you consider yourself to be a part of any ‘scene’?

I consider myself a part of the "contributing member of society" scene, which is pretty exclusive as far as bands go.

You released 2 EP’s in a 12 month period. Was it a conscious decision to do that rather than release a full album?

I prefer putting out shorter releases more frequently. I get bored listening to an hour of instrumental music, and this way I always have something relatively new out.

Each of your releases has a distinct personality. Is this by design, or perhaps a reflection of your mood at the time?

Definitely the latter. I'm really moody when it comes to writing music, and I don't want to get caught up in some sort of creative rut where I'm ALWAYS writing within the confines of a certain style. Honestly, I'm getting bored of writing what amounts to being melodic Meshuggah but I still enjoy writing in odd time signatures, so I think applying that to some different styles will be interesting.

The title and song names of your current EP ]]][[[ only contain grammatical symbols. What is the significance of this?

Just mixing it up a bit. Usually I get a theme in my head or I'll be interested in a certain subject when I name songs but I wanted the music to be the focal point on this one. Also laziness.

Who’s the guy on the cover of ]]][[[ and why did you put him there?

I did a Google image search one time for the word “Black” and his picture popped up. I saved it on my computer and haven’t been able to find it since. I have no idea who he is, he could have committed mass infanticide for all I know. He just seems like a pretty solid dude, so why not put him on an album cover. I did color his garb though.

Your music almost seems defined by its rhythm. When you’re writing, is rhythm created before riff?

Sometimes. I’ve written some drum parts in the shower, but 70% of the stuff I come up with while noodling around on the guitar.

Have you considered releasing your music on physical formats and charging for it?

Eh. Sounds like a lot of effort. Some people seem to get really bent out of shape about the fact that they can’t buy a physical copy of the CD, and I think they’re probably somewhat OCD about it. I think it would be funny to sell CDs but have the artwork make it look like a regular blank CD-R.

Have you/will you ever consider making Cloudkicker into a full band?

I used to play shows back when I first started writing music for Cloudkicker in 2005-2006 and lived in Los Angeles. Since then I’ve taken on a career and moved to Ohio; I haven’t yet felt the need to hunt down capable musicians, practice, and put shows together. Instead I put that time and effort into writing music.

Well that’s good enough for me. Sharp’s chosen method of distribution, and the fact that he gives his music away free of charge, affords him this flexibility – the fans have no ownership over Cloudkicker, Sharp doesn’t need us, and thus artistic expression is allowed to flow unaltered by the malign influence of money. While the music industry bleats about loss of their poorly earned riches and foretell of the death of culture, Sharp and his ilk are out there proving that we no longer need these corporate wastes of space.

Cloudkicker’s entire back catalogue can be downloaded in its entirety for free here.

If I handed over an unlabeled copy of Myth and said “what you have here is the lost Opeth album. You know, the one that was recorded just after Blackwater Park and was collaboration with Katatonia but was never released” the less acquainted Opeth acolytes out there may well believe me on hearing it.

It’s impossible to talk about Stone Circle without mentioning Opeth – their debt to the Swedish masters is plain. However, the Brighton quartet aren’t simply a carbon copy. While Opeth tend towards 70’s prog groove and bleak, black metal atmospherics, Stone Circle bludgeon us with brutal death reminiscent of Morbid Angel melting into plaintive Katatonia-esque goth rock. Lacking the history and maturity of either band Myth doesn’t traverse the aggressive and melancholic as smoothly as Opeth and lacks the gothic majesty of Katatonia. That said there is some exemplary song writing here – moments of crushing heaviness and emotionally charged melody knitted together with a dark lyrical narrative. Epic, progressive and complex, Myth reaches musical highs most of their contemporise can only dream of.

Any criticism seems harsh when you consider that Stone Circle are unsigned Myth is entirely self released. This seems unjust given that the labels will rush out to sign 2nd rate carbon copies of bands who sell a couple of thousand units. The fact that a band of Stone Circle’s quality hasn’t been signed yet is as clear a sign of the skittishness of the music industry currently as you’ll see. Myth is accomplished and genuinely compelling. Stone Circle will need to step out from Opeth’s stately shadow to really stand out, but with the talent on display here I can’t imagine that this will be too difficult.

The tonic qualities of booze and great live music should not be underestimated. Turning up at this gig when I really should have been at home attempting to battle the wee germs assaulting my body was perhaps ill advised, but I wasn’t going to miss Baroness live now was I?

The support provided by indescribably dire metal-or-some-such-bollocks-core Sondura did nothing to help my frail state. In intent, this formulaic tripe could not be further removed from Baroness. At best ignored and at worst booed by the crowd, by the end of their dire set I was wondering whether I’d make it as far as Baroness. For purely medicinal purposes I chucked back a shot of JD and stood firm.

I’m glad I did. The unassuming Georgians, who uttered not a word until the very end of their set, hypnotised the audience with their frantic intensity and epic heaviness. Singer/Guitarist John Baizley has become somewhat of an icon as the artistic lynchpin of the sludge stoner groove (whatever you want to call it) movement occupied by the likes of Kylesa and Torche. Standing before the diminutive, bearded one was like being in the presence of greatness – this was like watching a band fronted by Vincent van Gough.

Baroness delivered almost entirely unbroken set comprised largely of tracks lifted from the Red and Blue albums. The Baizley/Adams psychedelic guitar assault delivers precision tempered by occasional improvisational flourishes that are the hallmark of a really great live act. But Baroness aren’t showy, Baizley and crew seemed utterly emerged in these gargantuan riffs and progressive noodlings – here, the music does the talking, not the band.

The only disappointment of the evening was the omission of the brilliant Rays on Pinion, but the inclusion of a rousing rendition of Grad and The Birthing. Prior returning for an encore Baizley finally broke bands silence with a long, largely inaudible ramble about how London held a special place in their hearts and they are humbled by our support or something. Awww. Please come back lots more Mr. Baizley.

It seems a travesty that Baroness are playing such small venues when they deserve to be playing arenas. Alas, they are one of those bands that will probably never make it really big, but will constantly be cited by bands, bad and good, as a massive influence and clueless fans will pretend they always liked them.

By the end of it I felt pretty much ‘cured’ and when awoke in the morning, despite a mild hangover, was largely free of my ailment. Thank you Baroness – now can you get to work on the verruca I’ve got on my toe?

What I spent my hard earned cash on recently.

Napalm Death – Time Waits for No Slave

I was avoiding this album. Napalm Death’s endless procession of ferocity without subtlety is all very entertaining, but it gets a bit tiring after a while. Coupled with the fact that the metal press always seems to laud every album with similar levels of semi-deserved praise (perhaps to emphasize to the kids – who probably don’t care – how the old geezers can show the younguns how it’s done) means that I view every ND album with a little suspicion. Perhaps ND should have named this album ‘The little press who cried wolf’ as it is a minor revelation. ND have opened up their sound to melodic and thrashy flourishes just enough to give their sound a dynamic punch without compromising their brutal legacy.

Between the Buried and Me – The Great Misdirect

This is how imagin BTBAM songwriting sessions to go:

“Dudes, we topped ourselves this time, that one clocks in at 12 minutes and we don’t repeat a single bar!”

“Yeah, we totally own, like this great 70’s prog band I’ve been listening to [substitute any obscure 70 prog]“

“Who the fuck are they? I’ve never heard of them, why didn’t you mention them before?”

“I only just discovered them when on my weekly charity shop spree”

“Shit shit shit! So basically what your saying is that in all of the songs we’ve ever recorded we’ve referenced every other prog band that ever existed and made them shit hard with death metal and stuff, but not this lot. Shit. We’re going to look like real idiots!”

“Maybe we should rewrite the new album and reference them in all the new tracks, it’ll make them longer too.”

“Fuck yeah! And we can throw in some Jonny Cash sounding shit as well then folks will know we listen to stuff other than prog.”

“Yeah! How clever are we?!”

“Dude, fuck yeah! We are the SHIT!”

The Great Misdirect is too ponderous for its own good. There are some good moments, but it exudes self-satisfaction. BTBAM need to learn the meaning of the words subtlety and restraint, as they are the cornerstones of good art. Not nearly as essential as they and everyone else seems to think they are. All fanny and no craic.

Krallice – Dimensional Bleedthrough

Krallice should have named this album Genre Bleedthrough. Generally blugeoned into the Black Metal pigeonhole, Krallice are in reality something else entirely. Adopting BM’s buzzsaw ferocity Krallice fashion something that’s subtly melodic, complex and deeply textured – it sounds like BM, but it doesn’t feel like BM. There’s plenty for prog/post/black metal and even hardcore fans here to get their teeth into, and at its best (as with the title track) sounds like state of the art modern metal. However, Dimensional Bleedthrough’s tendency meander in directionlessly and the tracks’ tendency to outstay their welcome makes it hard to really stay tuned for the whole thing.

Keelhaul – Keelhaul’s Triumphant Return to Obscurity

Keelhaul are the missing (or perhaps obscured) link between Pelican and Baroness. Unfortunately it lacks the character of the first and creativity of the second. Not that this should put you off, they’re two tough acts to beat, and if you’re a fan of either there’s a lot to love about this album.

Eagle Twin – The Unkindness of Crows

Eagle Twin’s stripped down and improvisational doom takes the drone of early Earth and minimalist tendencies of Om and fashions them into a gnarled, grimy epic. Gentry Densley’s hoarse growl and arid rattling guitar guide us on a gothic journey that’s often abstract, ocassionally melodic and always unsettling. Sometimes bordering on the oppressive blackness of Sunn O))) others taking almost melodic turns (as on the outstanding Soundgarden evoking Murder of…) It takes a a fair few listens to get your head around this, but it’s a rewarding journey.

Let this be known by all bands: Album samplers are a really bad idea. What I mean by ‘sampler’ is a single track, usually placed on MySpace, made up of bits of other tracks spliced together. You see, I’m a huge fan of Devin Townsend. I own pretty much everything he ever recorded (including Strapping Young Lad), and not all of it is good (let’s be honest, Ziltoid is a bit pants). After hearing the album sampler of Addicted, Townsend’s second album this year, I thought “oh well, you can’t win them all”. I actually didn’t bother rushing out to buy it after hearing this. After all, attempting to record 4 albums in a year was always going to result in a bit of dross right? Obviously Townsend decided to get that over and done with on one album.

Wrong. Addicted takes a bit of getting used to. Harking largely back to Townsend’s earlier solo work, these darkened pop songs are about as far removed from SYL as he’s likely to get, and a massive departure from the progish restraint of quartet opener Ki. There’s heaviness here aplenty but it’s tempered by Townsend’s keen ear for melody. Vocal duties are a tag team effort between the bald one and Dutch chanteuse Anneke van Giersbergen, which sometimes feels a little disjointed, but for the most part softens and brightens proceedings.

This collection not only hangs together, but taken as a whole is actually quite affecting. Even ill-advised Coldplay pandering dirges like Ih-Ah! don’t manage to spoil the party. Highlights Awake! and the magnificent re-interpretation of Hyperdrive (which originally appeared in more muted form on Ziltoid) will have Townsend fans slavering for more.

Addicted just can’t be digested in little chunks, it needs to be lived with, which is why the sampler was such a bad idea – it just doesn’t do the album justice. This is no shallow pop album, but an asserted statement from one of metal’s grand conjurors. It’s not his best – it’s a far cry from the heady heights of Terria and Alien – and I think that Ki will stand the test time more gracefully. It’s also probably his least experimental, daring or (dare I say it) zany recording. So no boundaries pushed here, just a display of first class pop artistry.

Townsend will continue turning the rumour mill on what the final 2 DTP albums will sound like. The next instalment, Deconstruction, was originally touted as SYL by any other name. Townsend has since retracted this rumour, but as long as he keeps this sort of quality up, I’m not sure if I’ll mind that much if it sounds like M-People.

Sunn O))) and Om are two extreme (and very distinct) interpretations of the doom/stoner genre. Both contain members from very distinguished doom/stoner bands (Goatsnake/Khanate/Thorr’s Hammer & Sleep respectively). Sorry to state the obvious, but this seems appropriate given the crowd that have turned up to this gig, at this one of the trendiest of London venues, seem largely oblivious to this fact. Instead of the usual gnarled, bearded and blackened misfits (who are here but lurking ominously in the shadows wielding the claw of doom) I am surrounded by NME kids (‘good’ hair aplenty) and art school ATP fops (more ‘good’ hair, but with stupid hats and glasses too). The fact that Sunn O))) have become ‘trendy’ is one that I was largely oblivious to until now, but the ‘lambs to the slaughter’ atmosphere it lends to the evening makes it feel perfectly appropriate.

Om seem totally out of place in this largish, bright venue, and struggle to really get out of the starting blocks. The mix is all over the place particularly with the drums, which instead of underpinning Cisneros’s hypnotic bass sound more like someone was cooking popcorn somewhere out back. The addition of a crazy ascetic frantically wafting a tambourine and providing multi-instrumentalism accompanied by intermittent, semi-tuneful pig squeals does nothing to elevate this muted performance. I’ve never seen Om live but I always imagined that they belong in a small, dark auditorium with the bass turned up to 12, where the crowd shuts up, closes their eyes and saturates in the cosmic vibes. Wrong place, wrong crowd for Om then.

Any worries that Sunn O))) would befall the same fate are soon dispelled. A good 10 minutes of solid, bone rattling guitar/bass drone from the robed duo have the trendy kids looking decidedly confused and perturbed, but this is mere whimsy compared to what is to come.

Sunn O))) have essentially taken the doom and black metal aesthetics and turned them into minimalist performance art. On record they are interesting, but it’s impossible to really appreciate the truly malign spectacle that it is supposed to convey. If you want to experience this at home, then turn the stereo up full blast, switch off all the lights, set light to the sofa and then invite a serial killer in to join the party.

As the dense smoke (or perhaps funeral fog) billows across the stage you catch fleeting glimpses of messrs Anderson and O’Malley – dark spectres in ceremonial garb, statue-like but somehow frantic and intense. Towering in front the harrowing master of ceremonies Attila (a renowned black metal vocalist by the way NME kids) is imposing as he narrates our demise. Illuminated from below by a green haze, his snakelike hands signal dark semaphore while his terrifying growl threatens to bring the roof crashing in on us. For a period of a cappella snarling and chanting his magnificent voice tears through the crowd leaving those of good hair looking terrified and the rest of us awed.

As the drone returns and intensifies, Attila writhes, wraithlike in a column of thick smoke and green haze – smoke pours out from the arms and face aperture of his robe making for a truly ominous spectacle. By now the auditorium is thick with smoke and the view across the hypnotised heads of the crowd is like tombstones in cemetery mist.

Attila leaves Anderson and O’Malley to worry the foundations (and the indie kids) for a deafening while before returning in a multi-coloured, metallic, spiky suit. Like an evil technicolor dreamcoat, lasers shoot from his fists piercing the gloom to magnificent effect. The insane chanting and osteoporosis inducing noise finally builds to a pounding finale that’s both frightening and elating.

Sunn O))) gigs are not an occasion to guzzle beer, punch the air and sing along. They’re all about the intimidating atmosphere and earth shattering noise. At times it was a little tedious and laboured but the sheer majestic perversity of it all just keeps dragging you in to Sunn O))) nightmarish world, and oh what a wonderful world!

Revocation’s hype stateside has failed to translate into a particularly big splash either side of the Atlantic. Their confusing mix of thrash/death and guitar god faux-eclecticism may go some way to explaining this. Broken into its constituent parts it’s very convincing indeed, and perhaps this is why Cosmo Lee mistook them for “the next great metal band” – they may well be at some point, but they ain’t there yet.

There’s some riffery to die for here driving some brutal thrash that will turn the head of even the most sceptical. But from beneath the maelstrom seeps a latent melody that sets them apart from the Death pack, although it’s often flattened by unsubtle sub-death vocals – competent, but perhaps the least impressive part of Revocation’s armoury.

Then there’s the godlike guitar virtuosity from new kid on the block David Davidson who any point he sounds like Satriani, Petrucci, Vai, Bettencourt (yes, you heard me right) among others, each with their respective stylistic ensemble. This is lovely, it really is. However, on too many occasions these virtuoso passages are clumsily tacked on the end of, or shoved into the middle of songs that they have no right to be in. Occasionally this works, but for the most part it just makes you think “That’s really cool, but why did you put it there?” This is not a merging of styles, it’s different songs being clumsily selotaped together, and it’s just a distraction from the main event – state of the art metal.

I commend Revocation’s efforts to do something different, however it just doesn’t hold together. Davidson needs to go exorcise his frustrated guitar god and make a solo album, then concentrate on making Revocation the great band they could be.