Neurosis - "Honor Found In Decay" CD

The long-awaited studio album from influential "post-metal" group Neurosis offers much to those who listen. In the wake of other heavy music (don't call them "metal") mavens like Pelican, Isis, or the formidable Russian Circles, Neurosis are like grand-dads now, re-asserting their throne after a 5-year absence.

Neurosis begins with the subtle textures of "We All Rage In Gold", which takes a few minutes to build. By the end of it's 6+ minutes, the band is in full-on sludge mode. This is just about as heavy as rock can get. "At The Well" is initially as plodding/grueling as early SWANS, all slow-motion pummel and agonized wails, before erupting outwards. "My Heart For Deliverance" is a huge 11-minute monolith of down-tuned riffage, scathing vocals, and ambient effects that climax with soft strings and mountainous guitar churn. 

Neurosis haven't missed a beat on "Honor Found In Decay", proving that this former Bay Area hardcore band has evolved well beyond what anyone could've ever imagined. This is a monster of an album, complete with huge riffs, subtle introspection, throat-searing anger, psychedelic textures, and massive drums. Play this one loudly and absorb. 

(Neurot Recordings)

"The Lost Realities Of Hog Caller" DVD (director: Tom Richards)

Less of a narrative film, and more of an extended promo video for Pennsylvania gore/grind/noise/metal duo Hog Caller, this one is all over the place, and not in a good way. 

Mostly, "The Lost Realities Of Hog Caller" is an overindulgent mess of offensive imagery. You'll get plenty of gore, some breasts, comedy skits, pig costumes, Three Mile Island, messing around with dead animals, G.W. Bush hanging out with Bin Laden, magic mushrooms, LSD trips, eviscerating Elvis, and plenty more. Trouble is, there's no order to the madness. And the music? Messy, sloppy, and fairly well unlistenable. A great gift for friends of the band, but anyone else? Seen it before, heard it before, and done better on both counts.

(Wild Eye Releasing)

Hog Caller Music

Weedeater- "Jason...The Dragon" CD

After an extended hiatus and some unusual experiences (lead shrieker Dixie Dave Collins accidentally shot his big toe off last year), sludge-metal pioneers Weedeater return with this Steve Albini-produced monolith of deep swamp-blues-nightmare metal.
Hailing from North Carolina and formed from the ashes of 90's scuzz-metal act Buzzov-en, these feral audio marauders have crafted a potent and extreme album that dares to meld thick, sludgy Southern blues rock with extremely slow tempos and an evil-edged post-Sabbath-meets-noise attitude. No strangers to vice, Weedeater's metal reflects an, eh, "enthusiasm" for the carefree lifestyle and its attendant leafy greenery.
Standouts include the molasses-thick stoner blues of "Turkey Warlock", the playful acoustic blues of "Palms Of Opium", and the immense and catastrophic "Homecoming".
You won't get many catchy melodies here or uplifting party hits, but Weedeater do provide a generous Southern-style helping of chunky guitar pummel and dirty down-home noise-blues that will please even the pickiest misanthropic miscreant! (Southern Lord)

Weedeaterspace

Weedeater - "And Justice For Y'All" album

Rising from the burnt-out ashes of legendary scuzz-dirge metallists Buzzov-en, Weedeater emerged with an even slower, lower, and dirtier metal assault. This is a reissue of the band's 2000 debut album, with a couple of live tracks tacked on as a bonus. And, to use a well-worn cliche, it smokes.
Carrying on with it the same ragged, stoner rock ferocity as their previous incarnation, Weedeater seems to be having a measure more fun here. Witness their tongue-in-cheek cover of the Crosby, Stills, and Nash song, "Southern Cross". Nonetheless, that track is followed by the spooky cemetary-on-acid "#86". It's a weird, down-tuned slice of hallucinogenic reverberations like prime-era Butthole Surfers as seen through a funhouse mirror in a haunted house. I say it's bizarre, scary, and perplexing. Another standout is the slow-and-low basement-noise-blues of "Monkey Junction, which appears later in a live version, too. Grimy, dense, and murky sludge metal for antisocial miscreants? Surely, and good fun it is, too. (Sleeping Village Records)

Weedeaterspace

Immolate - "Ruminate" CD

This Australian 3-piece are less metallic than I'd expected, but that's not a bad thing. With a simple and sludgy sound, Immolate's punk-meets-doom metal tunes are thick and primitive, with elements of noise rock and stoner metal. Like a grimy collision of Scratch Acid, Motorhead, and Queens Of The Stone Age, Immolate's driving and chaotic songs are given an appropriately raw mixdown by one of the masters, Billy Anderson. Some solid work here, and even if most of the songs sound the same, these guys are on the right track. (Impedance Records Australia)

Immolatespace

Buzzov•en - "Sore" 2xCD

This limited-to-2000 copies gold-disc remaster combines this South Carolina stoner/sludge metal band's famous second album (from 1994) with another 4-song (28 minute) EP of unreleased material. Unbeknownst to me, this is an influential album of underground metal that, alongside their brethren in Eyehategod, helped jump-start an ugly and evil form of heavy rock that utilized elements of noise and even post-industrial sounds alongside mean, drug-fueled hardcore. It's not a nice or friendly sound, but one rooted in pain, aggression, and negativity. So no upbeat pop tunes here.

Opening with the ugly and hallucinogenic sound collages of "Sore", the band juxtaposes twisted, swampy grooves with energetic hardcore punk/metal crossover. It's a well-layered mix (by Billy Anderson), full of down-tuned guitars, weird and grimy sound effects, and the screeching, pained vocals of Kirk Fisher, who was apparently very, eh, medicated during this band's reign. Imagine Corrosion Of Conformity if they became possessed by evil spirits on a week-long drink-and-drug binge. It's a grueling trip through a side of life we normally don't want to see firsthand. Some uncompromising and harrowing sounds here, not for the faint of heart. (Metal Mind Productions Poland/Roadrunner)

Sons Of Tonatiuh - "Sons Of Tonatiuh" album

From Atlanta, Georgia comes this as-yet unsigned aggro-doom metal beast, and this is their fearsome full-length debut. It's a solid work, starting with the thick and sludgy "To The Throne", erupting forth with downtuned guitars, scalding vocals, and a pace that crawls in spots, but alternately amps it up with complex changes and breakneck tempos. SOT go even more evil with "Consumed", which hovers menacingly at first, only to spill out its guts punk-style with a speedy thrash assault. Not strictly a metal band, Sons Of Tonatiuh also channel noise/punk more than effectively, and graft it to a doomy, post-Sabbath sludge-riff bludgeon. Witness the sinister "Adam And Evil", or the scalding grooves of "Chain Up The Masses". SOT's forceful and furious attack leaves no survivors, and daringly combines several styles into a unique and vicious identity all their own. Dig it. (Sons Of Tonatiuh self-release)