Tag Archives: Washington

Old Iron – Lupus Metallorum (2017); Old Iron / Verdun – Split (2022)

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Good afternoon, readers!

Just a quick shout to let you all know about this brand-new split record that came out last Friday — half of which is by a doom troupe from Montpellier France, whose 2016 album we had written about back when it came out; the other half features a sludge trio from Seattle whose 2017 album really caught my attention at that time but somehow I never got around to writing about that one, an oversight which is being rectified right now…

 

Old Iron – Lupus Metallorum (Good to Die Records, 18 August 2017)

 

Old Iron / Verdun – Split (Satanik Royalty Records, 25 February 2022)

 

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Oryx – Lamenting a Dead World; Melancholia – Static Church (2021)

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More 2021 goodness for you to bludgeon your ears with!

Herein, please find the fourth LP by Oryx (Denver CO) and the fourth EP by Melancholia (Bellingham WA).

 

Oryx – Lamenting a Dead World (Translation Loss Records, 30 April 2021)

 

Melancholia – Static Church (Brutal Panda, 04 June 2021)

 

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Beldam – Still the Wretched Linger (2016), Pasung (2018), Live at the Golden Pony (2021)

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Good morning. Kind of gloomy today, feels like a blackened-death-sludge kind of day. Join me for a brief trip down memory lane as we reminisce about the last two Beldam records, in preparation for their first-ever live album coming this Friday!

 

Beldam – Still the Wretched Linger (HPGD Productions, 17 June 2016)

 

Beldam – Pasung (HPGD Productions, 26 January 2018)

 

Beldam – Live at the Golden Pony (HPGD Productions, 17 December 2021)

 

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Awenden / Feminazgul – Split (2021)

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As we all prepare to wrap up an eventful 2021, here’s a quick look back at a two-band/three-song split that came out earlier in the year, and recently had a vinyl pressing announced for early next year. Both participating bands and the label that put this together are all pro-feminism, anti-fascism, and highly LGBTQ+ supportive — all of which are positions we can certainly get behind. And it doesn’t hurt when the music sounds cool as well…

 

Awenden / Feminazgûl – Split (Tridroid Records, cassette and digital 07 May 2021, vinyl expected March 2022)

 

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Adzes – Climate // Capital, A Forest // Digging in the Dirt (2019); No One Wants to Speak About It (2020)

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Adzes – Climate // Capital (self-released, 27 February 2019)

 

Adzes – A Forest // Digging in the Dirt (self-released, 02 August 2019)

 

Adzes – No One Wants to Speak About It (digital: self-released, 29 May 2020; cassette: Tridroid Records, 02 July 2020)

 

Good afternoon! I’ve got a surprise in store for you today. Usually single-person recording artists leave a lot to desire as far as the quality of material AND sound quality are concerned. The same can often be said for musical entities with strong political leanings: no matter how valid their point may be, if all they are bringing to the table is a clone of raw punk or lo-fi black metal that’s already been done to death a million times, it’s unlikely to really grab my attention.

With Adzes (named for the primitive wood-hewing implement), self-described by its lone member as “anti-capitalist sludge,” what we find is lacking in quality in neither of those areas. Below we’ll take a trip through a pair of EPs he put together last year, followed by the project’s debut album which is set to be unfurled at the end of this week. Enjoy!

 

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Rat King – Garbage Island (2016), Vicious Inhumanity (2020)

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Rat King – Garbage Island (Within the Mind Records, 24 June 2016)

 

Rat King – Vicious Inhumanity (Within the Mind Records, 17 January 2020)

 

As much as I hate to admit it, during the almost eight and a half years I’ve been administrating this website, I have amassed a list of literally hundreds of albums I’ve hoped to find time to write about and share with you folks. Realistically I know I won’t ever get through ALL of them, but at the moment I am striving to keep up with the new ones as well as I can so it doesn’t get any worse; and if I can knock off an older one here and there while I’m at it, wonderful.

So having said that, here’s a record that just came out within the past month, as well as one that’s been sitting on my to-do list far too long. Both are by Seattleite trio Rat King, released on their own label Within the Mind, and both were recorded by the legendary Mr. Tad Doyle — but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. As you will soon discover. Please to enjoy!

 

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Lapsarian – Ruminant (2019)

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Lapsarian – Ruminant (self-released, 22 November 2019)

 

Last time we took a look at the latest release from a multiple-platinum artist whose discography dates back many decades. Naturally, today our focus turns to an album that just came out last week, from a band who just formed last year.

With just over 100 Facebook likes so far (does that still even count as a metric in 2019?), and without a huge marketing campaign backing them, it’s probably a safe bet that Washington, DC’s Lapsarian is a new name to most of you reading this. So go check out Ruminant, and then once the word gets out, you can brag to everyone else about how you’ve already been on that bandwagon way longer than they have …

 

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Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper (2017)

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Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper (Profound Lore Records, 10 October 2017)

 

Today we’re going to talk — again — about Bell Witch. Since the release of their demo recording back in 2011, this bass+drums+vocals duo of doom has been delighting our auditory cortices with a combination of immense gravitas and lofty, haunting melodies. With the departure of drummer/vocalist Adrian Guerra following sophomore album Four Phantoms, bassist/vocalist Dylan Desmond soldiered on with a new partner in Jesse Shreibman.

As observed in our 2016 review of that 2015 double-LP, the tragic passing of friend and former bandmate Guerra devastated the members of Bell Witch — who, as it turns out, had just started working together on the first new material with their current line-up. As you might expect, this event would certainly have a strong effect on the writing process, the result of which became Mirror Reaper, revealed to the world last fall.

With these guys hitting the road TONIGHT for a month-long expedition all over North America (including stops at two different festivals this weekend), alongside fellow Pacific Northwesterners Yob, we’ll spend some time with Mirror Reaper, and then share that list of tour dates down below.

 

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Steel Bridge Promotions Presents: FISTER / UN / GIF FROM GOD (Pittsburgh, 15 October 2017)

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Steel Bridge Promotions Presents:

Fister (Saint Louis, MO) / UN
(Seattle, WA) / .GIF from God (Richmond, VA)

local support by Sarlacc (Pittsburgh, PA)

Sunday 15 October 2017

at The Rock Room, 1054 Herron Ave, Pittsburgh (Polish Hill) PA 15219

Doors 9:00 – Show 9:30 | $5-10, door only (no advance sales)

 
http://www.facebook.com/events/1377974022309542/

 
Steel Bridge Promotions — who have been responsible for putting together all sorts of really solid shows in the Pittsburgh area over the past few years, as well as being among the most genuinely nice people you will EVER meet — recently announced that their final shows will be taking place this October. While that’s terrible news for this city, SBP will definitely be going out with a bang! Here, we’ll be sharing some information about the one of those final shows.

 
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Melvins – Basses Loaded (2016)

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Melvins – Basses Loaded (Ipecac Records, 03 June 2016)

 

Around here, we’ve talked pretty extensively about the Melvins. Mostly because since forming in Montesano, Washington about thirty-five years ago, the band has been a highly influential part of so many of the genres we love, even having a hand in forming and shaping several of those. Also there’s the fact that, with their ever-revolving line-ups, there are approximately ninety-seven Melvins releases (on average) each year. Being so prolific, it’s likely that they’ll have some stuff kind of flying under the radar, and today we’ll be looking at an album from last year that you may have missed. And then down in the comments you can find information about all their tour dates for the rest of the summer and beyond (and if you have the opportunity to see these guys, I really could not recommend it highly enough!)

 
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