The Day Effigy Reigned

Saturday, November 22nd, and we have the first substantial snowfall of the season. It's bitter outside but it's okay because I'm not looking to go anywhere today anyway. Since, I skipped out on posting yesterday, I'm gonna make it worth your while.

The world has seen quite a revival of Stenchcore type bands in the last 7 or 8 years. Everyone and their brother seems to be paying tribute to the old U.K. greats. Personally, I can't get enough of it. In the 80's you had Amebix, Deviated Instinct, Bolt Thrower, Sacrilege, Hell Bastard, and Axe Grinder, all of whom are worthy of the adoration. In the U.S. there was Nausea, Misery, and all of the less well known SoCal bands like Apocalypse,Glycine Max,and Confrontation, who are all under rated. A little later on you had the mighty Skaven. Then as the millenium turned, a whole new crop has popped up. Stormcrow, Sanctum, After the Bombs, Hellshock, Guided Cradle, and a ton of others are all kicking ass around the world and that list leaves out all the great groups coming from Japan.
Acrostix, Age, Zoe, S.D.S., and Effigy, off the top of my head, are some of the more well known Japanese acts playing this style and they all rule. Like I said, I'm always on the lookout for this kind of stuff and for the sole reason that I have collected more releases by them than the others mentioned, here are all of the ep's of Effigy. They don't write as well as Zoe, they aren't as fast as S.D.S., and they aren't as majestic as Age, there's just something about them that I dig.
I haven't gotten a hold of their split tape with Abigail yet but when I do, I'll put it up right away. Until then, this will hold you over:

Evil Fragments Ep

From Hell Ep

Split with Hellshock

Split with Aparat

Split with Havaistys

If anyone has that tape I just mentioned, let's make a trade or something. Effigy also appears on one of the better tribute albums I've heard, the Amebix Japan Compilation.It has six bands doing 2 songs each mostly culled from the Arise and Monolith albums. Needless to say, if you love Amebix as much as I do, you definitely need to hear this.

Amebix Japan-A tribute......

If any of you out there want to recommend any good bands of this style that I haven't mentioned, leave me a comment and tell me about them.

Tomorrow, I'm gonna give you all a piece of the 90's nobody should be without.........Troy

Neveskade ep

I got an email from Calvin Wright 2 days ago and he sent me the recording for the debut Nerveskade 7inch. I know a few people have asked me if had heard them yet and I said no but now is our chance to listen to it together.
features Jakke and Calvin from Deathpact and they play straight up thrashy punk rock melted almost beyond recognition by distortion, just like Confuse used to do it.
They also have a demo if you want it. Just send Jakke a message on myspace. They're only $2 bucks but he should have some left.

Nerveskade 7inch

90 Minutes in Green Mountain Hell

It's Thursday and it seems like this week has really flown by for some reason. The weather has been bitter and I can't very well remember exactly what I've done with my week.
The Gummo soundtrack went over real well??? Only 1 person wanted to hear it? Really? Well if you haven't heard it yet, that's your loss I guess, you know where to find it if you change your mind.
Today I'm trying something a little different and I'm posting some ranting by one of mine and lots of other people's favorite deceased human beings, Charles Bukowski. No not the bassist from Black Flag, smart ass.
I mean the handsome devil you see right above.
Honestly, I could ramble and fawn on and on about the man but I can't really do justice, you're on your own in that regard.
Do yourself a favor and go to the nearest half way decent bookstore near you and nab as many of his books as they've got. I suggest you start with "Post Office" or "Women" if you're shooting for novels but his short stories and poetry, yes poetry, are great too. Remember kids, don't get caught.
Charles Bukowski's 90 Minutes In Hell

Fuck you....you Fucking Stupid Rabbit !!!!

Fuck it's cold out!!!! I ain't gonna hem and haw much about today's post,the Gummo soundtrack. If you have seen it, you're probably pretty polarized about the damn thing and if you haven't seen it, you should. The film is set in Xenia, Ohio, a real life town that was ravaged by a tornado back in 1974. It follows the exploits of two boys named Solomon and Tummer as they make their way around town. The only way I can describe the movie perhaps is by lazily calling it schizophrenic. If you like to watch rednecks wrestling chairs, some guy whoring out his sister who has down syndrome, and a sub plot of feral cat poaching,among other things left to your very own discovery, dig on in.
Besides all this bullshit, the movie is worth watching alone for the music interludes alone. The cast of bands featured is pure fucking sickness. I mean,come on, this soundtrack was my introduction to bands like: Bethlehem,Absu,Bathory,Mystifier, and EyeHateGod . It also has Sleep, Mortician, Burzum, Spazz, Electric Hellfire Club,Nifelheim, and Brujeria. Quite enough said..................................Troy

Gummo Soundtrack

If any of you happen to have any good stories or thoughts on Gummo, leave a fucking comment or something!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Confirmation Class

It's November 18th, around 9:30 am,and to borrow a line from an old childhood movie, it's colder than a witches' tittie outside. A perfect Vermont day to share some Finnish evil with you. Rippikoulu, Finnish for "Confirmation Class", were a punk band,I hear, once upon a time.By the time these recordings reared their heads, around '92 or '93, the only thing remotely punk about them was their Crusty looking logo. "Musta Seremonia",their 2nd demo, is part "funeral doom" not so different than their country mates Thergothon or Skepticism, mixed with some thrashy moments and a few mid paced riffs thrown in once in a while.
Back tracking a bit....around 2001, when I had decided to stick around Long Beach,CA for a while, people always were telling me to check out this record store in Downey, CA called "Dark Realm" that specialized in predominantly Black Metal and Death Metal. I took my time getting around to it and sure enough one morning woke up and decided I couldn't live without Bethlehem's "Dictius Te Necare" album. So off I went to the train towards Downey and made my way to Dark Realm. Now I have no idea if the place is still open but back then they had an amazing selection of demos to choose from, all cheaply priced. I, by total accident, picked up two gems that I still absolutely love today: Musta Seremonia and Thergothon's "Fhtagn Nagh Yog Sothoth" demo. While sometime soon, I will post everything I have by Thergothon, today I want you all to have these Rippikoulu demos.
Musta Seremonia is the one you all have to hear. On the other hand, Mutaation Aiheuttama Sisainen Mataneninem, while interesting to die hard fans, it probably won't come off as too charming to the rest of you.
So all you "Punks" that think you don't like metal but really have never given it a chance, today is the day to reconsider.

Musta Seremonia (1993)


M.A.S.M. Demo (1992)


and you know what.....Fuck It, since it is so fucking cold outside and some of you probably aren't gonna go brave it anyway, here is that Thergothon demo I spoke of earlier.

Thergothon Demo


If any of you enjoy this kind of thing, I recommend that you go ahead and visit Dumah. It's one hell of a resource and it is a great place to catch up on all the Metal you've been missing in life. The sheer mass of bands and albums here is a bit intimidating at first but when you weed through some of the crap, you'll be going back for more.......................................Troy

Going down to Jamaica Plain???

I just wanted to tell to all who this is relevant, our very own beloved Jonee Earthquake Band and Suburban Showdown have got some shows coming up that they would like to see all of your faces at.
Both are at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain, MA. Jonee's is this coming Sunday and on the following Saturday, Suburban Showdown will be playing there as well. I can't tell you much about the other bands, but you can get a hold of Tino from S.S. and I'm sure he could tell you what he knows. Contact him through the Suburban Showdown link under the local band section over to the right..........

Like a Naked Nun

Today's guest In Green Mountain Hell is a bit of a mystery. First off, you don't really run into many people that have heard this band. Second, you meet even fewer who have heard of them,even the almighty and omniscient Google doesn't give you much to work with on this one. Personally, I ordered a tape by the Smartpils when I was 17 for the sole fact that I had heard that there was a relative Amebix connection going on. Turns out some of Amebix's former members were in Zygote with the Smartpils' bassist, Tim Crow(Who also was in the great band Bad Influence). That sounds about right to me?
Anyway, like I said, I was turned on to this band by chance but fell immediately in love with the songs on their most well known release,No Good No evil. It was arguably the best $2 bucks I've ever spent.
I searched in vain for years trying to get more stuff by them and I've heard they have another LP named "Open Mind Surgery" that was released on Bluurg records in the mid eighties, but I have come up empty every time. I was able to dig up a couple of demos, one from 1983 and another from the following year though any information on these has been beyond minimal and trying to find it has been pretty much a waste of time.
Smartpils are simply beautiful. There are two female vocalists,as far as I can tell, and their voices weave together in a most hypnotic way. Not to say that they aren't aggressive, they are just exactly what the music needs. The recording is one of my favorites from the time period and this is just one of those records that affects much more than your ears. I would change nothing about it.
So on top of wanting to share this with the unfortunate souls who haven't been introduced, this is certainly a selfish cry of my own for some light shone on this band. If anyone can hook me up with any recordings that aren't here or even some stories about the band, I will try like a fucker to return the favor your way. So leave a comment or email me: cagelearner@hotmail.com

No Good, No Evil

1983 Demo

1984 Demo

If you are a fan of Siouxsie and the Banshees' early stuff but with a much noisier and driving sound, you have to take a second to hear this, I recommend this as highly as anything you'll see on this blog................................................Troy