Annihilator - Total Annihilation

Annihilator have been on of my favourite bands for years, ever since I picked up their King Of The Kill album from the £1 bin at Our Price records in my hometown of Fleet. Yes, it was that long ago the Our Price was still called Our Price, before it became the ill-fated, stock-free Virgin V-Shop (which was possibly the most retarded idea ever, why go to a shop where you have to order everything off the internet if you can order it off the internet from home and it'll cost less?).

Anyways, Annihilator are an oldschool thrash band from Canada. Their older stuff was quite traditional thrash but with some quirky/comedy moments and some really odd riffs thrown in. I'd still say Annihilator main man Jeff Waters is one of my favourite guitarists, perhaps 2nd only to the mighty Jeff Loomis of Nevermore. Hopefully one day their powers will combine in a dual Jeff shred attack, but anyways I digress.

Annihilator have had a lot of different lineups over the last 26 years, with Waters remaining the only constant member. The most noticeable of these have been the succession of vocalists. My personal favourite was Joe Comeau who sang on the Carnival Diablos and Waking The Fury albums. I was not keen on current vocalist Dave Padden at first, though his style has grown on me over the last 4 albums (well 3 of them anyways, didn't get on with Metal at all!).

Today's offering is a best of type compilation Annihilator have recently released through Earache Records for free download. There is a good mix of tracks from throughout most of their career, though there seems to be a lack of tracks from their first few albums, perhaps due to licensing issues with Roadrunner Records who released them originally. Stand out tracks for me are Ultra Motion, Battered and King Of The Kill. Slightly disappointed none of my favourite Annihilator tracks are on there (Kraf Dinner, The Perfect Virus, Evil Appetite (Don't Bother Me), Annihilator (King of the Kill version), Knight Jumps Queen), but I do always have obscure tastes.

320Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Rapidshare (requires email address for download)

Annihilator on Myspace
Annihilator official site

GrooveMonsteR - Rock Was Dead

GrooveMonsteR were a comedy stoner rock band from Brighton in the UK. For a number of years they made audiences all over Brighton laugh their asses off whilst remaining completely unable to stand still and look miserable, as stoner rock fans ought to do. GrooveMonsteR supply solid rock grooves with amusing and comical lyrics about all kinds of things over the top. Such classics as Rocket Mice and Twist Your Beard always get a great crowd reaction.

Rock Was Dead is a compilation of all the tracks GrooveMonsteR ever recorded for their various demo releases. This compilation was released online as a warm-up for what was probably the
last ever GrooveMonsteR show at Hydrant in Brighton on the 22nd August 2010, with support from my band Funeral Hag. If you like them, a video of the show and a mockumentary about GrooveMonsteR are currently in production, see the GrooveMonsteR Reunion Facebook group for details. There are also live recordings of both sets which may or may not be released to the internets at some point...

Here's a video I took of them playing Drunken Master:



320Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Megaupload
WAV (CD Quality) via HTTP from Megaupload

GrooveMonsteR on Myspace
GrooveMonsteR Reunion Facebook Group

Wiht - Wiht

Wiht are an instrumental stoner doom band from Leeds in the UK. Whilst somewhat reminiscent of other instrumental stoner bands like Karma To Burn and Sons Of Alpha Centauri, Wiht's sound is quite a bit heavier than either of those and more doomy in pace. Their material works well as instrumental, with a massive guitar tone that must have taken a lot of layers to create. It's not all heavy grooves, there are some nice chilled out droney and almost ambient sections. Well worth a listen, and as always if you like it go buy it! £4 on CD from their Myspazz, not bad for >40 minutes of kickass stoner doom.

256Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Mediafire.com
http://www.mediafire.com/?gqzrghymtor
http://www.mediafire.com/?uzznd1jjh2j

Wiht on Myspace

Mother Susurrus - Mother Susurrus

Mother Susurrus are a doom/sludge band from Finland. Their sound is quite droney and sludgey, heavy yet with plenty of melody as well. Beautifully bleak and very well crafted, the EP rises and falls like post rock but never quite drops below a doomy level of heaviness and sludge. There are no clean guitars here! This EP consists of 2 tracks, Whoremonger and Apocatastasis, totalling 32:26 of awesome doominess.

VBR (~250Kbps) MP3 via HTTP from Mothersusurrus.com
FLAC via HTTP from Mothersusurrus.com
ALAC via HTTP from Mothersusurrus.com

Mother Susurrus on Myspace
Mother Susurrus offical website

Hesper Payne - Unclean Rituals

Hesper Payne are a Lovecraft inspired doom band from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. I posted their Titans Of The North Sea EP a while ago, which was rather good. Now they're back with a new album, Unclean Rituals, which continues with their awesome brand of bleak, detuned doom with death metal style vocals. I liked it so much I had to buy the CD, which came with an ominous note I shall now transcribe for your reading pleasure (punctuation mostly added by me for ease of reading):

Monty!

Oh gods. The horror!
They know where I am. I asked the wrong questions, now I hear their mocking cry, further than the distant starts, closer than the thickness of a shadow. Guard this artifact well lest they come for you.

OH GODS, I HEAR THEM AT THE WINDOW!

HP.

Obviously they've been reading a lot of Lovecraft, which is something I always mean to do. Go check them out!

Various formats including 320Kbps MP3 and FLAC from Bandcamp

Hesper Payne on Myspace
Hesperpayne.com

Beware! The Gelatinous Gloop

Beware! The Gelatinous Gloop is a compilation of doom and sluge metal from Exhilarate Records. There's some great stuff on here, including tracks from my band Funeral Hag and fellow Brighton doomsters Enos and Dopefight. The download is split into two parts, so make sure you grab both so you get all 22 bands and 2 hours 25 minutes of doom!

Tracklist as follows:

Part 1 – Tracks 1-11

01. Ophis ‘The Halls of Sorrow’
02. Hiram ‘Peering Over the Shoulder of Admiral Piri-Reis’
03. The Machete Massacre ‘Kingdom of Sin’
04. Bitterdusk ‘Amanecer De La Galaxi’
05. Fall of Empyrean ‘In the Shadows of the Sun’
06. Funeral Hag ‘Nellie Longarms’
07. Zatokrev ‘Story of a Thousand’
08. Enos ‘Back to Earth’
09. Grief’s Exquisite Veil ‘Sleep’s Caress’
10. Hopkins ‘Permutations’
11. Dopefight ‘Nob.Nod.Noi’

Part 2 – Tracks 12-22

12. Sobre Nocturne ‘Shattered Fields’
13. Tovarish ‘Laika’
14. Blame Keiko ‘Everything & Nothing’
15. The Way of Purity ‘Sinner’
16. Circus of Damnation ‘In Speciem Cadaveris’
17. Plaguewitch ‘Aarka’
18. John Halifax ‘Robust’
19. Merciless Precision ‘Suffer (live at the Zeneth)’
20. Normalman ‘Flamingo Land’
21. Drug Honkey ‘The Others’
22. Brown & Benbow ‘Dog Waste’

Various bitrates MP3 download via HTTP from Mediafire
Part 1
Part 2

Exhilarate Records Blogspot

Enos - Chapter 1

Right, not done an update for ages because I'm a massive twat! I have amassed quite a collection of links for you however, so I shall endeavour to keep the updates reasonably regular in future. After all, anyone who's loyal enough a reader to still be reading is bound to be itching for a fix of new free music by now!

This time I shall be shamelessly promoting my mates' band's album! Enos are a Brighton doom band mixing elements of doom, stoner, prog and space rock. Their first album was a long time in the making and mixing drove their front-man to despair. Fortunately for us he persevered and we get served up these 5 tracks of psychedelic doom for free! There's also a great comic book as a PDF with the album, which some of you may recognise from one of Chris' other projects Thee Big Black, a Brighton based fanzine, webzine, forum and promotions group for all things stoner, doom, drone, sludge and anything else somone feels like contributing. Well worth a read/listen so check 'em out!

320Kbps MP3 via HTTP from theebigblack.com

Enos on Myspace

Matsudo - With Amplifiers Zions Nothingness Eventually Rises

Matsudo are a doom/sludge band from Sweden. I don't know a lot about them, but it seems they rate Sabazius so they are obviously men of great taste! It also seems they've split up, annoying as I hadn't really heard much from them before. Their stuff is slow and heavy, with some quiet droney interludes, but overall doomy as fuck. Check it out!

160Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Mediafire.com


Matsudo on Myspace

Earthtone9 - Inside Embers Glow... A Collection Of Earthtone9's Aural Communiqués 1998 - 2002

I don't really remember Earthtone9 from back in the day, but it seems they were most influential on various people I know. I remember them being around and written about in Kerrang and Metal Hammer, think I met someone whose brother was in the band at a party or something once, but I don't know that I ever actually listened to them. My main exposure to them has been because their singer is in one of my favourite Brighton bands, Blackstorm. Anyways, it seems they have reformed and released this best-of compilation for you to download for free. I downloaded it, of course, and it's actually pretty good. A mix of hardcore and nu-metal, nothing too technical but solid rhythms and nice melody. Shame the vocals just make me wish it was Blackstorm!

192Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Earthone9.co.uk (you'll have to enter an email address for the link)

Earthtone9 on Myspace
Earthtone9 official website

Talbot - Eos

Here's another mighty slab of doom from Estonian 2-piece Talbot. This is their first full-length release, and it certainly shows they can keep up the doom for much longer than demonstrated on their previous Tundra EP (which I posted just over a year ago). I liked Tundra so much I bought the CD-R version off the band, which features remixes of 2 tracks not found on the download only version. EOS is even better than Tundra, plenty of monolithic heaviness and also some nice psychedelic interludes. Well worth a listen so go download it!

MP3 @ 192Kbps via HTTP from talbot-music.com

Talbot on Myspace
Talbot Official website

Hiram - If Up Were Along

Not done an update for a while, so here's a quick one because this album is awesome and I need to stop being so lazy.

Today's offering is an album called If Up Were Along by Hiram from Sheffield, UK. There's something about the north that seems to breed good doom bands, I guess it's the whole bleak northern vibe, not that we southerners can't compete (or at least I'd like to think we can, what with me being in a doomy metal band).

If Up Were Along is pretty epic, a 2 disc affair at over 1 hour 30 minutes. It starts off with a clean/acousticy intro with some weird noises but soon gets down to its doomy business, with a sound that's reminiscent of Black Sheep Wall if they hadn't listened to quite so much Meshuggah! The whole album is a nice mix of doom and heavy post rock, with some nice melodic passages but enough heaviness and screaming to keep a metaller like me happy as well.

192Kbps or 320Kbps MP3s via HTTP from Mediafire

Hiram on Myspace

Avalanche On Play Volumes 1 and 2

Avalanche On Play is a tribute to the music of Justin K Broadrick (of Godflesh, Jesu, Curse Of The Golden Vampire, Greymachine and many, many other projects). Unlike most tribute albums, this one features entirely new songs as opposed to covers of songs Broadrick has worked on. The music from the compilation is entirely provided by the users of the avalanchers.co.uk forum. Some users were discussing how much Broadrick had influenced their music, and decided to put together a tribute compilation. Obviously this project found massive support in the forums as they ended up releasing two volumes at once with a total running time of 2 hours 11 minutes!

The music itself is somewhat varied, as one might expect given Broadrick's varied output over the years. Songs range from Jesu-like shoegazing misery to more relentless Godflesh style bleak industrial pounding. I've rather enjoyed all of it, so hopefully you will too!

Featuring the music of:

2¦Frail
BetaCloud
Concrete/Field
Concrete Mutant
cracks
Crat¤s
Finite Death
Haedron
iDieresis
Lusca
Meat Machinery
Metonym
Monotremata
M00D
newbreed
pAGANsONG
Quatersized
Savier
Semi0n
Shirk
SHJK
The Project_Pale
TJ
Vinyl Kitty Hand

320Kbps MP3 via HTTP from 689eyes.com
FLAC via HTTP from 689eyes.com Part 1
FLAC via HTTP from 689eyes.com Part 2

www.avalanchers.co.uk forum
Avalanche On Play official website
Avalanche On Play on Myspace

Huata - Open The Gates Of Shambhala

Huata are a stoner doom band from France. Riffs as big and fuzzy as Electric Wizard, but a little more lethargic (if that's even possible) and growlier, more Ramesses like vocals. This EP is their second release and features five tracks, with a running time of 34:18. Well worth a listen!

VBR MP3 ~256 Kbps via HTTP from imm3moria.org
WAV via HTTP from imm3moria.org

Huata on Myspace

Trippy Wicked & The Cosmic Children Of The Knight - Movin' On

I was first alerted to Trippy Wicked & The Cosmic Children Of The Knight by Mike, singer from awesome Brighton stoner band Uncle Debauchery. This is some massive, heavy stoner rock, with powerful melodic vocals. Their singer can really hold a note. Awesome stuff, so check them out!

Their album is up for free download in January, so if you want it then get it quick! There are a load of formats available to choose from, so pick whatever one you want from the site.

Formats are:
320Kbps MP3
VBR MP3 (high quality)
VBR MP3 (low quality)
AAC (high quality)
AAC (low quality)
OGG Vorbis
FLAC
ALAC (no idea what that is!)

Various audio formats via HTTP from trippywicked.bandcamp.com

Trippy Wicked & The Cosmic Children Of The Knight on Myspace

Kabuto The Python - Shed Skins: A Collection Of Shit That Sucks and The Gun-Fu Remixes

Right, started writing this post almost a year ago but forgot about it and it got lost in the drafts folder. Anyways, a double whammy of Nerdcore action from Kabuto The Python. First up is Shed Skins, the first EP from the mighty Kabuto The Python. Definitely one of my favourite nerdcore artisits so far. Quite monotone, but brilliant timing and words and some massive beats! His Myspazz description reads "KABUTO IS A MAMMOTH CREATURE IN SIZE AND STRENGTH WITH A HOMONID BUILD. MANY SPIKES ADORN THE CREATURE'S BODY, WHILE ITS MAW IS FIERCE AND IMPOSING". So, there you go. That's Kabuto for ya. Also in this post is the remix EP Shed Skins: The Gun-Fu Remixes, as remixed by Gun-Fu.

Shed Skins: A Collection Of Shit That Sucks MP3 320/128 Kbps via HTTP from Galactopticon.net
Shed Skins: The Gun-Fu Remixes 320Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Galactopticon.net

Kabuto The Python on Myspace
Gun-Fu on Myspace

Ewigkeit - Return To The Land Of Fog

Now defunct, Ewigkeit was a one man project of Brighton based music wizard James Fogarty. Ewigkeit's sound varied greatly during their active period from full on black metal to the melodic, industrial tinged metal we hear on this free EP, released on Earache in 2006 just before Mr Fog burned all this music contracts in despair at the state of the industry. Fogarty has now moved on to other projects, most of which can be found for free download at his new anti-label Death To Music Productions and some of which I'm sure to be posting in the near future! This EP contains 3 tracks of beautifully constructed industrial metal, some awesome harmonies, great guitar sound. Go check it out!

~210Kbps VBR MP3 as Individual Tracks via HTTP from Earache.com
Ewigkeit on Myspace

Sons Of Liberty - Brush Fires Of The Mind

Sons Of Liberty is a solo project of Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer. Whilst he describes it as a politically neutral project, it seems a little bit over-patriotic right-wing conspiracy-theorist influenced to me, but then to a lot of Americans I guess I'm a bleeding-heart liberal pinko (or even worse, a foreigner!).

Anyways, lyrical content and inflamatory band names aside, this album is very much in an Iced Earth vein, though sees Jon Schaffer taking on lead vocal duties himself for the first time (and presumably everything else since it's a solo project). Iced Earth will already be familiar with Schaffer's vocal style as he does a lot of vocal work on Iced Earth stuff. Think he even sang a whole song by himself when I saw them at Wacken.

Don't have a direct download link, but you can get one emailed to you by signing up to the mailing list on their website. It's only 96Kbps, but you'll get the idea from there. There are also 256Kbps MP3 and high-quality M4A versions download available for purchase. There doesn't seem to be any official artwork, so I put together the cover on this page 'cause I like to have artwork on my MP3s!

Sons Of Liberty Offical Site

B A T I L L U S - The Batillus EP

B A T I L L U S are a doom band from Brooklyn, NY, USA. This is their first EP and is three tracks of rather nice instrumental doom (a fourth track is present on the CD release, which can be purchased here), about as heavy as the Batillus class supertanker for which they are presumably named. They seem to have recruited a vocalist since this EP, and the newer stuff sounds rather good also. Apparently this EP was tracked live and mixed in only two days at Black Box Studio in Hansen, MA, but it sounds like they took all the time they needed!

320Kbps MP3 Via HTTP from Batillusdoom.com

B A T I L L U S on Myspace
B A T I L L U S on Blogspot