Bumsnogger - 2002-2006

Bumsnogger were a  band from Nottingham in the UK, apparently drunkely formed to play sludge!  There's a definite Iron Monkey influence here, which of course means I love it, though there's a slightly more bouncy, stoner rock feel to Bumsnogger than IM.  I remember seeing the name on forums and stuff a few years ago but had never actually heard anything from them until I found this!  Unfortunately this was around the same time as I reinstalled Last.FM and it decided to submit all my tracks to Skype as 'mood messages'.  My boss was not amused to find his Skype homepage filled with notifications that I was listening to Bumsnogger tracks like Being Fucked Over, Dutch Fisting and Murdering the Homeless!

This release compiles Bumsnogger's two EPs and one split 7", plus a couple of rehearsal recordings of unreleased tracks.  Sounds like they were a great band so this is well worth a download.

Various formats including MP3 (320K/VBR) and FLAC from Bandcamp.com

Bumsnogger on Facebook
Bumsnogger on Myspace

The Amenta - V01D

 Right, I know, it's been bloody ages.  I got rather distracted with life, or video games, or fuck knows what the hell I was doing.  Anyways, I'm back again and here's something awesome for you all.  I grabbed an album by The Amenta a while ago because they were playing at Wacken Open Air.  I go to Wacken every year and I generally try and check out all the bands beforehand so I know who to go see.  Anyways, I grabbed The Amenta's Ocassus album and rather enjoyed it.  Then I completely forgot about it and forgot what they were called.  Fortunately, I managed to remember the other day and grabbed some more of their stuff.

The sound is pretty brutal, and seems to be described as Industrial Death Metal, right up my street since The Berzerker are one of my favourite bands!  The Amenta are a bit more traditionally Death Metal than The Berzerker, the drums are a bit more natural sounding than the gabber-style triggered kicks you'll find there (only a bit), but just as relentless and heavy.  There're plenty of keys adding depth to the sound throughout and some nice industrially sounding intros and breaks.  Well worth a listen if you like that sort of thing.

V01D is an interesting project.  It's a free release with 16 tracks and 4 videos, mostly composed of re-recordings or remixes of tracks from previous releases.  I guess this makes it as good a place to start as any and the production is solid throughout, the re-recordings sounding even more brutal than the original versions!  Check out the video below and if you like what you hear go grab the album.  Highly recommended.

320KBPS MP3 from TheAmenta.com

The Amenta Official Website
The Amenta on Myspace

Crypsis - Choir For The Carrion

Crypsis are a thrash metal band from Brighton, UK. I first encountered them when they played at the Brightona bike rally last year with my band Funeral Hag. Their style is pure oldschool European thrash metal, in the vein of Kreator and Sodom, though the vocals really remind me of Death! They have supported such mighty thrash bands as Gama Bomb and Death Angel (as did Funeral Hag :D).

Choir For The Carrion is their first release aside from a three track demo in 2009, and the sound on this is much more polished. You can grab the EP for free from their Bandcamp page, or there is now a CD version available for purchase. The CD launch party is taking place tonight at the Prince Albert in Brighton, so head on down for some great Brighton thrash if you can!

Various formats including 320Kbps MP3 and FLAC from Bandcamp

Crypsis on Myspace

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

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

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

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

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

Doom Metal Alliance Sampler Volume 9

The Doom Metal Alliance is a Myspace page dedicated to all things doom related. There is also a related blog, Doommantia, which features reviews of the latest doom releases (these can also be found on the DMA Myspace Blog) and their player features tracks from various underground doom bands. So if you like doom and want to discover some new doom bands then head on over there.

They also do a series of compilations called the Doom Metal Alliance Samplers. The latest in this series, Volume 9, is the first one to come to my attention and is certainly a fine specimen! It features plenty of slow, doomy heaviness so go download it! Tacklisting as follows:

1. Yidhra - The Lament Of Longinus (www.myspace.com/yidhra)
2. Dark Covenant - Forever Amongst The Ruins (www.myspace.com/darkcovenantdoom)
3. No Hope - M Lady (www.myspace.com/nohopedoomcore)
4. Destino Entierro - The Alcholichrist (www.myspace.com/destinoentierro)
5. Balkhara - Old Woman Dressed In Black (www.myspace.com/balkhara)
6. Project Armageddon - Plague For Shattered Man (www.myspace.com/projectingarmageddon)
7. Raven Head - Cold Lake (www.myspace.com/ravenheadband)
8. Coffin Riders - Bringer Of Doom (www.myspace.com/coffinriders)
9. Wizardrone - The Dawn Of Broken Empires (www.myspace.com/wizardrone)
10. Calliophis - Eyes Of Suffering (www.myspace.com/calliophis)

128-320Kbps MP3 Via HTTP from Mediafire

Doom Metal Alliance on Myspace
Doommantia Blog

FDISK - Connection Reset By Satan

As any regular readers will know, I'm rather into my nerdcore hip-hop due to my love of hip-hop and unashamed geekery. Anyways, for a long time I've toyed with the idea of starting a nerdcore metal band. Well, it seems that FDISK have rather beaten me to it! As one might guess from the name (well, if one was nerdy enough), they're a computer geekery inspired thrash metal band from LA. I think they must have added my band Funeral Hag on Myspazz over the weekend when I was sick and ignoring the internets as they appeared in our friends list, and of course I couldn't resist checking them out! The tunes aren't bad and the lyrics are most amusing, though the demo is a little unpolished. Definitely worth checking out though, especially if you, like me, are of a somewhat geeky pursuasion.

~200Kbps VBR MP3 via HTTP from Linkline.com
~200Kbps VBR MP3 via HTTP from Megaupload.com

FDISK on Myspace

Arteriosus - Promo Demo

Arteriosus are a progressive doom band from Brighton. I saw them a few weeks back with my mates Here There Be Monsters and the mighty Blackstorm at The Prince Albert and was rather impressed. Normally not too into the buildy post-rockish type doom, but these guys managed to pull it off in a way I rather enjoyed! Tons of feedback and huge guitar and bass sounds, as you would expect from a doom band, and some rather nice melodic elements too. I swapped a demo CD of my band Funeral Hag for theirs and it is rather good. Just noticed you can download it for free, so here it is! Enjoy. I shall be going to see them this evening at The Hope , along with From Beneath It Devours who are also rather good.

??Kbps MP3 Via HTTP from Rapidshare Password – SirensSound.blogspot.com (Yes I nicked the link from someone else's blog)
128Kbps MP3 Via HTTP from Last.FM (Individual tracks)

Arteriosus on Myspace
Arteriosus on Facebook

Gama Bomb - Tales From The Grave In Space

Gama Bomb are fucking awesome! They're a thrash band from Ireland who love to thrash it out in a comedy fashion. They are so awesome that they've decided to give away their latest album for free. I don't really know what else to say about this album than that it's fucking awesome. Seriously. So go download it now, and go see them on tour. They're playing at the Engine Rooms in Brighton, amongst other places of course, on the 10th of November along with local thrashers Crypsis and tickets are only £6.50! So, go see Gama Bomb, download their album and buy their stuff!

320Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Rapidshare

Gama Bomb at Myspace
Earache Records at Myspace
Earache Records Official Website

The Hard Way - 2009 Demo

The Hard Way is a hardcore band from Brighton, England, formed in 2009. Beyond this I can't really say much as there ain't much info about them on Last.FM or Myspazz. Not normally that into my Hardcore, but these guys are pretty thrashy as hardcore goes. They rather remind me of SSS in fact! They've kindly posted their demo online for free, so check them out. If you like 'em, go see 'em at Greenhouse Effect in Brighton. I will certainly do my best to be there.

160Kbps MP3s Via HTTP from Megaupload

The Hard Way at Myspace
The Hard Way at Blogspot

Hesper Payne - Titans Of The Northsea

This EP comes from the mighty Hesper Payne of Newcastle. Proper heavy stuff, nice bit of doom mixed with some death metal, sludge and all sorts. Seems they've had some struggles along the way, but this EP is freakin' awesome. Go download it now, and indeed buy a copy off them if you like it. Apparently they have another EP/demo that was available for download at some point but I really can't find it on their Myspace page. Ah well...

192Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Rapidshare.com

Hesper Payne at Myspace

Moloch - Demo

Moloch are an awesome sludgecore band from Nottingham. Not a lot of info on their Myspazz, but they're fuckin' awesome! Got their EP on 10" which is very nice and shiny (also available on CD, see their myspazz) and also an awesome baseball shirt. Nice guys! Also they're playing at the Hobgoblin in Brighton on the 22nd June. Go check them out, I will sure as hell be there!

MP3 @ 256Kbps via HTTP from Rapidshare.com

Moloch at Myspace

Sabazius - Devotional Songs

Second album from my bandmates in Funeral Hag, Steve and Nev of Sabazius. This is some more proper doom, four tracks totalling 2:32:32 of grinding heaviness and lightswitch solos. Yes that's right, apparently this album features the sound of Nev's lightswitch. Think I'm listening to that bit right now. Of course, two of the tracks are intro and outro so really it's 2 massively long doom tracks! I wouldn't suggest listening to Sabazius if you're feeling impatient as they take quite a while to get going... well if you ever consider doom to have got going. I guess the fact that it doesn't is kinda the point!

Anyways, go download it doom fans.

VBR (approx 192Kbps) MP3 via HTTP from Mediafire Part 1
VBR (approx 192Kbps) MP3 via HTTP from Mediafire Part 2
VBR (approx 192Kbps) MP3 via HTTP from Rapidshare

Sabazius at Mypsace

Blood Island Raiders - 16-17 (Demo)

Some more vikingy stonery doominess today from the Blood Island Raiders! The Raiders are a London based metal band who play an interesting mix of stoner rock and viking metal. They first came to my attention due to their close relationship with Crowning Glory, who I have been following with interest having seen them supporting Orange Goblin a few years ago. They've done an EP, an album and a split EP all of which are available from this page of their website, and all of which are thoroughly worth getting your hands on. When I bought their EP from Amazon, it turned out the seller I'd selected was actually the band themselves so I got a load of stickers and stuff with it.

Today's offering is their demo from 2002, 1617. It's available from the sounds page of their website as individual tracks, unfortunately only at 112Kbps but at least it's tagged! I tried to upload a .rar file of my tagged and sorted copy with album art, but for some reason Rapidshare didn't like my password. So links to the individual tracks again like last time!

112Kbps MP3 via HTTP from bloodislandraiders.com
1. Arguments For The Abolition Of God
2. Circa 3
3. Demon
4. Closure

Blood Island Raiders at Myspace
Blood Island Raiders Official Site
Blood Island Raiders Facebook fan page

The Shizit - Live At Club Spirit

The Shizit were an industrial metal band from Seattle formed in 1999. Originally promoted through the now defunct MP3.com, they sought to challenge the way the music industry worked and bring underground sounds to the masses. They released two DAM CDs (MP3.com's CDs featuring the regular CD version of the tracks alongside high quality MP3 files), Evil Inside in 1999 and Script Kiddie in 2000. They then went on to release a full length album entitled Soundtrack For The Revolution, which saw releases on several different labels (all now defunct) including E115 Records (original release) and Alec Empire's Digital Hardcore before disbanding in 2002. Two other albums have now been released posthumously through Canadian online collective D-Trash Records, Remixed For The Revolution (2004) and Live At Club Spirit (2008).

Their sound is similar to Rabbit Junk (the frontman JP's current project), but heavier and more aggressive. I always described it as gabber metal due to the relentless beats and highly distorted kick sounds, a la gabber. The result is an impressive fusion of metal, industrial, punk, gabber, hip-hop, hardcore dance and many other genres that is full of energy and just doesn't let up!

Today's offering is one I only just discovered, a D-Trash re-release of the Live At Club Spirit recording. This show was originally posted on The Shizit's MP3.com page as individual tracks back in the days of dialup internet connections and thus is unfortunately only available in 128K MP3 format. The D-Trash release sees the original four tracks supplemented by three new remixes by SLIP and a cover of Ministry's Just One Fix originally found on an Industrial compilation from 2001 called Signal To Noise: Reinforced Industrial Hits, and later on Cleopatra's A Taste Of Sin compilation and An Industrial Tribute To Ministry.

128/192Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Archive.org
128/192Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Rapidshare.com

The Shizit Militia (semi-official fansite)
The Shizit Fanbase at Myspace

Rabbit Junk - Project Nonagon Part 1, The Struggle

Rabbit Junk are an industrial metal band with heavy punk, hip-hop and electro influences (apparently this is called hardclash) hailing from Seattle. They were formed in 2004 after the breakup of front man JP's previous project The Shizit (Myspace) , a brilliant gabber metal band who will be making appearances in these pages in the future. Rabbit Junk takes the raw energy of The Shizit and combines it with more advanced production technique, more melodic elements and a slightly punkier sound (not enough to be bad). With some catchy hooks, serious riffage and awesome sequencing there's something there for everyone!

Project Nonagon is an extension of Rabbit Junk's last album, This Life Is Where You Get Fucked. This Life Is Where You Get Fucked is a concept album in three parts: The Struggle, Ghetto Blasphemer and This Death Is Where You Get Life. The idea behind Project Nonagon is to release a 3 track EP to build on the themes of each of these parts. This first part is, obviously, the extension of The Struggle part of This Life...

192Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Rabbitjunk.com

Rabbit Junk Official Site
Rabbit Junk at Myspace