I have next to no information about Toronto weirdo outfit Godstopper. There’s a quizzical Tumblr page with some pictures and clips, a Bandcamp site (so we can deduce they’re at the forefront of musical social networking), but no bio, lineup info or any of that kind of thing. Given the strangeness of the avant garde doom they get up to on their aptly-titled Demo 2010, I think that’s probably for the best. Keep a little mystique about them. Better than picturing a bunch of dudes with beards in black t-shirts and their hands in their pockets.

There are three tracks on Godstopper‘s Demo 2010, and what rings true in each of them is that the band have a keen melodic sense to what they do. It comes out in the mix-dominating guitar on “Clean House,” and some of vocals of “Don’t Walk Home.” Godstopper manage to keep a balance between quirkiness and hooky accessibility that keeps you wanting to hear more. Even if you don’t like it, you want to sit through it and see where it goes.

The Yawning Man-style guitar tone of short instrumental “SAARENTTO” round out the 7″-length release, and though it’s just about 15 minutes long, Demo 2010 holds much promise for oddities to come. It will be interesting to hear whether Godstopper stay more or less in the same vein of experimentation, go even further into dissonance or start upping the melody and blending it with Melvins-style plod. Judging by the three cuts on Demo 2010 (which you can hear below), they could really go any way they please.

Probably should have seen this one coming, since the Animosity lineup also played the Southern Lord fest out in California earlier this year, but the confirmation that this legendary incarnation of Corrosion of Conformity will be at Roadburn 2011 is welcome news nonetheless. Here it is, straight from the Roadburn site:

The reunited classic Animosity lineup of Corrosion of Conformity — Mike Dean (bass, vocals), Woody Weatherman (guitar) and Reed Mullin (drums) — has been confirmed for SunnO)))‘s curated event at Roadburn 2011, set for April 15 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, Holland.

Also appearing on the bill are Winter, Earth, Scorn, Beaver, Hooded Menace, Menace Ruine, Aluk Todolo, The Secret, Atilla Csihar’s Void ov Voices and SunnO))).

As curator, SunnO))) (Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley) are personally selecting the bands that will play during their special event, as well as performing a headlining show. SunnO))) is Roadburn’s fourth curator, following David Tibet in 2008, Neurosis in 2009 and Triptykon’s Tom Gabriel Warrior at this year’s festival in April.

With their sophomore full-length, Terminal, Annandale, Virginia-based sludgers Salome make what might just become their definitive statement of intent. The bass-less guitar/drum/vocal trio blast out seven torturous tracks of blisteringly demented doom, seeming to revel in the misery they propagate. The guitars mask the otherwise missing bottom end, and though what the band bring to sludge innovates more in terms of overall aesthetic than sound, their ultra-hateful atmosphere and penchant for the dynamic is even more what contributes to the success of Terminal.

My go-to comparison point for this kind of über-doom is generally Khanate, and while Salome are less minimalist in everything but the lyrics and vicious screams of Katherine Katz, there are some similarities. Perhaps a more appropriate analogy could be made to New Orleans madmen Thou, who affect a similarly unstable ambience in their music yet maintain a lofty air of artistry. With Terminal, Salome presents thoughtful if openly-structured songwriting in a style bent on extremity, and their balance of noise and monstrous riffing shows itself right from the beginning of “The Message.” The track (and thus, the album) begins with Echoplex noise that gets cut off by the guitar of Rob Moore and the drums of Aaron Deal, who begin the song with Katz following shortly behind on vocals. It’s a technique they use several times throughout Terminal, perhaps most noticeably as the 17-minute noise-only fuck-you  “An Accident of History” leads into the decidedly more active “The Witness.” It’s a way for Salome to make their songs more memorable, and despite being telegraphed by the time you’re mostly through the album, it works.

If you’re the kind of person to skip a song, however, it’s all the more likely you’ll just pass by “An Accident of History” altogether, since it’s genuinely hard to sit through. Moore offers some changes in his guitar noise, amp hum, droning, etc., but it’s all abrasive and it’s a challenge I’ve only managed to meet a couple times in listening to Terminal. The shorter bursts of noise, like that which ends “The Message” and bleeds into Deal’s starting the title track, seem more purposeful, but it’s obvious Salome didn’t have accessibility in mind when putting together the album. That said, the rhythmic pulse driving “Master Failure” and Katz’s near-perfect cadence of “We tried, we failed” accompanying make for one of Terminal’s strongest and hardest-hitting moments. At 6:45, it’s second only to the title cut as the shortest song on the record, but it’s also the tightest structurally, so the change is noticeable in more than one way. I wouldn’t look for it to be a hit single anytime soon, but it’s bound to stick with lovers of the gruesomely extreme in sludge.

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I haven’t done one of these in a while (it might actually be since last Thanksgiving), but today’s the perfect opportunity for it. Maybe you’re stuck in the house with your entire family and you want to get away for a little bit — no better way to do it than with the clips below.

For the puritan in all of us, there’s the creepy heavy ’70s rock of Salem Mass, for the doomer, The Obsessed live in 1992. Steven Seagal shows up in the Masters of Reality video. Christopher is bound to fill your psych needs, and if it gets more stoner rock than Fu Manchu doing “King of the Road,” I don’t know how. And finally, if you don’t feel like listening to or watching music at all, there’s Ian Gillan telling stories about his time in Black Sabbath. Hope you dig it and Happy Thanksgiving (or whatever day it is when you see this).

Yeah, I know there were probably better ways to spend my time at 2AM last night than watching reruns of The Wire and making the flier below for The Obelisk, but screw it, without a little “me time,” we’re all sunk. I grabbed the drawing from an image search — you’ll never guess which one — screwed with the contrast, added some text and came out with the below. It’s not the most complex thing in the world, but I think it’s good sometimes to keep things simple. It gets to the point.

I’ll probably print some out and take them to record stores, maybe keep a few on hand for appropriate shows and such, and in the meantime, I thought you might like to see. Click the image to make it full-size:

On the afternoon we spoke (Friday, Nov. 12, in case anyone’s feeling precise), Crowbar guitarist, vocalist and driving-force Kirk Windstein turned in the final approved version of the artwork for his band’s first album in six years, Sever the Wicked Hand, which is due out Feb. 8, 2011. It’s their E1 Music debut, and as Windstein has seen his profile grow to new heights the past several years in bands like the supergroup Down and his Kingdom of Sorrow project with Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed, the planets look to be aligning for the most successful run Crowbar‘s had yet in their 20-plus years together.

With several months of sobriety under his belt and a cross-band support system of family and friends to back him, Windstein embarks optimistically on this new era in the band with whom he first made his name. In our discussion, he mentioned several times “leaving the negativity behind” as a theme present on Sever the Wicked Hand, and he seems to have done just that. For a guy with a reputation for such downtrodden tones and whose emotional and existential struggles have been documented lyrically across three different decades now, he seems awfully happy.

And who could begrudge him that? He’s certainly earned it, and if the leaked advance track on the album, “The Cemetery Angels” is any indicator, in addition to getting his personal life together, he hasn’t lost touch with what made Crowbar the pivotal sludge act they’ve always been. I’m sure there’s bound to be some of his trademark Crowbar ballads on Sever the Wicked Hand, but one listen to “The Cemetery Angels” and it’s clear Windstein hasn’t left out their special brand of heaviness. When he says “Bring it down!” two minutes and 20 seconds into the song (which you can hear in a YouTube clip at the bottom of the interview), he’s not just talking about tempo.

Sludge from the master thereof. Crowbar is rounded out by guitarist Matthew Brunson (a Kingdom of Sorrow bandmate), bassist Patrick Bruders and drummer Tommy Buckley, but as ever, Windstein‘s guiding the chaos. In the course of our conversation, he discussed returning to Crowbar after working for the last several years exclusively on Down and Kingdom of Sorrow, getting sober, balancing his time between bands, recording Sever the Wicked Hand, touring and much more.

The full Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

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About a month ago, when I was slathering over the brilliance of Alcest‘s Écailles de Lune, John from the infamous Ripple Effect blog noted that he preferred the work of fellow French black metalgazers Les Discrets, and the name stuck with me. I finally checked out a couple tracks on YouTube and yesterday, while also trying yet again to get my hands on a copy of the new Electric Wizard (failure), I grabbed Les Discrets‘ only full-length to date, Septembre et Ses Dernières Pensées, at Vintage Vinyl.

Those familiar with the Prophecy Productions label know they specialize in the melancholic, and Les Discrets is no exception. One thing that surprises me about post-black metal is how much it seems to have in common ideologically with the emotional European doom of bands like Paradise Lost or mid-period Anathema. It’s a connection I haven’t heard many people make, but it feels fairly obvious to me as comparison point sound-wise. In any case, much of that same candlelit ambience seems to have been inherited by the likes of Les Discrets, and they put it to good use.

Septembre et Ses Dernières Pensées is an atmospheric piece through and through, but I think what I enjoy most about it — more than the drama, more than the emotional or tonal weight of the songs — is that the vocals are low in the mix. It seems like the simplest thing in the world, and it seems like a silly reason to think a record rules, but Fursy Teyssier is balanced just right with the music. He and Audrey Hadorn stand out when they need to, as on “Sur les Quais,” but when the music gets heavy, as on the doomly-paced but gorgeous “Chanson d’Automne,” they’re no farther forward than the guitars or Winterhalter‘s drums. It really is one of the strongest aspects of the album.

Teyssier, who is also a member of Amesoeurs with Neige of Alcest, leads the band on Septembre et Ses Dernières Pensées and provides the stunning and dark album art (he also did Écailles de Lune and has done other Prophecy releases as well), but as much as Les Discrets may be a one-man spearheaded project, there’s nothing lacking in terms of fullness of sound or space in the production. It’s probably not going to be everyone’s go-to listening experience, either for the drama, the French lyrics, the melodic emotionality, or the fact that closer “Une Matinée d’Hiver” sounds like the soundtrack to the “she’s leaving but everything’s going to be okay” sensitive moment in every teen comedy ever, but as a mood piece, Septembre et Ses Dernières Pensées is a strong outing in a burgeoning style that’s really only beginning to see exposure. Thanks to John for the killer recommendation.

It’s hard to believe that we’re less than a week away from Kings Destroy‘s And the Rest Will Surely Perish going up for sale right here on The Obelisk. As I know I’ve said a couple times at this point, I’m stoked beyond belief and can’t wait for you to get to hear this record, as aside from being the dude helping to release it, I also think it’s probably the year’s best piece of traditional doom. No bullshit.

With great reverence, I hereby unveil Seldon Hunt‘s cover art for And the Rest Will Surely Perish. Click the image below to open it bigger.

Kings Destroy‘s debut full-length, And the Rest Will Surely Perish, was recorded July 2010 at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ, by Sanford Parker, and it’ll doom your fucking face off. The album comes in a full jewel case and will be available for purchase starting Tuesday, Nov. 30.

Don’t forget: The CD release show is Dec. 10 at the Cake Shop in NYC!