Anyone out there who wants to make a Craigslist post looking for bandmates, the tribalist doom outfit Amarwexu (whose name means “small-poxed Satan”) kindly submit this tutorial as to how you do it:

Amarwexu: Collective musical troupe dedicated to preserving the memory of the many courageous acts of derring-do committed in the name of Imperialism seeks the following:
GUITARS
DRUMS/PERCUSSION – for our full drum line
TRUMPET/BUGLE/HORN PLAYER
BAGPIPES/TIN WHISTLE
ACCORDION/KEYBOARDS
VOCALISTS

A healthy interest in World History would be helpful to this project. A fanatical devotion to our limited aims is mandatory. Band meets roughly once a month for 3-4 hrs in Watchung.

And dig the range of influences. It goes from Crass and Swans to Penance and Rudimentary Peni. I’ve only seen one practice video, but as a fan of that which falls under the heading “crazy shit,” I feel compelled to share. It’s even better knowing this stuff is happening in my home state. Where else but Jersey?

Last Friday night, as I drunkenly slobbered all over Clamfight after their set at Philly‘s Millcreek Tavern — after watching drummer/vocalist Andy Martin puke on himself WITHOUT MISSING A BEAT — the news of the night came in the form of an honest to goodness physical copy of their album, Volume I.

You might recall I included the record in my Top Five of the First Half of 2010 without verifying it was actually out, and shame on me, because it wasn’t. Well, it is now, and I can safely say it’s still one of the best records I’ve heard all year.

Go here to get a copy of the album, because I know for a fact they’ve got them, and I know for a fact that if you miss it your life will suck forever. More to come on these dudes, but they’re playing again in Philly on Sept. 25, so there’s that.

Though between them they’ve spent years playing in bands like Human Remains, Cycle of Pain, Lord Sterling, The Atomic Bitchwax and The Ribeye Bros., drummer Bob Pantella and bassist Jim Baglino are probably best known at this point as the rhythm section of New Jersey stalwarts Monster Magnet. Likely that’s a job that comes packaged with a lot of ups and downs. You get to tour the world over and have a built-in high profile because of the band’s past success, but probably you don’t get to write much and there’s a lot of downtime. Hoping perhaps to make the most of that, Baglino and Pantella formed Riotgod a couple years back with guitarist Garrett Sweeny and vocalist Mark Sunshine. Their self-titled debut, in digipak/bonus track form, is out on Germany’s Metalville Records.

If you’ve been privy to Monster Magnet’s latest output, you at least have a basis for understanding where Riotgod’s Riotgod is coming from; they play a relatively straightforward (in terms of structure) brand of rock, not quite stoner, but definitely influenced by the heavy ‘70s and with some element of space to it, as the cover and tracks like “Light of the Sun” and “Collapsing Stars” would indicate. The material gets samey toward the album’s back half, but there is plenty of quality songwriting on display, and the production, while modern, isn’t nearly as flat as, say, the last Monster Magnet CD. Sunshine does a pretty good John Garcia on the Zeppelin-esque “The Time is Now,” and the chorus of “Collapsing Stars” proves to be a Riotgod high point, which is surprising for a semi-ballad amidst so many hard rockers, but led into by the atmospheric interlude “Omega,” it doesn’t feel out of place.

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In what would have taken a lesser band at least four press releases to get through, New Jersey hometown heroes Monster Magnet have unveiled a host of updates, including info on their new album, Mastermind, which is due out in October on Napalm Records. The PR wire, almost overloaded by the sheer amount of information, has this:

New Jersey’s Monster Magnet will release its long-awaited new album Mastermind this October. In celebration of the record’s impending release, the band has re-launched its website. Focused around the late October worldwide release of Mastermind, the re-launch also serves as the world premiere of the new album’s cover artwork, designed by Invisible Creature (Wolfmother, Chris Cornell, Foo Fighters).

“I’m extremely proud of this new album,” says Monster Magnet frontman Dave Wyndorf. “It’s been an amazing process, the songs are exactly what I wanted them to be, and I’m proud to begin presenting this new phase of the band on our new website.”

The track listing for Monster Magnet’s Mastermind is as follows:
1. Hallucination Bomb
2. Bored with Sorcery
3. Dig that Hole
4. Gods and Punks
5. The Titan Who Cried Like a Baby
6. Mastermind
7. 100 Million Miles
8. Perish in Fire
9. Time Machine
10. When the Planes Fall from the Sky
11. Ghost Story
12. All Outta Nothin’

Monster Magnet on tour:
Aug. 9 Amsterdam (NL) Melkweg
Aug. 10 Saarburcken (D) Garage
Aug. 11 Avenches (CH) Rock Oz Arenes Festival
Aug. 13 Feldkirch (A) Poolbar Festival
Aug. 14 Burgenland (A) Picture On Festival
Aug. 15 Budapest (HU) Sziget Festival
Aug. 17 Prague (CZ) KD Vltavska
Aug. 18 Frankfurt o.M. (D) Batschkapp
Aug. 20 Lierop (NL) Nirwana Tuinfest
Aug. 21 Ludinghausen (D) Area 4 Festival
Aug. 22 Großposna/Leipzig (D) Highfield Festival
Nov. 18 Cardiff (UK) Millenium Music Hall
Nov. 20 Sheffield (UK) Corporation
Nov. 21 Reading (UK) Sub 89
Nov. 22 Southampton (UK) University
Nov. 23 Birmingham (UK) HMV Insititute
Nov. 25 Manchester (UK) Moho Live
Nov. 26 London (UK) Electric Ballroom

As the rhythm section of New Jersey‘s long-running Monster Magnet, drummer Bob Pantella (also of The Atomic Bitchwax and Cycle of Pain) and bassist Jim Baglino (formerly of Lord Sterling and The Ribeye Brothers) have some time on their hands. Magnet is Dave Wyndorf‘s show and everyone knows it, so while he’s off writing, or not writing, a new album, they’re free to do what they want, which apparently is start the band Riotgod with guitarist Garrett Sweeny and vocalist Mark Sunshine.

I heard Riotgod‘s demo a couple years back and dug the hell out of it, so I’m definitely looking forward to their self-titled full-length, out August 17 on Metalville Records. Tremble before the PR wire’s might and wisdom:

In 2007 Monster Magnet‘s Bob Pantella and Jim Baglino created their own alternate universe under the Riotgod banner, inviting guitarist Garrett Sweeny and the estranged vocalist known only as Sunshine to travel the cosmos with them. Their achieved collective goal is Riotgod, their self-titled debut album (due August 17 on Metalville Records) containing some of the most energetic, recognizable and high quality hard rock this side of Mars.

Drummer and founding member Bob Pantella spoke about the formation of Riotgod:

“It was just Jim and myself, you know, just spending a lot of time on the road and we just had a lot of music that we wanted to create. With Monster Magnet, that’s not really the case for us sometimes. That’s more of Dave‘s thing, so we really just wanted to get together and do something a bit more on our own. There’s a lot of time off and personally we like to work a lot so, the desire to do more began building up over the last couple of years.

“We wanted to try our own thing and call our own shots with musical direction and stuff. We talked about it for years and it took a long time to really find the right people and get going. I’ve always had my recording studio, so it was easy in that aspect but it was hard to find the right ingredients — sounds, personalities and such. We know nothing’s perfect but you want to get people into the same head space. This is a great band to take us to a different level. Being in Monster Magnet is an awesome opportunity to launch other things for us.”

Track listing
1. Light of the Sun
2. Crusader
3. The Time is now
4. Horizon
5. 9th Life
6. Omega
7. Collapsing Stars
8. Pinata
9. Drone Station
10. Love it or Leave it
11. Rift
12. Sweet Kaos
13. High Time
14. Grand Design
15. Fangasm*
16. Minds Eye*
*Bonus tracks on digipak only

With production by Andrew Schneider (Throttlerod, The Brought Low, Hackman) and mastering by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East in Boston, there’s no doubt that New Jersey riff rockers Infernal Overdrive are going for that Small Stone Records sound. The four tracks that comprise their new self-titled EP fall in line with the kind of straightforward guitar-led rock the Detroit label has proffered for well over a decade now, and with a similar southern/classic ‘70s influence to New York’s The Brought Low, Infernal Overdrive seem remarkably conscious of what they’re doing sonically. More so than you might expect for a band just releasing their first EP.

The story goes that when guitarist/vocalist Marc Schleicher (ex-Cracktorch, Antler) moved from Massachusetts to central New Jersey, he got hooked up with drummer Mike Bennett and guitarist/backing vocalist Rich Miele (both ex-Loud Earth). Keith Schleicher (relation assumed) was added on bass and Infernal Overdrive began rocking out early 2008. The EP was recorded over two days in February and four in April, and though that seems quick, none of the songs feels rushed or underdone. Schneider, who also shows up on extra backing vocals, makes his mark sound-wise in the tone of Schleicher and Miele’s guitars and Bennett’s snare sound, which has the same pop Schneider has become known for – not too bright, but able to cut through the mix and propel the songs forward. Some of Schleicher’s leads, as on EP closer “Motor,” feel a little too thought out, too structured where what I’d like to hear is a little bluesy ‘70s recklessness, but they get the job done nonetheless, and the vocals are never out of place.

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It was brief, at least compared to their overall four-day session which began Friday and is finishing up today, but I popped into Hoboken‘s famed Water Music recording studio yesterday to visit Kings Destroy as they put to tape their first full-length (nine songs) with none other than the ubiquitous Sanford Parker, who I imagine was in at least three other places at the same time. Like the genuine nerd I am, I was psyched to meet Parker after hearing so much of his work — and I do consider the fact that I didn’t fall to pieces thanking him for producing the last YOB record a personal triumph, given how much I loved that thing — but what really blew me away was the board.

The picture above doesn’t do it justice. You could kayak using the board in Water Music‘s main control room. You could build a house on top of it and finish the basement. I mean, it is large. Ditto for the live room, where guitarist Carl Porcaro was working on the tracks for one of the songs when I arrived. I’m pretty sure I could have camped out there for a week and no one would have noticed. The ceilings were high enough to make you dizzy and the acoustics so good someone could have farted across the room and I’m sure I would have heard it standing by the door. This place was the real deal. In a word, I was outclassed.

It was July 4, and Kings Destroy was gleefully drinking Canadian beer (who could blame them?), setting up the grill for a barbecue, and working through their tracks one at a time, fixing guitars and bass in preparation for the vocal recording still to come. Drummer Rob Sefcik was the only one not present, but his tracks certainly were, and hearing them, even unmixed, come through the studio monitors, it was clear why the band chose to work where they did. If you can afford it, to do otherwise seems foolish.

I heard two songs before I had to split, one of which had the working and hopefully soon-to-be-permanent title “The Dusty Mummy.” It was heavy, and doomed, and guitar-led, though I wouldn’t be at all surprised if what really shines through when the recording is done is the bass of Ed Bocchino which is an element of Kings Destroy I’d underestimated before, unless it was just Parker bringing it out, which is possible given his reputation for sonic largess. It’s easy for the bass to get lost in a two-guitar band, but Bocchino definitely was a standout in the tracks I heard, his low end giving gravity to Porcaro and Chris Skowronski‘s guitars and shining on its own as well. I know this music is all about the riffs, but if you’ve got killer bass tone and good drum sounds, that’s more than half the battle right there, and that’s a fight Kings Destroy seem to have won already.

The coal pyramid was built and lit in the grill, but obligations pulled me in another direction, so I made my way back to my car, paid the miserable dude working the parking lot, and headed back westbound on 80. I don’t know what Kings Destroy are going to do with this recording, and according to vocalist Steve Murphy, neither do they, but hearing just the small piece of it get put to tape I heard, I’m even more looking forward to the final result.

I wasn’t initially going to write a review of the Adrian Belew show I saw the other night at Mexicali Live in Teaneck, NJ (that’s right — a real live music venue I didn’t have to drive to Brooklyn to get to! I didn’t think they existed either), but after talking with The Patient Mrs. sharing some thoughts didn’t seem so out of line. Take it or leave it.

First and foremost, if you don’t know who Adrian Belew is, he’s been playing guitar in King Crimson since the band got back together in 1981, and before that he’d worked with David Bowie and Frank Zappa. He’s also has a more than considerable solo discography. Basically, he’s a genius with a guitar. The name of this tour was “Painting with Guitar,” and Belew was joined on stage by four of his own paintings, a new Yamaha Tenori-on, and a laptop. So yeah, you could call it a one-man show.

He played some Crimson material, “Three of a Perfect Pair” and “The Power to Believe” (unless I’m mistaken), as well as some new, mostly instrumental pieces and a song from his band The Bears, launching at one point into the sitar line from The Beatles‘ “Love You To,” much to the delight of the few who recognized it. In between he stopped to take questions from the nearly all-male audience — hippies and prog nerds of various shapes, sizes, ages and hairlines — which not only served as a welcome break from the overwhelming complexity of the music he was playing, but an education on his equipment, methods and history. He told a story about living with Frank Zappa that I’m sure has been recounted at least 700 times before, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

One of the chief complaints with technical prog (a category Belew might offset being included in by reminding as he did several times from the stage that he can’t read music) is that the music has no soul. Watching Adrian Belew play with an ear-to-ear grin on his face as though he was continually astonished by just how neat the noises he can make with his guitar are, I firmly believe that those crazy loops and mathematically impossible time signatures are just the sounds his soul makes. He displayed every ounce the passion I’ve ever seen anyone play with, and he did it while mopping the floor with damn near the whole planet’s technique. It was something to watch.

Alas, the early show, over by about 9:30PM. Belew wound up taking three Q&A breaks through the set, most of one being dedicated to explaining why his new signature Parker guitar was pretty much the best thing ever, and closed with a long instrumental piece originally written for The Adrian Belew Power Trio, with whom he regularly tours. All in the span of maybe an hour, maybe a little more. And even as he discussed a conversation he’d recently had with Robert Fripp about reforming King Crimson next year for the 30th anniversary of the 1981 lineup, his love of the music came through clearly and honestly, and it was incredible to see and understand that there is a being out there capable of not only achieving that love but of maintaining it across a career spanning more than four decades. I left Mexicali Live smiling and don’t think I could have otherwise even if I’d wanted to.

Note: The song in the video below is called “Europe by Rail,” and it was written using the Tenori-on as a drum machine.

It just occurred to me that, along with Fatso Jetson‘s Archaic Volumes, Solace‘s A.D. is the second album on this list to have taken seven years to complete. Sure, Solace had the The Black Black EP in between, but for studio full-lengths, 13 came out in 2003. It’s hard to believe A.D. is only Solace‘s third album. Seems like at this point they have more DVDs out than CDs.

Nevertheless, the New Jersey natives have, at long last, released the album, and it’s some of the best recorded doom and roll I’ve witnessed in a long time. In February, when I joined guitarists Tommy Southard and Justin Daniels for the mixing session at Mad Oak Studios in Allston, Massachusetts, and I first got to hear the tracks, I was blown away by how powerful the material sounded. Yes, it was recorded over a span of years at different sessions, but at no point does A.D. sound hodgepodge or like it’s the product of one big cut and paste.

Those who were waiting for A.D. know now it was worth the time. I still get a chill up my spine whenever I listen to “From Below,” and cuts like “Six Year Trainwreck” and “Za Gamman” are great examples of why Solace have made such a name for themselves in the doom underground. Yeah, they’re from Jersey and so am I, so there’s a regional loyalty there, but I defy you to listen to A.D. and find me a better doom album that’s come out this year. It doesn’t exist.

The only reason it’s not number one on this list is it hasn’t been out as long as my number one pick and I factor in listens over time so as to offset the novelty of the more recent releases (it’s a very complex system). Without that, A.D. would be my number one for sure, as Solace have made a defining point of an album that I’ve no doubt will prove a landmark in years to come. And it’s good, too.

Astonishingly, it’s been 22 years since Danzig released their first, Rick Rubin-produced self-titled album through Def American Recordings. The band at this point is basically frontman Glenn Danzig and whoever he gets to play with him, but on the latest Danzig outing, Deth Red Sabaoth (The End Records/Evilive), we see some familiar faces from past tours. Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly is present and accounted for, as is Prong’s Tommy Victor on guitar. Danzig himself handled bass in addition to his trademark animalistic howling vocals, without which, frankly, this just wouldn’t be a Danzig record.

Much has been made of Deth Red Sabaoth’s organic vibe, as Danzig himself has highlighted the ‘70s amps the guitars and bass were run through in search of a more natural sound. Fine, but there’s no getting around how compressed the mix of the album is. Even at ridiculous volumes, the songs feel condensed sonically, and that’s across the board, from guitars, to bass, drums and even Danzig’s vocals, which as he says the song titles during several choruses – “Left Hand Rise Above,” “On a Wicked Night” and “Deth Red Moon” – are charmingly and characteristically indiscernible. The compression doesn’t ruin the listening experience by any means, but it is an example of how modern professional recording is at a crossroads and, I think, a little directionless. A discussion for another time.

Danzig is credited with having written all the songs on Deth Red Sabaoth himself (he even plays drums on “Black Candy”), so I suppose the blame for the pinch harmonics that flat-out ruin the riff of “The Revengeful” – the otherwise perfectly serviceable second track – have to be laid at his feet. Even as Victor lays down a shredding solo, they’re there, multi-tracked just beneath. I’m not a fan of the riff-riff-squee in the first place, but these seem especially annoying, and they come back during “Black Candy,” which, along with “On a Wicked Night” is one of Danzig’s many “this one’s for the ladies” cuts. “Deth Red Moon” reminds a bit of “Mother” in its main riff, but I far prefer the southbound bent of “Ju Ju Bone,” which has a swampy vibe in both guitar and Danzig’s vocals, and the doomed acrobatics of “Night Star Hel.” The latter is my pick of the album.

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It’s a rare band that can blend brutality and groove, good times and hard hits, and Clamfight do it so well they couldn’t have been born to do anything else. The New Jersey clan’s first full-length outing, Vol. 1, was years in the making and riffs has hard, rumbles as deep and crashes as loud as anything I’ve heard this year.

Plus, it has the kind of artwork where you might see it in a store, buy it for a kid because it looks adorable and then scar said child for life with “Fuck Bulldozers” or “Viking Funeral.” And, as we all know, any music that induces trauma in the young is a good thing. Childrens could use a kick in the ass.

But even that’s not what ultimately got Clamfight on the TFFH10 list. And it’s not the fact that I know them either. What ultimately did it was a song like “Ghosts I Have Known,” which in addition to being concrete heavy is also a display of the band’s songwriting prowess. Sure, we can all get down with the pummel of “Rabbit,” and that’s a great time, but there’s more to Vol. 1 than that, and it’s right there for anyone willing to hear it.

Because this was an album that I’d waited for, and because it’s one that, even after the review, I’ve gone back to time and again for what I’ve pathetically come to classify as “enjoyment listens,” I’m glad to have Clamfight‘s Vol. 1 on my top five of the first half of 2010.

I know they’re new at it and all, and coming from the always-vibrant New York hardcore scene, it probably slipped through the procedural cracks, but apparently no one told Kings Destroy that nobody comes to see doom in Jersey. When I walked into the Moonlight Mile studio space at 123 Harrison St. in Hoboken on Saturday night for the Obelisk-presented evening with Choirs of Titan, Kings Destroy and The Nolan Gate, the place was packed. I take credit for none of it, but it was great to see anyway. The crowd, the median age of which still had to hire a babysitter for the night — except for the one couple who brought their kid and slapped those industrial earphones on her — looked like they were having a killer time before the show even started. The kegs, of which I saw four, were all gone by the time The Nolan Gate went on stage.

It was a beautiful thing, to be sure.

The name of the first of the four total bands escapes me, but I know it definitely had the word “cock” somewhere in there. They were fronted by Bill Dolan (American Standard) and played a collection of covers, from Misfits to AC/DC, all drunken, all joyous, goods times. It was a lighthearted way to kick off the show, and they pulled in a huge crowd, Dolan being something of a Hoboken luminary. It was a vibe Manhattan‘s Choirs of Titan would more or less completely shift away from with their Wolfmother-style ’70s retro rock. Zepplin riffs through Orange amps; it’s been done by a thousand tight-pants trios before, but guitarist/vocalist Elliot had chops enough to pull it off, and I’m pretty sure I was standing behind the drummer’s father while they played their set, and that’s always charming when the parents come out. Not really my bag, but nothing against them. I’m sure they do just fine in NYC.

I asked the DJ if he had any Kyuss. He didn’t. Sleep? Nope, left it home. He had played “Godzilla” by Fu Manchu earlier, so I thought maybe I’d hit him up for some other classics, but no dice. Back to the beer line.

One thing about the older crowd: they knew how to keep the bathroom clean. Looked roughly the same at the end of the night as it did at the beginning. Apparently sometime in the years between 30-38 is when most dudes learn not to piss all over the seat/floor/surrounding walls/etc. That must be a magical time in a man’s life.

It was Kings Destroy‘s first show ever, which I hadn’t realized. I thought they’d snuck one in before, but frontman Steve Murphy (Uppercut) informed otherwise. Given that, their set was all the more impressive. It’s a rudimentary kind of riff-based doom they play, but interestingly, they do it with the presence and confidence of their many successful years in hardcore. Though they’ve been fans of the genre for a long time, they’re just getting their start in the stoner/doom world, and so watching them on stage was more or less seeing a process of discovery with the added benefit that it was already established musicians and performers doing the discovering.

They played both songs from their recently-reviewed Old Yeller/Medusa 7″, which is due out later this month, along with several others, and it was clear from the start of their set to the finish whose show it was. They’re still very much putting it all together, but I’m excited to see what’s going to happen when they put this material to tape for a full-length. The songs had a consistency of atmosphere and composition that bodes well for the album to come.

The Nolan Gate closed out the night in heavy fashion, but not before Dolan — carrying a Costco-size bottle of Jagermeister — ran back in to give Gang Green‘s “Alcohol,” played by the DJ between bands, a complementing stage show; the chorus of “I’d rather drink than fuck” being the subject of numerous gang chants into the mic, which, it’s worth mentioning, wasn’t turned on. There’s a word for that. It’s called fun. Not something you see every night at what’s ostensibly a doom show.

I hadn’t caught a set from The Nolan Gate in a couple years, and the update I gave myself after watching their set went as follows: “still doing their thing.” The trio have been plugging away in their corner of Hoboken for years now, but they’re always enjoyable to watch, and the “Fjord” shouts, which started up demanding the song before the band even started to play, turned out to be justified. They rocked, and the end of the night was, strangely, every bit as appropriate as the beginning. I did not envy myself for having the task of driving home.

You know damn well I wouldn’t be recommending a show in the hipster hellpit known as Hoboken, NJ, if it wasn’t going to be an incredible time — never mind presenting it, which apparently I do now. Got my hands in everything this week, I guess.

May 8, the NYHC doom supergroup Kings Destroy, whose debut 7″ will be reviewed here shortly, The Nolan Gate (one of my favorite underrated Jersey bands) and Orange-amped riff rockers Choirs of Titan hit stage for a kegger in a Hoboken warehouse space. If you’re nearby and looking for an alternative to the douchebaggery that permeates so much of that town on a given Saturday night, this is the place to be.

It’s more like a house show than one of those dipshit $6 Miller Lite indie rock extravaganzas the rest of the town will be getting down with, so come down to 123 Harrison St. at 9pm sharp and we’ll doom out and raise a toast to being the ones keeping the zombies at bay. Here’s to it. See you there.

If you don’t live in New Jersey, it probably doesn’t make any sense to you how different the top half is from the bottom. The growth of suburban culture in the last century has essentially divided the northern and southern parts of the state, so that each is more aligned with the major urban center to which it’s closest — north being NYC and south being Philly — resulting in a pretty clear divide from one to the other. Aside from baseball fandom, this has numerous other cultural applications. For example, the southern part of the state has a much stronger music scene.

At least as far as this site’s concerned, that’s partially due to the whole Red Bank group of bands who first came up in the ’90s: Monster Magnet, Core, Godspeed and The Atomic Bitchwax. The scene they fostered has splintered, grown and shifted, but never completely gone away. Even a new band like The Ominous Order of Filthy Mongrels, who hail from Toms River, some 40 minutes further south, have a connection to it, with guitarist Mike Schwiegert having formerly been in Lord Sterling with Monster Magnet‘s Jim Baglino. It’s a small world, and even smaller when you’re only dealing with three counties’ worth of distance.

But if The Ominous Order of Filthy Mongrels are anything, they’re most definitely not Lord Sterling. Schwiegert delves into his Jersey punk/hardcore roots and comes out with a sonic concoction both fast and heavy, leaving frontman Kevin LeBlanc (ex-A Day of Pigs) no choice but to be as abrasive as possible, which just happens to be his specialty. The connection between the two might be tattooing, since they’re both artists, but that’s conjecture. Sometimes people just end up in a band together.

The three tracks The Ominous Order of Filthy Mongrels have posted on their MySpace page combine memorable riffing with an aggressive bent and stylized groove. “Hoof and Ash” might be the most directly punk, but it’s the kind of punk Disfear and Coliseum play, not the kind you see on the tv. In any case, the song is immediate and vitriolic, Schwiegert and fellow guitarist Dave Anderson leading the way for LeBlanc, bassist/vocalist Mike Castlebury and drummer Brian Zupko to keep up. They do and everyone lives angrily ever after. Nasty stuff.

They’re calling their first release Bastard Demo, and it’s available through Chainsaw Safety Records, so if MySpace quality just doesn’t do it for you and you don’t live close enough to hit up one of their shows, that’s how you get it. If you do live close enough, however, I’d suggest seeing it in person, since having been exposed to the members’ prior bands (Lord Sterling, A Day of Pigs, Black Mamba, etc.), I can say with confidence The Ominous Order of Filthy Mongrels have the capacity to destroy whatever’s laid before them. Indeed, that could be you. Most definitely on the radar.

[Note: I decided to feature this again since there had been enough posts in the meantime to knock it off the top page. Today's newer posts will appear underneath.]

It’s been seven years since the last Solace record came out, and The Obelisk is proud to premiere the first leaked track from their new record, A.D., which hits iTunes next month and will exist in the physical realm come June. The song is “Za Gamman,” it rocks, and if you seek any further information, I recommend you check out either Solace‘s MySpace page or the Small Stone website. While I’m plugging things, my review for A.D. is here.

Solace, “Za Gamman”

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Says guitarist Justin Daniels of the track: “I’d have to say that it’s one of the more Solace-sounding songs on the album and I have to give Jason credit for sticking that ungodly hook in my head. That motherfucker’s voice soars at the end of the song. Chills every time.”

Solace recently announced they’ve been added to the lineup of this year’s Hellfest in France. They’ll be playing alongside the likes of Garcia Plays Kyuss, Yawning Man, Black Cobra, Brant Bjork, Mondo Generator, Weedeater and Rwake in the Terrorizer tent on Sunday, June 20. Oh yeah, Kiss and Motörhead will be there too.