After a few listens to Chronicles, the MeteorCity debut from Stockholm‘s New Keepers of the Water Towers, it came as no surprise to learn that the hour-long full-length is actually made up of two previously released EPs. The two halves of the album — The Chronicles of Iceman and Chronicles of the Massive Boar — sound just different enough to be really distinguishable from each other, and since each offers a different take on post-Mastodon beast metal, it’s almost like you’re listening to a split between two bands, rather than one whole album.

This obviously has its ups and downs, but you should know what you’re getting into. Fortunately, neither EP sucks. 2008’s The Chronicles of Iceman, being the second New Keepers of the Water Towers (they were just New Keepers at the time) release, builds on the rudimentary beginnings of the band, while Chronicles of the Massive Boar (2007) has a sound that could be a mastered demo of the utmost quality. The kind of band you’d hear and want to sign, capsizing their tales of mythical beasts with powerful, raw chugging riffs and rhythms to strain your neck. Since all three members of the band — guitarist Rasmus Booberg, drummer Tor Sj?d?n and second guitarist Victor Berg (they’ve since added Albin R?nnblad Ericsson on bass) — contribute vocals, there is plenty of variety in the delivery throughout both, from Troy Sanders-style clean speaking/singing to caveman growls and periodic builds where it’s everything at once.

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I’m getting ready to go have all four of my wisdom teeth pulled, and since I’ll be under general anesthesia, no video seems more appropriate to throw up here than Sleep. There’s a bunch of live clips from their reunion shows at All Tomorrow’s Parties posted on YouTube, but this one was the best I could find. Enjoy. When next we meet I’ll be considerably less wise and considerably more on painkillers.

Their appropriately-titled demo, The Demonstration 2009, may only be upwards of 11 minutes long, but New Jersey newcomer post-metal troupe Pharaoh (not to be confused with the Philly power metal band of the same name on Cruz Del Sur) raise some interesting questions about how fans and bands interact in 2009, and what effect accessibility has on the listening experience. The only way to get the two song release is to email the band at: pharaohcontact_@_gmail._com [underscores added to thwart spammers].

The other day when I pulled the self-made curtain in my bedroom aside to let some light in, I found a small robin had found its way in past the outside storm window, gotten trapped in between the screen and the window itself, and died. It lay on its back, legs up, very much dead. I’m still unclear as to how it got in there, and though its removal gave me a much-needed opportunity to open the window and vacuum some spider eggs that would have tortured me all throughout the summer months, I was hardly glad for the task. In the end, I took a bunch of paper towels, put an already mostly full garbage bag by my side and grabbed it while trying not to look at what I was doing. Like picking up a load of dog shit. The dog shit that only a couple weeks ago I’d have taken for an announcement of Spring.

As I listen to the churning machination of the opening riff to Pharaoh‘s “I Murderer, I,” that image of unintended cruelty and destruction sticks in my head in an almost disturbing way. Here I was, captor of this stupid creature, without even knowing it. I kept it just inches from my sleeping head until it starved to death and then disposed of it the same way I disposed of that leftover steak in the fridge. It’s a vicious process. That kind of hopelessness, that kind of brutality, is what I hear in the screams on The Demonstration 2009.

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A family semi-emergency means I’ve been in Connecticut since yesterday afternoon. Everything’s cool. The inevitable heartburn that followed a delicious pasta dinner means I’ve been up since 4:50 this morning. And last but not least, the fact that there’s nothing on except for the shitty 2002 made-for-tv?remake of Carrie (as if anyone could top Sissy Spacek) means I’ve got time to kill before The Patient Mrs. and the little dog Dio get up.

All of the above being the case — I being of relatively sound mind and quickly decaying body swear to them as the truth — here are two videos of underrated doom masters Place of Skulls, who released one of the best doom records of this decade in the form of the Wino-fied With Vision. An absolute classic. The show is from Washington D.C. in 2004 and the band is joined on stage by Pentagram‘s legendary frontman, Bobby Liebling. Rock. Hope your day starts later than mine.

If you know stoner rock, if you’ve been around the genre for a while, then you know there are bands from all around the world who use the sound as a launch pad for highly unique and creative endeavors, and there are bands who, quite simply, don’t. But even most of those acts have something individual about them, whether it’s their subject matter, a specific songwriting quirk, or even an exceptional player who stands out from the unit, making the whole band noteworthy in the process.

In the case of Danish distortion-junkies Fuzz Manta, it’s the latter, and the exceptional player is frontwoman Lene Kj?r Hvillum, whose soulful vocal delivery helps lift her band’s full-length debut, Smokerings (Bad Deal Records) out of the trap in which genericism might otherwise wholly ensnare it. Even with her going punch for punch, note for note with the lead guitar on “Night Fright,” however, there is little else on the album to catch experienced listeners off guard.

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Looks like Brooklyn/Richmond, VA-based noisemakers Throttlerod have titled their new album Pig Charmer. According to a post from Small Stone Records head honcho Scott Hamilton on the StonerRock.com forum, the record will be out late August. Meanwhile, over at their MySpace page, the band has unceremoniously revealed the track listing to be as follows:

1. Clean
2. Hum
3. Serenade
4. Beggar’s Blanket
5. Baton Rouge
6. Jigsaw
7. Buffalo
8. Rider
9. The Sweetness
10. Where’s Josh?
11. Dink
12. Majors

Good stuff, looking forward to hearing it. Throttlerod is always one of those bands I really dig while I’m listening to them and then put the CD away and never go back to it — the exception perhaps being the acoustic EP Starve the Dead. Would be great to see the band cash in on the energy from their last album, Nail, in a memorable way. In any case, you can’t really lose. Hail heavy rock.

In case you missed it, our friendly friends over at MetalSucks posted the track “50,000 Unstoppable Watts” from the new Clutch album, Strange Cousins from the West. They are good souls indeed, and the song, unlike the material on the Joe Barresi-produced last album, From Beale Street to Oblivion, has guitars you can actually hear. Thanks, J. Robbins!

Now, I know you’re wondering what kind of exclusive Clutch goodies The Obelisk has to offer. It’s a valid concern. After the jump, you can see just how up to date and in the loop this site is when it comes to getting Clutch stuff that no one else can.

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The thing about Washington D.C. post-metal upstarts Nihilitia — aside from members Brad Sheppard (drums), Sara Hussain (vocals/bass) and Chris Thomas (guitar) each having a name I wouldn’t be surprised to see as an anchor on CNN (Anderson Cooper says, “We now go live to Chris Thomas with the story.” I know you can just hear it), and aside from every other letter in their name being ‘i,’ which I actually quite enjoy because it’s like one of those S.A.T. pattern tests — is that they sound a whole lot like Made Out of Babies. In the instance of their Keya Records debut, titled Nihilist Militia in case you didn’t get what they were going for with the name, recording with Joel Hamilton (Made Out of Babies, The Book of Knots) didn’t do much to distinguish them from the Brooklyn four-piece who, until now, have had a relative monopoly on female-fronted art metal. Or at least new school female-fronted art metal, one would be remiss to not mention Jarboe as the conceptual matriarch.

In any case, that’s not to say Nihilitia are completely unoriginal. Particularly in their slower movements, they settle, unafraid, into grooves all their own. Likewise, the versatility in Hussain‘s voice presents itself with less of the outright emotional turbulence associated with Made Out of Babies frontwoman Julie Christmas. Still, the one is the closest and most appropriate comparison for the other.

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