New Bongripper album?

This just in from the Bongripper Facebook page:

"we have not been dormant. we have been writing the follow up full length to satan worshipping doom. there will be a great deal happening in 2013/2014."

I'm looking forward to this immensely.

Dystopia / Suffering Luna split

1. Dystopia - "Diary of a Battered Child" - 3:29
2. Suffering Luna - "La Reina del Rosario: - 5:14

Dystopia presents another vitriolic glimpse into misery, a misery that is explored extensively throughout their discography, one that must run very deep in the band’s desolate ego. This time, the nihilistic trio covers the topic of child abuse, a virulent subject curiously underexplored in hardcore punk:

what have I done to deserve

the agony you call love

I got a broken arm and stitches

while other kids got kisses and hugs

Bluntly, we are given an admittedly adolescent account (Dystopia aren’t exactly the most apt poets) of childhood trauma, but the fierce delivery of the vocals and knife-blade instrumentals will make you quiver under a vengeful fist.

when I die

don’t come to my funeral

Meanwhile, the professional psychonauts in Suffering Luna plunge into their usual sort of lysergic foray. Indecipherable samples waver faintly, ghostly, almost chant-like, beneath harsh clouds of DMT vapor and weed smoke, alien synth-beeps, and near-tribal percussion before being swept by a hardcore punk tornado and being set back down, then being swept up again, and so on, until their track literally moans into oblivion.

This split, unfortunately, is painfully short, but serves as a good sampler for both bands, as these songs exemplify their respective visions of hardcore. Not essential by any stretch, but a good place to start if these bands are unfamiliar to one's palate.


Boom.

Death Grips - No Love Deep Web

Allegedly, Death Grips had a dispute with their record company Epic because Epic wanted to release the album "sometime next year" instead of October 23rd, as advertised. Thus they resolved to release the album themselves today (Oct. 1st), complimented by a garish cover photo of an erect cock with album title scrawled down the shaft. It's either a wonderful act of rebellion or an extremely tacky corporate publicity stunt. Who knows? Who cares? Fucking DEATH GRIPS.

Download it here. (Be sure to click the top most button that says "Premium Download" as the bottom two buttons are part of a sneaky fake advertisement that will install adware under the name iLivid onto your computer. And trust me, you don't want that shit on your computer.)
Stream it on Soundcloud.
Death Grips' website.

UPDATE: According to the DG Facebook page, their website thirdworlds.net is down as some sort of retaliation by Epic for their move to drop the album today. As far as I know, this isn't verified.

UNRELATED UPDATE: Reviews coming (hopefully) this week:
USSA Pleasuredome - 25 (Promo EP) - Baltimore experimental electronic / post-rock
Vagina* - Psychedelic Erotica - Harsh-as-fuck improv noise rock also  from Baltimore

Also, expect a Death Grips review(s) soon.

Maryland Death Fest XI -- Venue Update

With the (second) closing of Sonar, it seemed MDF had nowhere to go in this fine city of Baltimore, especially considering their complete lack of luck with finding a substitute. But thankfully, that has changed, and MDF will be at its old stomping grounds, which are apparently under new management. Here's the message just sent out over Facebook from the MDF page:

We're a day early with this announcement, but we can finally let you know where MDF XI will be taking place.

In a nutshell, we will be returning to the property formerly known as Sonar, and will be at least doubling the amount of outside space that we've been used to utilizing. We realize that it's a bit of a mind fuck to wait around for a few months just to hear that the fest is returning to the same place, but truth be told, the other places we looked at were either not able to give us a definite answer anytime soon, and/or had too many inconveniences that we did not want to put the fans through. During the venue search, it was brought to our attention that the new owners of the property were willing to collaborate with us, so we decided to go through with returning to a familiar place that is close to the hotels and conveniences of downtown Baltimore.

As for the building itself, there are some renovations currently taking place, but the rooms will be used exactly how they have been in the past, and it will be air conditioned throughout. 

We would also like to announce the addition of a second inside stage at Baltimore Soundstage, which is a 1/2 mile walk away from the former Sonar (at 124 Market Place), and will be used from Friday-Sunday. This will be a smaller show without a barricade that will feature mostly hardcore and punk bands, and it will be scheduled in a way that should not conflict with anything going on at the former Sonar compound. All of the bands for this stage will be included in next week's announcement on October 9th.

So there ya have it. For more updates, check out the Maryland Deathfest website and Facebook page.

Drug Honkey - Ghost in the Fire (2012)

Artist: Drug Honkey

Album: Ghost in the Fire

Year: 2012

Label: Diabolical Conquest

Genre(s) / style(s): Sludge / Death-Doom Metal / Post-Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Psychedelic, Avant-Garde Metal 

Line-up:

Honkey Head (Paul Gillis) - Vocals, Synths, Samples

Hobbs (Gabe Grosso) - Guitar

Brown Honkey (Ian Brown) - Bass

Bonghit Honkey (Adam Smith) – Drums

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A VILE FERMENTATION

Four years after the bizarre and sickening DeathDub, Drug Honkey returns with another hideous, drug-addled fiend of an album dubbed so pleasantly Ghost in the Fire. Here, the Chicago-based avant-doom outfit tones down the garish experimentation in favor of lead-heavy riffs and a bone-crushing atmosphere reminiscent of Electric Wizard or Bongripper. There’s even some USBM influence that sneaks its way in as a slathering of lurching tremolo riffs, including a guest appearance from Black Judd of Twilight and Nachtmystium fame. But by-and-by, Ghost in the Fire sees Drug Honkey sticking to a more standard sludge / doom sound, forgoing the rabid psychedelia from before in favor of something more…professional.

For one, the synths are meshed much more into the wall of instruments; no more stark contrast between grinding Godfleshian dirges and synthesized psychedelic throbs, or bringing the rest of the band to a screeching halt only to reveal the seething, crawling textures underneath. No; what we get instead is a much denser and overwhelming sound. Nothing so cavernous or open as Death Dub, but more like the walls are closing in on you, crushing you, and the synths are the only putrid air you have left to breath, slowly dwindling in supply. The drums, once ragged pots and pans, are full-on sledge-hammers to your knee-caps. You’re crippled and immobile and the guitar and bass are those very walls pressing in on you, sturdy and concrete, encompassing your insignificant person all around, no longer the rusted and corrugated tin slabs crawling with roaches and open-eye acid visuals; they are your slow and persistent demise. And of course Paul Gillis still wretches and bellows under his “signature” vocal processing, especially menacingly evident on tracks like “Heroin III”, “Five Years Up”, and the title track, reinforcing  gross inhumanity, sounding like a mechanized Alan Dubin, or Scott Kelly crawling out of a k-hole.

While perhaps not quite as varied as its predecessor (listen to “Burundi (Reconstruct)” and tell me that isn’t fucking outlandish, even compared to the rest of Death Dub), Ghost in the Fire is still a challenging and tumultuous listen, and the variety that is here is much subtler, less jarring. The unexpected melodic touches spread throughout the album, like the ghastly lead in the opening track “Order of the Solar Temple”, and the overall stability, smoothness, and accessibility of the songwriting ironically make this easier on the ears in one respect, but hint at dark and foreboding Neurosis/Isis/post-metal clouds blooming on the horizon. Drug Honkey also seems to be drawing (as mentioned before) much more heavily on the American black metal scene. The album is littered with tremolo leads and black-doom atmospherics reminiscent of USBM vets Wolves in the Throne Room, Weakling, Xasthur, Twilight, etc., which seems less surprising considering Black Judd’s guest vocal appearance on “Weight of the World”. This album is dense and will certainly take you on a hell of a trip: “This Time I Won’t Hesitate” drowns you in ambience and whirl of psychotic vocals; “Dead Days” drones into the oblivion of an opiate nod; chaotic clatter on “Out of My Mind” has you on the edge of your seat waiting for a sweet end that arrives in a bludgeoning climax; loose, jazzy drumming on “Twitcher” (which may very well be the best track on here) offsets stuttering feedback drones;  and finally, you succumb to “Saturate / Annihilate” and are trampled broken into the dirt.

Perhaps my only gripe with this album is that it sticks to the doom / sludge slow-burn a little too much, plodding and plodding away until it dissolves into the ether. And for one last Death Dub comparison, Gillis and co. should take a lesson from its predecessor and be sure to throw in those occasional speedy (I use this term lightly) moments, a la “The Devil Lasts Forever” and “Communion”, on future releases just to further remind us how unsettling they can be. Hell, maybe they should even try out some grind riffs and blast beats! Regardless, I look forward to what these guys have in store for us in the future as their sound certainly is progressing and maturing in interesting, forward-thinking ways. Drug Honkey is exactly that breath of fresh air that doom metal has needed, and their past two efforts are a testament to that.

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Buy it! (@ Drug Honkey's bandcam), or Try it! (in .m4a)

Overall rating: 4 stars – Cannabis Sativa

(Review for Death Dub can be viewed here.)