The Radavist

“Black Hole”

Atlanta doom metal rockers Zoroaster’s newest album, Matador doesn’t do much to cloak their experimental nature. From the first highly-acclaimed self-titled LP to Dog Magic and to their 2009 release, Voice of Saturn, the band has grown from within and found their inner sanctum.

As if that album cover doesn’t allude to this fact enough: the band has gone a bit psychedelic in the past year. Much like their work before, Zoroaster’s sound is filled with slowly-droning intros and unlike their last album, which was clearly defined as southern doom, the riffs of guitarist Will Fiore takes the listener down the rabbit hole into a hazy place filled with psych rock riffs. Throughout most of the album, these trippy moments wonder aimlessly around, track by track, never really stumbling upon any significant moments.

Check out the full review at the Mishka Bloglin!

“The Roots Of Doomsday Anxiety”

The Tuesday Teardown series is coming along strong. I’m hoping you metal heads are enjoying it! For this week’s entry, I’m featuring the Dutch black metal band Terzij de Horde‘s new album, A Rage of Rapture Against the Dying of the Light.

Changing their name from Liar Liar Cross on Fire to Terzij de Horde was probably the best career move the band could ever make. With their debut EP, A Rage of Rapture Against the Dying of the Light brewing up quite the storm, the Dutch black metal band has shown the world that once again, geographic location doesn’t mean shit when it comes to black metal. In the spirit of Wolves in the Throne Room and other avante-guard metal acts, Terzij de Horde’s creation is a string of high-intensity, never ending melodic, tremolo-picking metal. Expect ethereal vocals focusing heavily on nature and literature. Isn’t that the new trend in black metal?

Check out the rest of this review over at the Mishka Bloglin!

“Grime” off Aborted’s Coronary Reconstruction LP

If you’ve been a fan of Belgian metal for any period of time, chances are you’ve heard of Aborted. They’ve been around for over a decade and in that time, have produced some of the best work in the genre. In fact, Engineering The Dead and Goremageddon still remain, to this day, some of the most influential work to come out of the Belgian metal scene. That’s not an easy task either and once again, Aborted delivers a taste of the flesh with Coronary Reconstruction. It’s got all the tinge of a wretchedly-twisted grindcore EP and even an Entombed cover!

Check out the rest of this album review at the Mishka Bloglin!

Thulcandra – The Somberlain

It’s really easy to compare a lot of blackened death metal to Dissection or Bathory. Or if you’re a huge fan of obscurity like, say Obscura then you’ll love Thulcandra’s new release, Fallen Angel’s Dominion. Lead vocalist and guitarist Stefan Kummerer decided while working with Obscura to move his music into a new territory, something that many musicians find themselves doing. Rather than taking Obscura and crafting a new sound, he just formed another band with some of the bandmates. That band is Thulcandra and their direction just so happens to be a bit of a Jon Nödtveidt homage. Fallen Angel’s Dominion delivers one great homage to the late Dissection!

Check out the rest of this review at the Mishka Bloglin!

“Ridden with Belief” from Burial Ground

Spanning 8 albums and over 22 years, Grave’s been a long-time staple in the death metal scene. They’ve cultivated the Swedish death metal sound alongside bands like Entombed and Dismember. This sound includes gargled vocals, low and heavy riffs and constant blast beats, not to be confused the more melodic sound of Göteborg, Sweden. Grave and others were the founders of a genre that has been picking up speed ever since its inception. It’s safe to say that when they announced they were working on a new album, the death metal universe’s interest was peaked.

Check out the rest of this review of Grave’s Burial Ground over at the Mishka Bloglin!

Dissection worship at its finest. The Lightning Swords of Death‘s new album The Extra Dimensional Wound is everything you want in blackened thrash; heavy, to the point punches. “Nihilistic Stench” is the second track on this 45 minute LP by the LA-based group. I guess this adds another great LA thrash band to the list.

A blackened, dbeat-infused melee of crusty thrash with political overtones. There, that’s my one-sentence description of Witchaven. LA’s thrash scene has been dying a slow and awkward death for years and bands like these guys make me confident that there’s still talent over on the Left Coast. Their newest album, Terrorstorm absolutely crushes! Tuesday Teardowns will bring you the fucking jams all Summer. Now go shred!

Last week was a fluke and I blanked on the Tuesday Teardown. To make it up to you, I’ve got a healthy dose of blackened death / thrash metal from Hellish Crossfire. “The Night of the Possessed” is the opening track from the band’s 2010 release, Bloodrust Scythe and it sets the tone for these thrashed out metalheads. Complete with bitchin’ artwork, Bloodrust Scythe brings it hard, heavy and fast.

If you’re feeling this, go check it out at your local shop!

This one’s for all you rippers out there. Grab your board, your bike and get out to shred! Nocturnal, like Skeletonwitch, have found the perfect mix of thrash and black metal. Known as blackened thrash, only a few bands can really kick it into high gear like these guys. From the 2009 album, Violent Revenge, “Death is the Answer” is sure to kick shit into overdrive! It’s a real Tuesday Teardown!

Fronted by Southern hesher and longtime ‘Tussin addict, Dixie Dave, Weedeater is a living legend in the doom and stoner rock world. I used to catch them back home in Wilmington, NC throughout my teenage years and they have gotten even more brutal over the years. The title track off their newest album God Luck and Good Speed really brings it home. A perfect example of a Tuesday Teardown.

Mankind is unkind man!

Previously:
Tuesday Teardown: Electric Wizard – “Return Trip”

Sorry for the bit of randomness this morning. This song has been in my head for days now. If you don’t know Electric Wizard, get familiar.

The sun burns in the stranger’s eyes
Just one more tear before he dies
Black mass can’t ease the pain
There’s nothing here, there’s nothing sane

I hope your fuckin’ world, fucking burns away
I’d kill you all if I had my way
But I’ll live forever, questions curse me why
Oh lord above, why won’t you let me die

Every Tuesday, to help you get through the week, I’ll be dropping some Tuesday Teardowns in the morning!

As you were. Enjoy your Tuesday!

With the lack of Tuesday Teardown entries over the past few weeks, I figured this would be a good replacement. It’s strictly for the hip hop heads. Check out more of Garfield Adams’ work here! Nice to see some LA cycling videos.

Sometimes when I’m on the road, I slack on my weekly posts. Merckx Mondays, Reader’s Rides and Tuesday Teardowns all suffer equally. Luckily, I’ve got readers who constantly send me their bikes and others who do recon work for me on the side. How else could Tracko afford to open a bike shop?

First up is Tracko’s photo of the Eddy Merckx plate that’s made its way into each of the Rapha Cycle Clubs. Tracko shot this in the SF shop, which has spectacular lighting compared to the NYC shop. Here’s a photo I took last year of the same plate.

Check out more Merckx Mondays below!

Since I forgot to put up a Tuesday Teardown post yesterday, the newest from Hessian Hobbies will serve as an apology to the metalhead readers. You remember the last one right? This time they’re mixing it up with some Black Breath! Thanks to the one and only Crocus Bocephus for sharing. This is Viking-approved!

Previously:
Hessian Hobbies
Tuesday Teardown: Black Breath – Unholy Virgin
Review: Black Breath – Heavy Breathing

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll notice that in lieu of Tuesday Teardown, I’ve started a #PiNPLP hashtag. I wish I could stay on top of reviewing music, but it’s been increasingly difficult over the years. What I have been on top of however, is expanding my catalog into some pretty strange and obscure acts.

Here’s a disclaimer first: PLEASE go out to your local record shop and have them order these albums for you if you’re interested in including them in your own catalog. They could really use your business.

This year’s Top 10 Albums of 2013 is hardly all metal but there are some very dark bands in there. I’m pretty stoked on this list, so check it out, in no particular order below!

This year made it really tough to keep up with Tuesday Teardowns, mostly because of my travels. It’s hard to schedule album reviews while you’re in another city. I also had an epiphany one day: digitalization has essentially killed my music library. Not in a necessarily bad way, but an over-indulgent way. I used to comb over music blogs, downloading music from all over. It’d then sit on my hoard drive and go unplayed for months. What good was that? My appreciation for good music had started to die.

The final straw was when Kim.com’s Megaupload was kicked and other sites followed suit (literally). One by one, all my favorite music blogs started to dwindle and the whole time this was going on, I was already coming to terms that downloading music is killing the industry. Every week, I’d head out to my local record shop and flip through stacks like I used to as a kid in high school. My ears were tuned in differently and I began to appreciate albums once again.

That’s where this list comes into play. A lot of these albums were on such heavy rotation that I barely put them back into the stacks. They were either purchased at my local shop, or ordered directly from the artist / their labels. While not all of them are metal, you can definitely feel a reoccurring theme…

Check out the PiNP Concert Slave Top 10 Albums of 2012 below in no particular order.

“Hail”

This. Cannot. Wait. Until. Tuesday. All hail the Mighty BONGRIPPER. This album has been my absolute favorite since its release in 2010. If you’ve been hiding under a fucking rock, check out my original Tuesday Teardown review of Satan Worshipping Doom here and in celebration of 4.20, crank this shit up! The rest of the set from Roadburn is below, along with the entire album, embedded.

More metal (hardware)! It is Tuesday Teardown after all. This is why I love Mission Workshop. Just you wait and see what they’re cooking up this Spring!