Song of the Day-Blackwater-"Throne of Skulls"

"Throne of Skulls" is taken off of the latest release "Beyond the Swamp" by Blackwater. Very cool band out of Cleveland obsessed with Black Sabbath and murky swamps. They do a pretty rad cover of Sabbath's "Killing Yourself To Live" as well. For more information, please check out the following links:  Bandcamp

Sunday Sludge: Fistula - "Vermin Prolificus"

If you expected to pour some coffee and breathe in some crisp morning air on your front porch, you've come to the wrong fucking place. I've said it before: Cleveland's Fistula are never gonna make you feel good. Through various lineups and countless EP's, splits, and full-length albums, these snarling scumfucks have consistently drawn distinct lines between societal classes and never been burdened by things like tact or nuance. Whether its a low, pensive groove or a breakneck pull on your tie as your teeth are beaten in, Fistula's overt violence is ever-present.

On Vermin Prolificus, thirty-five ticks of abrupt tempo shifts and screeching, stabbing guitars canvas larger truths. These seven tracks are less symptomatic of Oppositional Defiant Disorder and more indicative of the human condition's natural response to authoritative bullshit. Nowhere is this more evident than on Pig Funeral, a slow-simmered revolt slung low and hot and brimming with cracked-tooth spite. Rhythms churn and wave a fist in the fat faces of power, evolving toward a blistering close that repeatedly bloodies its knuckles on sharp bone.

For all the vile sludge bubbled underfoot, however, the band is never a hair away from lashing your back with a barbed rod. Spitting back to 2012's Northern Aggression EP, Harmful Situation and Sobriety are slightly reworked, slightly shorter, and seemingly more destructive with this go. And the contempt displayed on Upside Down is a call not just to authority, but to mainstream society as a whole. And the shit-caked trudging tempo is like an added bonus.

But Vermin Prolificus makes its boldest assertions on lengthier exercises. Smoke Cat Hair and Toenails is fuzz-coated sludge marked by violent, screeching pulls. Again, the sounds are absolutely foul and filth-laden. Moments of torrid tension are broken by hard coughs, assisting to uncover grimy truths of contemporary youth. The slugs come slow and poisonous, evoking incredibly dark imagery consistent with the middle finger this album throws in the face of convention. The title track is similarly jarring and unsettling, utilizing drawn-out, splintered extraction via drug-fueled samples. Layers continue to emerge, wounds work deeper, and slow-burning ruminations reveal (somewhat) rational explanations of drug distribution and addiction. We were never promised a sunny day, but Fistula reveal that endless pain has an endless dark solution. These thirteen minutes are the sonic equivalent of picking scabs off your face and kicking your kids. Not unlike a junkie, this track simply can't escape the grips of its own demons.

There's too much going on here to bottom-line it with one summation. Each of the seven tracks on Vermin Prolificus is a bold fucking assertion (especially the album's final moment on Goat Brothel, whew). Short-tempered and fed up, this album is a slowly corroding, synthetic-smoked nightmare flogging us as we scratch for daylight. The screeches and abrasions are the effect here, not the cause. What you're really hearing is yourself, your community, and our society inches away from collapsing under the weight of a fake smile. How much longer you think you can stand it?

For fans of: Angst, piss, pills, scabs, Gummo, malcontent, broken teeth, glass, burnt hair, and whatever the fuck is rotting in your basement.

Pair with: Meth

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Sunday Sludge: Fistula - "Northern Aggression"

Jesus jumped-up Christ, where do I start? Cleveland's sludge-thrash royals Fistula have strung together (strung out?) a catalog of violent, unapologetic releases oozing utter scorn for all things ridiculously mainstream and vanilla. Sunday is the day of rest? Well, Fistula are thrust into today's Sunday Sludge streetlight to issue a fat fucking middle finger with Northern Aggression, a seven-track skull-fuck that's certain to satiate their loyals and frighten everyone else into submission.

This nineteen-minute smoker is to-the-point and unrelenting, using every second to provide sharp contrast to a metal countryside fraught with caution. Fistula unflinchingly burn through convention on equal parts thrash, sludge, and narcissism with diatribes on drug use, hopelessness, and an embrace of sucking stones on the other side of the tracks. Fistula aren't trying to make you feel good. Hell, they're not even trying to make themselves feel good. But they won't let anyone ignore the ugliness unfolding in the backyard.

Short of a Cheech and Chong audio sample, there's nothing lighthearted presented on Northern Aggression. Screeching, jarring feedback introduces more than half these tracks, while the dense sludge filth can hardly remain safe from murky, uptempo brutality. The belly-up thrash of Sobriety is Overrated provides only a glory-hole glimpse of what lies ahead, leading into loosened-string creepiness on The Fang. Low-flung dirt clods marry Corey Bing's chiding vocals, leaving listeners unsure of whether the music or lyrics remain the band's more abrasive element.

Fistula find a groove on Black Sunday and The Spider, both drenched with thick rhythm and drowned in torrid bass threads. Brief and in full-embrace of waking up in puddles, the black-noise thrash provides an incredibly refreshing juxtapose to the matted stompers we've come to expect on these autumn Sundays. Harmful Situation's assertion of "This is our world, you fuckin' get what you get" sounds more honest than anything you've heard in these weeks leading up to election day. There's a swing-state campaign slogan, eh? Put Fistula in office and at least they won't lie and tell you things will get better.

You'll imagine the choppy, mid-tempo Light Bulb Smoker to be the disc's comfort zone, finding middle ground between push and relent. Well, the track builds to a slick drag of your sorry ass through a thicket of thorny spurs, perfectly balancing the ups and downs, the quick to the slow. Fuck, man... You're not even being dragged through the mud anymore. You've been dragged into a bloody fucking murder mess, mid-stroke. Molting and re-emerging a sludge-metal titan, the slow burning sample accompaniments craft the album's highlight, and Fistula again assert their dominance over Midwest metal malevolence.

Aggression, as the album's title suggests, oozes through every moment of this gritty gnasher. Hit the e-brake all you want, but Fistula's in full control. The plod balances the shred, and the fury lines every note with napalm. The tempo shifts may suggest a bi-polar, manic, borderline personality glitch, but anyone familiar with this band will hardly raise a red flag. That sleeping giant you poked with a stick never woke up. Instead, Fistula again showed up with no warning. Your skin is bubbling, your left eye is gone, and you're drooling as you sift through the soil looking for loose teeth. Oh, stop it. You're embarrassing yourself.

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New Band To Burn One To (Morning Buzz): MEGACHURCH

MEGACHURCH is today's "NEW BAND TO BURN ONE TO" Morning Buzz...

Bio:

Megachurch are a heavy rock band from Ohio who employ two bass players and eschew vocals in favor of televangelist samples. Bassist Mikey Baranick (late of the Ohio pop band Machine Go Boom), bassist Brian Michael Hill (formerly of the respected This Is Exploding) and drummer Dan Price (who Ringo’d both of those bands) convened after their groups went boom and exploded and decided to try making music without their six-strings. It turned out massively heavy, but with incredibly accessible riffs – both of the prior bands were damn fine hooksmiths – and they made a big splash in Northern Ohio right out of the gate with their March 2009 debut show. Within months of their formation, they were featured on the cover of Cleveland’s alt-weekly Scene Magazine and selected to be the lead-in band for the legendary Mission Of Burma at Cleveland’s annual very-big-deal Studio A Rama festival.

The band used the popular fundraising site Kickstarter.com to help fund the release of Megachurch 2: Judgment Day, offering everything from the album, t-shirts, and a limited release of their Megachip EP to the test pressings and original artwork for the record by Cleveland artist John G. Judgment Day is available on vinyl, cd, and digital download from the band's website at megachurch.bandcamp.com and at fine independent record stores throughout the state.

"Megachurch from Cleveland, Ohio is not your typical band. The band uses a variety of televangelist samples instead of vocals to compliment the band's instrumentals. The sound is very minimalistic. Megachurch chooses to use two bass guitars and a drummer instead of the conventional guitar. The band still manages to fulfill the listener with a ton of progressive stoner riffs and metal fury to keep your attention. Great stuff!"

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New Band To Burn One To-The Hot Rails

The "New Band To Burn One To" today is The Hot Rails.

Bio:

"If the Hot Rails lived in their proper decade--the Excessive 70s--their liner notes would be the tale of a winding discography lost to the winds of stoned history, now championed by victorious historians.

The penultimate 70s hard rock band featuring blazing guitar riffs, twin lead guitars shredding seamlessly through chuggin’ rhythms: The Hot Rails are an unapologetic, head-banging salute to the days of American beers, cigarettes, naked lady mud-flaps, and rock’n’roll. This is not to say they are a throw back or an homage, but more a continuation.

Having somehow managed to bring their booze-addled antics across the Midwest and down to DIY SXSW Festival 2008 and 2010, threatening to drive audiences and the band themselves to the brink of deafness, if not annihilation. Having played shows with a wide variety of acts from Ted Leo and the Pharmacists to Gil Mantera's Party Dream; LA Guns to The Electric 6 and from Mooney Suzuki to Fastball; these superheroes of rock are looking to increase their loyal audience of rock lovers while continuing to create more hard driving rock’n’roll.

The Hot Rails neither condone nor condemn, neither celebrate nor take caution. They are the high spark of low brow."

Want to know what happens when you add a little bit of Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and a cupful of 80's LA sleaze into a blender? I'll give you a clue. The Hot Rails! This band from Cleveland, Ohio knows only one thing and that is how to rock. The Hot Rails music is raw, passionate and full of energy. Twin lead guitars, rollicking drums,  and a singer that sounds like he's had one too many cigarettes, adds to the fury that is The Hot Rails. More cowbell please!





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New Band To Burn One To-The Suede Brothers

I was at the Penguins/Blues game last night and therefore was unable to post my "Two For Tuesday" feature. The feature will be back next week. In the meantime, here is a great band to check out. They are from Cleveland, Ohio and are called The Suede Brothers. They have toured with the likes of Year Long Disaster, Karma to Burn, and The Sword amongst others, touring from NYC to Chicago.



Photo by: Chris Casella

MySpace



These guys rock a killer groove. Smokin"!!