vice wears black hose - part 6.

Vice Wears Black Hose - Part 6

1:58:53

110.99 MB + 110.96 MB

1. Untitled

2. Untitled

3. Untitled

4. Untitled

this is just the latest entry in sam mckinlay and richard ramirez's long-running collaboration, vice wears black hose, released in a gorgeous double cassette package by new forces in 2011.

obviously, you all should know those two men from the rita and werewolf jerusalem, respectively, as well as dozens of other projects and collaborations. along with vomir, they truly define this sound and anything they put out is guaranteed to be worth your time.

check out a few clips from a rare live performance here, and do your best to support not just this project but the artists' others as well - even if it's only through second-hand purchases on discogs. and also be on the lookout for anything from new forces - they put together great packages from a variety of artists.



(sides a and b.)


(sides c and d.)

recluse - demo.

Recluse - Demo

13:23

25.08 MB

1. Exsanguinary Purification

2. Erect Holy Strangulation

3. No Way Out

the first demo from recluse is finally upon us, and boy does it ever slay. I had heard this was in the works a while ago, and thankfully my friend ben over at black metal and brews informed me that it had in fact been released.

it should come as no surprise that this demo is absolutely fantastic - but what else would you expect from a group that contains key members of loss and cobalt, both standouts on profound lore's incredible roster?

cobalt's representative here is phil mcsorley, who turns in a much more raw but no less furious vocal performance than with his primary band.

the other half of recluse is mike meacham, better known at the vocalist and guitarist from loss, whose debut full-length was released by profound lore two years ago.

as much as we'd all love new records from both loss and cobalt, one listen to this demo is enough to (momentarily) put those desires on hold, replaced by a need for this new project to truly come to fruition on a full-length. there's a staggering amount of potential here and I really hope that meacham and mcsorley continue to explore this new path they've created.

copies are still available from the label, so grab one immediately from the link below. while graceless recordings might not sound immediately familiar, they put out the first edition of the incredible lycus demo, so they obviously know their stuff. plus, their distro has a great selection of imports from artists like verglas and clandestine blaze.

don't hesitate, just buy a copy of this tape for your collection - it's easily one of the best demos of the year.



(buy a copy from graceless recordings.)


(for preview purposes only.)

an innocent young throat-cutter - it kills and devours the male.

An Innocent Young Throat-Cutter - It Kills And Devours The Male

3:03:35

 170.66 MB + 170.81 MB

1. Hanno Cambiato Faccia

2. The Smile Of The Hyena

3. At The Front Of The Pool

4. Death Calls At Ten

it kills and devours the male, a brand-new collection of HNW from richard ramirez and cristiano renzoni, comes courtesy of meaning corrupted, a new label dedicated to the most extreme audio around. they've already released material from blue sabbath black cheer and pig heart transplant, and have upcoming releases from werewolf jerusalem and black leather jesus.

this double cassette from ramirez and renzoni's an innocent young throat-cutter is easily the most epic of meaning corrupted's first dozen releases - I mean, did you see that time up there? this is more than three hours of completely unforgiving harsh noise wall spread across two cassettes.

textures run the gamut from soft to jagged to everything in between, and the last track is definitely my favorite - it has a warmth to it, as if there's a really distant synth tone operating on a subconscious level beneath the waves of static.

a true endurance test, it's going to be tough for most people to make it through this whole album in one sitting - after all, each track could be an album in and of itself - but for fans of ramirez's other work, as well as fans of renzoni's work as alo girl, this is an obvious purchase.

this one is long sold out from the label, so get in touch with ramirez to grab a copy for yourself. it's a great value and your hard-earned dollars will help to support an independent artist and a fledgling label.

don't pass this one up.



(sides a and b.)


(sides c and d.)

year one: a retrospective.

so it's officially been one year since I started this blog. 

I don't even know what to say.

in some ways it feels like I've had this blog forever; in others it feels like I just started it yesterday.

I've heard so much great music and made so many new friends in the past year that it's almost staggering. no, not almost - it's genuinely staggering. and I'd like to thank every reader, every fellow blogger, every record label, and every artist who's supported me and helped this blog to not only garner more than fifty thousand views over the last year, but to truly make me feel like a member of the community.

seriously, thank you.

all of this writing has also forced me to take a deeper look at not just the music, but the films, books, and artwork that I enjoy as well. I've become more engaged with all of the art that means so much to me and that's definitely something I didn't anticipate.

things have changed for me quite a bit since I started this blog. my girlfriend and I have left los angeles and moved back east, and I've really reconnected with why I started making art in the first place. I have a job that I love, I feel good, and all of you are a part of that. one of the downsides to all of these positive changes has been the lack of posts lately, and for that I simply can't apologize enough. but here's the catch: I'm actually making real money now and can afford things that I previously couldn't - rare things, things not available digitally.

rest assured that those things will be coming soon. 

and I can't wait to share them.

the purpose of metallic imagery remains unwavering - to help share the best music that's not available anywhere else online, to share my own art, and to share other works of art that mean so much to me. I'm proud to have stuck to this raison d'etre for the first year, and I'm genuinely excited for all that the future holds.

I can't wait to share some of my own work that has been gestating for entirely too long, and I can't wait to share more incredible material from all of the labels and artists that I've gotten to know and come to love so much.

creating and maintaining this blog has opened my eyes in so many ways. I hope it's done the same for you.

and continues to do so.

for a long time to come.

atrax morgue - esthetik of a corpse.

Atrax Morgue - Esthetik Of A Corpse

50:31

91.75 MB

1. Esthetik of A Corpse

2. Talkin' To A Decapitated Head

3. Post Mortem Attack

4. Necroactivity 2

5. Talkin' To A Decapitated Head 2

6. Sex Organs In Formaldeide

7. Dr. Rosenberg Report

 8. Bloodbath For My Cock

9. Dedicated to Karen G.

10. Dissektion

11. Negative Forces

12. 5x Eyeballs In Her Mouth

13. Untitled

14. Last Orgasm Before Death

marco corbelli was an italian noise pioneer. he put out dozens of releases over more than two decades via his own slaughter productions label before killing himself in 2007.

if you're unfamiliar with him and his work, remedy that right now. several of atrax morgue's full-length tapes have been recently reissued on vinyl by urashima. they're all sold out from the source but check discogs and various independent distros.

I think all current links for this one around the web are inactive, so here's a new one for anyone who doesn't already have this landmark release.



(for preview purposes only.)

formative films double feature - lost highway & mulholland drive.

Lost Highway (1997) & Mulholland Drive (2001)

Dir: David Lynch

yes, I couldn't choose between either of these films.

but since they're so thematically similar, one might even say that one is the natural evolution of the other, I felt it fitting to post them together.

and they were both instrumental in my development as both a cinematologist and a filmmaker.

------


after I first saw lost highway on VHS in 1997 and the ending credits began to roll, I had absolutely no idea what I had just seen.

really.

granted, I was only thirteen - but this was the first time I had finished a film and felt that I knew even less about it than when I started. actors changed, names changed, timelines changed and, perhaps most terrifying of all, marilyn manson made a cameo appearance.

but, more importantly, I wanted to know more. I wanted to figure out this puzzle, the pieces of which david lynch had scattered before me. and thanks in large part to its' great soundtrack, lost highway stayed with me for many years.

nearly five years later, lynch released mulholland drive, and for the first time since lost highway, I again felt completely bewildered when leaving the theater. except now I was older. now I was taking film as an art form more seriously. and I took it upon myself to solve the puzzle.

and the key to both films' puzzling plotlines is the difference between the people we all want to be, and the people that we are.

both lost highway and mulholland drive revolve around characters who desperately wish, with every fiber of their beings, to be different people with different lives than the ones they've found themselves in. they wish they were more physically attractive, more charismatic, more talented, more of anything that would help them feel more fulfilled and happy with their lives and themselves.

and lynch's true gift is taking that internal desire and translating it in a way that affects each character's external world. fred madison doesn't literally turn into pete dayton - it's all just externalized wish-fulfillment. in both films, though, this desire for a new self is never strong enough to deny reality.

always pushing in, always getting closer, reality slowly invades both dreams worlds and eventually forces them to come crashing down. sometimes it's a person, sometimes it's just an object - a simple key in the case of mulholland drive - but those recurring reminders jam themselves into the psyche's cracks, forcing themselves deeper and deeper until the illusion just doesn't hold up anymore.

that brings me to yet another reason why I love lynch's films so much - no matter how weird or esoteric the situations and characters become, the desire to be someone better than who you are is a universal fantasy, hard-wired into the brains of every human being.

no matter how successful you are or how happy you are with your life, everyone's had at least one situation that they'd like to do differently, or one aspect of who they are that they'd like to change. some people daydream about being more assertive in their professional lives, some fantasize about following their dreams, but we all want to better in some way.

it's precisely this discrepancy between reality and fantasy that lynch dramatizes and explores so brilliantly. he stretches it to extreme levels until it consumes his characters and they end up destroying not only themselves but too many others in their lives, as well. these characters aren't necessarily bad people - they just push themselves deeper and deeper into difficult situations until there's no other way out.

as such, neither of these films has a happy ending. and if we wanted to add yet another layer to this discussion, we can look at the film that lynch made between lost highway and mulholland drive: the straight story, a G-rated film about a simple man with none of the frustrations that possess any of these other characters. the result is a heartwarming film, a stark contrast to the anger and self-destruction that runs through so much of lynch's other work.

there's a very logical conclusion to be reached here: lynch is presenting these films as cautionary tales about how insecurities can only hinder who we are and, at their worst, result in the pain and suffering of those we love. so instead, we must let these daydreams remain just that - momentary fantasies and wishful thinking.

become comfortable with the person you are; don't let yourself be consumed by the desire to change traits that are immutable.




(buy a copy of lost highway on dvd from amazon.)


(buy a copy of mulholland drive on dvd from amazon.)