CDs and carnivorous plants!

When I wrote the last post my mouse died. That is, the one to the computer of course!

It has been a bit fucked up the last few weeks and now I had to hit it to make the post, haha. So now I've got a new one, much faster and better. I seem to really wear out them soon, this is maybe my forth to this computer... :S I, the gentle one!

Anyway I was going to make last post much longer, writing of new and old CDs I found in my shelves but...

Straight after last my better half got sick and has been feeling much under the weather and now I am not too well either. And I think I've picked up another hobby - carnivorous plants! Pictures of them will follow...

So that's why I've not written much. But now I'll continue my various findings in my own collection! Some of these are not masterpieces but just fucking crushing or good, and some are not cult ones either but it's nice to choose a few outside of the Top 10 or whatever.

Bare with me as I shop in my shelves (a cheap and good way!) and sometimes become a bit nostalgic. The genres will mix as well, from death metal to prog. And maybe some reggae...?

Anekdoten - "Gravity"

2003

This one is new to my collection as I found it in a cheap section when I was at the record fair in Gothenburg. It was standing next to a lot of death and grind and looked a bit lonely. I went through my CD-collection (of maybe 800-1000 CDs) inside my head and realized that this album was missing at home. So for a cheap amount of money I placed it in my bag, together with the Benediction LP I had found. The first 2 buys of the day. The first ones are always something completely different to what you think you'd buy or the opposite - something you've been looking for so long. These two were spontaneous but good ones.

Must of the fans seem to hold the earliest albums of Anekdoten as the masterpieces as they are very complex and filled with melancholy. I discovered Anekdoten very late, mr Älvestam was saying I had to get them and hear them and so I did last summer. Good albums, very much King Crimson worship and nice swedish neo-prog.

So I was a bit sceptic to "Gravity", being the 4th album and all... I listened to it a few days after the fair and got positively suprised! This was not at all as complexed or heavy as the first material but very much suited me anyway. It's still a lot isolation and melancholy. Not a happy album in any way and fills it's purpose especially when one wants something a bit more calmer but at the same time not boring. Because for me this does not get boring even if it lacks some complexity. It's still intelligent. Some compare the change of direction to Opeth and their calmest piece "Damnation" and as I love Opeth I love that album as well as the old and new material. Nothing is wrong here, it's just different.

That does not apply to all bands and albums though, most of 'em that change do it to the worse I believe, making duller music as it gets more mellow... But not all!

I'm not getting fed up with this, warming me the cold winter nights that is still to come. Perfect with a cup of tea.

Listen to "Monolith", the first track from "Gravity":

Demolition Hammer - "Tortured Existence"

Originally released 1990

This CD I found at MediaMarkt in their Christmas sale, they had 50% off and I bought this one only. Good buy! Century Media re-issued all of the albums of Demolition Hammer and it's a nice edition with live bonus tracks. Bad sound but hey, it's crushin' like hell and what do you expect from old live recordings?!?

Ninni, a friend of mine, asked me if I had listened to Demolition Hammer once some time ago and the name and their thrash stuck in my head (like so many damn bands do!) and I am always up for nice thrash or death metal from old times. And what a brutal cover! I do like the old ones, from the good ol' time when they weren't too digitalized but brutal and a bit ugly in a brilliant way. In the mid- to late 90's the covers really became too computermade, destroying the old school and becoming ugly in a not-so-forgiving way. CD had pushed away the vinyl, computers took over the hand-made drawings. I sound like an old lady here (I am!) but my first music was on vinyl in fact and I am a sucker for the artwork created by only hand, pen and paper.

Anyway, back to the subject - the thrash maybe by Demolition Hammer is not very original but it's extreme and really gives me the chills here and there. I really should be getting their second album "Epidemic of Violence" as well!

If you want some old thrash from New York, if you are fed up with new polished thrash, if you want something flirting with death metal - listen to this!

"Infectious Hospital Waste", title kicks ass!

Asphyx - "On the Wings of Inferno"

2000

Sixth album from the death metal Gods from Holland and my first. A day in 2000 I was watching my old VHS's of live clips from festivals and Asphyx absolutely kicked my ass! I directly ordered the lastest CD (either that or the first, was my tactic) together with a few others that I thought made an impression.

And this album is a kick in the gut for real! Such a monster of death metal. Good Oden, what have you created?

The original (and amazing) singer Martin van Drunen is not growling the night away here but Wannes Gubbles is making an brilliant job delivering mind-blowing vocals as well. I listened to this CD the other day and thought "Why the hell have I not listened to this lately?!" and I must confess that I'm having such a hard time not buying the new LP "Deathhammer"! Now van Drunen is back again and the result seems to be kick-ass but I comfort myself with this gift from the Lovecraftian Gods. And the best of all, it is not plagued by some kind of crap late metal influence. As they state on the booklet: "Asphyx Plays Death Metal The Brutal Way, Exclusively !!!"

Way to go! And may I add, the guitarist Eric Daniels really look like a huge Frankensteins monster meets caveman meets German army meets ? But he plays Cthulhu himself.

The quality on YouTube is very varied, as you know, and sadly I only found poor quality (buy the album!):

I'll be back soon with more little tips of music.

Right now I am trying to control myself, have just pre-ordered the debut album from Storm Corrosion that comes out in May. Mikael Åkerfeldt and Steven Wilson, a project that I think can be completely amazing.

Specially if they have gone all super-nerdy with old prog.

So looking forward to it! Gaaah, the waaait.