Artificial Brain super obscure show1/18/2013 redux

F

FORCED (Long Island)

I caught this power trio in Copiague, Long Island with The Communion on December 14th. I was taken aback by the intensity of their set, as well as the interesting and unexpected technical Black/Doom Metal they performed tightly and with sophisticated determination. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I think I hear the distant wailing echoes of the early 90's south shore pre-screamo hardcore bands every once in awhile. These guys have something dark, heartfelt and brutal going on right under our noses here on the 100 mile sandbar.... Download the demo on Bandcamp.





What's even cooler, if you go see them New Years Day in Glen Cove, Long Island with Axis, Detriment and a whole bunch of other bands I'm too old to have heard of, you can get in with a discount if you take the train and for free if it's your first hardcore show. Talk about keeping shit real and doing it for the kids....

Black Sun Aeon (Finland) - "Frozen"

Perfect song for Long Island tonight. Taken from the double cd "Routa", which was a concept album about the epic snowfall in Finland during 2009. I wore this album out during the brutal NY winter of 2010/11 and even listened to it last year wishing for snow during a winter full of barren skies. Be careful what you wish for...  This band is brilliant and deserves some credit.

Maryland Slow Fest (formerly Maryland Deathfest) post

"Famous Thai Shrimpcakes"

Just got back from the Maryland Stoner rock and black metal festival, had a great time despite the fact that death metal bands are becoming an endangered species on the lineup these days...
Big shout to "chicken suit guy", "Nocturnus shirt guy"," the grey twins", "Face tat", "short Antimo" and all the other people I don't know but who come back every year, just like me. I didn't see "customized fitted hat kid" or "Filipino Michael Jackson dancer" this year, you guys need to come back hard.


Here are the facts:

-Napalm Death were complete pros.
-Suffocation were complete bros. Made me proud to be from Long Island.
-Luisma from Haemmorhage = best frontman in goregrind now that Antimo's out of the game.
-Morbid Angel pretended the new album never happened and we were all so eager to play along.
- Mortuary Drape played the last set of the whole fest and got me so worked up I wished I could press resart.
-Andrew broke a string on stage.
- Jim cut his hair.
-Kevin Bacon's son sang a song with Nasum.
-Bloody Phoenix has two hot chicks singing for them.
-Backslider repped shit hard. Don't fuck with those little dudes.
-Anvil was fun, but what death metal band lost a spot so they could play?
-Macabre and Demigod should have played much later. I thought it was supposed to be a "Death" fest.
-Scotnick is gross.
- More people know Biolich now than the year we played.
-Tremont hotel = pleasure doing business with you
-Brain Campaign rushed the liquor store for 30 racks of budweiser right quick while crusties were critiquing ales.
- We listened and danced to a lot of Phil Collins this weekend. like a lot.



 I love you, Maryland Deathfest, but if you don't step up your Death Metal and Goregrind game next year, I think we're through.

Hours of Free Proggy Swedish Metal

Count the strings.

Pandemonium from Sweden have been very busy the last 14 years making progressive, melodic Death/Doom Metal that at times might be just a little too euro-epic and over the top for some. I would recommend the 2002 full length album, "Insomnia". This release, at times, can be very crunchy and guttural, but also tastefully uses keyboards and Dream Theatre-like instrumental passages to stand alone as an eccentric offshoot of the classic Swedish Death and Doom Metal innovators. As opposed to genre-mashing bands like Between the Buried and Me, Pandemonium seamlessly blend dark Black and Death Metal influences with intricate, dream-like atmospheres, and consistently weave the different instrumentation and techniques they employ like a well written movie.Not the most brutal thing you're going to find, but something different and interesting for sure. They have decided to make available their entire back catalog for free download on their website, so you be the judge.
Pandemonium-metal.com

COUCH (Ex - Biolich)

Just heard some rough mixes of Dans new one man project of noisy, lurching Doom metal, "Couch". Look out for the 3 song demo soon on a new tape label I'm starting just for the occasion. For those who don't know, Dan Olivencia has played bass in Biolich, Castevet, Copremesis, Omnicron, Omega Red, Ooie Gooie, and Two Fisted Law (guitar). When asked about Couch, Dan explained that it was much easier playing all the instruments himself because it gave him the creative freedom he feels he lacked in Biolich. In fact, the coming Couch demo will feature one song Dan wrote for Biolich but didn't get to record before the band broke up. Don't expect it to sound anything like bands Dan has been in though, Couch takes the relentless grinding death metal of his past and slows it down to a grueling, multi-layered wash of noisy black doom highlighted by occasional keyboards and metal lead guitars. It's been too long since this guy has unleashed his talent on the underground scene so check back soon for more info....