KMFDM - What Do You Know, Deutschland?

Es Ist Existenz Mit Schwerer Konsequenz

#182) KMFDM - What Do You Know, Deutschland? (1986)

 1. Kickin' Ass
 2. Me I Funk
 3. What Do You Know?
 4. Zip
 5. Conillon
 6. Itchy Bitchy
 7. Deutsche Schuld
 8. Sieg Sieg
 9. Positiv
 10. Lufthans
 11. Itchy Bitchy (Dance Version)
 12. The Unrestrained Use of Excessive Force

so Adam's choice for the theme is "2nd Chances".

i got into KMFDM in the mid-90s when Juke-Joint Jezebel was a big single on the radio. i picked up a couple albums and loved them. later i borrowed this one, which is their debut, from a friend. i was very disappointed. where were all the cool beats and rad metal-ish riffs? this was nothing like the other albums i had listened to. instead of the beats and riffs there were..shitty basslines and simple drum machine patterns. the lyrics were pretty stupid and for the most part didn't seem as aggressive. i listened to it once and gave it back.

when Adam decided on 2nd chances i figured this would be a good time to check out the album again. i picked up the 2006 remaster version that includes the original tracklist plus the tracks that were included on various re-issues and the Kickin' Ass single. there are also some great liner notes that give a little backstory on the recording of this album and where all the tracks come from. as for the music, i appreciate it a lot more than i did. they did some pretty cool stuff with limited resources. unfortunately i still think that the lyrics are pretty shitty. although Zip, which is a warning about zipping up your dick, is fairly amusing. 

while it doesn't compare to 90s era KMFDM, or even the current line-up, and the stupid lyrics ruin Raymond Watts' (oh yeah, i forgot to mention that Raymond Watts was pretty much a full member of the band at this point and recorded most of the record as well) awesome voice, it's actually a pretty rad album. initially i viewed it as a shitty start to an awesome band but now i think it's cool to hear how different these guys were when they started out.

Pyramids with Nadja

Into the Silent Waves

#152) Pyramids with Nadja (2009)
 1. Into the Silent Waves
 2. Another War
 3. Sound of Ice and Grass
 4. An Angel Was Heard to Cry Over the City of Rome

for May's End of Month Theme i'm going with "Collaborations"

i loved Pyramids' self titled debut so i don't know why it's taken me this long to get to this record. i've known about it since it came out, it's actually the first time i heard of Nadja, but for some reason i put off listening to it. it does not disappoint.

while there is definitely more of the Pyramids sound than Nadja's on the album there's also a lot that's unlike anything i've heard from either band. the sticker on the album (yeah, i'm still being lazy and using other people's quotes) says it's "Energized ambient, infused with an intelligent ear for avant-garde metal and an almost indiscernible adherence to a sort of pop sensibility" and sure. it's a very mellow, at times beautiful experimental metal album. definitely recommended.

This Heat - Deceit

Monosyllabic, Hieroglyphic, Etcetera, Etcetera

#121) This Heat - Deceit (1981)

 1. Sleep
 2. Paper Hats
 3. Triumph
 4. S.P.Q.R.
 5. Cenotaph
 6. Shrink Rap
 7. Radio Prague
 8. Makeshift Swahili
 9. Independence
 10. A New Kind Of Water
 11. Hi Baku Shyo

for April's End of Month Theme Adam chose Bands the Other Person Got You Into. he picks a band i got him into, i pick a band he got me into.
i went with This Heat. he first brought up This Heat for his February End of Month Theme post, where he talked about their first album. i then chose that album for a Crossover in March. (check out his post and my post) both of us really dug the album.

Deceit is their 2nd full length and is quite different. while it's still very experimental it's more rock oriented. this is probably where people started seeing them as a post-punk band. singing is waaay more prevalent on this album. on the self titled there were only a couple tracks that had vocals while the rest were experimental instrumentals, here it's the opposite. there are only 2 tracks that don't have vocals. the range of vocals is all over the place as all 3 band members sing/scream/chant/whatever, sometimes all at once.
the album sounds fantastic, all the crazy instrumentation and noise comes through perfectly. this album could've been made yesterday.
i liked this album every bit as much as i liked the first, probably even a bit more. so thank you adam, for bringing these English weirdos into my life.

(End of the Month Theme: 80's Metal) 03/31/12: Danzig - Danzig (1988)

(End of the Month Theme: 80's Metal) 03/31/12: Danzig -  Danzig (1988)

1. Twist of Cain
2. Not of This World
3. She Rides
4. Soul On Fire
5. Am I Demon
6. Mother
7. Possession
8. End of Time
9. The Hunter
10. Evil Thing

     I don't know why I have been resistant to Danzig for so long. For as long as I've known oksentaminen he has said how great he/they are. When oksentaminen made the end of March theme 80's metal, I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to find something I truly enjoy. I started searching around a bit and realized that the first Danzig album came out in 1988 and immediately knew I had found my theme album. The only song I had heard previously off of this album was of course "Mother", which I always thought was a rad track. I finally checked out the album and I feel stupid for avoiding this so long. It really is a perfect metal album. Every track was great. Their style isn't over the top metal, but just awesome rock. The whole album flows together nicely, Glenn Danzig's singing voice is spectacular and all of the songs are rad as hell. The album had its share of heavy and softer moments and somehow at times still felt like an 80's hair metal record yet was saved by Danzig's awesome singing voice.
     I am a damn fool for waiting this long to listen to a Danzig album but I am glad I finally did. I apologize to oksentaminen for avoiding this obviously essential metal band. Great album and great end of the month listen. (091)

Pentagram - Relentless

You're Soon To Meet The Truth Of Death

#91) Pentagram - Relentless (1985)

 1. Death Row
 2. All Your Sins
 3. Sign of the Wolf (Pentagram)
 4. The Ghoul
 5. Relentless
 6. Run My Course
 7. Sinister
 8. The Deist
 9. You're Lost I'm Free
 10. Dying World
 11. 20 Buck Spin

theme time again, for this round i chose "80s Metal"

Pentagram is another band that has a long, crazy history. i gave part of that history, up to about 1976, in my previous post about them, First Daze Here/First Daze Here Too. after this time period the band was pretty much defunct until '78 when Liebling joined a friends band. they changed the name to Pentagram, recorded a 7" and then broke up about a year later. in 1980 Liebling joined the band Death Row. they released a few demos as Death Row, changed the name to Pentagram in '84 and finally in 1985 the first Pentagram full length was released, 14 years after the band originally formed. when it was first released it was a self-titled album but later when it was reissued the name was changed to "Relentless" and the track order was changed, i'm not really sure why.
this is some great early doom. i love the fuzzed out guitar tone and Liebling has a great voice. there are too many great riffs on this album to go over them all but the opening and closing tracks had some particularly memorable parts. i don't really know what to say about this record, it's a classic and Pentagram is fuckin rad. recommended

Pentagram - First Daze Here/First Daze Here Too

I Only See The Graveyard Dancer Who Lead Me Down Into The Abyss

#59a) Pentagram - First Daze Here (2001)

 1. Forever My Queen
 2. When the Screams Come
 3. Walk in the Blue Light
 4. Starlady
 5. Lazylady
 6. Review Your Choices
 7. Hurricane
 8. Livin' in a Ram's Head
 9. Earth Flight
 10. 20 Buck Spin
 11. Be Forewarned
 12. Last Days Here

59b) First Daze Here Too (2006)

 Disc 1

 1. Wheel of Fortune
 2. When the Screams Come
 3. Under My Thumb
 4. Smokescreen
 5. Teaser
 6. Little Games
 7. Much Too Young to Know
 
Disc 2

 1. Virgin Death
 2. Yes I Do
 3. Ask No More
 4. Man
 5. Be Forewarned
 6. Catwalk
 7. Die In Your Sleep
 8. Frustration
 9. Target
 10. Everything's Turning to Night
 11. Take Me Away
 12. Nightmare Gown
 13. Cartwheel
 14. Cat & Mouse
 15. Show 'em How


theme time again, this time adam_biedermann got to choose and he went with 70s. at first i thought "cool, that'll finally get me to listen to some Pentagram" a band that i've been meaning to check out for a while now. however my enthusiasm was quickly curbed when i discovered that though Pentagram formed in '71 and released a few singles, they didn't actually release a full length until 1985. curses... luckily Relapse came to my rescue with this 3 disc collection of recordings spanning '71 to '76, which covers what many consider the "classic" line-up of the band, Bobby Liebling on vocals, Vincent McAllister on guitar, Greg Mayne on bass and Geof O'Keefe on drums. these discs contain some of the 7" tracks as well as a bunch of demos and practice space recordings, or warehouse recordings as the band refers to them.

Pentagram was formed in '71 by Bobby and Geof who were both unhappy with their current bands. over the next 5 years the band entered the studio several times, wrote nearly 80 original songs, broke up and reunited without ever getting a contract or any real mainstream recognition. it's a shame because this is some great old school metal, the first wave when metal bands still had big fuzzy blues riffs and big fuzzy hair. these guys were basically America's lesser known version of Black Sabbath who, along with Blue Cheer, are cited as big influences on the band. in this collection of early stuff you can hear the band kind of bounce between more traditional 70s hard rock and that early metal sound. 

(End of the Month Theme: Local Bands) 01/31/12: volcano! - Paperwork (2008)

End of the Month Theme: Local Bands 
On the last day of each month we will be choosing a theme that both of our album picks must fit within. It was oksentaminen's pick in January. He chose Local Bands... Here's my pick. I tracked it down just for this theme.

01/31/12: volcano! - Paperwork (2008)

1. Performance Evaluation Shuffle
2. Africa Just Wants to Have Fun
3. Tension Loop
4. Fairy Tale
5. Slow Jam
6. '78 Oil Crisis
7. Sweet Tooth
8. Astronomer's Ballad
9. '-----------------
10. Palimpsests
11. Kitchen Dance

     So January's end of the month theme is "Local Bands". Instead of finding a band that is already in my collection and from the area I decided to randomly scour the internet for "on the rise" local bands. At first the band name caught my eye. I watched a snippet of a youtube clip in the article i was reading and immediately recognized them as a math-rock band of sorts. So I took a chance and bought their second full-length "Paperwork".
     volcano! is a 3 piece rock band from Chicago. Their sound according to the interwebs draws from Classic rock, post-punk, free jazz, and noise rock. My quick input: when you draw from free jazz and noise rock you end up sounding math rock. This band is all over the place and I love it. The vocals move from punk to Spanish to some of the poppiest melodies ever. He has a wide range with some very entertaining Kane Hodder-esque falsetto moments. The drums are constantly going up and down in volume and in and out of timing. There's electronic parts, punk parts, experimental parts.... the album was a really fun journey. The guitars get weird at times and as rock and roll as can be at others. I will probably be listening to everything of theirs in the near future and hoping to see them live soon.
     This was probably my favorite find of this project so far. Realistically i wanted to put every track in boldface but i figured I had to single out a few songs. This band was just truly a combination of so many things I love in a band and they do it all well. They are reminiscent of At The Drive In, The Mars Volta, Kane Hodder, Hella and maybe even a bit of Tera Melos. Damn good album. Hope they make some more music soon. (031)

Note: I just realized i listened to this entire album out of order.... so relistening now in correct order... hahaha