It sucks particularly because it makes genuinely interesting, lushly textured music hard to take seriously.
Anyhoo, Nunfuckritual (aka Danny Lilker in Culted) are, genre-wise, what I'm now calling doom/black. It's got the cool hyphen, like death/grind, and also sounds sorta meme-y, like you're cool for knowing the contraction that for that particular genre of music. As you might guess, they're (atmospheric, sometimes nearly ambient) doom metal with distinct black metal imagery, production and vocal trends (i.e., the fucking of nuns, one can only presume; a very "chilly," i.e., treble-heavy mix; and a strangled shrieker of a singer). Think Sunn O))) with Mortuus singing, and occasional drum usage.
Specificity:
"Theokotos"-- atmospheric/ celestial (irony?) blackened doom/ drone; quite beautiful, like a guitar-heavy Henryk Górecki, until about 2:25 when the vocals enter, and sound like something GG Allin would scream (still over the Górecki-isms, though, you see, herein lies the uniqueness).
"Komodo Dragon, Mother Queen," hits like Rammstein's "Mein Herz Brennt" if it were played without machines....
"Christotokos," the ambient soundscaped sounds (and not necessarily music) of the damned.... "Cursed Virgin, Pregnant Whore," confirms the Sunn O))) comparisons, and goes for long without any drums, simply a droning guitar line. Of course, when the drums return, they're blast beats. And it pretty much works.
"Parthenogen," continues the Sunn O))) worship (though again, chillier, with less bass in the mix), then becomes a lurching behemoth (though not Nergal and co.) of a doom metal tune; this is maybe the best track on here: it comes off as confident through its many stylistic changes over the nearly 8-minute running time.
Why does this music appeal to me so much? Goddamn-- I need a new therapist.
Overall, an "unrated/ NC-17" vibe here, like anything can happen at any time; menacing, and musically-speaking, surprising; drearily beautiful, like funeral mists that catch a sparkling moonlight.
Oct. 28 -- Rammstein's long-awaited retrospective release, Made In Germany 1995 - 2011, will be available on Dec. 6 through Universal Germany's marketing and distribution deal in the US with Vagrant Records.
Made In Germany 1995 - 2011 will be available in three different editions:
* Standard Edition: CD Digipak - Best of Album
* Special Edition: 2-CD Digipak - Best of Album and Best of Remixes
* Super Deluxe Edition: 2-CD (Best of Album and Best of Remixes) as well as 3 DVDs (including the full Rammstein video catalog, all previously available "Making of" and 8 unreleased "Making of" videos) packaged in a steel box complete with a 240-page booklet. Limited to 1200 copies in the US.
All songs and videos on Made In Germany 1995 - 2011 have been re-mastered for this release.
Announced earlier this week, the Berlin-based band have a new single, "Mein Land," set for a Nov. 11 release. "Mein Land" will be available as a four-track release via iTunes with an unreleased song, "Vergiss Uns Nicht," as well as remixes from BossHoss and Mogwai accompanied by the Jonas Akerlund directed video for Mein Land video and a digital booklet. The Amazon version will be "Mein Land" and the two remixes. The video for "Mein Land" will premiere on Rammstein.com on Nov. 11.
Rammstein's most recent release, Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da, debuted at #13 on the Billboard Top 200 in October 2009.
You know, the undead like to dance just as much as the rest of us.
They just need something hideously special to get those gangrenous limbs and rigamortis-locked joints to move. Here it is, Darklight Corporation's stunning debut of horror-scope industrial speed metal.
Industrial speed metal may not sound like something you’d expect the ‘ol Racer to be digging right now. Those who know me know that I have a low tolerance for metal who's goal is to assault me like a bazooka blast to my temple. Rather than excite me, it has a bizarre paradoxical effect – it puts me to sleep. I mean mouth-open, drool-spilling-asleep. The louder and more bombastic in my face it is, the quicker I nod off.
Not the case with this tremor-inducing slab of depth-charge bass, grinding guitar, and non-stop beat that is the debut from New Zealanders, Darklight Corporation. Destroying all hardcore dancefloors with a combined assault of equal parts Rammstein, White Zombie, Metallica, enough melody to make it all hang together and some serious fucking groove. Sometimes the industrial grind of metal can get a little repetitive, but Darklight Corporation throw in enough twists and turns, maniacal choruses, and just flat-out-good songwriting to make the album a burner from start to end. Like some graveyard spawned combination of Helltrain's death-and-roll and Ministry. It's what Slayer would sound like if they were set up on a blind date with a zombie and decided to go clubbing. Imagine that, let your brain lock that down, then prepare yourself and put on the disc
“One Man’s Revolution,” kicks it right off the bat, battering my inner ear like a prize fighter going to town on an opponents face. Give me some crushing guitar that rages like two pieces of machinery scraping against each other. Tie it together with some percolating synth, bringing in the electronica flavor, and then hit me with that colon-shaking bass and groove. Oh yeah! I’m not a fan of larynx-shredding vocals, but they work here. Big time. Rough and sputum-filled, this is aggressive, angry, assailant dance music. Industrial madness. Electronica for the criminally insane.
Every track here pulverizes with the same homicidal intensity, aiming for full on listener-dancefloor-evisceration, but the standout tracks are so fucking good you don’t even mind that they're splitting your belly opening and stealing something vital. “Sweet Sickness,” starts off with some mutated guitar, quickly launching into that all-important groove. Adding enough space and time, melody and synths, to make the song stand out from the previous two tracks, it’s like a breath of fresh air. Granted its fresh air laced with the stench of the recent dead. And it could only be the dead who don’t dance to this song. More fucking infectious than the black plague. You just wanna get infected with this one. Never thought someone could come up with a chorus “Your presence makes me sick/I don’t believe your sickness,” that could become a crowd-chanter. But there I was, screaming the words right along with the band in my best (worst) throat-shredding vocals. Yeah, my wife left the room, but I didn’t care. I had my groove on.
“Lockdown,” is about as much a commercial metal song as you’ll ever find that has the lyrics “Eat my blood/eat my body.” Complete with a massive air-guitar riff and damn-singable chorus, this song will get even the most dead of the undead to crawl out of their earthen tombs and crawl off to the dancefloor. “Propaganda,” ups the ante with the most Rammstein-esque blitz on the album. Synths stutter and strut, guitars wail, scream, cry and howl. Dancebeats swirl in orgasmic frenzies. This intensity rages with fury all the way to the amalgam of electronica beats and slicing industrial guitar that is the closer “Ramrod 69.”
Darklight Corporation’s debut isn’t a pretty album. It’s one horrific, demented, seriously-in-need-of-therapy mess of rotting corpses and anger. It’s an album of life-pounding intensity, anguish, and ire. And it’s all served up hot and steaming with some of the best industrial beats I’ve heard in ages. Not for the faint of heart, but not one to miss either.
Now leave me alone, my zombie-bride dancing partner’s got her groove on and I ain’t missing it.
Rammstein’s much discussed and highly sought after LIEBE IST FÜR ALLE DA box set, which features six sex toys, lubricant, handcuffs and a special album version packaged in a custom flight case is now available to U.S. fans via http://www.rammstein-deluxe.com.
The unique collection arrives on the heels of the Oct. 20 release of LIEBE IST FÜR ALLE DA, the band’s highest charting U.S. album to date (#13 on Billboard’s Top 200, #1 on Billboard’s Heavy Music Chart). Internationally, the German sextet enjoyed seven #1 debuts as well as numerous platinum and gold certifications upon release.
In keeping with the sexually-charged nature of LIEBE IST FÜR ALLE DA, Rammstein’s video for the first single, “Pussy,” made music history as the first major recording artist to create an adult-themed video. In recent days, the band has seen their album banned and/or available with age restrictions in their native Germany, Switzerland and Australia.
