Horn's Musical Highlights of Late - featuring Christian Scott, Chet Baker, Ramesses, The Sword, mind over four, Law & Order, Dragged into Sunlight, Saint Vitus, nachtmystium, Menace Ruine, Incantation, Havok, Down, Witchsorrow, Bedemon, Bison BC, Neurosis, and Nails (phew!!)

Sometimes, a music critic such as myself, has... very little to say.


I can't think of any ingenious way to change the way you, the reader, hear something. Sometimes, I'm just outta ammo. Sometimes,  the only thing I can say is: "I like this. You should check it out."
So that's what I'm doing. Below are my most recent jazz and metal favorites. I really enjoy them; maybe you will too. I've given you a few sentences to impart, if you will, a flavor of my experience of their work.

JAZZ

Christian Scott, Christian aTunde Adjuah: Miraculously, a spin on Miles Davis' hollow, beseeching sound without kowtowing to him. A somehow New Orleans-warm yet icy-terrified trumpet bleat over doomy lyric song titles. Highlights: "New New Orleans (King Adjuah Stomp)," "Who They Wish I Was," and "Kiel." To me the best new jazz album of 2012.

Chet Baker Quartet, Jazz in Paris, Vol. 53: Chet Baker Quartet Plays Standards: Baker gets some shit from critics, like the New York Times' Ben Ratliff, for not giving a shit about evolving as an artist-- and truth be told, he never really did. But he's the only soloist, to this day, who loses energy and slowly dies as he solos, rather than building up to a crescendo. Easily my favorite trumpet player of all time, over Miles Davis and Christian Scott. Makes me wanna take up trumpet, to this day. Buddy Bolden reincarnated as a white junkie matinee idol.


METAL

Ramesses, Possessed by the Rise of Magik: From former members of Electric Wizard who found Dopethrone too pussy-- disgusting, gritty blackened doom riffs if they were played in a garage and/or torture chamber. Production value zero, and somehow perfect.

The Sword, Apocryphon: The detuned perfect heaviness of their debut Age of Winters, but with a tiny splash of that Texas blues that was probably too obvious on their previous LP, Warp Riders. They can do better, but still pretty great. Top 10 of the year.

mind over four, The Goddess and Halfway Down: Two-decade-old alterna-progressive-metal that is still disgustingly/ criminally underrated. Either album should be in your top 50 of all time.

Law & Order, Guilty of Innocence: Cock-rock with a southern flair (from LA) from the late 80s that still is awesome and not embarrassing in any way. One of the only bands to make me wish I was playing in a rock, not metal, band. Not a bad song on this one. Classic-- top 50 of all time.

Dragged Into Sunlight, Widowmaker: Amazingly, these utterly-decrepit, sludgy, stonery black metal anonymous weirdos evolved on this record, and thisnoticeably so, from their previous release, Hatred For Mankind. Neurosis if they were Satanic black metallers.

Saint Vitus, Lillie: F-65: "Meh" at first, eventually moving up to "hrilled and loving it." The new version of the American blues, lapsteel-playing, deal-with-devil-making howls of despair. Top 10 of the year.

Nachtmystium, Silencing Machine: Perfect stoned black metal. The Cure or The Church if they loved and emulated Darkthrone.

Menace Ruine, Alight in Ashes: Black metal so weird it practically becomes spectral classical music. I dare you to listen to this on acid.

Incantation, Vanquish in Vengeance: Like Asphyx, generic but truly great (American) Brutal Death Metal. You know if this is for you or not.

Havok, Point of No Return: "Re-thrash" as powerful and energetic (though generic) as it gets. There's two covers on this EP, "Raining Blood," and Sepultura's "Arise." They should not have included them. Havok's originals are great, but not that great, and they're just asking for unfavorable comparisons.

Down, Down IV, Pt. I-- The Purple EP: Down is never as good as they should be, as you think they'll be. Previous tunes "Bury Me in Smoke," "There's Something on My Side," and "On March the Saints," are truly great stoner metal tunes, as are Purple's "The Curse," and "This Work is Timeless." But from these guys? There should be more immortality.

Witchsorrow, God Curse Us: Title track, with the refrain of "God curse us, every one..." a cheeky Dickensian nod, or seriously-depressed Shawn-Spencerian perveyoring of dispairitude? Ha! Anyway: doom-worshipping, Hellhammer-loving greatness. Sounds like modern mixing/mastering, but also sounds like a NWOBHM album, where the band was rushing, in 1982, in the studio to record their ideas, when they were sucked into a time vortex and got their asses wormholed into a 2012 studio....

Bedemon, Symphony of Shadows: The other half of Pentagram-- Interestingly, sounds like Witchsorrow, but was actually recorded nearly two decades ago. Astoundingly prophetic. Could've been recorded yesterday.

Bison BC, Lovelessness: Vaguely NWOBHM-ish sludge that loves to eventually gallop and whorl, to take off from its slower stoner metal tropes... not better than Dark Ages, but just as good.

Neurosis, Honor Found in Decay: "We All Rage in Gold," opens with third/fourth dyads, played as clean/ crystalline as humanly, as Scott Kelly-ishly as possible; at around 1:00 we gets the GEE-tars... sounding a bit Sisters of Mercy-ish, if we're being truthful... at @ 1:35 there's a human throat sounding off over the crystal... 3:28, and there's a lonely bass and a Hammond-ish synth effect.... "At the Well" begins with the dying emanations of a suicidal homeless man, or something to that effect... at 4:20 a bitter and romantically-mournful sitar riff (are they called riffs?) that seems perfectly appropriate and perfect... at around 7:00 we get a combination of meditation music/ Zen sounds and heavy fucking metal, as the entire album continues this now very familiar Neurosis blueprint....

Nails, Obscene Humanity: A 3-song ep to tide you over until their new one. Pretty much just like their previous LP, Unsilent Death, for better or worse. Ripping hardcore punks worshiping Entombed....

So there you go. Hopefully something here gets under your skin and into your guts. Figuratively.

--Horn

Confused Little Girl - Southern Gentlemen

 

 (this album had such an impact on the kiddies in the pool, that two writers decided to review it.  you can check out the other review here)

I run into people all the time who absolutely hate working these academic fairs.  They loathe what they believe is the false process of fishing for prospective students.  I suppose they believe that their school’s/employer’s name should lend enough weight by itself to separate new students from their hard earned money.  Huh…Northerners.  As for me, I have no idea what is not to like!  I love being behind the Ripple University table.  I love conversing with people, letting them know that they could find a home at Ripple U.  Perhaps being a Southerner imbues me with a more easygoing nature?  Or maybe the fact that I’m always polite to the prospects garners a lot of positive energy in return.  Take what happened earlier today for example when I conversed with a young woman who moments before had stormed away from a table several feet away from my own.

 “Excuse me miss.  I couldn’t help but overhear the end of your conversation.”
“My conversation?”
“Yes, ma’am.  The one you just finished with that recruitment agent over there.  You know, the one which ended with you yelling some rather strong statements her way?  I hope you don’t mind my saying so, but you seem upset.”
“Upset, huh?”
“Yep.  I’d say so.  Would you mind if I asked what that recruiter said that pushed you over the edge of civility?”
“If you must know, she accused me of being a confused little girl.”
“A confused little girl?”
“That’s right.”
“I see.  What did she think you were confused about?”
“Life in general apparently.  She said my interests were unladylike.”
“Any interest in particular?”
“Yes.  I told her that I wanted to study music in college.  She began listing off the numerous awards and honors her university’s music school has earned, but when I explained that I didn’t wish to study classical music and instead focus on rock n’ roll all the color drained from her face.”
“Hah!  That’s hilarious!  The only thing better would be if she had actually passed out.  Say…that’s a nice backpack you’ve got there.  Any chance those patches sewn into it are indications of what music you like to listen to?”
“Oh yes sir!  Those patches represent my favorite bands.  I’m really into classic southern rock like Lynard Skynyrd, ZZ Top and The Allman Brothers Band as well as heavy metal like Corrosion of Conformity and Down.  Honestly I listen to other types of music, but…hey, what’s so amusing?”
“The hands of fate at work my dear.  I believe it was predestined that I would run into you today.  You will be a perfect fit at Ripple U!  We don’t put limits on what kind of music you can study.  And while our music department isn’t littered with golden chalices, I can tell you that every one of our graduates has had success in their chosen field.  Now I want to ask you one very important question.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“As far as Corrosion of Conformity goes, do you prefer Deliverance or Wiseblood?”
“It’s close, but I’ll have to go with Deliverance.”
“Miss, I’m afraid that advisor was right.  You are indeed a confused little girl.”

Waveriders, today we’re going to discuss a little album called Southern Gentleman by the band Confused Little Girl.  Now I know what you’re thinking but relax.  Have no fear.  There is absolutely no confusion regarding the merits of this band, this album, or the manner in which the band goes about their business.  None, zero, nada.  What we have here is a confident group of musicians determined to crush mountains into rubble with their powerful sound.

Confused Little Girl is made up of four people; Billy Van Muddlestein, David Washburn, Red Reilly, and Josh Henry.  While their bio lists Orlando, Florida as their hometown, I’m pretty sure that this group lives well outside of the downtown metropolitan area.  In fact, my guess is that their actual home is located deep inside the Everglades.  Why?  That’s easy.  Not only do they come right out and say repeatedly in the album’s first song that they ‘come from the swamp’, but their music contains all the hallmarks I would expect from swamp dwellers.  It is marvelously sludgy like a swamp’s muddy landscape.  Also, there is tremendous muscle behind the aggressive instrumentation.  This muscular sound will envelop the listener like an alligator’s jaws, and it won’t let go.  Lastly this band is very deliberate with their music.  They never seem to be in too much of a hurry.  Putting a foot wrong in a swamp can be very hazardous to your health.  The composition of these songs seems to incorporate this valuable lesson.  So what about those songs?

Southern Gentleman tears your speakers asunder with one of the most thunderous opening tracks I’ve listened to in some time.  Seriously, I may not have come across an opening salvo as righteous as this one all year.  Confused Little Girl means business, and “I’d Rather Booby Screw A Walrus” is there to sledgehammer that point home.  That’s right.  Awesome song title, amps to eleven, bowel-shaking main riff and choruses; it all adds up to transform the listener into a grotesque bobblehead attempting to forcefully detach its head from its neck!  Thankfully my head is still attached because I need to further compliment this band.

The low end stomp Confused Little Girl possesses is a thing of beauty!  Thick as molasses guitar and bass tones deliver devastating body blows to your eardrums on songs such as “Hookers On Horseback”, “Books and Guns”, and “(Hey Dad) Stop Looking At Porn On My Computer”.  The band is not content being a one-trick pony either.  They switch things up by throwing in the mostly ballad-like “Ink To Paper”.  Another added wrinkle is how they take different vocal approaches such as the ethereal singing during the choruses to “Jordan Catalano Needs To Break Up His Shitty Band” or the cleaner, twang-heavy vocals during “Vegetarian Homeless People”.  One last note.  If you hadn’t noticed, this band comes up with some outlandish song titles.  If the ones I’ve already mentioned haven’t convinced you of that, how about “Honestly, Who Gives Their Genitals Pet Names”?  Simply stunning!

The bottom line here is that Southern Gentleman is an album you need to hear.  If you love southern metal like Corrosion of Conformity or Down, or just stupendous riff-machines like Clutch you can’t go wrong with Confused Little Girl.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to finish filling out this rental agreement for an airboat.  The swamp is calling.  Rock on and rock out! 

--Penfold

Confused Little Girl - Southern Gentlemen

Skeeters are snackin'. They're as big as half-dollars and they'll bleed you dry if you let 'em. The gators are patiently waiting. Some are stalkin' their prey. Shine a light and you can see the battalion of reptile eyes, like fallen stars strewn across the water's surface. Yes, we're in the icky Florida swamp, where it's scary-dark and it's nasty. I lived there once, and it's also where Confused Little Girl  and Southern Gentlemen rose from the filthy muck.

I told Racer that I've been listening to the independent release of this album for almost a year but I clearly wasn't the only one. Rotten Records took notice and signed the Orlando-based group, turning out Southern Gentlemen internationally on Oct. 11. They brought an exceptional and original rock band on board, in my opinion. Here's some information from their bio for those who haven't heard about Confused Little Girl yet.

"Confused Little Girl are a four-piece, deep-fried, southern swamp-rock band from Orlando, Florida. Their songs are filled with themes of drinking whiskey, murdering people and burying them in the bellies of alligators, pigs and the bottom of the water in the Everglades, and of course, selling your soul to Satan. The music that accompanies this subject matter is filled with loud guitars; heavy, groove-based big drums and enough fat-bottom for even Freddie Mercury to be disgusted. Since 2005, these beloved bastards of rock have been working tirelessly to shove their brand of heavy rock and roll down the throats of as many people as humanly possible."

Influences include: AC/DC, ZZ Top, Black Sabbath, Down, C.O.C., Clutch, and Queens of the Stone Age. What more do you need to know? Want details? Too bad. I don't know much else about Confused Little Girl, aside from the fact that Billy Van Muddlestein, David Washburn, Red Reilly and Josh Henry like booze, bitches and barbecue. Hell, who doesn't?

"We come from the Swamp," Confused Little Girl says. "We play rock-and-roll music. Loud, angry, drunken rock-and-roll. Being from Florida, where tons of southern rock bands came from, we have southern music in our hearts. The details about how we met and who we've played with and all of that bullshit isn't important. It's music, you listen to it. So listen to it. "

I have listened to Southern Gentlemen - many times. Too many to count. I'm listening again right now and I'll tell you something: it never gets old. Like I said before, I've been playing this release since the beginning of the year and I'm not stopping now. I won't bother with trying to describe every song because it's all good. The guitars are southern-scuzzy; the vocals are hefty and raunchy, but they're definitely still clear enough for me. The bass and drums are just monstrous. It's everything I love about swamp rock. No wonder I can't get enough.

Oh. And the song titles. Don't get me started on that. "I'd Rather Booby Screw A Walrus" is a favorite, along with "Honestly, Who Gives Their Genitals Pet Names". "Hookers on Horseback", "(Hey Dad) Stop Looking at Porn on My Computer", "Jordan Catalano Needs to Break Up His Shitty Band" and "How Satan Stole My Heart". C'mon. Aren't those some of the most interesting song names you've ever heard? Just reading those names makes you want to listen, doesn't it? Go ahead. You'll be happy you did.

The sick, 12-song Southern Gentlemen was sort of an obscure title earlier this year. Well not any more. I'm glad to see Confused Little Girl get signed by Rotten Records. Now the world has a better chance to hear the swamp-rock I've been trudging through for months. Head to the Rotten Records site for this record and get your copy NOW.

Hail the swamp!

--Heddbuzz


http://store.rottenrecords.com/confused-little-girl-southern-gentlemen.html
http://www.bastardsofrock.com/
http://www.reverbnation.com/confusedlittlegirl

Downslave - Cost of Freedom

Nestled in a southern forest where your nearest neighbor is either a bear or that guy who guards his still with a shotgun, you might just find the five guys of Downslave brandishing their own firearms or sucking down their own brew of grain alcohol. Hailing from Knoxville, Tennessee, these guys have some of the sludge-y, swamp-y, doom-y character that we’ve come to expect from hard edged music of the South. The guitar tones are oppressive and immensely heavy, and there’s an attitude of invincibility to the intensity of the music. This is heavy metal done the American way. Music created with complete disregard for the well being of that guy sitting over there minding his own business. Cost of Freedom should have been the soundtrack for every American conflict since the first Gulf War, or at the very least, should be standard issue in every M1 Abrams tank as the sucker goes rumbling across the wastelands of war ravaged earth.

Downslave’s metallic soundings initially had me thinking of the Phil Anselmo led Down, but on deeper reflection, maybe more along the lines of Pantera. The vocals, on more than one occasion, made me think of Anselmo’s deep, guttural, swampy blues croon, but the guitars are more metallic, more cutting than Down . . . so, let’s call this a leaner towards the camp of Pantera. Violent and unrelenting, these guys unload their full arsenal of destructive power on this forty-three minute slugfest. The music shifts seamlessly from forearm straining alternate picked, up tempo riffage to the more slowed down, groove oriented body swaying, grinding sludgery. There are no huge dynamic mood swings on Cost of Freedom, but that’s not what these guys are about. Downslave are the kind of band that assails the listener with one mood in mind: Anger. These guys sound pissed off, and though I’m sure they have their reasons, I don’t need to know what they are. I just believe them. A band doesn’t just come out sounding this honest and fired up and not mean it.

Be prepared. After a two minute musical introduction laced with gun fire, air raid sirens, and screaming bombs from the sky,  Downslave unleash a galloping guitar orgy on “Unnamed” that will have you flying backwards in your chair. The vocals, in Anselmic fashion, croon and grunt and howl about the human sacrifice of warfare and the subsequent psychological effects that our soldiers go through during and post combat. The music is equally as intense as the lyrical content, the drums driving this beasty up and down the mine littered countryside, narrowly avoiding total destruction by inches. The guitar solo is a string bending, flurry of wah’ed out ecstasy, both tasteful and boisterous. The song is fierce and fiery, compassionate and intelligent, and ultimately one of those songs that I can listen to a hundred times over. Walk into the gym . . . play “Unnamed.” Walk into the office to do battle with the accountants . . . play “Unnamed.” Walk through the grocery store with the Mrs. . . . play “Unnamed.”

The title track immediately follows and it’s equally as unrelenting. Fuck. The power that these guys wield is some serious shit! Huge waves of sustained distortion wash over the rumbling of the drummer’s tom assault, and then the chaos ensues. Downslave drop a sweat dripping mid-tempo riff that sparkles through the dinge and despair. Heavy as a box of rocks and just as unwieldy, this gem is all attitude and acts as a sonic beat down. I love the dynamics that they use on this track as the song breaks down in the middle, leaving the brief moments of quiet between explosive charges on music. Then, as the two guitars exchange riffs to bring the song back into its natural gait, you get the sense that these guys have spent a lifetime working, communicating with one another via the power of the groove. Intense song and one that will undoubtedly leave the listener in a lather.

Buckle up, brace yourselves, “Pit Approved” is a rip roarin’, room moving son of a bitch. This is classic thrash metal, the kind of stuff that nods to the old school . . . you know those days when the punks and metalheads performed that dance of destruction in any venue that had the balls to allow this type of music to be played. “Pit Approved” is as high energy and volatile as a song can get. Think Metallica’s “Whiplash,” but modernized and made more relevant. Steamrolling and overpowering, overflowing with that attitude that if you come into the pit with some weak shit, you’re leaving on a stretcher. Go big or go home. Come in strong and don’t be a puss. You fall down, you best pick yerself up quick coz’ there’s a hundred like minded fools stomping their aggression right behind you. Pure fucking violence!

“Hated” is beautiful. Beautiful in that the riffs come from the deepest and darkest place of savagery. Beautiful in that the lyrics and vocals are born from a lifetime of piss poor treatment and angst. Beautiful in that the grooves are so damn infectious that you’ll need a shot of penicillin after you’ve grooved yourself into a sweaty ball of used up energy. The vocals work exceptionally well on this song. They flow real well, the singer hits his marks perfectly, and the passion shines through loud and clear, not forced, not like he’s trying to act like so many of the faux angst mongers out there. This dude is for real. I wanna’ sit back and drink a few beers with this cat to hear the story behind that pain. Fuck . . . that would make the best Behind The Music ever!

Downslave flat out surprised me. I ain’t gonna’ lie. We get inundated with a ton of music and yes, we get jaded to the point where we ask out loud, “Oh great, what’s this all about?” In the case of Cost of Freedom, hands down, this album has blasted its way into my top ten of the year. Maybe it’s the familiar tones of bands like Down or Pantera or whoever that I immediately gravitate towards, but in truth, I think it’s the emotions worn on the shirtsleeve that intrigue me the most, and ultimately won me over. I get the sense that though these guys are young, they’ve felt the pain of life and have figured out how to redirect the aggression into their music. They sound like they’ve been doing this for years. The music is tight and focused, never meandering away from the root of the groove, and it’s performed with youthful exuberance mixed with veteran intensity. I can’t wait to see where these guys go from here. The future should be interesting and I’m eager to watch it and bleed when and where appropriate.  -  Pope

http://www.myspace.com/downslave