Abigail Williams - Becoming

To preface: cool cover. I dug the Black Dahlia Murder's similar one for Ritual-- stained-glass Satanism.

If Down can be said to be "doom [metal] for dummies," then Abigail Williams are Black Metal for Dummies. Decibel magazine called them "grimness ready for mass consumption," (pretty much the same sentiment)-- the production is solid, not nearly as "cold," or off-puttingly trebly-equalized, as are traditional black metal acts, and there's actually some melody here.

You can hum this black metal.

Abigail Williams, like similar Satanic-ish brethren Nachtmystium and Death, have an almost completely different line-up with each release; from an ego-centric/artistic standpoint, this seems ideal-- you can musically turn on a dime, so to speak, anytime the mood strikes you. Not sure if someone's been watching Disney Channel or not (I love it, myself, very inspiring sometimes), but that might explain some... uh, memorable leanings here.

Track two, "Radiance" opens with a beautiful ambient/emo riff that's Darkthrone cut with a dusting of Selena Gomez (or whoever her writer is); "Elestial," at around around 3:00 slows down from its blast-beat assault and almost sounds like the dirge of some forgotten fallen angel lieutenant to Lucifer; "Infinite Fields of Mind" opens with wind and ocean sounds and acoustic guitar before becoming a fairly typical black metal blasty-beaty tune; "Beyond the Veil" (a nearly 18-minute behemoth) opens with a solo violin and proceeds to hit every ambient/black metal trope (though quite memorably); and closer "Three Days of Darkness" is an instrumental that sounds very like the intro to Stryper's "To Hell With the Devil" (irony!).

Overall, this seems like "transitional/ gateway" black metal-- like Fear Factory, it's got the imagery, and, for the most part, the adherence to the tropes of an extreme form of music, but only enough of them to "represent" the genre while simultaneously being as inviting as possible using melody and hooks. Who knows-- maybe this'll be what gets 2012's version of a 12-year-old Chronos into black metal?

What a strange concept: commercialized black metal. Granted, not tr00 or kvlt... but what if this market, arguably the absolute last market to be blood-sucked for commerical appeal-- was co-opted by Big Business?

After that, what's LEFT?

Remember the joke, "If Napalm Death got any heavier, they'd hit some sort of heaviness continuum and become Air Supply?"

I doubt [in my perhaps-"old-fogy"-ness] if you can get any "heavier" than black metal. No faster, not meaner in lyrical spirit, no more (sometimes) detuned....

So, then, musically-speaking, what musical artifacts are we leaving for future generations of angst-y teens to avoid/ abandon/ abjure?

I can't think of anything (sonically-speaking) that would even qualify as "music."

What, then? Will teenagers of the near future eschew music entirely, as something from the past-- like the Charleston was for your Grandparents?

That's a chilling thought.

I think Abigail Williams made an album much more horrifying than they intended--

however unintentionally.

But you're curious now... aren't you?

--Horn

We Have A Ghost - Debut Album

Dear fellow music-lovers,

On some days, life offers us the chance to make a difference in the world.  The chance to stand up for the forces of creative freedom.  The chance to fight for the underdog, to support the truly gifted.  The chance to throw away our ego, and become a part of something bigger than ourselves, kinda like Voltron.  Well, waveriders, today is one of those days.

Before I began writing for this site, I contacted the staff to inform them that I thought they were a bunch of softies handing out favorable reviews to anyone with a guitar in his hand and a mic in his pocket.  However, the good people of the Ripple Effect reminded me that they are here to support and discuss the good music, not to expose and ridicule the bad music, then they offered to let me write for them.  Well, today I intend to take their philosophy one step further. 

This is not a music review, this is a call to action.  This is a request from me to you, that you find the spirit of giving within yourself and help a talented artist manifest his vision.  To wit:

About 6 months ago, I happened upon a mysterious new musician who went by the name We Have A Ghost.  There was very little information about him beyond his influences and a few artistic photographs which he had taken.  But his music was spectacular.  Live drums driving alongside gritty modular synth sequences and lush pads - delicately layered, patiently built-upon, happily mangled and distorted.  His sound quickly became one of my favorite flavors of tea.

Well, We Have A Ghost's self-titled debut album (which you can preview below) was released in October, and now he's interested in offering a physical package.  But this guy dreams big, and to help fund the project he has recently proposed a campaign on Kickstarter.com, a funding platform for artists, musicians, filmmakers, journalists, etc. 

Perhaps We Have A Ghost can explain his idea best, so I've pulled these quotes from his Kickstarter page (http://kck.st/svr2f2):

"I am an anonymous multimedia artist. I choose anonymity because I want it to be about the music, the art, the experience. It forces me to create. I know there are many other emerging artists trying to survive doing what they love. I want to prove it is possible, DIY style, using readily available tools, wherever you are."

"Kickstarter is the next step for me. It provides you a risk-free opportunity to support the artists you believe in. Kickstarter is all or nothing. If enough people believe in this, it will exist. If I do not reach the minimum goal, you will not be charged, this will not exist, and it may haunt you."
"The goal is simple: create the most beautiful album packaging I can to compete with the most beautiful limited edition works in existence."

"My vision involves: Glow in the dark vinyl or a picture disk that glows in the dark. A limited edition hard bound book comprised of hand tinted black and white photos and hand-written lyrics. Housed in a custom box with embossed artwork that glows in the dark."
For more information, please see: http://kck.st/svr2f2

Confucius once said, "The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones."  Well, if everyone reading this page were to contribute $2 to this campaign, We Have A Ghost would reach his mark with ease and start moving the mountain. 

As a thank you to the fans, if the goal of $5,000 is reached by January 14th (when the campaign closes), We Have A Ghost has agreed to allow me to conduct a rare interview with him to discuss his concepts, inspirations, techniques, and plans for the future.

So, the choice is yours.  You could have a hand in the creation of something beautiful and unique and good and fair and right in the world.  With just a few small stones, you could help move a mountain.  All you have to do is click the link featured up and down this post and donate whatever you can.  Literally, every dollar helps.  Let's go Voltron Force!

(For the purpose of ease and because of my inherent prejudice, I referred to We Have A Ghost as "he," but I do not know the gender of this person.  He could very well be a she.)

We Have A Ghost Kickstarter Page: http://kck.st/svr2f2

Take a Listen to We Have A Ghost:

  We Have A Ghost by We Have A Ghost

My First Album - Blink 182 - Enema of the State

I remember my first time like it was yesterday. It was the summer of 1999 when it all went down. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut had just been released and I already celebrated my birthday a few weeks prior. This was about the same time I moved into a new city and started getting an allowance. After saving up three weeks allowance at $5 a week I had enough money to buy my very first CD, Enema of the State by Blink 182.

I was definitely the last of all my friends to buy the album, but I appreciated the album just as much. The infamous cover with the attractive blonde nurse pulling down her blue glove was an image every teenage male knew in 1999. Almost every guy I knew, including yours truly, had a crush on the model known simply as Janine. Years later I would learn her real name was Janine Marie Lindemulder,  an ex-wife of Jesse James and an adult film actress, but I digress.

It was a warm, sunny June day when I walked to Target. Yes, I actually walked like a normal kid unlike some spoiled children today. The Target by my best friend’s house was known to have a relaxed purchase policy for CDs that contained a Parental Advisory sticker. Our walk took my friend Danny and I about 30 minutes.

Once we arrived I immediately went for the entertainment section and found the CD. It was $13.99 and I couldn’t have been happier. That day I learned a very important lesson, it’s all about confidence. As I brought my CD up to the twentysomething cashier in the garden section, she looked at me and said, “Late night, come home.” It took me a second before I replied, “Work sucks, I know” and she gave me a big smile. What were the chances the cashier would also be a Blink 182 fan and that she would quote “All the Small Things” to me?

Needless to say both Danny and I enjoyed rocking out to Blink 182 that afternoon. Green Day may have been the first band I fell in love with, but Enema of the State was the first album I personally bought with my own money. I managed to smuggle the album back home and played it several times before I lost it. Years later, I found my copy, now extremely scratched up, but I still cherished it just as much when I first bought the album. Enema of the State will always bring me great memories. When Blink 182 released their eponymous album in 2003, my interest in the band had passed long before their hiatus in 2005. However, at the time I always regretted not being able to see them live.

During my senior year of high school I was listening to a rock radio station when the DJ said, “Here’s an oldie, but a goodie…Blink 182’s ‘All The Small Things.’” I couldn’t believe it. Did a modern day rock DJ really say that about a song that’s only eight years old? Still, I sang along for 2:48 minutes and couldn’t have been happier. My joy for Blink 182 resurfaced and I became an even bigger fan in college thanks to my friend Billy, who is arguably the biggest Blink 182 fan I know (Sorry, Malcolm).

When Blink 182 reunited and I saw them on tour for the first time in 2009, I told people it was for pure nostalgia. I lied. By that time I was beyond stoked and my passion for the band had been reignited. I have now seen the band several times and can’t wait to see them again. There are certain bands, no matter how old I get, I will always have a place for them in my life and Blink 182 is one of them. Their music still holds up.

Now every time I listen to Enema of the State, the album still sounds fresh to me. It’s one of those albums that defined my youth and taste in music. Right now the song “What’s My Age Again?” really resonates with me, maybe it’s because I’m 23, but I believe it’s just an awesome song about growing up. Even songs like “Adam’s Song,” “The Party Song,” “Anthem,” and of course, “All The Small Things” all hold up. Sure maybe not all of you are “feeling this” pick, but to me it’s “obvious” and will always be a band that keeps me “up all night.”


--Brownstone

My First Album - Mason Williams - The Mason Williams Phonograph Record

I was incorrigible when I was eleven years old.  It was 1968 and we had just moved to Los Angeles from Hazlet, New Jersey a year earlier.  I knew no one in Los Angeles and I was angry and defiant that I had been up-rooted from school, friends and relatives to move 3,000 miles to a place where I was only slightly familiar with a second cousin I met on a two week car trip cross-country in the rear seat of a 1962 Oldsmobile 88.

In 1968 my parents bought their first California home.  It was on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island in San Pedro, California.  My brother and I were placed in two

bedrooms of the three downstairs bedrooms, while my parents’ room, the front door entrance, garage and living areas were all upstairs even with the street.  The downstairs bathroom had a door to the rear patio and stairs led up the side of the house to the street out of the gaze and view of my parents..

Within a week of moving in I stole a County roadwork sawhorse, complete with blinking light, and put it in my room.  Shortly thereafter I met a welder when I was at an outdoor art show with my parents on La Cienega Blvd  He later became rather famous for his kinetic energy sculptures and ball-rollers. He had four stop signs he had stolen from some street corner or other and had cut into them individual letters “L-O-V-E” chained together by iron links.  I asked him for it and he gave it to me - I swear.  It adorned the wall opposite the caution yellow psychedelic strobe lit sawhorse.

Still, two walls, one with a sliding door closet and entry door, and a wall that connected at a right angle that ran the length of the room to the window, remained barren..  They needed decoration.

Back in 1968 one of the biggest top 40 L.A. AM radio stations was 93 KHJ. While I was resting in the reverse backseat of a teammate’s parents’1966 Dodge Coronet station wagon between games of a little league double header, "Classical Gas", by Mason Williams, played on the radio.  I remember I thought it was kind of “boss.”  I had just started guitar lessons and I remember thinking "Classical Gas" was a really nicely produced acoustic guitar piece. 

D.J. Charlie Tuna came on after the song and mentioned that the song was off of Mason Williams’  release The Mason Williams Phonograph Record and that the album included a life-sized poster of a Greyhound Bus.

Soon my father had a need to go to the White Front store off Hawthorne Blvd. in Torrance, CA.  I tagged along and brought my $5.98 in allowance earned over four months just in case White Front had The Mason Williams Phonograph Record.  I searched the bins and there it was with Williams on the cover smack dab in the middle of the Greyhound poster that was promised to be included inside.  I bought it.

My father approved, at first.  He had heard "Classical Gas" and was taking guitar lessons with me.  However, as we drove away, I opened the album to see the prized poster.

It was life-sized alright.  As my father drove I unfolded fold after fold until my father screamed at me because he could no longer see out the passenger window, half the windshield, the right backseat window, and half the rear window.  I quickly and carefully crumpled the poster together so he could see.  When we got home I opened the passenger door and it and I poured out.  I grabbed the album and the poster as best as I could and made my way inside and downstairs to my bedroom.

The endeavor took a massive amount of scotch tape.  I was chastised, derided and finally grounded by my parents for the unauthorized use of Elmer’s Glue.  Yet after a three day suspension the life-sized Greyhound bus remained and adorned two walls in my bedroom as a backdrop for a yellow psychedelic sawhorse and a four way stop love sign. 

As for the album, "Classical Gas"  it is, well, classic. Some of it is really funny novelty such as Prince’s Panties about a Prince who named his dogs Panties because that is what they do.  Unfortunately they attack him and he is eaten by his Panties.  By and large, though, I bought the album for the right reasons as most of the music is really rather average. The bus remained on my wall until 1971 when I bought my first album from money I earned working at an actual summer job - Machine Head by Deep Purple. 

- Old School

My First Album - Def Leppard - Pyromania

In the early 80’s, as well as most of the 70’s, I was a sheltered child.

I discovered rock n’ roll through a neighborhood buddy whipping out his older sister’s Kiss collection and being stunned by the images of spacemen and demons, and the sounds that subsequently rattled around my brain. They were so savage! So aggressive! So filled with testosterone that my five or six year old self could hardly contain himself.

As soon as my Mom caught wind that I was listening to the devil’s music, well . . . that was enough of that! I was already enrolled in a strict Christian school that abhorred music and dancing, and really, I believe the characters from Footloose were based on my upbringing.

Fast forward to 1983-ish, and I’m around 11 or 12 years old and I’ve made friends with an older school chum who reveled in the music of the Beatles, The Police, Devo and who turned me on to Mtv. That was really the last day of any semblance of innocence that I had. There was Michael Jackson dancing with zombies, Prince struttin’ his stuff and singing about a little red Corvette, Van Halen figuring that it was just better to jump. Wow! What was this new, colorful, exotic and sometimes erotic channel filled with music?!? And then my world collapsed into light . . . and I saw for the very first time . . . a hooded figure speaking some gibberish before the explosive concussion of drums rattled my little television set on its stand. Def Leppard. “Rock of Ages”.

I had to have that album! So . . . I scraped up enough money to send a friend on what I considered a suicide mission. A girl from up the street mentioned that she was going to the record store, so I gave here my hard salvaged cash, probably about $10 . . . enough for the cassette tape and some left over for risking life and limb to get me my contraband. I paced up and down the hallway, every third circuit I’d peek out the window to see if the friends’ family car was back in the driveway. Pure torture, but I knew . . . I knew that the glorious sounds of this wee British band were soon to be mine . . . ALL MINE!!!

And once said friend arrived with said cassette tape, I didn’t simply tear the shrink-wrap off of the case. I basked in the glow of the damn thing and gingerly peeled the cellophane from the cases exterior. I relished every second of that moment . . . my first album that I purchased with my own hard, er . . . well, I didn’t really earn the cash so much as I found coins littered here and there around my house. I pulled the cassette from the case, removed the J-card to review the liner notes, and insert the cassette into a portable tape player that my Mom used for recording lectures.

I can’t remember the details of the next eight hours, but suffice it to say, I listened to a lot of Def Leppard. Loved “Foolin’”, “Rock of Ages”, “Rock Rock (‘til You Drop)” and “Too Late For Love”, songs that would soon be staples of my pre-teen day to day . . . always hated “Photograph” (song just bugged me then as much as it does now). And, though now, I can’t listen to that Pyromania without wanting to retch, it was important on so many levels. It introduced me to Def Leppard, which if you started with the band during the Adrenalize or Hysteria era’s, I pity you. Pyromania led to High and Dry, and then that led to other like music such as Motley Crue, Ratt, Dokken, Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot . . . you know, all the music that’s reviled today. But then that led to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Dio, Motorhead, Queensryche, and more . . . which then led to the Big 4 (kinda freaky to think it was only 2 years from Def Leppard to Big 4), then the underground, then back above ground, and ultimately to The Ripple Effect and Ripple Music.

Youthful rebellion led me to follow the rock n’ roll path and one that I constantly find fascinating today. This musical journey of discovery isn’t simply moving forward. It’s kinda’ like time traveling a little, stumbling on a cool piece of music history from my childhood or before, and no matter when I discover it or from what year it came, it’s always fresh and new!

The lone regret I have is that I don’t have the original copy of Pyromania that I fretted over so much on that one day so long, long ago . . . coz’ man, that would be cool to see again. Kinda’ like seeing an old friend again.

-          --Pope JTE

My First Album - Weird Al Yankovic - In 3-D

First record I ever owned, I'm pretty sure; ca. 1984. First concert I ever went to. First piece of media I wore out (can’t do that now. Goddamn digital media.).

Every track is still great; the originals the best: “Midnight Star” (tabloids), “Theme from Rocky XIII” (27 years later, we’re halfway there, Al!), and especially “Nature Trail to Hell.” Dig the first verse:

Coming this Christmas to a theatre near you
The most horrifying film to hit the screen
There’s a homicidal maniac who finds a cub-scout troop
and he hacks up two or three in every scene

That still cracks me up. What’s more: there’s actual Judas Priest/ Slayer/ black metal backwards masking involving Satan on the track! See below....

The Satan angle sorta makes sense: it’s been 30 years since Al’s first album, and he apparently has not aged at all. Or not in any way, shape or form.

Weird Al is Of The Devil. Could he be any cooler? I submit to you that he cannot.

--Horn

My First Album - The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You

 

If I’m completely honest the actual accuracy of which album was the first I ever bought with my own money is pretty hazy…we’re talking 30 odd years here!!! It could well be something by the Police or maybe even Adam And The Ants. I can say with absolute conviction though that I definitely did buy Tattoo You by the Rolling Stones with my own dosh. I can even remember the sticker on the front that said £3.50. You try buying a brand new vinyl album for £3.50 nowadays…I tell you it can’t be done!!!

Let me just give you a little background as to why I chose this album to buy in my tender years (I would have been 11, maybe 12 when I got it). All credit must go to my dear old dad. You see, my dad has been a huge influence on my listening habits. As a child the house was full of music. In the early 70’s Sunday mornings would play host to my dad’s record collection and I remember a lot of old soul and funky stuff being played. In the car we would have some prime original ska like Prince Buster or the Skatalites that I would request on every journey. My dad, however, always had two abiding passions; the blues and The Rolling Stones and had done since he was a teenager. Even now in his 60’s if a new Stones album comes out he’s right there and he’s out most weeks to check out whichever obscure blues artist is passing through town. For a man known as the “white sheep of the family” by his wayward brothers due to his outward respectability he sure has a black man’s music taste!!!

So as a kid I was exposed to some of the best music ever created and when I entered the record department that day (it would have been Woolworths or W.H Smith) and saw a Rolling Stones album I suddenly had access myself to this treasure chest of awesomeness…plus I knew my dad would be proud as hell!!! I was immediately struck by the cover…Jagger on the front and Keef on the back both covered in tribal artwork. My young mind couldn’t grasp that they hadn’t actually had their faces tattooed for the cover, my knowledge of graphic design would come later. Either way this looked like a badass album!!! At this point I wasn’t aware that bands may have purple patches and wasn’t aware that the previous album was, by all accounts a sack of shit!!! Nor was I aware that “Tattoo You” was a bit of a stop gap album cobbled together from various unreleased bits and bobs dating back nearly 10 years at that point. All I was aware of was that it rocked and was righteous!!!

The album kicked off with “Start Me Up”. Come on people, you have to admit this is one the all time classic Stones riffs!!! As soon as it kicks in the spine starts to tingle and those erogenous zones go all a quiver!! Even as a young boy I knew that when Jagger sings “you’d make a dead man cum”…it had to be some pretty hot shit he was singing about…I didn’t even know what it meant but to make a dead guy do anything is pretty incredible right? “Hang Fire”, “Little T & A” and “Neighbours” all rocked hard and fast. “Slave” was a down and dirty funky fuck of a song and “Black Limousine” brought the blues. Flip this sucker over and the Stones give us their mellow side. Now we already knew from tracks like “Angie”, “Fool To Cry” and “Wild Horses” that they could tug at the heart strings like no-one else and they proved that here. “Waiting On A Friend” even proved to be a big hit with Jagger and Richards making out like they’re best buds in the video!!!

It doesn’t matter whether this album is rated as one of the Stones best albums or not…maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. In the cold light of day it sure as hell ain’t no “Exile On Mainstream” but it was my first and like your first fuck it stays memorable and special. In fact I may go and put it on now and get my groove on to that riff…you know…”Start Me Up”!!!


--Ollie