Wake Up On Fire/In Memory of Kevin Hannigan

Wake Up On Fire was a truly excellent band from Baltimore, Maryland. A ton of other people have done better jobs than I ever could of summarizing their extremely eclectic and unique multi-drummer, multi-vocalist, cello-centric, combination of atmospheric sludge and crust, so I'm not going to even bother to try. Just go here, read up on their radness, dl their album and demo, etc.

No, no, I promise, this post isn't just a plug for Hasan's great blog (though you should totally subscribe to it regardless), as I do have something somewhat special for you guys.

Last week, after learning of the untimely death of one-time Wake Up On Fire/Oak drummer Kevin Hannigan (R.I.P., my best wishes are with his friends and family), a friend of mine shared with me a live recording of the band playing a show at the Baltimore DIY Punk club "The Brewhenge" in 2004. It contains two songs that were never officially recorded, as well as live versions of three tracks fans of the band should be familiar with.

I've not seen this anywhere else, I hope some of you enjoy it.

Mediafire

Skaven - Flowers of Flesh and Blood/Severed

"Skaven are a race of ratlike humanoids in the famous fantasy RPG/miniatures wargame Warhammer."
What an awesome name to have for a band.

The eponymous ep was recorded in 1996 and delivers two tracks of dark emotional crust and my friends is Skaven at their very best. It was released by Misanthopic Records with Noah of Neurosis as producer.The lyrical content reproduces the horror of haunting cover artwork:"Walk with me through the valley of broken dreams, and hopes are crushed by madness and pain,You inflict as you turn the key to unlock a world of shit and greed". No any occult stuff here. Each tracks is about seven minutes long and delivers a blending of Axegrinder, Deviated Instinct, early Neurosis and the likes . The record is a kind of concept since both tracks are connected with the same bassdriven acoustic melody ("Severed" outro is "Flowers..." intro), each side of vinyl is named "Cocoon" and "Moth" side.

Is this heavy you ask ? I think it's time I told you a story. Skaven has two bassists. Moral ? The band is heavy as hell.

Also there is this line on the band's MA page - "Skaven broke up in 1997. There are plans to release a discography CD." And what does the band say a month back on their MySpace ?- "I really appreciate all the influence and credit for that we have been given by people. I LOVE THE PUNKS! I WILL HAVE A DISCOGRAPHY FOR YOU IN THE NEXT YEAR! It's just money and I have to split my time between the DemonSteed release and all my normal life shit. Hell back when Skaven road havoc our lives were much simpler. THANKS AGAIN, UP THE PUNKS, UP THE IRONS, AND NEVER LET THE BASTARDS GRIND YA DOWN!
Cheers, Zebediah".


Download this now

Skaven / Stormcrow - Skaven / Stormcrow

Skaven's latest and last release, containing the one unreleased track. It's not the band most aggressive or their best, but certainly is the bands heaviest with the downtuned doom metal guitars playing a major role. Stormcrow are members of the new school, having formed in 2003. But don't let that fool you; some of their members have done time in Destroy! Since Stormcrow are literally the only legit crust band to emerge from Oakland since Skaven's demise, it's plainly obvious that no other band could be more appropriate to take up the second half of this record. Likewise, they have but one song on their side, but they make sure it's a good one. "Final Plague" is probably their best outing yet.

Hearing both of these bands back-to-back really showed me just how much crust has changed in the time that's elapsed between them. Skaven appears to be of the train of thought where crust bands intend to strip down most of the excesses of '80s metal and keep what makes it good. And it still sounds like a punk band playing their version of metal, at least to me. Stormcrow often crosses those lines in a musical sense, and since a lot of newer bands have caught on to this "even less is more" approach and practice it to some degree themselves, where does that leave Stormcrow and more recent bands of their ilk? Or, what does that make them? That's more of an observation than an actual criticism because, metal or not, Stormcrow brings the brutality. An excellent record that tells a good story in the grooves, which will undoubtedly go down as a necessary piece of the Oakland punk puzzle.

Oh Fuck

Dystopia / Skaven - Blessed are The Worms.....For They Shall Inherit This Barren Dirt!

Oh, where should I start? I am lost in complete amazement. Dystopia is a band we have heard of but how Skaven slipped under the radar I have no idea.

This split between these crust masters is simply amazing, and when you have a band, which is named Dystopia being out performed you know tat you have something very very special and very very rare in your hands.

The Dystopia side is chaos riddled, aggressive, filled with hate as usual (boy did their childhood suck).

The Skaven side with the obnoxious, in your face crust attitude, riff cannons, judgmental vocals, amazing build ups into brutal assaults and amazing atmosphere with tinges of death metal makes for an astonishingly brutal slice of crusty metallic doom.

This unfeasibly heavy split EP brings together two of the more misanthropically destructive bands in recent memory. If heavy means anything what so ever to you, then do not miss this under any circumstances.

Feel the fucking hatred

Desolate Void - Self Medicated Psycho Therapy

Thrashy a la crusty doom / sludge.

If the fuzzed out guitar tone and general Southern metal on PCP approach is the heart of Desolate Void, the soul is Andy Howard’s vocals which can only be termed as demented as he ranges from unintelligible shrieks, spoken words, deep bellows and everything in between. He makes Phil Anselmo sound like Richard Burton as he covers topics like drugs, society, drugs and overall discontent and hate with everything and everyone.

The album is basically an organized assault on the ears of the listener that bleeds a tinge of randomness all the time. Calculated yet miscalculated drum attacks, certain yer unceratin layer of riffs hit the listener like shards on a battlefield.

When it's all said and done, you find yourself hooked onto this band, ready to press play again.


Download

Desolate Void - No Sign of Better Times

The last time I heard from Crimes Against Humanity Records was actually the last Desolatevoid album, Self Medicated Psycho Therapy and little has changed on the Desolatevoid camp; bassist Nick Carroll still runs Crimes Against Humanity Records, vocalist Aaron Howard still sounds batshit insane and the band still plys a form of gritty, crusty, in your face, Southern sludgy metal that comes across like a more direct, punk fueled, methed out Soilent Green.

Other Southern metal bands come to mind like Eyehategod, Outlaw Order, Goatwhore and such, but with a more chaotic, power chord driven and urgent pace rather than pure Southern drenched drawl though some typically ‘Southern’ metal grooves surface amid the caustic, rollicking noise and the whole affair is over in about 30 minutes.

If the fuzzed out guitar tone and general Southern metal on PCP approach is the heart of Desolate Void, the soul is Andy Howard’s vocals which can only be termed as demented as he ranges from unintelligible shrieks, spoken words, deep bellows and everything in between. He makes Phil Anselmo sound like Richard Burton as he covers topics like drugs, society, drugs and overall discontent and hate with everything and everyone. Tracks like opener “Isolation Embrace”, “Cuts Bruises and an Empty Wallet”, “Wreckage of Yesterday” and “Fucked Up an Furious” deliver raucous, unhinged moments of buzzing yet catchy mayhem that border on grindcore at times.


Deposit File

Anticlimax - At The Mountains Of Noid (2003)

Ultra heavy sludge/crust Punk band from UK which had a rather ultra short career. Just this demo from the band which is skull crushingly heavy that reminds you of Dystopia.

Struggle Of Years
Lord Of Unrest
Earn Your Spurs
No Salvage Value
Grow to Time

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