Cooking with Satan

Hey motherfuckers. It’s been a while. Sorry about that, these last two weeks were just intense. So what’s new?
As a young fresh immigrant, it’s with great pride that I spent my first 4th of july week-end in the states. Not barbecuing ribs no, but being terribly excited about seeing one of these rare Faith No More reunion shows on a monday evening at The Waterfront in Brooklyn, the very last date of their east-coast mini tour. Yes, their first New-York show in 12 years!!! The sun was furnacing high up in the sky on that day and, following the inevitable bare chest parade that usually occurs then, I can tell you now that I’ve never seen so many bad tattoos in my life. 12 years after their split and without any new material, Faith No More stills gather a good couple thousands of fans. Pretty cool. Even if they have terrible taste in tattoos. But yeah, most of these guys are metal-heads. Let’s not forget that.
The venue is some kind of industrial field barely set-up with a few tents and a big stage, nearby the river, a few blocks away from my apartment. I love America. But I just fucking hate funky free-jazz band with a terrible sax player and a even more terrible drunk-sounding singer. And I also fucking hate that nobody gives a shit about what’s going on on stage, sitting on the grass, drinking bears, eating pizzas and smoking weed a few feet away from the musicians. Not that I threw some rocks at them but, well, I kept my distances. Anyway. After a too long wait (did I mention the stupid stand-up comedian bashing Korn or Limp Bizkit or Justin Bieber with totally non-fun jokes but at least less irritating than a free-jazz saxophone? Neil Hamburger is his name), Faith No More finally takes the stage. The five of them, a little bit older and fatter (except Mike Patton but we see his damn face much more often than the other guys so we probably don’t notice or maybe i’m just being jealous) throwing a quick intro (“Midnight Cowboy” with Mike Patton on melodica, nice) right before really getting into it. “The Real Thing” marked the start of two hours of gay funky glam-metal maestria (including two encores).
The band was cool, chilling (maybe sometimes a little bit too much), even stage-diving for Mike Patton (who performed the entire show in a red suit while the heat was around 90°F). They played all their smash-hits: “Digging The Grave”, “Epic”, “Be Agressive”, “We Care A Lot”, “Midlife Crisis”, “Easy” of course, they invited Rahzel on “Chinese Arithmetics” but also they granted us with a stunning Michael Jackson cover (“Ben” commemorating the first year anniversary of his death) that really kicked my ass big time. And It actually happened anytime FNM played grand, pompous, FM hard-rock stuff. This is where they’re really amazing to me. Because they do it bouncy. And what made…
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Wow… This is seriously the best ambient drone stuff I’ve heard in ages…
I recently discovered the band in an old issue of Oaken Throne zine. I was quickly going from interview to interview without really paying attention to my reading until I bumped into the story of that girl who used to travel India messed-up on ketamine (and all kind of drugs she could find there). One day she bought thorazine from a sketchy guy who sold the shit as morphine. She eventually woke up and came up with the song: “Thorazine Eclipse”. What??? High on ketamine and thorazine in India, fear and loathing in Calcutta? I just can’t think of a more accurate description of hell.
I flipped a few pages back: that same girl recently spent 9 months in Pakistan, living under a burka, where she lived in a small village and recorded some sounds for her upcoming album called “Islamic Bomb”. Holy fucking shit!!!
So I did what I could to get her first two albums under the name “Dialing In” and I’ve been instantly blown away but what I heard then:
Disturbing noisy, haunting lo-fi ambient, desolate urban landscapes with layers and layers of distorted chords (guitar, piano) and a voice that you could compare to a conjuration of dead souls. But what’s more surprising is that Reita Piecuch, that’s her, without compromising her love for basic tape-recorders, manages to keep a pop aspect in her music. Well, for someone who admitted she always found Sonic Youth boring as opposed to Fletwood Mac, the heroes of her teen days, it’s maybe not that surprising… It’s great, brilliant stuff here. On top of that, she’s also involved in photography and her taste in urban decay, dumps and other wrecks is totally according to my taste.
Anyway, I didn’t get a chance yet to get her third album but it’s available now on vinyl (and limited to 500 copies) on Music Fellowship. I guess I’ll place my order tomorrow or something.

You can listen some stuff here.

I heard many things about what you can get at a Eyehategod show. Some were positive, most, as you guessed, were negative. I won’t deny that everyone has his bad days, especially when you’re a bunch of New-Orleans fiends as much famous for your substance abuse and your crime record (we personally don’t give a shit, but the kids like it) than your music, but everybody has its own opinion on what a good show is… So I don’t know for the others (who cares anyway?) but what I saw yesterday was merely one of the best gig I’ve ever seen. Everything was perfect from start to finish. Eyehategod played as if they were just one man, one big hairy menacing sweaty man, granting the hysterical crowd with all his nastiness. If Williams and Bower get the money shots, the guys behind them play tight as hell and deserve as much credit as their bandmates. It was a little bit more than an hour of raw punk energy, bad attitude (that singer is really evil, no doubt about it) and humongous riffing crushing your face right in the dirt. God, it was intense…
Now, the other bands that night… Wait! What other bands are you talking about?

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(pictures by Cooking with Satan, do not use without permission)

Fuck yes! Punk-rockers, crusties & metal-heads, dogs, open fee at the entrance, 1 € beer, cool merchandizing (home made patches, buttons, even some Hellnation tees!) all in together tonight, D.I.Y or die!!!
The venue is located nearby the river in a trashy fucked-up neighborhood right in the middle of nowhere, a perfect location for the gig as dark clouds gather and a cold rain starts to fall.
After quite some delay, Black Widow (a one-man project by Rob from Grey Daturas (R.I.P) who’s also playing drums with Monarch! tonight) opened the show with monotonous fuzzy drone analogic noise. 15 minutes, a short set that would have been boring if longer. The dude just stopped in time. Not really a consistent opening act, just a small appetizer for the rest to come!
Parisian veterans Desecrator unleashed a juggernaut of ultra-fast messy grind-core punctuated with putrid growls and harsh screams. Classic stuff to say the least. But two barking dogs in the middle of the pit just made it sound cooler than expected! A little bit more craziness would have been appreciated though…
Then Monarch! totally killed it in one very long song haunted by howling delayed vocals slightly taking over this ritual descent. After a good ten minutes of drone, the beat finally sets on a melancholic sabbathian riff that goes on and on. The song finally ends in a rather abrupt way as you happen to expect some kind of climax that would have made the thing perfect. But still an awesome show, all made of skulls, bones and drones. Monarch! rules as kings in the crypt of funeral music. Word.

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(pictures by Cooking with Satan, do not use without authorization)

It’s actually pretty rare to see a black-metal concert with only worth checking stuff.
Usually there’s always some crappy cheap symphonic act between two bands or even sometimes no good band at all but just a bunch of goofy metalheads muppets wearing bad corpsepaint and playing some kind of fuzzy high-pitched Iron Maiden with synth.
Tonight though, it’s a different story…
I’d suggest you to browse the Metal-Archives to have a better clue about the black-metal hall of fame who were on stage that night but let’s just say that these guys are hugely responsible, through their various musical projects, in the worldwide very known fact that french BM kicks some serious ass (sometimes).
Ok, Aosoth didn’t really impressed me but their show was a decent starter for the evening. Some good tunes but too similar from one to the other. Not totally bad but not really good either…
I was quite curious to see Blacklodge live as their industrial black-metal fueled on narcotics (Mysticum anyone?) is quite the shit on record. Good stage presence, all dressed in the same uniform, and awesome vocals (that reminded me of Master’s Hammer for some reason) but unfortunately too messy to really catch the brilliantness of their music. Some parts were totally insane, and totally appropriate to put you in a trance-like state, as some others were drown in the echoes of a fainting drum machine. Enough highlights though to enjoy the performance enhanced by Shantidas (from Aluk Todolo/Diamatregon/Obscure) visuals, mixed live on some good old cathodic screens. A better live sound would have certainly helped them out.
Then Hell Militia, leaded by the mighty Willy (also known as Meyhna’ch) took over the stage and literally torch the place with their merciless black assault. Nothing but very conservative black-metal at its best empowered by a very charismatic leader. The man got some consistence for sure. Very good response from the crowd (not too big by the way, a little bit over a hundred) as well, some moshpit here and there, and a pretty good conclusion with a GG Allin cover (I might be wrong here by the way). Badass as fuck!
In conclusion, this was probably the best black-metal concert I’ve seen in ages. Hands down to Blacklodge for the originality of their music and Hell Militia for a merciless show.
Alcest was playing the very next day, I’m glad I’d fixed my mind on that one instead.

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(pictures by Cooking with Satan, do not use without authorization)

Today, march 30st, sees the release of the “Wu Massacre” by Def Jam, the most exciting Wu-Tang Clan side-project since ages if you want my opinion. Mostly handled by the holy trinity Meth, Ghost and Raekwon (The Chef) and produced by Mathematics, Scram Jones and RZA, the opus really caught my attention with its amazing artwork signed Chris Bachalo (back to “Liquid Swords” baby!) and the pretty cool teasers (all “7″ inspired) that preceded the launch of the album. Probably not the new “36″, but definitely old-school and massive. Fat beats, you know. Check it out.

25 years after the big wave, it’s cool to listen to heavy metal again. Can you believe that?
I can still remember the half amused, half embarassed look hipsters would give you, wearing an Iron Maiden tee back in 2000. Anyway… Trends suck and this one is no exception but well, there’s nothing bad in the fact that old glories of our youth take the stage over again. Anvil was part of this heavy-metal magic pack, along with Whitesnake, Ratt, Stryper and a bunch of others, except they were faster, nastier and from Canada. They were partly responsible for the term speed-metal and Rob Reiner, their drummer, was totally the shit at the time with these ultra fast double-bass kicks. But for some reason (let’s put it on the wrong place- wrong time syndrome) they totally fell into oblivion after their first three acclaimed albums, although they kept on recording records, touring in small clubs and dreaming about becoming rock-stars. “Anvil: The Story Of Anvil” tells us this most amazing story of perseverance and dedication to their music, their lifetime dream. Good for us, the movie hasn’t been shot by some pretentious asshole who doesn’t know shit about rock music but by one of their ex-roadie, when Anvil could afford to have roadies. Director Sacha Gervasi is totally committed to his subject and offers the band this incredible grandiloquent homage which brings them back under the spotlights, just right where they belong. The mass-media highly praised the film which has won several prestigious prices, Anvil makes now decent money with its music and they’ve seen their status upgraded from “pathetic losers” to “absolute winners”. And it’s definitely a good thing that this story, emblematic of the immense majority of bands on this planet, has been caught on tape. Because you know, these old, ugly, bold heavy-metal guys who always did what they wanted to and never gave up will probably still rock when they’ll be uncool again. A lesson for everyone. Every musician, every human being in quest of something bigger than buying an equipped kitchen or a sport car has to watch this. Spinal Tap can suck it.

Enough said… I’m still waiting for the time when a black metal band will kick my ass, change my life, as much as Emperor did back in 1994 with “In The Nightside Eclipse”. I’ve already written quite a few words about it so I won’t be long this time, but do not forget on some occasion to light up a candle on a chilly winter night and play this most awesome record loud as fuck. Before they turned into a shitty progressive metal band, no black metal record has ever beaten that one, and if you think the opposite, well my friend i’d be much pleased to hear about it… Oh yeah, and did I mention that a proper listen must be done on vinyl?

I love metal when it’s good. The only problem is that 95% of it is total crap. Dude, admit it. But once in a while some band comes to you out of the blue for some serious ass-kicking time. And you’re like: “Fuck yeah, I love metal!”. Iron Age riffing sounds as inspired as the thrashing idols of our teen days, when “Master Of Puppets” and “Bonded By Blood” were spinning 24/7. So this is old-school yeah, but a million times better than any hipster retro-thrash bands because Iron Age does not only summon the spirit of the past but also adds some ferocious psychedelic doomy ambience to the 8 tracks of the album. And they really don’t give a damn about vintage production as well: the sound on “The Sleeping Eye” is the equivalent of a constant ice-pick attack on your neck. Sharp and limpid as hell. So it looks like tight jeans, bandana and high-top sneakers sure, but also smells like a fucking lousy basement drenched in sweat, rust and iron. “The Sleeping Eye” will sound familiar to you, it will remind you of your best memories, when you were stage-diving over your parents’ couch with two drunken friends. Now that this bullshit retro-thrash trend is coming to an end, it’s so good to stumble upon a band who doesn’t mix the fact of having influences with being a stupid parody. This is not a gimmick, this is pure fucking metal, the way it is supposed to be. Very, very good. Check this out.

Purchase it here

Honestly, I don’t think there’s a better album to walk the streets of New-York on a grey, rainy, foggy afternoon…
Cannibal Ox one and only record is undoubtedly as emblematic of its time as “Enter The Wu-Tang” was back in ‘93. A vertiginous evil opening to the 21st century, made of metal, blood and bile. The twin-towers will blow up in a few months, from their bunker in Manhattan Cannibal Ox set the scene. And unleash “Definitive Jux” golden age…
Catch your breath and press play, what you can smell right now is the imminent apocalypse that has already started to spread on the streets, a suffocating urban decadence all melted in fear, paranoia and violence. The signs are already here for those who know where to glance.
And when Vast Aire (who definitely eclipses the performance of his mate Vordull) finally grabs the mic, you’re sucked in. There’s no turning back. The 14 tracks of the album are the sick organs of the big city, never asleep, always crawling like a nest of worms, dying but refusing to die, perfused with acid and gasoline, on its way to a final, pale chemical sunset. Tales of perdition, substance abuse, poverty and New-York. New-York as a backdrop to all these subway corridors, dark alleys, devastated apartments full of mutant cockroaches and crackheads. New-York, gross and merciless for the weak. As opposed to the traditional ghetto tales in hip-hop culture, Cannibal Ox brings a sci-fi vibe taking place in the present, a soundtrack atmosphere to any K. Dick novel, where what you commonly refer as “reality” disappears as your synapses collapse. In other words: not recommended to the claustrophobic.
Cannibal Ox created a monster and still today, “The Cold Vein” and its legacy, are unmatched in indie hip-hop.

Purchase it here

Below is a small dutch documentary about “Definitive Jux” (EL-P’s label), really poorly shot but featuring a bunch of cool appearances from EL-P and Vast Aire (charismatic as fuck).

They could have repeat the same thing they did on their first acclamed LP and the fans would have been pleased, but with “Finsternis” the french occult trio decided to bring their concept to the next level.
This black monolith divided in 5 chapters, all pounded by the same drumbeat over and over (aside from an ambient interlude), stands as a long, unstoppable descent into the abyss, an invocation of some ancient evil force…
This desolate hypnotic trance is progressively haunted by layers of howling and squeaking guitars, getting more consistent as we approach the final climax. No proper riffing here, it’s all about the texture. Dense (the guitars) and minimal (the rhythmic) elements tangled up and filtered through various creepy low frequency sounds, reverb and feedback. Aluk Todolo work on a subliminal level and it’s utterly amazing to hear how deep they can get with a classic guitar/bass/drums line-up. You will surely feel the room you’re in getting darker and darker as you listen to this. If you can still mention black metal and krautrock elements as part of this experience, “Finsternis” is so uncompromised and powerful in its totality that it can be compared to anything else.
If you think “MoRT” by Blut Aus Nord was the ultimate trip to the other side, you haven’t heard nothing yet.

Purchase it here

When I was 10, “Bad Taste” was the movie you had to watch to be part of our gang. And I don’t remember how I exactly bumped into this years and years later, but when I first saw the “Horrorap Vault” cover I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Bad Taste” and hip-hop? Fuck, this is the best concept ever!!!
This series of mixtapes (real tapes, except for the fourth volume!!!) sold-out since forever is visually based on the infamous Peter Jackson movie and collect the illest hip-hop stuff you’ve ever heard. The 3 sickos behind this project go by the names of: Ice-O-Later, Franck Whyte and Dirtwolff. All the stuff is mixed on turntables with actual vinyl and filled with weird sci-fi interludes and other space shit. A lot of skill has been put into this and, in my humble opinion, this is pure genius. So, as my tapes disappeared in tragic conditions, I was more than happy to see that one of the three originators uploaded the mixtapes on his blog for a free download. The links are at the end of the article, yeah, just right after these amazing visuals that you absolutely have to check here
The Astrobastard cult must stay alive!

Our friend Brad Miller is now hosting a weekly show on Inner-X-Musick radio entitled “Cassette Culture”.
Inner-X-Musick is a label originally founded by John Zewizz (Sleepchamber, Woman Of The SS…) which recently became way more active with the arrival of a new batch of artists including Choronzon, Grammal Seizure, Veil Of Thorns, and Batcheeba. John Zewizz also hosts a show, “The John Zewizz Radio Show”, entirely dedicated to Sleepchamber. Go there if you want to give it a listen.

As the french black metal scene is way too often associated with lame trendy bands like Deathspell Omega or Antaeus, the anticipated return of Diamatregon is something more than appreciated. And damn, it’s been a long wait since “Blasphemy For Satan” came out seven years ago! “Crossroad” (an open homage to Britney Spears) is your typical Diamatregon: sick, raw, fucked-up and vicious. But between these two releases, the band members explored new occult and psychedelic territories with both Aluk Todolo and Gunslingers which brought new influences to their music. So the notable difference here is that this album is even more sick, raw, fucked-up and vicious!!! Blame it on the unconventional drum-parts, the much better work on vocals and some riffing that brings you back circa 1993, when churches were still on fire. Diamatregon manages to mix the most traditional aspects of BM with some nasty fuzzy drone moods, hypnotic and minimal garage tones. But even if things get slower here and there, “Crossroad” always keeps this harsh edge all the way. And through some structures that might sound simple at first emerge a dangerously dark texture that will sneak mercilessly into your mind… Plus the artwork is really great, totally D.I.Y style and punk as fuck.
So don’t believe what the promo line says: there’s no blues at all in this album. Just furious, chaotic & devastating black metal with huge chunks of weirdness… Just awesome.

Purchase CD here
Purchase LP here
Purchase tape here

Super SS (from Brazil) was the only cool band tonight. Not that the other ones were technically bad but you get the picture… So what really happened here? Hard to describe. Something evil, noisy, ineffable, just like if the cenobites were too bored in hell and decided to come back to earth to make a band. Yeah, they would call that band Super SS. And beat the shit out of you. The show only lasted 20 minutes but, believe me, these were 20 minutes of pure sonic armageddon. And by seeing their attitude on stage, these guys are way more pissed off than you are. No doubt about it. When you perform extreme harsh noise, that’s definitely a good thing i’d say… All these harsh noise wannabes can pack up their gear, here’s the real deal folks. I have one complaint though: where was the fucking dolphin? Looking forward to see these guys again. You should too.

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Beautiful venue, big crowd… The first coming in France of our norwegian avant-garde heroes was more than expected to say the least. No disappointment here, the show was totally great, starting with a Palpatine look-a-like Attila Csihar (AKA Void Of Voices) using a single mic and a few effects to summon his infamous satanic gospel. And what about this exquisite hungarian accent, uh?
“Ulver – The rest is silence”. Garm, Tore, Jorn, the new recruit Daniel O Sullivan and their musicians gave us a little bit more than an hour (did i mention the show was too short?) of beautiful, mysterious, tragic music with high-quality scenography (stunning visuals, neon tubes…). No room for improvisation here, everything is firmly in place, definitely not a rock n’ roll show fellas. But you can easily imagine (or not) the challenge to re-create such a music on stage, and Ulver did it without giving us the image of four guys hidden behind their laptops. Well done.

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New release from Amortout with Obscure’s DVD entitled “Le Cathodator”. A 15 minutes movie that has been selected in three festivals so far including Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival. You can check a few stills from the movie below. Obscure is about fanaticism only.
Order it here.