Falls of Rauros - Believe in No Coming Shore

Falls of Rauros - Believe in No Coming Shore (2014)

Not all black metal has to be restricted to bedroom recordings and isolated woods.

Believe in No Coming Shores by the Northeast gods of metal, Falls of Rauros has been a long time coming. Recorded between 2012 and 2013, these 10 tracks make a brutal black metal ice storm of an album that, like Butcher Boy's Rhubarb single, has been crafted from hours and hours of practice and ear-shattering shows. If you like both powerful and woods-inspired atmospheric metal, this is not an album to sleep on.

Listening to Falls of Rauros online is not the same as listening to them up close and personal. I'm not saying these recordings aren't amazing, because they truly are, I'm saying that this is music meant to be lived - meant to be witnessed. Yes, I bet Believe in No Coming Shores sounds even more amazing on vinyl and you should definitely pick it up if you ever see it in your local record store (wink, wink), but to get the full experience of Falls of Rauros is to actually see these guys perform. I'm not an expert at anything really, but I have gone to quite a few shows in my short time here on earth and I have never heard a band play my ears off the way Falls do. These dudes know how to play loud and passionate walls upon walls of metal, trust me.

P.S. The shredding in Spectral Eye will make any big guy in a leather jacket weep - NFT guarantee.



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Official Site
Last.fm

Butcher Boy - Rhubarb

Butcher Boy - Rhubarb (2014)

If there's one band this year that deserves your attention it's Portland, Maine's own Butcher Boy. No strangers to this site, Butcher Boy are Maine's leading brand for music groups with no easy label. If there's one tag that can be at least included with a bunch of other sub-genre words like post, freak, or doom - it's folk. But of course Butcher Boy are all of those things and none of those things at the same time.

It's been a little while since Butcher Boy has released anything physically, but their constant appearances at shows and festivals these past two years have made it incredibly easy for anyone to hear what they are up to. From Shoreless Sea released in 2012 to last year's small Rhubarb single, Butcher Boy have found the mystical gel through the power of repetition and are using it to their advantage like no other. They might play pretty much the same songs they did a year ago i.e. Cousin, Empty Ocean, and New Home, but they have mutated them into incredible masterpieces the more and more they are played.

It feels like I saw Butcher Boy 20 times in 2014, but every time, whether it was at the Space Gallery, on an island, at a farm, or in the park I was left out of breathe and completely inspired. That being said, the best advise Bassist Travis Mencher could give to an audience is to make your own creative music. Not only because Butcher Boy never has a song left for encore but also because that's what music should do to you and what Maine needs - more creative music.


I highly recommend picking this up if you get the chance because it rules (of course) and it supposedly glows in the dark! I didn't get a chance to grab a copy yet but I will as soon as they get back from their small tour. 

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Monday XXXXXXXII - RIP NFT

April Fools!

NFT is not dead!

Dying - A History of Nothing (2012)

Vegan straight edge hardcore?

Sounds like good ol' meaty hardcore to me.


From Philly.

Hydrogen Man Records
Last.fm

You Slut! - Grit Eyed & Greasy Tailed EP (2006)

Grit Eyed & Greasy Tailed is a three song EP released by the instrumental post/prog/math/rock band, You Slut! in 2006.



Along with the links above, you can also DL all the tracks off of Last.fm.

Last.fm

Blackbird Raum - Swidden (2008)

Instead of describing what Blackbird Raum sound like, I will instead list what they want people to know doesn't sound like them: Gypsies, Pirates, Old Time-y, Gogol Bordello, or Defiance, Ohio.

Get the picture?

They play folk punk or "anarchopunk on acoustic instruments", yes, but that doesn't mean that it sounds like that other stuff listed above. They are clearly trying to make their own sound and, in this day and age, that can be kind of tricky. I reward them for making completely different and original music, but it is almost impossible not to be compared to other things when there is so much of everything for music and genres these days...

These guys are playing a show at The Oak and The Ax in Biddeford, Maine this Friday with Butcher Boy and Speaker for the Dead, two totally rad folk-whatever bands that are turning the stereotypes of "folk punk" music on its pirate-y, old time-y gypsy head. I hope to make it to the show and you should too if you're into this kind of stuff.



I hope all of what I just said makes sense as well.

Official site
Last.fm

Monday XXXXXXX

Happy 311 day.

Here's some stuff that might sound like 311 if they were sped up/slowed down/mixed using an iPhone/had different members/weren't into colors/streaked more/were more distorted/were more like Weezer or Cap'n Jazz or Captain Beefheart or early Metallica/didn't twinkle as hard/weren't from Nebraska/had an album coming out this year/weren't on your mom's iPod/etc.

Michael Jordan Touchdown Pass - New Songs Summer 2012 (2012)

Clearly I'm behind on my Michael Jordan Touchdown Pass listening as I just got word that they have had new songs out on their Bandcamp since last summer. Regardless of all that though, there's no better time like the present to listen to some guilt-free music like Michael Jordan Touchdown Pass.



Did I mention that most of the money you give towards Michael Jordan Touchdown Pass's music goes to his friend in Cambodia's small school he started to help educate and nourish children in the village with art and science? Of course I didn't; I was saving the best news for last!

For real though, check it out!

Last.fm

We Scare Coyotes - PF Flyers DEMO (Live Recording) (2013)

I found out about these guys after checking out the predominately math rock blog, Plenty of Swords. I was initially turned on to this band in particular due to the description of them being a math rock band with strings (I'm guessing a violin). And even though I would say that We Scare Coyotes are bit more post rock than the average math rock outfit these days, they definitely incorporate the violin very nicely into their instrumental music on this live demo titled after those shoes the kids were wearing in The Sandlot.



This release is still much more post rock-y than their 2012 live demo, Wild Dreams which does not feature any strings if my ears serve me correctly. Still a decent listen for any instrumental/post rock/whatever fan out there, however.

Last.fm

Jakob Battick & Friends - Last Songs (2013)

Jakob Battick & Friends may have called it quits in 2011, but it was definitely not the last time we would hear from the likes of either Jakob Battick or his "Friends" - including Jared Fairfield who seems to be appearing just as much on here as Jakob Battick lately. Not to mention that these last four songs by JB & Friends were originally set to be on a split with Jared Fairfield that never happened.

It almost seems like a crime that Jakob Battick and his friends put out such a phenomenal post-humorous release like this on top of all the other stuff Jakob Battick is up to currently (Captain Hollow, new Afraid stuff, etc.) as well as Jared Fairfield (who recently made this). Stop teasing us like you guys should be together still and have so much creativity, okay?

Rumor also has it that Jakob Battick's new project as Afraid will feature Jarboe. That's right, The Living Jarboe from Swans. This is just a rumor as of now, but just crazy enough to be true! When and if it ever happens you can be sure to see here, no doubt.

As for the music itself, these last four songs of Jakob Battick & Friends legacy are probably their best. They know it, too. And while I always enjoyed their other work, this is really some pretty nifty stuff that I can put on constant rotation.

So find yourself a big dark room to sit in and listen to these last four hunting post folk medleys until your bones can no longer take it anymore and you must draw the curtains back and let life return to your body. Except you don't, and your body just stays in equilibrium until your new life begins before your very own eyes.

Or listen to it like a normal person would. I don't care.



Other Friends from JB & F's past: Mark Dennis, Ryan Higgins, Marisha Drown, Nate Pronovost, Milo Moyer-Battick, Dan Littlefield, Johnathan Downs, and more!

Last.fm