Category: Punk

The Round Up Tapes // Thrill Jockey Edition

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If you’ve been reading Bleak Metal for a while (in which case, wow, thank you) then you may remember my End of Year list from, well, the end of last year. Now, I spoke a lot there about how terrible 2013 had been in a lot of respects, the biggest being that pretty soon I would be out of a job. That happened, and it sucked but y’know, I’m so bloody glad about it. Because losing that job meant that I got to do something hecka cool this summer – I went to America and attended Gilead Fest. And holy crap, it was brilliant. At that festival I saw friendly internet faces, bands I never thought I’d get to see (two of which I will talk about below) and I saw up close the passion and commitment that one of my favourite labels has for the community. I reviewed the event for Subterranea/Metal Hammer and you can see it here.

I also met some lovely people, two of whom were Bettina and Jonathan from Thrill Jockey Records who then put me in touch with Ken from the UK side. Since then Ken has sent some excellent works, a few of which I will now talk about because no one wants to hear me bang on about myself and the music is much more interesting.

Hit more for more!

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2013. So black metal. Many doom. Such death metal. Wow.

Cheryl3 Comments

2013 huh? It’s been……it’s not been great to tell the truth. It’s been tough. It’s been wonderful at times, that’s for sure but I’m pretty glad that it’s over and I’m hoping that 2014 brings something more than “fuck, what do I do now?” to the table.

I’ve done some really cool stuff this year. I covered my first big outdoor metal festival for Metal Hammer which was such fun and really great to experience. I’ve done a few smaller events and seen a lot of my favourite bands and made new connections with new faces and if you’d have told me even two years ago that this is what I’d be doing now, I would have punched you square in the jaw. I’ve come out of myself a lot these last few years and gained a lot of confidence in dealing with new and unfamiliar situations. It sounds silly, but I can walk into a pub alone and not be frightened that I don’t know anyone or I can’t find anyone and it’s because of dealing with so many new things that my brain can handle that.

Bleak Metal has gone on to new ventures and that’s incredible. I put on a rock show here and there and although it’s something I’ve always been interested in doing, I never thought that it’s something I could pull off. Huge thanks goes to Zac of Oblivionized for answering all my questions and letting me see how these things work and helping in more ways than I can put into words. The first show of 2014 is booked and I have plans for a lot of cool things in the coming twelve months, fingers crossed they can be organised.

I started to manage a band. What? We’re still not sure how it really works but Caïna is doing really well right now and for that reason I couldn’t include the incredible Litanies of Abjection.

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2012…it was the best of times….it was the blurst of times.

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This last year has been pretty great in terms of music, but also on a more personal note, 2012 was actually pretty decent. Good things happened and bad things certainly occurred, but 2012 was the year that I realised that I’d found what I wanted to do in life – and now starts the long, hard road to making that a reality. I’ve come across some incredible people in my writing life that have helped me out in more ways than they can ever know. By giving me chances, by allowing me to hear new records, to making sure that I get to see that all important band that I love, and for the people that might actually read the things that I put out there, thank you. This writing lark is a constant learning curve, and I don’t think it ever ends. I’m excited for 2013. I’m excited for the music that I’ve been lucky enough to already hear, I’m excited for the music I’m yet to hear. Despite the fact that my real life job might not exist in six, three maybe even one month, I can’t wait to see what happens in other aspects of my “career.”

Here’s a picture of Darkthrone hanging out to break up the seriousness. Oh, you guys!

Darkthrone

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Kvlt Albvm Ov The Weak

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This edition of Kvlt Albvm Ov The Weak is a little different to others. Don’t be alarmed, it’s still totally dark but not in the way you’ve come to expect.

This time around….it’s AFI. OK, it’s not “trve kvlt grimmmmmmmm” black metal (deal with it); but this record is incredibly dark and twisted and there’s a depth to it that I appreciate more and more as I get older and older. I guess I should explain.

I love AFI.

They are the first band I really and truly fell for. I mean, I liked bands before that and Metallica were the first band I really got into, but there was something about AFI that spoke to me a on level I hadn’t experienced before. And I was fourteen. What the hell did I know?!?!

Black Sails in the Sunset still sounds as good today as it did the first time I heard it. The record after this, The Art of Drowning continued on the gothic path forged by it’s predecessor and then came the magnificent Sing The Sorrow. What happened after that….no one likes to talk about. So let us relive the glory days of one the most vital punk bands of their day.

1. Strength Through Wounding

2. Porphyria

3. Exsanguination

4. Malleus Maleficarum

5. Narrative of Soul Against Soul

6. Clove Smoke Catharsis

7. The Prayer Position

8. No Poetic Device

9. Weathered Tome

10. The Last Kiss

11. At a Glance

12. God Called in Sick Today

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