The Anals - [2006] Commando of Love 7''

I saw the band name together with A.H. Kraken, since they both seem to be part of the new wave of french fucked-up rock, being from the same city, Metz, which by now should be renamed Metz Rock City.
Hadn't heard them earlier, don't know if I even listened to them on myspace before I ordered this 7''. But when I put the record on I was amused, confused, a bit abused even. When Commando of Love starts I almost expect to hear Bachs - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, you know that classical piece, used in horror movies, but the songs continues with drums and what I think is guitar, but can't be sure, might be keyboard, as said, I am confused. The vocals comes in with the words "She was in love with an SS, who was in love with a jew". Yes, I am not kidding. And the rest of the lyrics to this song is equally great/weird.
The Anals list D.A.F as their main influence, and if they are anything like the Anals, I might need to check them out. A.H. Kraken has done a D.A.F cover, and list them as an influence as well, so if they are to both bands and not just a band mentioned for fun, D.A.F might be the next thing I review.
The B-side on this record is for you to enjoy without a hint of what to expect, but it isn't as astonishing as the track Commando of Love.
Get your own damn copy of this amazing 7''!

A.H. Kraken - [2009] Tatiana 12''

This one-sided 12'' is supposed to be recorded back in 1987, mixed in 1988 and then release as a tape 1989. What makes me wonder is the fact that nothing else happened with A.H. Kraken until the release of their debut in 2008. Well, a sceptic I am. Anyway, the music on this album seem older than the songs on the Gianna Michaels 7'' and the debut album, the Arab On Radar influences that were very obvious on the debut album hasn't really grown into place on this record, and neither the really fucked-up riffs from the 7''. Here it's more rough no wave, without the melodies.
But the effort is great. Really lo-fi, no wave, garage, punk, ugly and dirty.

Orcivus, Saturnalia Temple & Ofermod - Live at The Cave 21/5 2010

Orcivus
They start so fast and without a word that it seems more comic than evil. And it just continues, the singer has the usual, guttural, forceless kind of vocal that never, ever impresses me. And the music is the same kind of Black Metal clichés that you've heard over and over again. It was like Marduks even more ungifted little brother. The bassplayer standing straight up, not moving more than his head, and barely that. I think he was trying to look cool, or evil, or grim, or true, but he just seemed frostbitten. The guitarist had his hair in front of his face, banging his head, but probably looking at the fret board, but masking that with his hair. The singer, with his hands firmly on his thighs, headbanged as well, when he wasn't pointing or giving the crowd the devil horns.
It felt like youth center Black Metal, but you got to give them some credit for being a realtively unknown band and still walking on stage with spikes, corpse paint and leather pants. They convinced some in the crowd, but I hope they had a hard time convincing themselves.

Saturnalia Temple

It's hard for me to be impartial when it comes to this band, because they were the reason for me going to this show. I've known the bass player for 6 years or so, and we've been involved in musical projects together since then.
I'm not the kind of person to write up friends even though I don't like their band, just because their friends. But Saturnalia Temple is a great band. Musically it's a mixture of Electric Wizard and Sleep, heavy as hell and groovy as fuck. This is the third time I'm seeing them live, and it's a pleasure to see them every time.
And the bass player succeeds with looking both sexy, cute and evil, I can't help to get a bit of a man-crush on him.

Ofermod

I have to admit that I was a bit sceptical before they started playing. I listened to the Mystérion Tés Anomias 7'' quite a lot back in my Black Metal-days, but I wasn't that big a fan of Tiamtü. It's not a bad record at all, but I just haven't got that feeling that a record needs to give me. So, again, I was a bit sceptic, but when they started playing, all doubts were gone. It was really great, and I'm glad that I was one of the people who saw Ofermod play live in Sweden for the first time. Since I'm not that familiar with the new material, I have no idea which songs they played, and it's been too long for me to know if they even played anything from Mystérion Tés Anomias .
The singer had a hooded cape and a t-shirt saying "Make War Not Love", a statement which feels very 2003, together with all the other slogans stating: "Legalize Murder", "Establish World Peace: Kill Everyone" and such. But it's easy to forgive that, because he was an amzing stage persona. Without doing that much actually. He had this authority, and that goes for the others in the band as well. They owned that stage, unlike Orcivus who didn't own shit.
A fun (or not) side note is that Michaya, the man, the myth, the legend, kicked a guy in the face during the show. The guy had appearantly yelled "Eat pussy, you fucking whore" or something like that, so the guy got a foot in the face as a thank you.
I think I need to give Tiamtü another listen after last nights show.

Eels - [2010] End Times

I've been listening to Eels off and on for a couple of years now. Recently been pushed more into listening to them since a friend of mine discovered them a couple of months ago.
My first contact with the band was with the album Daisies of the Galaxy, and the songs Grace Kelly Blues, I Like Birds, It's a Motherfucker and so on. After getting hooked on that album, I expanded my Eels library and really found my Eels in songs like Dogfaced Boy, World of Shit, Restraining Order Blues, Cancer for the Cure and of course Novocaine for the Soul and Beautiful Freak.
But somewhere I lost contact with Mr. E and the others and Beautiful Freak was just standing on the shelf.
Up until my friend discovered them a while back, just previous to their release of Hombre Lobos. The first track I heard from Hombre Lobos was Prizefighter and from the moment I saw the bearded E in the promo video, I knew that this was going to be a happy reunion. It's was as if no time had passed, we got right back into our old roles, me as a listener and the Eels telling me stories of hurt, fresh blood and mental illness.
Before the actual release of the album, I read an interview with Mr. E in a magazine and especially the part of bringing more howling screams into the music and doing a real rock song, the track Fresh Blood.
I was waiting for that promo video to come up and it was amazing to see the man stumble around with a cane, howling like a wolf.
And when the album finally got out, it was really great.
Not long after the release of Hombre Lobos, Eels announced the release of the next album, End Times. But unfortunately, we had lost contact again. I was diggin' deep into the No Wave-scene and needed the skronk, the atonal, disharmonic, the madness, so up until today, I still hadn't heard more than the first song of End Times.
This album is more in the vein of the more honest and less rock-ish albums Electro-Shock Blues and Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. But not quite as unbearably dark.
You have the more up-tempo songs like Gone Man, Mansions of Loz Feliz, Paradise Blues and Unhinged. But most of the songs are the quieter, more subtle and sincere E.
It's an amazing album, but it's likely that I'll spin Hombre Lobos more often than this.

A.H. Kraken - [2008] Gianna Michaels 7''

This is the second release from A.H. Kraken, it came out a couple of months after their debut LP on In The Red.
The song Gianna Michaels is quite different from the tracks on Elle avait peut-être 19 ans mais pour moi elle en aura toujours. The tracks on the fullength varied from Arab On Radar-type of riffs to more standard rock-ish ones. But on the song Gianna Michaels they're a bit more fucked, imagine a mixture between Converge riffs and Arab On Radar with a clear No Wave-touch. That's Gianna Michaels to me.

Die Monitr Batss - [2003] Youth Controllerzzz / [2004] Girlz Of War

What is there to say? I was amazed by the rockish No Wave of Die Monitr Batss from the start. The helicopter like strumming in the song "Copter" with the sudden outburst of the mantra "Copter!" is so simple but so effective.
And the use of saxophone really gives this that wonderful New York No Wave-feeling, when James Chance was whoring around with his sax.
This has that monotonous pounding drums, the chant-like singing, fucked-up guitar work and the evil saxophone, that for some reason realy gives me surf-feeling. Without a doubt, my first impression is "holy shit, this is great". And all the following impressions are the same. This an excellent album, and for fans of the old school No Wave-scene, this is a must, as well as for the fans of the newer takes on No Wave like 7 Year Rabbit Cycle. Die Monitr Batss should've been on the Three One G mixer Release The Bats with The Birthday Party covers. They could've given The Birthday Party a really wonderful salute with "Zoo Music Girl" or something.




What strikes me first, with the first song, is that the No Wave-madness have gone, this song is still crazy, but not compaired to the songs on Youth Controllerzzz. It's like a controlled madness. And this goes for most of the album. Less Teenage Jesus and The Jerks and more Sonic Youth, but not at all as pop. This is by means a negative aspect of the sound. This is great album, but different from the debut. The monotony is still there but in a different way, we still got those pounding drums, the no wave guitar, but it's more melodic. The use of the saxophone is also more in line with the music on this album. The songs may be more dynamic if that is the word to use (not that I had anything against the dynamics on Youth Controllerzzz), but as said, more controlled and maybe a bit more thought through. But that seems like a very ignorant thing to say, just because Youth Controllerzzz is over-the-top fucked up and this album is a bit less so doesn't mean that Girlz of War has more work behind it, is more dynamic or more of anything, it's just different.

No matter what, these two albums are a must have in every noise rockers/no wavers/experimentalist/alternativists collection!