xasthur - c/d?

Quick! I got the Xasthur/Leviathan split on the back of 'Black One', and I think I'm starting to like Malefic's guitar sound almost as much as Les Rallizes Denudes or Dr. Mix and the Remix.

Which of his innumerable other albums do I get first?

Subliminal Genocide is pure fuzzed-out depressive genius

it's kind of like Loveless if it was made by Satan

OK, I'm in!

Agreed. latebloomer OTM, Subliminal Genocide is his Pet Sounds - ha ha ha!

Bought Nocturnal Poisoning when it came out, seeing it got a very good review in Terrorizer. It did nothing for me then. Afterwards the whole hipster BM phenomenon exploded, and the media exposition (Southern Lord antics, nerdy interviews detailing how he recorded the albums bouncing the tracks on CD-R) killed the little appeal it could have had left. Haven't bothered to listen to any later material and have no plans to do so, so I'll say dud.

I'd hold out on judging his entire body of work based on admittedly annoying nigel hipsterism (which has nothing to do with Malefic) until you hear Subliminal Genocide, dude

yeah, i had pretty much written him off as all samey, similarly getting sick of the hype... bought subliminal genocide for 50 cents, it's pretty damn good. definitely the only one you really need, if you need xasthur. i still think early manes pursued a similar line earlier and much more successfully. but give SG a chance.

Subliminal Genocide is just great - incredible noise, incredible depth. Like church bells in a hurricane.

Thanks for the tip, guys!

Love Subliminal Genocide, but Nocturnal Poisoning is great, too. Admittedly, Malefic's got too much stuff out there to justify the limited range, but at his best, shit kills. Subliminal Genocide is prob the best entry point, most beautiful and richly recorded.

Fuck fuck fuck all this "nigel hipster" bullshit, by the way. It's music: you either like it or you don't.

xpost to Gott: what early Manes should I be looking for?

first album Under Ein Blotraud Maane is essential, the two demos before that less so bu good nonetheless.

Cheers!

yeah, what siegbran said. you can get all of the demo material (which mostly shows up on the album but is worth hearing due to 4-track scuzzy rawness and some stuff that doesn't make it to the album) on the svarte skoger cd. includes some unreleased stuff and a couple of pre-manes tracks, too.

That Manes stuff is damn hard to find, but I can't stop listenening to 'Subliminal Genocide'.

Anyone heard 'Defective Epitaph' yet?

i haven't, but i'm listening to subliminal genocide right now. it's pretty great.

finally heard 'telepathic with the deceased' the other day, too. it's pretty good, but i think i need to play it home. listening on the bus was pretty crappy, the guitar tone just sounded like complete shit on tiny earphones.

I have a version of the track 'telepathic with the deceased' on the Wrest split, and it's awesome.

Just got 'Defective Epitaph'. I had read an online review describing one track as a reimagined 007 theme for a Bond blockbuster set in Transylvania; turns out to be pretty apt for the whole album. I get flashes of that big 60's movie sound running through this. (Keep seeing the dancer from "Tales of the Unexpected' too!) Fits the Hell Muzak description someone came up with on the rolling metal thread as well.

Great, great stuff, though. Perhaps not as immediately classic as 'Subliminal Genocide', but a definite progression from there.

I just ordered Subliminal Genocide from Amazon. It's gonna be a happy happy happy weekend!!! :D:D:D:D:D

Let us know how you get on. A copy of Nocturnal Poisoning is on its way to me.

Well, I recently got Deathspell Omega's "Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum", and although I appreciate the two styles are different, common conjecture has them not far apart in terms of outright despair. My predominant thought upon hearing DO's record was "AWESOME". Whether this will still hold true for Xasthur's remains to be seen.

uh? i never thought of DSO as a "despair" kind of band. more like maniacal, satanic gnosticism with a scriptural bent to their lyrics.

This is true, although it's still bloody dark. There's at least a certain vitality to their work.

As for Xasthur, the case is unwrapped. Now I lay siege to my ears.

Phew! I like it a lot. Inasmuch as 'like' is possible when faced with such hateful art. The best bit, probably the last 3 minutes of 'Arcane and Misanthropic Projection', or perhaps the last 2 minutes of 'Trauma Will Always Linger'. There is an absolutely astounding chord-change in that one.

Must admit I don't really feel the hate, though I know that's what it's supposed to be about. What I get is this bleak melancholy which is sometimes incredibly beautiful.

Haha, that was perhaps a bit dramatic on my part. I don't actually feel hateful myself. I understand how the music itself represents a certain nihilistic hatred, but my response to it is similar to yours. It is assuredly beautiful, not to mention crushing, relentless, psychedelic and dense.

OTM. It really IS psychedelic, in a dark, fuzzed-out Rallizes style.

No sign of my copy of Nocturnal Poisoning yet. Can't wait. Meanwhile, there's a pretty good fanvid of 'Abysmal Depths are Flooded' on Youtube - check it out.

Got Nocturnal Poisoning. Great stuff. Although it's technically Xasthur's garage album, it doesn't show in the sound. Perhaps heavier on the keyboards than the other stuff I've heard, almost to the point of giving it a prog feel (I mean that in a good way. Somehow.) Some real WTF production moments. The same ideas seem to run through to his most recent material, but he's always changing, always developing. The really impressive thing is how he makes such an abrasive sound so absorbing.

Was excited by Subliminal Genocide when I 1st heard it, but a few months down the road, I'm not listening to it much. Begins to sound flat and empty after a few tracks. Maybe that's the idea, but I get bored real easy. Prefer Nocturnal Poisoning. Much more texturally satisfying. Bleak, thick, perversely beautiful.

Just got the Hydrahead deluxe reissue of 'Gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors'. Raw weirdness and lots of it, in beautiful double disc package.

Yeah, Gate is the best one this side of Nocturnal Poisoning. Wish the new stuff were as consistently hypnotic/beautiful.

Just got Subliminal Genocide. Kind of blowing my load at this right now. So pretty and terrifying. Much better than Defective Epitaph.

Bought Subliminal Genocide the other day, together with the new Nachtmystium. I quite like them both.

it's kind of like Loveless if it was made by Satan

Awesome.

Just bought this record and it's incredible.

Recently snagged a download of Mutiilation's rare "Vampires of Black Imperial Blood", partly on the basis of the track covered on "Gate though Bloodstained Mirrors". If you like Xasthur, you need to hear this. There's a very similar feel to the guitar playing, and the production is just nuts, even by BM standards. Great original cover art, with our imperial vampires, in full corpse paint, apparently overcome by despair in a domestic setting.

New Xasthur release is "All Reflections Drained" - limited super old school cassette-only package from Hydra Head, cased with a booklet, patch and three badges. Vinyl to come, and the tracks already leaked via the usual sources. Pushes the Defective Epitaph sound way into the ambient zone, stripping it down to crashing waves of effects, and those repeating, chiming figures so oddly reminiscent of 60's soundtracks. Booming garagey drums and half-buried vocals push it further off the deep end. I've been bingeing on Striborg recently, and even after getting my head bent around his work, I was amazed by just how fucked up and perverse this sounds. Malefic certainly isn't making any concessions to over-ground distribution here, or to anything else, for that matter.

Defective Epitaph is one swell piece of music.

Can we have a split EP with Scott Walker?

dream split

CD issue of All Reflections Drained out next week or so with extra disc of "alternate versions, uneleased song and several covers".

Bonus CD:

1. Torment (4:54)
2. Aura of Denial (4:45)
3. Fleshcrawl (0:44)
4. Concealed Barren Thoughts (6:08)
5. Released from this Earth (4:58)
6. Untitled (5:54)
7. A Living Hell (3:00)
8. Trauma Will Always Linger (14:20)
9. Jomfrulysets Fall (6:13)

Thanks, hadn't heard about this. Always interesting to check out the bands he chooses to cover.

. . oh, and here's that fanvid:

Well, I've now listened to All Reflections Drained and the bonus disc once each, and not killed myself. I don't expect it'll supplant some of the earlier albums in my affections, but I do appreciate the vein he's, er, tapping? sapping?

'malignant prophecy' on defective epitaph is an amazing song. might be his best after 'arcane and misanthropic projection', maybe alongside 'the prison of mirrors'

Title track on All Reflections Drained still sounds like Serge Gainsbourg backed by Einsturzende Neubauten. Seriously odd record, and I imagine there should be another one along soon.

Listening to Telepathic... for the first time right now and loving it. Anyone want to recommend similar stuff (I've got zero knowledge on this type of music)?

If you don't get many answers here, you may have more luck over at the Rolling Metal Thread 2010 thread.

Cheers boss.

you will get answers here, though!

If you're looking for more stuff about black metal in general, ILM's talked about it quite a lot:

Black Metal!
black metal primer
Favorite First Wave Norwegian Black Metal Act.

(You can also just search 'black metal' for more threads.)

he's looking not so much for BM as music with the sonic layering and doomy ambience of xasthur imo

"this type of music" is pretty vague — I imagine that, if he likes Xasthur, there'd be some other black metal he'd like too. but you're also right, i think he'd be into some non-BM that sounds similar too

in his case i would recommend 'subliminal genocide' and 'defective epitaph' right off the bat

NORTT! i recommend NORTT. and yeah subliminal is really, really good. and i'm not a xasthur fan at all.

Anyone digging Portal of Sorrow? It's the Malefic / Marissa Nadler album.

Can we have a split EP with Scott Walker?

― Soukesian, Saturday, May 30, 2009 12:15 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

!!!

Anyone seen Xasthur live? He's playing in Seattle soon and, though I support his growth, I'm not interested to see him in 'doomgrass' mode.

Haven't seen him but he is definitely in doomgrass mode on this tour.

Tf is 'doomgrass'?

Doomgrass is the melancholy, finger-picked acoustic style that he's doing now. It's his term. He's put out a couple albums in that style under the name Nocturnal Poisoning. Good for him. Not for me.

Thank you! I've got some catching up to do then, not heard of Nocturnal Poisoning before. Doesn't bode well though tbh.