Crackdust -- Dented Reality

Yet another in a long line of old school death metal bands from Botswana in southern Africa.

Oh wait.

So I really expected this to suck, but it's actually decent. There's nothing new here (unless you count the fact that they're African), but it's well-executed DM. I guess there must be a bit of a DM scene in Gaborone, which is a city in southeastern Botswana, as I found 2 other DM bands from there -- Wrust and War-Tog. There could be others, too...what the fuck do I know about Gaborone and its music scene. This band gets bonus points because the lead singer looks like Lt. Daniels from The Wire (and therefore my cousin Ivar, too). Thanks go to Adrian for this one.

192 kbps

Moho -- 20 Uñas

More music from uh-Spain. There seems to be a decent amount of noisy stuff coming from uh-Spain lately. I don't know much about these guys except that they're from Madrid, they sound a bit like Iron Monkey, and their name means 'mold.' ¡Qué bárbaro!

192 kbps

Brainbombs -- Obey

Swedish misanthropy from 1995.

192 kbps

Rusted Shut -- Rehab

Holy cow is this great. Plodding, noisy noiserock with perfect vocals and thudthudthud propulsiveness and angry hate and in-the-red, distorted dumbrock and I fucking love it. There is now officially one good thing to have ever come from Houston.

192 kbps

P.S. - I originally downloaded this from the excellent Lo-Res Viscera blog, which you should go check out now.

Arriver -- Vanlandingham and Zone

This is a concept album of the highest order, in which our hero, Halon Hong, leads the oppressed denizens of Vanlandingham into a mighty fray in the Zone against their enemies, the Long. Or, the lining of the Long, I think. Or maybe the Long are the good guys...I don't know. But there's an epic battle going on here, with majestic music to fit. This is what metal is supposed to be about: raising swords, vanquishing foes, ending tyranny. No mercy to them shall be shown, indeed.

All hail Halon Hong!

VBR @ 256+ kbps