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White Noise Eardrum Buster: The wild noise land of “Tasmania 1”, lets go down there…

A lot of compilations are hit and miss, sometimes there is a lot more misses than hits and those are the ones I won’t review on this blog. The ones I do review are the ones that have more hits than misses or in “Tasmania 1″s case, almost every track hits like a mack truck.

 

 

 

I found this on a now defunct blog and it was way up my alley, according to discogs it originally came housed in a box with two tapes with an A5 booklet with art for each artist. This was put out by Overuse records, which was founded by Tasmanian based Matthew Nicholls in 2015 and most if not all the acts on the comp are his own bands. That being said, each band and act has its own personal stamp and this comp fucking kills. So without further, ado start digging to the land down under.

The first track is an synth ambient piece with rumbling lows, its soft and calm but bludgeons you at the same time, it is by the act Dysassociation called “Endless Low”. Most people going into this compilation will think this is a noise comp, nope. The first track puts you at ease, wailing and sighing synths give way to…Snarling feedback laden blackened punk by Fixation with two tracks of mean hardcore with “Crippled Over” and “Falling Down”. Both tracks rip and go for the throat, these two tracks hate your fucking guts.

Next up you get blackened noise from the act Blackline, two tracks laden with black metal tinged filth, “Famine” and “Disease” and that is what it will sound like in your ears. Then Carved Cross comes in with their raw, lo fi rumbling black metal, screeching in agony with “Forced Self Deprivation”.

Another blowout ambient piece with crackling and searing textures comes to singe your ears courtesy of Colour Sensory with the track “Waves of Diffraction”.

Now time to get down, and I mean really really down, with the audio heroin of Gaunt, with the tracks “Music Isn’t Fun” and “Something Numb”, this is pretty much down in the dumps, volume blown out darkwave with vocals that are moaning and sound like they were recorded in a coffin. You want to get depressed listening to these two tracks complete with wailing synths. Then you get Leather Temple with “Dark Street Corner”, their piece dark ambient laced with low rumbles and screeching feedback, not for the faint of heart. Like a shot of adrenaline, Parvo comes in with the track “Teenage Kicks” and it will kick you right in the face, straight up no frills, lo fi punk, is what Parvo is about and there is nothing wrong with that!

Next up is the minimalist, lo fi black metal band, Night Falls Haunting with the tracks “Prelude” and “Fear Haunts Me”, “Prelude” is a slow, plodding, echoing and scratchy track that sets the mood for whats ahead, which is “Fear Haunts Me” which is sluggish and like walking through a cold dark forest in winter complete with screechy vocals. Night Falls Haunting has no pretense it is just straight ahead, depressing, old school style black metal.

The last two tracks on “Tasmania 1” are the noise act Claudia with “Faggot’s Spit” which has a crackling sound to it and what sounds like samples lifted from a she male porn flick, sometimes the sample sounds like the participants are wailing in pain, fun fun fun.  Last, but definitely not least, is Fetish Ritual with “M.B.” power electronics done old school like Whitehouse. Spoken word, snarling in fury at child molesters with swirling screeches and static in the background, “Tasmania 1” nails the coffin shut and now you’ll suffocate.

So in closing if you can find this version of the compilation snap it up quickly, to my knowledge there was another version minus the A5 booklet and box set. I have volume 2 and will review that in the future along with some other Overuse releases. In my opinion the art in the booklet helps supplement the music, this is a must have for fans of extreme and on the fringes music.

No copies of the boxed edition of “Tasmania 1” but there is a copy of the no frills release on discogs whoever is interested might want to snap this up: https://www.discogs.com/release/16273038-Various-Tasmania-I

Here is Overuse’s defunct blog, there seems to be no new entries since last year but it still gives some info on their releases: https://overuse.blogspot.com/

If you throw up your hands in defeat and want to make your own depressive noise go here and listen to it in it’s entirety: https://www.bitchute.com/video/Tr5M2tqGgrAt/

Here is a volume 2 you can listen to it and check out my run down of it here: https://www.noisepuncher.net/2022/02/20/audio-white-noise-going-to-go-tasmania-2-iac-on-your-ass/

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White Noise Eardrum Buster: The Bloody “Baphometic Dawn/Unexamine-Against the World, Against Life” (2018) Full Tape

Awww whats that lovely sound? The sound of literal white noise, an explosion of screeching, whips, discordant guitars, drums like a machine gun and filthy dirty bass all bathed in the filth of Power Electronics. Its enough for the songs to get stuck in ones head and whistle them all day as a atomic red sun melts in the sky and blood bathes the street while people choke on their on guts. That sound is “Baphometic Dawn/Unexamine” the former being a raw black metal band that mixes noise into their “sound and the latter being a blackened filth noise artist, they decide to take these two things and mash them up into a lo fi orchestra of pain in “Against the World, Against Life”.

My favorite genre of music right now is avant garde/experimental black/death metal, the more weird it is the better. I like every genre of metal (except for “Nu Metal”), every genre of rock (except for “Soft Rock”) and every genre of noise. I’ve listened to so many genres and so many bands, its almost like how the tolerance for a drug a junkie takes goes up and the junkie has to take more to get a high, that is the same thing with me and music, I’ve heard it all and it needs to get weirder and weirder for me to find something different, new and exciting in it. The problem with a lot of avant garde/experimental metal bands is too many of them want to be Faith No More or Mr. Bungle but I’ve got news for bands like Ten Foot Ninja and Dog Fashion Disco, you aren’t Faith No More and/or Mr. Bungle. The black and death metal experimentalists don’t have that draw back, I especially love when bands will mix different genres that aren’t metal into their music but it can’t be forced and it has to be done right.  With the “Baphometic Dawn/Unexamine” tape the noise and raw black metal meld their genres into one, beautiful, dark, disgusting sound.

You pretty much get a pro orange tape which surprised me when I got the tape because the fold out was your typical low budget black metal xeroxed black and white cover art, normally with a release like that you get a recorded tape. On discogs it says that this release was limited to 50 copies but my “Baphometic Dawn/Unexamine” tape fold out says 45 out of 80. I got this bad boy off of Analog Worship, this is one site I can’t recommend enough if your a death/black/noise type music on vinyl and tape. Get this one if your into filthy blackened noise.

No physical copies left, but you can filthy up your ears here: https://www.bitchute.com/video/I7oyHS4KL9St/

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On the band wagon: Venom rip offs.

This will be a new feature where I will review a whole band’s catalog or anything that is band related. This will be my first one on the rip offs of the almighty band, VENOM. The original, filthy, offensive, Satanic, black metal band they were the progenitors of extreme metal, without their mangling of heavy metal into lo fi, punk terror you wouldn’t have death metal, thrash metal, black metal, grindcore etc. “They” being Cronos lead “singer” and bassist, Mantas on guitar and Abbadon on drums.  Of course Venom didn’t take themselves seriously, and their “Satan worship” was more like the costumed, cowled followers in a Hammer horror film. To many Venom was a band that represented what not to do in a metal band, play sloppy, use cheap equipment to play and record yourself, and sing like your vocal chords were shredded by drinking acid. That being said Venom’s blackened speed metal, proto thrash, metal punk sound will get into your head, if you listen to them long enough you’ll catch yourself humming “Angel Dust” without consciously doing it. So as the godfathers of extreme metal, there has been a lot of bands who have tried to rip off or sound like Venom, most fail because they aren’t Venom. Eventually I will get around to doing a “On the band wagon” on Venom’s discography, so right now I am going to do the top bands that do the best ripping off Venom.

  1. Whipstriker

Straight from the wild lands of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Whipstriker is a newer band that takes no prisoners and they also sound like Venom reincarnated if you ever wished that the old, classic line up of Venom would’ve recorded more stuff, than this band will be up your dirty, needle strewn alley. Viktor Whipstriker sounds almost identical to Cronos and the other guys in the band emulate the down n’ dirty sound and recording techniques that Venom used in their heyday. The difference between Whipstriker and Venom is Whipstriker won’t sing about Hell and the Devil in every song. Whipstriker will go into “crust punk” territory with songs about war and destruction. And some of their songs are more hardcore punk and crust punk than straight up blackened speed metal. So if you want an almost exact copy of Venom, Whipstriker is your band.

2.Warfare

Rising from the ashes of punk bands Blood and Angelic Upstarts, drummer and lead vocalist (rare combo) Evo wanted to take his punk sound in a more metal direction. Out of all the “Venom rip off” bands, they are the ones that fucking kill, but they just aren’t a rip off, they play dirty, record lo fi, and shred vocal chords, they don’t sing about the devil, they mainly sing about war and street violence, they take no prisoners they were also on the same label as Venom, Neat, which is known for signing “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” i.e. NWOBHM but Venom and Warfare sound nothing like their label mates. Their one of the few bands that could balance metal and punk without tipping into either one. Venom and Warfare aren’t “thrash bands”, too many people make that mistake, they could be labeled “proto thrash”, they play too sloppily and don’t have a lot of guitar breaks, their “solos” are mostly technically deficient. That is why I love this fucking band. In fact, Warfare’s three classic albums “Pure Filth”, “Metal Anarchy”, and “Mayhem Fucking Mayhem” were produced by Algy Ward of Tank, Lemmy from Motorhead and Cronos of course from Venom respectively. Suprisingly Evo says he wasn’t inspired by Venom at all and thought they were stupid, even though Cronos produced their third full length and they also did a collaboration on the last song on “Pure Filth”, the dirty and nasty “Rose Petals Fall From Her Face”. They aren’t the only ones on this list who downplay or outright say they weren’t influenced by Venom. I figure back then people were embarrassed to even be associated in any way with them. Search out Warfare, their first three albums and EPs kill, I am almost a bigger fan of them than Venom.

3. Amebix

Considered the “Godfathers of Crust Punk” Amebix mixed Killing Joke post punk, with Sabbath Sludge, Motorhead Speed and First Wave of Black Metal nastiness. Amebix, especially on their best album “Monolith”, sounds like Venom with slower tempos, Baron, the lead singer sounds very close to Cronos’ “gargle with acid and razor blades” vocal style, their sound is down, dirty, but sludgy, slow and eerie. They didn’t sing about the Devil at all but their lyrics were more occult and anarcho politics. They also set themselves apart from the other punks by dressing in black and carrying around books by Aleister Crowley. Baron had denied that Venom had in any influence on them whatsoever, another band disavowing or being embarrassed by Venom, sorry Baron, all one needs to do is listen to your music and look at this picture to show that your full of shit.

Baron, lead singer of Amebix, caught red handed with the Venom “Nightmare” EP when he said Venom didn’t influence Amebix whatsoever.

4. NME

Teenagers bored with life in Tocoma, Washington listen to Venom, Hellhammer, Bathory, GBH and Exploited records non stop, get drunk and high on skunk weed and decide to start a band. Its Venom reborn (or possessing) in them, what vomits out is a cacophony of noise that does their heroes proud. A sonic blackened speed metal punk attack that sets all faders to red. I have never listened to their later albums without the original members but their demo “Machine of War” and their full length “Unholy Death” is Venom worship but with their own spin they mainly sing about the same things that Venom does but they also sing about being Loud and Black Knights. Vocalist Kurt Struebing is notorious for killing his adoptive mother while high on drugs with a hatchet and scissors thinking she was a “robot” in 1986 around the time their album “Unholy Death” was released, he got a second degree murder charge and was sent to prison for twelve years but only served eight. After getting out he seemed to clean up his life doing music and having a steady job until in 2005 Kurt was killed by driving off a swing bridge in Seattle. He wasn’t anything like the guys in the Black Metal scene in Norway, he didn’t murder his adoptive mother to promote the music or band, he was just crazy and whatever substance he did knocked him off balance. That incident just adds to the strange, dark atmosphere of the band’s early days. From what I hear their later stuff without their lead singer is just tepid, unoriginal crossover thrash, maybe what I hear is wrong, so just stick with the EP and first full length if you want Venom worship.

5. Barrow Wight

From the cold wastes of Ontario, Canada come BARROW WIGHT!!! ARGGHHHHH!!! Imagine Venom singing about Hobbits, Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, Morgul Blades and Sauron instead of Hell and Satan then you have a good idea of what your in for. This is one Venom rip off band that is relatively new to the scene that is one of my favorites. Why they are further down the list is they aren’t a straight up rip off, they mix the ambience and atmosphere of Amebix and Hawkwind. So far they’ve only released two demos, one EP “Power from the East”, a awesome full length “Kings in Sauron’s Service” and a appearance on the “Trapped Under Ice” compilation with the song “Morgul Blade”, I hope their not one of those bands that just stops, their gonna piss me the hell off if that happens. I have “King’s in Sauron’s Service” in CD and on vinyl because the vinyl came with a shirt and a cool fucking pin. “King’s in Sauron’s Service” is an awesome album, a mix of post punk, crust punk and blackened speed metal. The songs change up a lot, the “Knights in Sauron’s Service” track is banging Venom until it descends into a blissed out, jazz keyboard jam that would make the progressive space rock band Hawkwind blush. I’ve listened to this album I can’t tell you how many times, most of the time when I hear a band is singing about “Lord of the Rings” I think their some boring, cheesy, cosplaying, over the top, operatic, crappy “Power Metal” band. Barrow Wight isn’t that band, founded by Antero on bass and vocals, Akiva on guitar and Ace on drummers, a three piece like Venom. Give this band a spin, while the Power Metal bands play Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings”, Barrow Wight play Ralph Bakshi’s animated/rotoscoped low budget cult film version of “Lord of the Rings”.

6. Bathory

Lo fi production. Check. Gargling razor blade vocals. Check. Inept playing. Check. Songs about Satan and Hell. Check. Again Quorthon claims he didn’t know about Venom or wasn’t influenced by them in any way. Quorthon claims that he got the band name from the blood bathing countess, Elisabeth Bathory, while visiting her wax likeness in the London Dungeon Wax Museum in England, however Jonas Akerlund, drummer and future director of “Spun”, “Lords of Chaos” (a movie based on the book of the black metal bands of Norway in the early 1990’s influenced by Bathory and Venom) and numerous music videos claims Quorthon was full of shit and got the title from the Venom song “Countess Bathory”. Bathory’s album art, especially on the first three “Devil” albums, the crappy lo fi production, the punk like playing and throat shredding vocals all scream “VENOM!!!” However, he denied ever listening to them until 1985, and said he was more influenced by Black Sabbath, Motorhead and GBH. Later, Quorthon admitted to listening to Venom’s “Black Metal” in 1983 and calling it “One of the Best Albums Made”. But at the time he denied ever listening to them. Cronos called Quorthon a “dick” and said that Bathory copied Venom without ever giving them credit. Bathory’s first three records, the self titled one, “The Return” and “Under the Sign of the Black Mark”, the three Venom rip off albums are superb First Wave of Black Metal, Quorthon and company put their own spin on the sound. After the third album they started drifting into “Viking Metal” territory and are considered one of the first bands to explore the sound. Quorthon would pass away in 2004 of heart failure. 

7. Hellhammer

Hellhammer was started by Swiss teens Tom Gabriel Fischer (aka Tom Warrior) and drummer Pete Stratton. Influenced by Venom, Motorhead and Discharge (the usual suspects) Hellhammer screamed “Damn the torpedoes if Venom can be shitty and semi succeed, we can be shitty and semi succeed!” In 1983 they recorded their “Triumph of Death” demo for 70 bucks, which spells lo fi, punk metal assault. They sent the demo to various metal magazines, the reception was either “We love this primitive demo!” To “These fucking guys suck, their not even good as a punk band, they should kill themselves!” And I am paraphrasing there, there was no mediocre or OK reviews, their demo inspired strong reactions which is a good sign of a future cult status, they also made an appearance on one of the classic “Metal Massacre” compilations. Noise Records came knocking interested and released a revamped version of their demo “Apokalyptic Raids 1990” in 1990. They were considered one of the “First Wave of Black Metal” bands, one of the bands to inspire the Black Metal mayhem that was to come. Eventually, Tom Warrior shed his metal punk roots and started the avant garde/experimental/thrash band, Celtic Frost. In fact, Metal Hammer of England didn’t like Hellhammer at all and as a result wouldn’t give Celtic Frost a chance, in fact, some claim that they were black listed from England for the longest time because Metal hammer shit on them.  Tom viewed Hellhammer as a curse for the longest time, but there has been numerous reissues of their work, and Tom at the time wanted to beat Venom in the unholy noise race. In fact, Tom and the band went to a press conference Venom had in Switzerland and Tom brought his demo and told Cronos with a crowd watching that their band was louder, better and faster than Venom. Cronos wanted to hear it so Tom put in the tape and played their demo, the crowd laughed in derision and Cronos and the guys from Venom shrugged in derision. Tom said he was embarrassed. Hellhammer is a lot more primitive and punk than Venom, in fact, Venom sounds like Malmsteem compared to Hellhammer, but fuck these guys just went for the throat and I love it. They sing about what Venom does but they also gargle about execution and battle. Tom Warrior released an awesome book which I will review sometime down the line called “Only Death Is Real” which documents the years he was with Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost, there is pictures of their shows, the band, their girlfriends, posters, album art, HR Giger encounters (another Swiss art celebrity who if you don’t know who he is by now you should show yourself out of my blog) and interesting back stories and history on the band.

8. Midnight

Ahhhh!!! Fucking Midnight, the last band on this list, not last because they are least, but last because they take the Venom sound, run over it a high speeds with Motorhead, thrash the shit out of it with early Sodom and sing it to sleep as it dies with “New Wave Of British Heavy Metal” melodies. Midnight fucking kills and rocks!!! Athenar takes the lo fi sound and aesthetic and plays proficient and technically efficient metal punk without being too flashy or over produced sounding. This combination makes Midnight’s sound unique. Coming from the more Stoner Rock oriented band “Boulder”, Midnight will strangle you in your sleep and fuck you silly. The songs will stay in your head, and I have yet to run into a bad Midnight album, EP or compilation, the dude, Athenar, almost does a pitch perfect rendition of Cronos’ gargled razor blades and acid vocals. And he sings about Hell, Sex, Drugs, Rock n’ Roll and Violence. A recent addition to the Venom worship cult, go check him out, on the albums he plays every fucking instrument, and touring he gets the best people possible to play. FUCKING MIDNIGHT!!!

So in closing I might’ve left out some Venom copy bands, some of you might be going, “Hey he left out…” I am sure I did but I am not looking for bands like Darkthrone or early Burzum who are straight up Black Metal and were only influenced by Venom for this post, I am looking for bands who try to emulate Venom in their own way. But no band, no matter how much they try will reach the rotten filthy sound that the classic Venom achieved with their first four albums and Eps. Nobody ever will, classic Venom will always be VENOM.

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White Noise Eardrum Buster: Take an “Occulted Death Stance” to an “Eternal Return” in a “Rotting Forest” (2020)

“Rotting Forest Edition” is an apt title for this tape. It seems at any moment that the music itself is gonna fall apart like a rotting tree, while you have tremolo picking throughout there is strange bells and noises in the background, mixed in with odd time signatures and shouted, pitch shifted vocals, not your normal black metal shrieks, in fact, the vocals more resemble a blackened crust punk band than a black metal one. “Occulted Death Stance” is one of those bands that is for lack of a better term “odd” they do black metal their way and I would have it no other way.

I got this tape off of “Analogue Worship” and ASKE (Anti Social Kultur England) records released it in limited copies of course. My tape came in a bag with briar thorns. It was tricky trying to get the tape out without getting pricked and to some people, listening to this white noise would be like getting pricked with thorns audio wise, trying to listen to this whirling cacophony of musical destruction without having your ear drums pricked.

Back of bag and tape.
Tape shell with sticker.
The tape which is a regular recordable tape.
The insert with artwork and lyrics sheet.
Back of tape insert.

The tape you get is the recordable type which is typical with most of these releases. These things are literally made by hand, this is the raw deal, my friends. Lo Fi experimental black metal that bludgeons for some nineteen minutes plus and makes no arrogant bones about itself. Occulted Death Stance’s albums vary in sound, this one is more straight forward black metal, well, as “straight forward” as a band like them can get, its still bizarre but some of their other releases are more off the wall and I will post some of those in the future. So if you want something different this tape will be up your weird and twisted alley.

So to go down that twisted alley, if you want to feel the bricks along that alleyway get that tape here: https://www.discogs.com/Occulted-Death-Stance-Eternal-Return-Rotting-Forest-Edition/master/2104072

If you don’t want to touch the slimy bricks and feel your way down that crooked alley you can listen to the full tape here: https://www.bitchute.com/video/iPMv4qOdX2pr/

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White Noise Eardrum Buster: Following the “Marching Church” not in the day but “At Night”.

 The cold reaches tendrils into your brain freezing all thought processes chilling you to the bone. You will feel like your trapped in a cavern made of ice and it feels like the chill will spread to your heart. The cold goes by the name “Marching Church” and the seven inch is called “At Night”.

The brain child of Elias Bender Rønnenfelt formerly of the synth pop act “Vår“, Marching Church is his solo act. With this solo act he goes in a more black metal/punk/post punk/experimental area, its lo fi, scratchy, echoey and primitive. Its like five dirty, jagged pieces of ice that cut you to the bone. Its short and to the point, and what a point it is. 

I always misread the back as saying “Recorded in my room Willemoesgade Kobenhavn September-Oktober 2010 At Night” Probably because as you can read from the back of the seven inch it has the album title alongside the recording details. By listening to the music I automatically assumed that he recorded this whole thing on a dark, wintry Denmark night. I am going to go with that assumption because this music could only be recorded on a dark, wintry night. Some audophiles will be pissed at the lo fi recording, I think it adds to the over all atmosphere. Its primitive black metal and blackened punk with wailing, mournful deathrock, post punk vocals. Down and dirty.

This version was released by Morte Creations. Posh Isolation, who mainly specializes in synthwave and/or noise, put out the tape version. Posh Isolation released their next album “Throughout the Borders” a experimental/post punk venture, also Marching Church was featured in the Posh Isolation black metal punk compilation, “Gra Fraktion”, the three songs on that comp that Marching Chruch have are mourning, dirge filled pieces of primitive black metal punk, I may post about the “Gra Fraktion” comp sometime down the road. However, in my opinion, after “Throughout the Borders”, Marching Church went in a direction I couldn’t follow, cleaned up “indie” soul which I found lame. I wish that Marching Church would’ve continued in their post punk, experimental vein but that is just me. At least we got “At Night” as a monument to what Marching Church could’ve been.

To listen to the seven inch go to: https://www.bitchute.com/video/RZeP8F28u7FC/

Copies available at discogs: https://www.discogs.com/Marching-Church-At-Night/master/689552

Also copies are available from my buddies at Analog Worship: https://www.analogworship.com/item/?id=1532

So here we go “Marching to Church At Night”.