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John Peel once said that Carcass was his favorite metal band, and I think I know why. Peel was onto something, he saw the brink of a new genre being formed, just like he witnessed first-hand when he helped break post-punk in the early 80’s. Carcass haven’t put out a record since 1995’s “Swansong”, a notorious recording session so tumultuous that it ripped the band apart from the inside out. Since that time, their legacy has grown and has been bolstered by re-releases of their earlier material. The band reunited a few years ago and started playing live again, mostly festivals and one-off shows. Last year it was announced that they were recording again, and people seemed to go ape shit at the prospect of this band entering the studio again. I know I did. Early on, the band pioneered a new sound of metal that came to be called grindcore. Their first two LP’s are still highly regarded as grindcore masterpieces and continue to inspire bands around the world. But the story gets interesting (to me) after those blocks and foundations were already put in place. As the band pushed forward with writing and recording, something strange happened. Metal heads will argue for hours about this aspect of the band – specifically this era, because it was such a profound departure. In a nutshell, somewhere between 1991’s “Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious” and 1993’s “Heartwork”, singer and bassist Jeff Walker figured out that he could actually sing better than 99% of all metal singers. That’s my assessment anyway. His gravel-filled pitch and bark are groundbreaking. Around the same time, lead guitarist Bill Steer discovered that he didn’t always have to play at Slayer-like speeds. So he slowed down his riffs and the band began toying with slower songs and tempo changes. These elements took the grindcore sound to completely uncharted places and seemed to be the major point of contention within the band and it’s dedicated fan base. “Heartwork” was the first record where Walker and Steer took over and really worked out the kinks in terms of developing this “new” sound, which has been called everything from Death Metal to Post-Metal to Post-Grindcore. You either love it or hate it. Much to everyone’s surprise (myself included), their new studio record, “Surgical Steel” is both a continuation of that era as well as a healthy reminder of their grindcore origins. Carcass has found a way to blend both era’s together perfectly without kowtowing to either one, and that is the genius of this record. The new LP opens with an instrumental piece entitled “1985” and fades right into “Thrasher’s Abattoir” and “Cadaver Pouch Conveyor System”, two songs that could have easily fit onto 1989’s “Symphonies of Sickness”. All in all, this is honestly the best metal record I’ve heard in years. So here’s the deal with the new recordings. Technically speaking, the first new release is a 7” EP called “Captive Bolt Pistol” which contains two songs, one from the LP and an exclusive track called “Intensive Battery Brooding”. Collectors take note, the 7” EP comes in like five different colors. The second release is a flexi 7” (Yes, they still make those) that is only available in the October issue of Decibel Magazine. The flexi is a one-sided 7” that features another non-LP track called “Zochrot”, a slowly unwinding mid-tempo gem. The LP itself comes out on Nuclear Blast America on September 17th here in the states. So far my favorite songs on the LP are “Unfit For Human Consumption” and the sixth track, called “Noncompliance to ASTM F 899-12 Standard”, which makes Motörhead sound like One Direction and generally makes me feel pretty good inside. I’ll be the first to admit I am a total snob when it comes to metal, but Carcass operates at a different level, one above and out of reach of their peers. Simply put: there is Carcass and then there are the four hundred bands who imitate them. To support the new LP, Carcass are playing a handful of shows at the end of September, including two dates in New York (with Immolation opening), two shows in Los Angeles (with Exhumed opening) as well as one show in Chicago and one in Calgary. With any luck they will come back to the states in 2014 for a full tour. Fingers crossed.

According to all accounts, Bl’ast guitarist Mike Neider found some unreleased master tapes in an abandoned storage locker. The tapes were cleaned up and remastered by Dave Grohl and finally released. Tapes sound phenomenal. A+. Bl’ast sound so pissed off and ripe on this session, it’s hard to imagine why it got scrapped in the first place. Guessing this was recorded right before 1987’s “It’s In My Blood!”, which came out on SST Records. Bl’ast, if you’ve never partaken, are an abomination of southern california rock n’ roll, a complete and utter breakdown of the verse / chorus / verse song structure. Bl’ast is so disjointed that sometimes it sounds like the rhythm section is playing a totally different song, something the rest of us simply can’t hear. Also: deafeningly loud guitars and tempo changes galore. It’s not metal or punk. But it is both of those things and so much more. Essential.

Mid-80’s NYC hardcore punk legends Sacrilege never put any records while they were together, but did record a demo session in 1985 with Don Fury as well as a six song EP at Bolt Studios, both of which are presented here for the first time on vinyl. Sacrilege played late crossover mixed with Euro style punk in the flavor the times, ie; Discharge, Amebix and bands like Anti Cimex. At the time of recording, the band had ex-*Murphy’s Law* and Agnostic Front bassist Adam Mucci, along with Vic Venom on guitar, who later played in Nausea. In fact, a lot of these songs were basically carried over into Nausea, including the verse of “Bastard”, which later became “Tech-No-Logic-Kill”. The main riff of “House The Homeless” would get recycled for “Here Today.” Sacrilege even plays two Nausea songs here, “Productive Not Destructive” and “Fallout Of Our Being”. Venom is an accomplished guitarist with his own unique tone and playing style. Pretty sure he is playing in an instrumental band called The Coffin Daggers now. Psyched to get this on vinyl, apparently there were only 600 LP’s pressed. Sacrilege are one of those bands I always saw on tape trading lists but never actually heard, so it’s great to finally hear what all the fuss what about. It kind of goes without saying that the Don Fury session is far better than the Bolt Session. One time I heard a bunch of clean cut looking straight edge kids talking about the Revelation Records “Way It Is” compilation. They were studying the booklet inside when one of them said to the other, “Nausea doesn’t even belong on this record. They’re just gutter punks who eat garbage.” and that made me like Nausea even more than I already did.

Five song EP that includes three new Mats’ songs and two Slim Dunlap covers, both from his solo releases in the 90’s. This record was conceived and released to benefit Dunlap, who suffered a major stroke in February of this year. For those who don’t know, Dunlap replaced guitarist Bob Stinson in 1988 and has been in the band ever since, contributing to their last two studio records and tours. He is also an accomplished solo artist with his own fan base. In fact, about ten years ago I saw Slim play somewhere in downtown Saint Paul (Big V’s?) and the place went nuts. So anyway, the first pressing of this record was a ten inch that was limited to 250 copies. The second pressing is a twelve inch. In addition to the Mat’s recording, the label is putting out a series of tribute records that feature other artists. So far all of the records are impressive (and feature artwork painted by Mats drummer Chris Mars) and well thought out. Other artists working on this project so far include: Frank Black, Jeff Tweedy, John Doe, Jakob Dylan, Lucinda Williams and musical genius and indie rock progenitor Tommy Keene. The Replacements are playing three shows later this month, even as I type this, die hard fans are already wiping the crud out of their favorite beer cozies as they study up on the lyrics to “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” and “Favorite Thing”. The shows are going down on the main stage at Riot Fest, which comes to Chicago, Toronto and Denver in mere weeks. More info (and tickets) at riotfest dot org. More info and sounds from the tribute records for Slim (including the Mat’s one) are available on iTunes and at songsforslim dot com.

New EP from Anika, a German born singer-songwriter who occasionally records with Geoff Barrow, Matt Williams and Billy Fuller, better known for their other projects like Portishead and Beak>. This EP has six songs, a re-recording of “I Go To Sleep” from her 2010 debut and two dub remixes from that same session. The highlights here are the three new songs, “He Hit Me”, “Love Buzz” (a powerful cover of the Shocking Blue / Nirvana tune) and “In The City”, all of which reflect the wry lyrics and sensuous pull of singer Anika. The thing that makes this project work so well is how the band gives her room to breathe. As a performance unit, the band realizes that their songs have to have a ceiling high enough to accompany her properly. And so they allow room for it. It’s all here: aspects of avant-garde, middle-eastern guitar, vibrant and punishing dub bass, drums with tons of reverb. Brilliant.

Female-fronted pagan doom metal from Madison Wisconsin that falls somewhere between hauntingly beautiful and disturbingly vicious. This is their second LP and expands the sound they perfected in the wake of their first record. Since that time, they released a split EP with Pagan Altar and a 7” EP called “Witness”, both of which show the band continually developing their crushing sound experiments. The band wrapped up a European tour earlier this year that took them deep into hardened traditional metal bastions like Sweden, Germany and The Netherlands where they completely floored even jaded Euro metal dudes. You know the kind. Ripped denim jacket on top of black leather. Fading Tokyo Blade t-shirt. No easy task, mind you. On songs like “The Divide”, they sing, “Harvesting the stillness, sharpening the silence, cut into the distance” and that’s a also a good description of what they sound like in the studio. Balancing quiet and loud is not easy to do in any genre, by any measure. The fact that they do it under the banner of doom metal shows that they have genuine raw talent and determination. Because it’s easy to fudge-up metal with cliche nonsense and cheap gimmicks. But they don’t do any of that. Thoth’s detuned guitars have time to rise and fall and eventually give way to brilliantly sharp vocals that are both unique and powerful in their own right. The rhythm section is the real backbone of this sound, slowly rotting and trudging behind this wall of vocals and making their choruses swell. Very well done. Check out “The Four Of Us Are Dying”.

This came out late last year but I only recently picked it up. Here, Can has assembled a collection of unreleased material as a 3 disc CD set and a 5 disc, 180 gram box of vinyl LP’s. If this was any other band, people would call this “ambitious”, but since it’s the immortal Can, people will buy it. I guess some versions of this come packaged in a mock reel-to-reel box, which is kind of cool. I happened to pick up the CD version, which contains about three and a half hours of music. That’s shit ton of Can. As expected, this pretty much rules. Each disc has one or two songs from their soundtrack work, too, most of which is long out of print now. How does one band have so much unreleased material? Not complaining though, just eagerly awaiting the next installment, perhaps one that covers everything after 1977. Favorite tracks: “Dead Pigeon Suite”, “Private Nocturnal”, “A Swan Is Born” and “Messer, Scissors, Fork and Light”.

It’s weird, you know, who would have thought that this band could ever recover from the tragedy that they endured. Certainly not me. A few years ago, guitarist Jerry Cantrell decided to resurrect the band, to make that leap of faith that so few have the courage to face. The fact that Cantrell wanted to return to this material says a lot about him personally and professionally. Undoubtedly this music contains a lot of untied loose ends and demons for him. After all, resurrecting the band also meant having to face the legions of fans and critics who still lament his former singer, Layne Staley. Somehow they found a way to do it tastefully and without overwriting their past. Even weirder is the simple fact that Cantrell sings with the same style and register of his former bandmate. But it works, and it works really good on their latest release. 2009’s “Black Turns To Blue” was their first stab at new material without Staley, and it held up pretty good. But something about this record shows serious improvement. To me, it sounds like this record was well planned out and conceptually organized, perhaps with a clearer head than it’s predecessor. The records’ opener, “Hollow” finds the band returning to writing the kind of choruses that they once invented, that extreme atonal bend and descent into notes that (maybe) don’t seem to fit together until you hear all of them together at once. Cantrell’s riffs and lyrics are in top form, he really brings a lot to the table in terms of creative expression. Say what you will about grunge, Cantrell seems to be over it. The newest incarnation of the band is now joined by second guitarist and singer William Duvall, formerly of Neon Christ, Madfly, No Walls, Comes With The Wall (w/ Geezer Butler) and briefly Bl’ast. Not sure how you go from writing “Parental Suppression” to joining Alice In Chains, that’s a total mystery to me, but like I said, it really works. It’s hard to make sense of the 90’s era grunge bands from the rainy northwest. It all seems so long ago, especially from the perspective of now, this current climate, in this quagmire of stagnant auto-tuned FM rock. Perhaps collectively as a society we’re still not over the shock of dying young, and when it happens publicly, we’re not even sure how to behave or what to think. I hope that the band continues to write songs and tour, because for every 30-something schlub that wants to relive their youth through hearing “Man In The Box” for the five thousandth time, there are two or three younger kids who eagerly await closure to that same period.

New eleven song LP from No Age that opens with a fast, snare-less song called “No Ground”. Really like this release, favorite tracks so far are “I Won’t Be Your Generator” and “Lock Box”. Critics are getting all butthurt and complainly about this band lately. Which is kinda dumb because this is far better than “Everything In Between”. Surely the band must have forgotten that experimentation = party foul. Musical development = alienating your core audience, bro. Good stuff. Will definitely be playing this one a few times to let it fully sink in.