(4 February, 2003) - Here's where you can dowload some slabs of freezing, Unholy Black Metal!
It's been a long time since I updated this page, and I've been getting a fair amount of hits
on it, so I decided it's high time that I did.
Previously, my plan was to feature one track from one of the many famous Black Metal bands
out there, such as
Satyricon,
Darkthrone,
Immortal,
Emperor,
Enslaved,
Dimmu Borgir,
and so on — and hope that nobody sued me.
For this version, I've chosen instead to highlight the bands and record labels of the
local San Francisco scene. Think all Black Metal comes from Norway? Think again!
Also, please note that all the sound clips on this page are 100 percent legit.
While I hate the major record labels, Disney, and the Copyright Reich as much as anybody, and
I fully support and encourage your use of such tools as
LimeWire,
BearShare,
Kazaa,
eDonkey,
Morpheus,
and whatever else you can do to fuck them over, consider for a moment that the
situation with Black Metal bands is a little different. Most bands are on very small labels,
with little distribution. In many cases, these are the products of one or two people working
alone in a studio — not only do they not tour, they often physically can't tour,
because there just aren't enough musicians in the "band." That removes yet another potential source of
income to keep the music going. Bottom line: use all the Internet tools you can to discover, hear, and
promote new music, but when it comes to independent music like Black Metal, try to support
the bands as much as you can, particularly when it comes to your own local scene.
'Nuff said on that — now, on to the Metal!
Weakling
Classic San Francisco Black Metal,
Weakling is (sadly) now defunct. When it was
around, it featured Josh from
The (Fucking)
Champs on guitar,
as well as cacophonic screams from local Metal legend, John "Drassogh" Gossard. The double-LP
vinyl issue of this seminal recording is now sold out, but you can still
grab the CD.
Leviathan
Sorry — these ones require RealPlayer, and the quality of the audio is low.
The quality of the Black Metal contained herein, however, is high!
Leviathan
is a one-man project by San Francisco's own, enigmatic Wrest. I've never met the guy, but I
think he's a bad-ass!
Tumult has put out a
double-CD set of Wrest's past demos and home recordings that's worth
seeking out.
Diamatregon
Not an SF band, but they're on an SF label.
Diamatregon is noisy,
garage-born Black Metal from France. If you aren't used to the genre yet,
their stuff will probably give you a headache.
Tumult
put out their most recent album,
Blasphemy for Satan.
Though crude-sounding, these live samples demonstrate that the spirit of True Unholy Black
Metal is indeed alive and well in San Francisco. This band is so cult that they don't have
any releases out yet; you'll have to come to town to hear them. Features former
Impaled
and current
Murder Construct guitarist Leon del Muerte
on drums.
Not strictly Black Metal, but I wanted to put these tracks up here anyway, if only to
point out that Metal isn't all about noise and blast-beats.
Hammers of Misfortune
is largely the brainchild of San Francisco Metal celebrity Sir Lord John Terrorbat Cobbett,
who among other things was the founder of the seminal local Metal club,
Lucifer's Hammer. This amazing band is also a supergroup of
sorts, featuring past and present members of acts as diverse as Osgood Slaughter, ThunderChimp,
GWAR, L7, and The Lord Weird Slough Feg. And did somebody say that the formerly bat-winged
female singer/vocalist on these tracks now plays bass for Pink's stage show?
Lies, damn
lies! Anyway, you can get their debut record through
Tumult, but you'll just have to wait and pray
until their next,
even better album finally gets released — as the
unreleased tracks here show!
Are you in a band and you'd like to link your own songs here?
Drop me a line
and let me know. Note that I want to link only to full, complete, and I prefer
formats like MP3 or
OGG Vorbis
over proprietary streaming media like RealAudio or QuickTime.
