Swarrrm : Thee Imitation Messiahs

Well, I suppose an imitation messiah is better than having none at all.

I posted this back on the good ship Lucid before it sank, and though it's easily available elsewhere on the interwebs (and in stores, even: buy it), I'm posting it again. This is album is superlative, love this if you love heavy and original music. Intricate, anarchic and abrasive but methodical and with weird hints of beauty; full-blown madness on a tight leash.

食らえ！

uSSSy

Love the cover.

Mostly instrumental post-noise rock agitation from Russia; Appealingly spare, frantic and occasionally rather catchy. Songs range from the short and sweet (below) to extended feedback drones. Related bands include I Am Above on the Left & Kruzer Ken.

wild moustaches

УСЫ

Thema Eleven : Choose Your Beast

Thema Eleven are from the Czech Republic, and their sound is rooted in crust but also incorporates elements of sludge and 'post-hardcore' (neo-crust? shit...I don't know...) by which I mean that their songs on occasion featured extended instrumental sections and do not necessarily conform to standard verse-chorus-verse stuff (and if you've got some more satisfactory term sure and let me know)- elements of their sound & dynamics remind me of Lvmen, an excellent Czech band that I'm quite fond of, though Thema Eleven are more vocal-heavy.




Dark and moody stuff with a nice mix of heavy walls of sound, at times pretty instrumentation, good loud-soft dynamics & vocals which are more anguished than enraged. The tracks are punctuated with creepy spoken-word samples that help to set the tone: very bleak but occasionally beautiful stuff.

Their follow-up to this, The Great Misanthrope, is as good if not better, and they've also made a plethora of split & compilation appearances.

CHOOSE YOUR BEAST