toe - Songs, Ideas We Forgot

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted anything lately, but I've been pretty busy so you'll have to excuse me.
Anyway, I've got this debut EP by a really cool japanese band named toe (no capitals) for ya today. They play a kind of really awesome instrumental math/post-rock or something.
It's pretty chilled out and laid back, feels like their just jamming at times, improvising you know?
So check 'em out, I don't really feel like writing anything more about them; my words won't do them justice. Just listen to it instead and be amazed.

I just watched a documentary about the hardcore punk scene in the early 80's today, so expect to maybe see some hardcore or something posted soon. The documentary was called "American Hardcore" by the way. It was just decent, but very interesting. Now I'm gonna go listen to Bad Brains.

Oh, and I might not post a lot this week, but I'll try and post every day next week.
Unless the blog gets shutdown by Google, that is. But I doubt that would happen.

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Fall Of Efrafa - Inlé

Well hello everybody, I'm back once again. Today's album was recommended to me in the blog's CBox (which you can see on yout right) by a very nice person who goes by the name of "flex".
I'd heard of these guys before and I'd been meaning to check them out, but I'd never gotten around to it.
Now I wish I'd listened to them earlier, because this is one amazing album. Absolutely stunning.
Probably my favorite album of 2009, but they're not in the AOTY-list because at the time of its writing, I had not yet listened to "Inlé".
Inlé is a sludge masterpiece. I don't want to constrict it to a single genre, but overall it's sludge. It reminds me strongly of bands like Neurosis and Cult of Luna with their epic, post-rockish build-ups, soul-crushingly heavy doom riffs and agonized, screamed vocals.
This album is 80 minutes long, but it feels like it's over in no time. That's how good it is. Every song is great, beautiful and well-performed.
Fall of Efrafa broke up last year, so Inlé was their last album. But the members have moved on to other project and hopefully we'll soon hear something as grand as this.
Awesome album, download NOW.

DOWNLOAD, MAN.

You can find FREE and LEGAL downloads of all their albums on their website.

Mono - Hymn To The Immortal Wind

There's nothing like a little post-rock whenever you're feeling gloomy or just want to relax.
And this right here, is a great, great post-rock album. Just amazing.
It's so fragile and beautiful, yet majestic and powerful. Not much more to say than that.
It's an awesome album. Listen to it.

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Maths - Descent

Well, this is the "ridiculously amazing screamo album" I was talking about in my post two days ago. And this really is an amazing album, but I hope I didn't hype it too much for ya. But whatever, you'll probably love it too. Ok, so the album was released this year and it is Maths' first LP after tons of demos and splits and stuff. I'd listened to their split with Throats earlier, and I really loved it. So naturally I was very excited when I found out they'd released a full-length, and it is also in the very style of screamo which happens to be my favorite; lots of melodic, harmonized riffs, raw screams full of emotion, a little post-rock thrown in here and there and of course epic build-ups (much like Envy). What is also notable is how well the album flows. Honestly, if I weren't paying much attention, I wouldn't have the slightest idea of when one song ends and the next one begins. So obviously Maths put in a large amount of effort to make this album be what it is. Anyway, this is probably one of my favorite releases this year, and if you have any sort of musical interest in screamo, you should definitely check this one out for som raw, beautiful, melodic screamo. Also, it's awesome.

Oh, and as a little bonus, I thought I'd upload the split with Throats too. Awesome stuff as well. You know like really, really good. Download both of them. Seriously.

DOWNLOAD (ALBUM)

DOWNLOAD (SPLIT)

iLiKETRAiNS - Elegies To Lessons Learnt

Hello. I am presuming your ears are still recovering from the injuries to your ears caused by the awesomeness of the albums I posted yesterday, but still, here's another one. With a name like 'iLiKETRAiNS' you make your band seem like they are the pioneers of a new genre called; oh I don't know...'Tardcore' perhaps? No, but seriously, this is a great band and this album is awesome (surprised? I didn't think so). It also happens to be something you don't see very often; vocal post-rock. Sure, Sigur Rós plays vocal post-rock, but the difference is between them and iLiKETRAiNS is that iLiKETRAiNS have far more 'epic' (so to speak) instrumentation, and of course they're not boring as shit either. The vocals really remind me of Death In June, but you know without all the scary nazi-references, masks, military obsession and creepy, apocalyptic folk-guitar. So basically I guess the album sounds like epic post-rock with Death In June-like vocals. Definitely check this out if you like post-rock. Great, great album.

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And So I Watch You From Afar - And So I Watch You From Afar

This is a horrible cover. Just plain awful. But thankfully the actual album is the exact opposite. Yes, you guessed it; it's awesome. I mean this is like the epitome of awesome (ok, maybe not the epitome, but it's still totally awesome). The best way to describe this would be "post-rock with balls". Sort of like East Of The Wall's album 'The Farmer's Almanac', which I posted a while back. I mean, it's not your typical post-rock (read: Explosions In The Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, etc.), it really is more "rock" than "post", if you know what I mean. They're pretty much not famous at all, but hopefully will gain the attention they deserve soon enough (I think this album is their first and it was released this year so maybe that's why they haven't gained much fame). So, you know just check it out instead of having me very poorly try to explain what they sound like and just see for yourself.

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BONUS DISC!

Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull

Hey, here's the third album (one more to go + today's post). This right here is probably some of the best "chillout" music there is to be found. An amazingly beautiful album. Earth is considered the pioneers of drone doom/metal, but on this (their latest release), the went for something different. Sunn O))) themselves are inspired by this great band, but this ain't no fridge metal. I would call it a mix of melodic drone, post-rock and a little bit of some good ol' country twang. This is a stunningly beautiful album and I think everyone should listen to this. Very awesome. And completely instrumental. Highly recommended (like most of the stuff I post :P).

DOWNLOAD FOR YA, FUCKERS!

Sunn O))) & Boris - Altar

Ladies and gentlemen! Witness the greatest collaboration of all time; the masters of drone doom and the japanese gods of experimental rock team up for the most epic, awesome, incredible drone/post-rock you've have ever heard: "Altar". Ok, there are lots of other artist who contributed to this album, but Sunn O))) and Boris did most of the work (I think), so they get to take most of the credit. Either way it's brilliant, amazing stuff. So, now that I'm done with ranting about how great I think this album is, please note that if you do not like drone, you will probably not like this album. But if you like drone (and post-rock and/or shoegaze), I assure you that you will love this album. This is a goddamn masterpiece.

Y'ALL BETTER DOWNLOAD THIS

East Of The Wall - Farmer's Almanac

The album for today is pretty hard to describe. I guess it's sort of a mix of post-rock (like Mono or Explosions In The Sky) and the kind of progressive metal that Opeth plays (this is completely instrumental though), with a hint of math rock every once in a while. Either way, this album is fucking amazing and if you have even the least bit of sense in you mind, you would to check this album out right away (unless of course, you happen to absolutely hate post-rock, math rock and prog rock/metal). However, it is a mystery to me that these guys are not famous at all, considering the awesome music they make.

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