MOTD - Beerhead: More Beer! and Thrash!

Mp3 Of The Day

Band/Artist: Beerhead
Song: Beerlover
Album: Beer Forever!
Style: Thrash Metal
Country/Location: Bydgoszcz, Poland
Release: 1990

Hello readers, here's a new post!

Nope, I'm not posting another Beerhead track! Yet I'm posting a Beerhead track! What's going on!? Actually, it turns out there was another band called Beerhead from Poland that was active around the same time as the other Beerhead. As a lover of novelties and multiple bands with the same name, I had to get this. Here's a selection for you!

This Beerhead is a lo-fi poorly produced thrash obscurity with beer/alcohol themes. Nothing about this band is meant to be taken seriously or analyzed in detail, this is just sloppy but enjoyable thrash metal. The guitars sound raw & thickly chunky, simple and to the point. The melodies & solos here aren't exactly the most thought out or composed, but they really shouldn't be. Vocals are monotonously death-raspy, sounding like a grumpy old dude who just stubbed his toe. One can easily tell that this was recorded on a tape deck with the most minimalist of equipment, almost on purpose. That said every aspect of their sound can be easily heard, though it is muddy & crackly. In reality that's what thrash should be, ugly & muddy. Basically the precursor to pizza thrash! This description may or may not convince folk to check this out, but really it's a fun listen. Check it out!

Beerhead - Beerlover

MOTD - Dream Theater: Infectious Overindulgance

Mp3 Of The Day

Band/Artist: Dream Theater

Song: Endless Sacrifice

Album: Train Of Thought

Style: Progressive Metal

Country/Location: Long Island, New York, US

Release: 2003

Last Monday I finally sucked it up and went to see Dream Theater live. In the beginning of my love of metal, Dream Theater was among my favorite bands. I wouldn't call myself a super die hard John Petrucci is the end all of guitarists fan, but god damn they're fun to listen to. Their songs are catchy and anthemic as fuck, while their prog noodling makes me feel wonderfully inaduquate about my musical talents. As a result of their performance on Monday, I'm reliving my enjoyment of their over the top but infectious metal. I've also learned that they pull their shtick off brilliantly well live!

This track was a favorite of mine back in the good ol' days of my metal beginnings. I'd be hard pressed to call it one of their best, but god damn I loved it! "Endless Sacrifice" is from Train Of Thought, a bit of a transition album for Dream Theater. This album attempted to make Dream Theater's trademark heavy prog metal even heavier and crunchier. Petrucci utilizes a more modern & dare I say nu metal tone to his guitar plus groovier & darker riffs, which pairs nicely with the crisp & clear production. The songwriting definitely gets some cues from modern rock/metal bands of the time as evident by the dark intro & buildup to a chunky anthemic chorus that is impossible to get out of your head. However Dream Theater is true to their reputation, as there is at least 4 plus minutes of overindulgent skillful showing off and wankery. Jordan Rudess gets his moment to go nuts here as the rest of the song doesn't really lend itself to excessive keys. He throws in some cartoonish sounds that raise a chuckle. Again, while it's among my favorite Dream Theater songs, it may or may not convert people to their cause. That said it was good to hear it again after so many years on Monday, though admittedly it took me several moments to recognize it. I headbanged hard during the chorus!

Dream Theater - Endless Sacrifice

MOTD - Blind Ambitions: More than the usual chugidy chug chug

Mp3 Of The Day

Band/Artist: Blind Ambitions
Song: Borders
Album: Blind Ambitions
Style: Melodic Metalcore/Hardcore
Country/Location: Canterbury UK
Release: 2011

Yep, this is a post written from a few days ago (having nothing to do but check out music I've acquired over the last few months but now actually having time to listen it and write about it is quite nice actually)!

Honestly can't say I remember when and why I downloaded this decent EP by this British melodic metalcore band, but hell I'm posting them anyways. Blind Ambitions hails from Canterbury, UK and play a very catchy blend of detuned metalcore & highly melodic hardcore. Low & thick groovy driving djent-like riffs provide one aspect, while anthemic leads ringing out in melodic passion is the other key to their sound. The singer/vocalist has a gruff delivery, resembling that of Hatebreed though with more emotion and less tough angst. Like most bands of their ilk, there's a health dose of chugidy chug breakdowns to allow for moshing & other activities in the pit but this element isn't over powering or annoying. I can't say this is my preferred metal/hardcore sound, Blind Ambitions are good for what they do and fans will eat them up. I did find myself enjoying this enough to post it here for those who would like this more. Blind Ambitions, keep doing your thing, you're fine by me!

Blind Ambitions - Borders

MOTD - Visceral Disgorge: savagely ripping intestines out, gutting stomachs

Mp3 Of The Day

Band/Artist: Visceral Disgorge
Song: Spastic Anal Lacerations
Album: Ingesting Putridity
Style: Brutal Death Metal
Country/Location: Baltimore, Maryland, US
Release: 2011

Another post? Gasp! Who would've thunk it!? The truth be told this post was written a day or two ago while I was waiting at Grafton Station in Grafton, Massachusetts waiting for 2 hours or so for the next Commuter Rail train to take me to Boston. Hey I was productive! Anyways...

So here's another Maryland Death Fest band that I enjoyed quite a bit back in May! One of the few Baltimore bands to be included in this years lineup and definitely a good choice to both open Day 4 of MDF. Visceral Disgorge are currently taking the brutal death metal banner savagely ripping it's intestines out, gutting it's stomach completely and then feeding it to vultures who then deposit the remains in some unknown desert where the bones are eaten by toxic bacteria who then somehow get incorporated into the fresh water supply of a neighboring town and then everyone gets infected with a disease that cause spastic anal lacerations. They do this with powerful brutal death riffs that are thick and juicy, while being edgy and raw. They have a perfect balance of fast blasting technical & moshable pounding slams for crowds to go wild for and for heads to bang. For a brutal death band, they incorporate a fair amount of groove & melody into the fray. The disgusting gurgaling vocals provide the final key to this grand onslaught. Always staying gutteral, solid and unrelenting. Visceral Disgorge is brutal death metal at it's tightest and sickest, definitely a band that fans of brutality will get a lot of perverted pleasure from. Check them out! If you get a chance to see them live, do it!

Visceral Disgorge - Spastic Anal Lacerations

MOTD - Beerhead: Beer + Motorhead

Mp3 Of The Day  

Band/Artist: Beerhead  
Song: Beer Is Everything  
Album: Killed by Beer  
Style: Speed Metal  
Country/Location: Zabrze, Poland 
Release: 1992

It's been ages since I've posted anything, it sucks!  The past several months I've discovered so many awesome bands that I want to share with the world!  I've also discovered some not so awesome bands that I still want to share with the world.  I've also discovered some bland bands that I want to share with the world (cus I'm like that).  Basically I want to share music with the world! Anyways, to the music we go!

In my tooling around the Metal-Archives, I stumbled across this ol' band Beerhead.  True to my usual I-check-out-bands-with-silly-or-funny-bandnames, I found a download of their 1992 demo.  Judging by the name, one could assume that this Polish outfit is hugely influenced by Motorhead.  Well, they're so hugely influenced that they're pretty much a Motorhead clone.  A perfectly excuted Motorhead clone.  The vocalist pulls a great Lemmy impersonation, so good that one could be easily convince it is Lemmy.  The riffs are unrelenting non-stop punk infused metal, exactly like Motorhead.  The guitarist/s are no sloughes at solos, fast but still with melody, exactly like Motorhead.  While definitely not an original sound, they pull it off well, plus they add in a nice concept novelty, everyone's favorite alcoholic beverage.  Every single song is about beer, drinking beer, looking for beer, wanting another beer, good beer, bad beer, Motorhead beer, beer beer.  Hell, they love their beer so much that I'm feeling the urge to drink a beer!  Unfortunately Beerhead kinda were a poor man's Motorhead, but they're solid at what they do and one can tell they're doing it for the fun of it.  Check it out!

Beerhead - Beer Is Everything

MOTD - Rivers Of Nihil: Technical Explosion

Mp3 Of The Day

Band/Artist: Rivers Of Nihil
Song: Chambers of Civility
Album: Heirarchy
Style: Technical Death Metal
country/location: Reading, Pennsylvania, US
release: 2010

Boston has been graced with a slew of fantastic touring bands from all over! Last Wednesday was no exception with an explosive tech death outfit visiting from Pennsylvania.

When I say explosive, I mean a nuclear bomb worth of brutality, technical prowess & epic songwriting. Rivers Of Nihil are no slouches at their brand of skillfully played crushing death metal. The guitarists are fierce with their brutal as fuck riffs & kaleidoscopic licks, while the jazzy and progressive inspired drum blasting is fast and unrelenting. The vokillist is a beastly consistent growler, solid and gruff with a nice range. As technical as they are, they haven't forgotten the importance of appealing to simpler ears. They throw in enough chugging riffs and breakdowns to keep headbangers and moshers happy, even a couple ear catching djent/Meshuggah moments to please fans of dropped tuning. For fans of technical death as well as brutal death, Rivers Of Nihil are definitely a band to check out. Wicked nice dudes too! Check it out!

Rivers Of Nihil - Chambers of Civility

MOTD - Tiger Force: A Danish Heavy Metal Gem

Mp3 Of The Day

Band/Artist: Tiger Force
Song: Track 2
Album: demo
Style: Heavy Metal
country/location: Denmark
release: 1985

Here's some super obscure but quality heavy metal for you! As many of you know, I have a love for old heavy metal demos from the 80s. A lot of great gems are found among these unknown bands. Tiger Force being a pretty great discovery in my trips around the internet. From Denmark, this little band played bordering thrash-shredding, riffing NWOBHM inspired heavy metal. The galloping rhythms is a dead giveaway of their influences as well as a riff that sounds stolen from Dio. The solos are more than competent. The vocalist is not particularly memorable, sounding like an average young male singer, but the charm is there. Not much is known about these guys unfortunately (the name of this song is open to speculation), but I'd be curious to learn what happened to them for they had some potential. Fans of traditional heavy metal will enjoy this. Check it out!

Tiger Force - Track 2