Slipknot – Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)


In one of my previous reviews I said that I’d probably do another one like it, meaning that I’ll talk about the album and mix it with a bit of personal history. Since this is my tenth contribution I figured this would be a good time to do so. Which is why I’ve decided to review a record that awakened my musical hunger, which to this day luckily hasn’t been stilled, and made me really relate to it as well.

Even though I started listening a lot to bands like Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and Bloodhoung Gang around the age of thirteen, I was never really into metal since I just hadn’t found the right thing. Then at sixteen a classmate, who happens to write for El Gore as well, introduced me to bands like Megadeth, Exodus and the likes…the stepping stone for a large musical evolution had been laid. In 2004 however an online friend sent me a new song, Don’t Get Close, by Slipknot and I couldn’t stop listening to it (fyi: the song ended up becoming a b-side). Even though I had known the band before and actually enjoyed a song or two by them, I wasn’t really into them since my taste was still elsewhere. But now, for the first time in my life I was anxiously awaiting the release of an album: Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). It wasn’t until May 25th of that same year that I finally held it in my hands and listened to it non-stop. I’m not kidding when I say that by the way…I literally listened to the album at least five times a day over a period of almost nine months in a row.

Enough about me; let’s get down to business…well kind of. The 3rd album, ignoring Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat., by the nine masked Iowans was produced by Rick Rubin and recorded in his notorious Mansion in L.A.. I’m not sure whether it is due to the change of producer, from Ross Robinson to Rubin, or due to the various side projects the band had during their hiatus between Iowa and this album but the difference of the sound can already be noticed after the first note of the intro. Even though I thoroughly enjoy the two predecessor albums, Iowa and Slipknot, this one just finds the perfect mix between heaviness and melodic parts. The production has gone through a similar change and, at least to me, this is their best sounding album.

The fourteen songs pretty much cover every aspect of Slipknot‘s sound, that fans have grown to love, and introduce new touches such as the marching percussion on The Blister Exists and The Nameless. Then there’s two ballads that were a big surprise when the album first came out; especially to people who didn’t know about the singer’s other band Stone Sour who released a ballad as a single the previous year. The thing that strikes me the most is that every single song has at least one highlight that will make you remember it.

The vocals are, as is tradition with Corey Taylor, flawless and in some parts quite creepy but in a way that you just get sucked into the song’s atmosphere even quicker. The prime example for this is the song Vermilion, which is about a stalker that follows a girl around…or at least thinks he does. Just listen to it and you’ll see what I mean. The choruses on the album are, I’d say, among the best ones that Slipknot have ever written and you’ll be chanting them along faster than you can say the album’s title three times in a row. The lyrics are filled with metaphors and less common words which I tried to figure out for ages.

All in all, this is definitely my favorite Slipknot album for a couple of reasons: first of all because it’s the album that got all of it started for me. Secondly because it’s just so diverse and well-written, ranging from neck-breaking headbang parts to goose bump inducing passages. And last but not least because it put the band, who had been written off prior to this release, back on the map with a bang. It’s pretty safe to say that this record will remain in my top 3 albums of all time until the day I die. Go ahead and check out the song below, which actually won them an Emmy, and their Facebook page.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_09wFxoaeQ]

Morbus Chron – A Saunter Through The Shroud


Morbus Chron formed in 2007 and released one demo (not counting the very first demo tape that was limited to a single copy), two Eps and a full-length album. They also appeared on the, now cult, Resurrected In Festering Slime compilation.

A Saunter Through The Shroud is their second EP and their first release since the album Sleepers In The Rift and shows a different side of the band. The three songs are much more progressive than their other material. What I mean by that is that the band added many new layers to their old school Swedish Death Metal. I can not help but think of Possessed’s Beyond The Gates as an influence. Both albums were truly a step-up for both bands, showing a much more progressive musical structure based on an interplay between brutality and eerie atmosphere. Also, both albums showed both bands at their musical peak, meaning riff upon riff upon riff kicking your teeth out of place. Another band that seems to have influenced Morbus Chron are Pestilence. Especially the vocals show a Martin van Drunen-esque influence. Robba has a raspy, throaty voice and sounds as despaired as van Drunen himself when screaming those horrid lyrics.

I will not review the songs individually as there are only three songs. Let me just say that those three songs are, in my opinion, among the best five songs Morbus Chron have ever released this far.

The EP is only available on vinyl on black vinyl limited to 700 copies, a limited volcanic red version limited to 200 copies available at www.cmdistro.de and a electric red version limited to 100 copies available at www.detestrecords.com.

This is a must-have!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10fHd2TDCfM]

Trash Monday XXVIII


To many this might come as a surprise, since the band is well-known and the music certainly isn’t crap, however, you had to live it to understand why I pick this vid.

I do not quite remember when I saw it, I think it was 1997 or early 1998. My older brother taped some „Metal“ show on Viva (probably Metalla) and this beauty aired. Back then Burzum was already one of my favourite bands, so imagine my face when I heard the first notes of Dunkelheit to cheap computer effects (used very loosely).

Just watch the video, it has nothing to do with the lyrical content of the song and had absolutely no involvement from Varg, who was incarcerated. Heck, Varg didn’t even have any involvement on how Filosofem was released and has stated in interviews (while in prison) that he had never heard the finished product.

So who was responsible for this bad acid trip?? David Palser! Never heard of him? He is also responsible for the Immortal Masters of Nebulah Frost VHS. Nuff said!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bm-kdLwBVc]

Brutal Relax


When I organize a typical (el) gore/horror movie night I usually start with the amazing Staplerfahrer Klaus in order to create the right atmosphere from the beginning. Since a few weeks this classic short found its coequal “opponent” called Brutal Relax.

In the same way as the movie title does not make any sense, the movie as a whole is completely preposterous but outrageously entertaining and I still have to admit that I did not like it when I saw it the first time. This has most definitely something to do with the aqua mummy zombies with whom I still have a problem but which now has become less dominant. But also because of the CGI effects (No, I won’t write about them because I already have done this in a lot of other reviews.)

When it comes to short movies in general there’s most of the time a positive and a negative aspect. First they are short (oooh really??). Yup, and I like that. There is nothing as annoying as a three hour long pseudo arty farty bullshit movie. A movie should be like honest grindcore and not like a fucking pathetic post-rock song. The problem is that there are only a few good gore shorties around. It seems that most directors are not able to focus and to create something really interesting with a high recognition value in only a few minutes. If I had to compare the short horror/splatter genre to music, I would call most directors John Petrucci wannabes trying to write songs for Anal Cunt. A comparison that doesn’t apply at all to Brutal Relax.

Back to the topic. The Spanish flick can be dissected in three parts and two of them ooze with blood. The first one explains the “plot” and is kept quite short with 3 minutes and a half. A Frisbee in a head initiates part two with zombies fighting, biting, dismembering, and drowning bathers. Part three is initiated by a walkman and malfunctioning batteries which makes Mr Olivares (I like the main character very much and he’s surprisingly well put across by José María Angorrilla) really angry. He then starts an overkill that reminds me of a Spanish Bud Spencer on speed and cloud nine.

Overall, the three directors, Adrián Cardona, Rafa Dengrá and David Muñoz did a really good job. For an independent movie there are not only amazingly innovative ideas but they most of the time are made in a very professional way. The camera work (especially in the second part) reminds me of Anthony Dod Mantle’s work from the 28 Days Later flick. Perhaps a homage but I guess that the decision also was made in order to cover up mistakes. In fact I do not care; thumbs up guys and keep up the great work. I am really looking forward to seeing more stuff from these three directors.


Pierce The Veil – Collide With The Sky


In October 2011 I went to see a show specifically for the opening band and they were worth every cent I paid. That band was Pierce The Veil from San Diego. Their by then already one year old record Selfish Machines had simply impressed me so much that I could not have missed that opportunity even if I had wanted to. I remember talking to their singer, Vic, back then and asking him about plans for a new record and he told me that they’d been working on some killer tracks and were supposed to go into the studio in early 2012. Fast forward seven months and there you have it: Collide With The Sky.

The band jokingly describes the genre they play as “mexicore” which is due to the fact that the Fuentes brothers, the singer and the drummer, are of Mexican descent and because they have many metalcore elements in their sound. However they are not your run off the mill core band that have released a good song or two and simply rely on their fanbase after that. No sir, to me the reason for their success is the purely amazing songwriting that they’ve proven ever since their debut album A Flair For The Dramatic. They seemingly manage to come up with melodies that have earworm-potential all the time.

This new twelve song album is no different because it gripped me from the second I put it on and hasn’t really left my eardrums since. The sound is very similar to the predecessor but that is a very good thing since I thoroughly enjoyed it for its clean and powerful production. One thing you’ll notice though if you compare the two records is that PTV have cranked up the heaviness knob quite a bit; which is another thing that I cannot complain about, at all.

The “riffage” is as usual on a very high level as well and even after the umpteenth time of listening through the whole record I’m still impressed. A lot of times I thought to myself that they sound like something a Mariachi band would play if they tuned their guitars to drop D and turned up the distortion. Might come across as negative but I personally love it: it’s simply an interesting mix of two very different genres.

The vocals might be the one thing that could scare people away at first because they’re very high-pitched and I’ve often gotten surprised looks when I told people that the singer is a guy. As for me: I’ve had the same reaction when I started listening to the band but I’ve since grown to admire his vocal range. You’ll just have to make up your own mind about it. Another thing that should be noted is that you should definitely pay attention to the lyrics since that’s another one of the band’s talents. Even though at first they all seem to have one thing in common, which is girls and problems related to them, they all have a deeper meaning and are a great read.

To round the whole record off the guys have gotten a couple of guest vocalists: Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens, Jason Butler of letlive. and Lindsay Stamey of Oh No Fiasco. I don’t want to lean myself too far out of the window but I doubt that any of them will ever regret lending their talents since all three songs they’ve performed on have come out phenomenal. Especially Tangled In The Great Escape with Jason Butler is probably my favorite song on the entire CD.

As you might have noticed I have not found any negative points about Pierce The Veil‘s latest endeavor and that is actually easily explained: to me it’s just the best album of 2012, at least thus far. There are still a few releases I’m looking forward to this year but those bands will have to work hard to convince me of the contrary. As always it’s of course best to make up your own mind about that which you can do by checking the video below and visiting their Facebook page for more info.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME6RtQgBMSI]

Holy Mountain – Earth Measures LP

A little more than 30 minutes of power, that’s what Holy Mountain created with their first full length Earth Measures LP.

Power can be released in different ways or appear in various shapes. Gunner, the opener, assumes a fast and dirty rock party right from the beginning, but the three Scotsmen curb the speed without losing a single bit of thrust, which results in a very doomy way of playing stoner rock.

Although slightly underproduced, the drums do a good job, however, it is the brutal bass and the merciless guitar who give a soul to this work. Very classic riffs refine the overall listening experience – it is difficult to classify Earth Measures, who powers our ears with 8 minute doom eruptions, with short stoner rock flashes or with 70s riffs. Vigorous atmosphere guaranteed.

There are in fact many bands nowadays that sound, or that want to sound like the classic formations of the 70s. The challenge is to stay fresh and authentic; a very dangerous balancing act while trying to climb this holy mountain, but this trio succeeds.

Vocals sometimes aren’t needed at all, but the moment they appear, you should be ready for really trashy and still stoner cawing from hell. Missing comparisons to other bands? Here we go: this is like Kyuss meeting Black Sabbath meeting The Melvins, and the other way round. Boredom? No chance!

Did I forget something? Oh yeah, you may also find sludgy, psychedelic and groovy parts in this half an hour mustang trip. It’s getting deeper and deeper the more you listen to it, unfortunately a bit monotone from time to time. Forgivable! This is nothing “new”, though there also is no intention to be “new”. The rocket is fueled, let’s go to Scotland!

Recommendations: Gunner, Kegs, Silent Hawk

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06eddk5ZOrI]

Trash Monday XXVII


Those of you who remember my last Trash Monday post know where my trash taste comes from. Here’s another prime example of it…Gil. A German copy of Hanson that did indeed have a couple of catchy tunes but was pretty much forgotten in the turn of the millenium.

Untypically for Trash Monday I have to point out that the guy sings in a new band these days which actually makes quite enjoyable music. Check them out.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR_skvne-JU]

Ex-Drummer

We have all had the same experience before: a movie that gets hyped up so much by your friends that it can only end up being a huge disappointment. Stories of people getting sick while watching the movie and other highly exaggerated stories that have tempted us to go and see movies time and time again only to leave you shrugging and thinking to yourself, it wasn’t that brutal.

This very same experience was one I had after watching Ex-Drummer only with one exception, the movie didn’t totally suck. It’s a weird roller coaster ride of laughing your ass off and shaking your head at the either totally absurd or disturbing images you’ve just witnessed.

Just think of the most disturbing and dirtiest jokes about sex, big cocks, gays, disabled people and rock music all wrapped into one weirdly entertaining movie with moments of cinematic brilliance that remind you of David Lynch’s work or movies like Fight Club. Though this movie isn’t all laughs, in fact everything goes horribly wrong for the protagonists in that movie.

This movie is about 3 disabled losers looking for a drummer to complete their band, which they think they’ve found in the famous author Dries, who also has one handicap: he can’t play drums.

Dries stands in total contrast to the other 3 main characters as he’s a highly intelligent, very successful book author living in his penthouse which makes him look like a god looking down on the scum of the earth. Dries does end up agreeing to form a band with the 3 lowlifes and they decide to call themselves “The Feminists”, as according to them 4 disabled musicians have as much right to exist as a bunch of feminist women.

They plan to enter a rock contest in Ostende and show of their songwriting skills, but encounter the lead singer of another contesting band “Dekke Lul”, which would be translated into “big cock”, who threatens to fight them for playing a song that has the same title as one that he wrote.

All along the story you see that Dries is slowly manipulating the others, playing with them until everything goes to shit.

I will not get much more into the details of the story or the characters as to not spoil the experience for you.

What made the movie entertaining for me was the brilliant use of rock and punk music and a few cinematic choices, like having the lead singer in his own house always seem to be walking on the ceiling, that give the movie a very cool but creepy atmosphere.

This is not a movie for the lighthearted as the themes depicted in this movie range from rape, to child molestation to dismemberment. If this isn’t a problem for you, then you should definitely check out this weird entertaining roller coaster ride of a movie.

This review was written by our freelancer Jeff.


Interview with Jan Kerscher

Jan Kerscher is a young and ambitious musician and the founder of Ghost City Recordings, a recording studio in Bavaria. In our little interview he told us about his work and his view of creating music nowadays.


El Gore: There are probably not many young men nowadays who start a production company, can you tell us how you came up with the idea?

Jan Kerscher: To me – as probably for most of the artists I work with – music is the most personal and fragile thing I can imagine. Dealing with emotions in such a way is only possible in a private space that comforts and suits a creative team. Back when I started recording with bands, we were always hiding out in my parents’ basement or attic or somewhere. One of my recent hideouts was – as you might know – ‘The Fiction’ in Luxembourg, where we recorded most of the Dirty Crows album. Thus, the basic idea behind Ghost City Recordings was (and still is) to provide a permanent hideout right in the middle of nothing where any artist can stay for weeks in order to create. So there it is. We just needed that hideout. We had no other option than come up with a plan and build it.

EG: How much subjectivity (from the producer’s side) do you think ends up in an album or single?

JK: That depends on the individual producer, really. In my case – I think, I add a lot of my own personality to the records I make. When I work with artists, most of the time I focus on where the “sound” comes from rather than indulging in the technical side of recording it. Obviously to me, it’s more important for the musical expression than having a bad/wrong guitar part being recorded brilliantly.

But in the end there is always a level of ‘subjectivity’ with every producer. If you look at it from this side of the glass, not giving yourself too deeply into the recording process is also a very personal decision and can be an argument to work with a specific producer if the band or artist has a very distinct vision of their sound.


EG: You’re said to be very happy to try new and unconventional things while recording, can you give us examples and do you think that experiments are more important than ever before in music history?

JK: Weird methods are the best methods. It frees the artist’s mind from thinking too much about what exactly he’s doing and playfully distracts the whole crew from the sometimes intimidating studio situation. Very recently, I did a vocal recording session in the forest. I clearly remember the moment where I proposed the idea to the band. Everyone was smiling instantly – the sheer idea filled everyone with euphoria in just a second. In creative terms – this is the one perfect working condition. And when we finally got to track – between all those trees and birds chirping – it was golden. Everyone was feeling light and not at all overly focused – just letting it happen. The result is a bunch of wonderfully natural vocal takes – also we kept the birds in the background and separately miked up the distant ambient of the woods and everything. It added a really nice ambiance to the whole record!

I think a good set of unconventional methods help you to widen the scope of your artist. It gives them the space to unfold in any direction they want to go. It feels free yet earthed. Also, it keeps studio work thrilling and inspiring. I love it.

EG: In a portrait you say that you have no master plan considering neither recording nor your own life. Have you ever had the feeling that things won’t work out in the end, be it in a recording session or in life?

JK: Definitely so. It can be awfully hard at times – not knowing if you’ll bring your business through the next months. It makes me doubt about myself and confronts all of my projects with essential questions. But I consider that a significant part of being creative and self-determined and I have found my peace with it. Actually, it can be really healthy. It makes you rethink everything you do on a regular basis.

And even sometimes it would not work out at all. But failing means learning at the same time which is no bad thing at all.

Basically, life’s a matter of decisions. The “it won’t work out” feeling is just a reminder to go over your decisions again.

EG: Ghost City Recordings offers workshops this August, can you tell us what this project is all about?

JK: I am always motivated to educate future sound engineers / producers and share my experience and philosophy with them.

The upcoming workshops in August deal with the regrettably popular misconception that one can record in almost every space and a good mixing work would fix the quality of your recording. I want to teach young and ambitious recording engineers to get their technique right in a way that they can get a good signal out of everything, everywhere they happen to do a record.

Also I don’t want kids to send their mixes away to the big foreign names – thinking their music will be sounding like their big idols. That doesn’t make sense. They’re making money out of the kids and abuse their function as role models. It makes me sick seeing all those kids, spending tons of money into something that their alleged idols won’t put the adequate amount of love into. If you want it to sound like yourself – do it yourself. Or go find someone who is really trying to understand you. That’s much better.


Find out more about the Ghost City Recordings workshops: http://workshops.ghostcityrecordings.com

Pictures taken from the video made by Rocksofa.

Nargaroth – Jahreszeiten


You don’t have to be my number one stalker (you know who you are) to know that, at least nowadays, I mainly listen to metalcore and things that go into that general direction. However, I pride myself in the fact that I listen to a lot of different genres and that I can usually at least draw one aspect out of each one of them that keeps me interested. I actually plan on writing some more “special” reviews in the future, but I don’t want to promise anything. Today, however, I want to write an unusual review about an album that some people regard as one of the more unusual ones out of that genre.

Before I get into that I’d like to preface it with a warning of sort: only about 75% of the following paragraphs will be about the actual music, the rest is sort of a personal reason as to why I love this record as much as I do. If you haven’t deduced it by the title or the fancy picture yet: I’m going to be talking about Nargaroth‘s Jahreszeiten which was released in September 2009.

Those of you that are either fluent in German or have a vague knowledge of it will know that the title of the album stands for “seasons”. The songs are named after the four seasons in chronological order: Frühling, Sommer, Herbst and Winter. The general concept being that each song is supposed to evoke certain feelings associated with these periods.

The first track fascinates me a lot since it’s full of antagonisms in form of a spoken word in German by Ash, the artist formerly known as Kanwulf and the only member of Nargaroth. To delve into it too much wouldn’t do it justice so I advise you to check it out for yourself, I for one can identify with more than one sentence from it. After Prolog, the album starts off for real with a very atypical riff that I remember captured my attention right off the bat when I first listened to it. Many people mockingly refer to it as a fun fair melody since it’s a really cheery melody…which is exactly what it’s supposed to be since it describes the joyful feeling that people generally get as spring begins to drive away the cold weather. The song then transgresses into a slightly more dramatic tone before ending with the same happy tune. If by this point you have not turned off the song you have either nothing else to do or you have grasped the concept of the whole thing. I hope it’s the latter since if you keep that in mind throughout your listening session you will get a lot more out of the experience.

Instead of taking apart every single song I prefer to leave it up to you to make up your own mind. However I want to say a few things about the general production and lyrical content: the production is, for a black metal record, very clean which is one of the things that amaze me most. Because even though it’s probably as far from the much acclaimed Black Metal ist Krieg as it can get in terms of “grittiness” it still manages to be aggressive and raw in the parts where it is supposed to be, mainly so on Winter. In terms of lyrics it’s full of metaphors, as is usually the case on Nargaroth songs, which are related to the artists personal past and which, I must admit, I don’t understand most of the time.

This concludes the main review and if you don’t feel like reading a bit about my own reasons for liking this record you may stop here. But be sure to check out the song below and head to the official website where you can buy the CDs and get recent news. If however you want to continue, there’s more below the video.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvfQqJeNF08]

In the same year as Jahreszeiten was released I had to be hospitalized in December due to a medical emergency, so to speak. It was only a brief stay of two nights and since I generally don’t like hospitals as well as the visits there, I decided that I didn’t want any visitors. On the first night I slept peacefully and rather early since I was to go into surgery the day after. I opted for local anesthesia as it was only going to be an incision of about four centimeters and the whole thing went by without any greater complications…well, apart from the fact that I caught a cold in the operating room. On top of the fact that I don’t like hospitals very much I’m also not a fan of painkillers so most of the time whenever my IV drip was empty I didn’t contact the nurse, nor did I ask for any pills or whatever. The cold however didn’t care much about me being a bit special in that area so I was coughing and sneezing like no tomorrow; pain ensued. Yet, instead of pussying out I simply did the one reasonable thing: I listened to music. And I’ll let you take a wild guess which album I listened to from 1AM to 4AM in a dark hospital room in a mild state of delirium of pain coupled with a slight high from the remaining effects of the anesthesia and IV drip. And this is the story behind that album. Maybe I’ll do something along these lines in the future, if inspiration strikes.