TITLES: Z

ZAIMPH Sexual Infinity CD $14.98
Hospital Productions

A recent solo release from Marcia Basset of GHQ, Double Leopards and Hototogisu, that delivers some heavy-duty amplifier float that fans of any of her bands will no doubt groove on, although her approach with her solo work is distinctively different from anything else she has done. Sexual Infinity is Zaimph's first "real" CD after a handful of limited-press CD-Rs, and was released last year through Hospital, the label run by Dominick Fernow of Prurient. This is a dark, eerie dronecaping using guitar, voice and electronics as the primary weapons; screeching distorted feedback and grinding amplifier rumble float malevolently through an abandoned cityscape, and reverb-soaked chords rise into the night sky from distant guitar orchestras. The first track combines a haunting chord progression and churning, low-frequency rumble into an Earth-esque power mantra that finishes far too soon; then the second track changes moods a bit with piercing amp tones and reverb strikes sizzling across a field of floating mumbled vocal haze and grating feedback. Kinda reminds me of some of Prurient's "mellower" more recent recordings. The middle two tracks are fields of effects-heavy drug fog, dark spacey ambient drift with rumbling guitars and subtly shifting melodies buried behind the fuzz. The fifth jam returns to harsher territory with a phased drone seemingly formed from the captured hiss of an amplifier cranked to maximum volume and left to sit idly by, the speakers spewing whooshing white fog and lashes of venomous overmodulated electricity. And then comes the album closer, a total crusher, a 12+ minute metallic powerdirge, massively distorted guitar riffs pushed beyond the red, so distorted and crushing that they become a mighty drone crumbling around itself as the track progresses, Marcia's lovely vocal fug swirling around those monstrous rumbling guitars, like some unholy combination of Sunn O))), Double Leopards, and The Goslings. Massive and mesmerizing. Highly recommended, and limited to 1000 copies.

ZAPHYR DAMARU Obey The Fathers CD $10.98
Dead Mind Records

Extremely hard to find 14 track full length of Finnish noise/drone rock and post-industrial tribal psychedelia. Like a distinctly urban version of AMON DULL trying to cover THROBBING GRISTLE loops and early techno,sorta. Surreal noise loops, vinyl scratching, space synth jams, utterly danceable freakouts, mystic static grooves.

ZARTAN Sidekick: Collected Works 1991-2001 CD $10.98
Sunship/Little Mafia

A totally confounding CD that on first look appears to be some sort of collection of experimental sound collage, at least that's the impression we got after reading the liner notes on the back of the case describing the work contained within as "A collage of ambient-electronic backgrounds and environmental foregrounds, mixed and submerged with spoken vignettes and conversational snippets of varied dialects and emotional tapestries." Sounds neat, and our interest was really piqued by the live photo of a death metal bassist on the front cover. Death metal electric-acoustic music? We're down. But the packaging, liner notes, presentation is really an illusion, 'cuz once you throw Sidekick: Collected Works 1991-2001 on your stereo, your treated to over an hour of prank phone call weirdness that's sort of like a more metal-obsessed, more awkward Midwestern take on Longmont Potion Castle ! We're never really given any insight into who the fuck "Zartan" is, aside from the fact that this dude loves metal and lives in Wisconsin, but you get all sorts of uncomfortable, often freaking hilarious calls to Zartan's local butcher shop, harassing calls to a radio station to play more Godflesh, a job interview with Barnes & Noble, Zartan posing as a Hollywood A&R rep and calling a deluded amateur musician, and more. This disc is the first official release of Zartan prank calls after about a decade of self-released cassettes, and a little bit of research on our part leads us to believe that this might have some sort of connection to legendary Minneapolis noise/core/comedy team Cock E.S.P. This is one of the weirder prank call albums that we've heard as it actually gets funnier the more we listen to it!

ZATOKREV Bury The Ashes 2xLP $23.98
Get A Life

Bury The Ashes is the second album from the Swiss industro-metal outfit Zatokrev, and it's possibly one of the heaviest fucking things I've heard so far this year. The inspiration of late 90's era Neurosis, particularly what they were doing on Times Of Grace, seems to be the starting point here, but from there Zatokrev take the apocalyptic riffage and downcast fury of the aforementioned tribal metal masters and add a whopping dose of monolithic sludginess and longform riff-repetition, with some of the songs reaching some truly epic durations of a single, monstrous riff repeated over and over; needless to say, this stuff is extremely heavy and bleak, and barely any light breaks through Zatokrev's crushing, hypnotic gloom. Even the softer, post-rocky parts that appear in their songs and offset the massive dirge riffs are draped in suffocating, abject despair, although their are a couple of spots where some vague glimpses of textured melody shine through the grim minor-key riffs and laboriously paced clean guitars. The lyrics are wholly depressing, pretty much in the vein of hopeless hardcore lamentations, delivered through tortured, anguished yells that are sometimes darkly colored by the appearance of haunting choral voices drifting across the background. It's hard to believe that this is the product of a trio, as Bury The Ashes sounds as huge as Times Of Grace, and the utter gloom and trance inducing, leaden riffage also bring to mind both Godflesh and My Dying Bride as reference points. This is an oppressive, menacing album that is certainly recommended to fans of devestating apocalyptic dirge metal; hell, if you loved Neurosis' new one Given To The Rising but are in dire need of more of that brand of bleak armageddon crunch, I'd say that this is the album to turn to. This limited vinyl edition includes an exclusive vinyl-only track ("Tvuj Trest"), and is released in an edition of 500 copies and presented in a sweet hand-numbered gatefold jacket.

ZENI GEVA 10,000 Light Years CD $15.98
Neurot Recordings

We've got some more crucial Zeni Geva action if you've missed out before! When Zeni Geva dropped 2001's ultra-crushing 10,000 Light Years on us, it had been six years since the band's last album (1995's Freedom Bondage), and saw the Zeni geva returning with a vengeance to wreak some of the heaviest, most jagged metallic noise/math rock on the planet. 10,000 Light Years was their first (and to date, only) album for the Neurot imprint, and it's as bonecrushing as anything they've ever bestowed on us. By this point, Zeni Geva's intimidating architect K.K. Null had been focusing heavily on his solo avant-guitar work and some other band projects he had kicking around, but he slipped back into Samurai warbeast mode efortlessly for this album, constructing eight jams of lumbering, crushing metallic math rock, heavily influenced by Swans but also having a bit of that Shellac/Dazzling Killmen sound. Once again, Zeni Geva went to Steve Albini to record their album as they had with their previous full lengther, and the album is actually one of their sparser efforts in their catalog. It's almost entirely instrumental, although we do get to hear Null deliver the few lyrics he does have in that awesomely over-the-top samurai growl, and the songs have lots of dynamic, quiet-to-loud shifts, the song structures themselves feel more contorted than on previous albums, and Null's guitar playing is pretty fractured, with lots of dissonant chords and skronky riffage as well as lots of his trademark bleeping, fractalized "Nullsonic" guitar noise. I can't help but hear that Chicago post-rock influence in there as well as some elements of traditional Japanese music that I don't remember hearing in older ZG releases, and combined with their already punishingly heavy metallic crunch, this all makes 10,000 Light Years probably the band's most progressive sounding album so far. It's been years since this came out, and I'm not sure if Zeni Geva will ever rise up again to pummel us with their brutal percussive avant metal, but at least we were able to get this killer album from them before they fell back into slumber. Comes in a nice full-color, 6-panel digipack with lots of K.K. Null's abstract computer artwork

ZENI GEVA Desire For Agony CD $14.98
Alternative Tentacles

The pretty hard-to-find 1993 album of absolute grinding heaviness from Japan's Zeni Geva! And I don't mean grinding as in "1000mph blastbeat whiplash thrash". I mean grinding as in bludgeoning, ruthless slabs of machinelike crunch delivered with a singleminded intensity on par with bands like Godflesh and Swans. Desire For Agony has slipped in and out of print over the years and I just managed to get another batch of this crusher back in stock-Zeni Geva are one of the more sorely missed Japanese underground outfits, and this Steve Albini-produced album is one of their finest. Dual guitars engage in brutal locked-groove mathmetal riffs played in slow motion over some of the jazziest drumming of any Zeni Geva album, while ZG frontman K.K. Null lets loose with a onslaught of fierce samurai war-shouts delivered in a mixture of Japanese and English, and the song titles like "Stigma", "Dead Sun Rising", "Heathen Blood", and "The Body" continue to paint a morbid vibe that has continued to arc over ZG's albums. Songs like "Autopsy Love" speed it up with double bass drumming racing alongside some ripping speed metal riffs and chiming clean guitars; elsewhere Null and second guitarist Tabata drop in little melodic flourishes that reveal brief respites of prettiness in between all of the angular pounding, which only end up making the music sound even more paranoid and psychotic. The result is something like Cop Shoot Cop, Swans, Godflesh, and Slayer rolled into one and fronted by an enraged Toshirô Mifune - yep, Zeni Geva are heavy and grim almost to the point of ridiculousness, an over-the-top industro noise-metal killing machine, but that's why I love 'em. Killer album artwork from prison researcher and editor of the now defunct zine Primary Concern, Marc Fisher.

ZENI GEVA Freedom Bondage LP $14.98
Alternative Tentacles

Long out of print on CD, we've tracked down some of the super-rare vinyl for Japanese art-metal trio Zeni Geva's 1995 album Freedom Bondage. Produced by Steve Albini and featuring the addition of keyboards, acoustic guitar and the surprising appearance of melodic singing on a couple of the album's tracks, these nine songs deliver ZG's trademark angular math-metal with those weird time signatures, disjointed but crushing powerchord riffage, and frontman K.K. Null's intimidating drill sargeant/samurai battle shouts. There's plenty of weird shit here too, like the spacey dub percussion hit on the title track, or the frequent nods to keyboard-heavy King Crimson style prog rock, and the clean singing that shows up on the last track "Ground Zero" is, well, pretty fucking breathtaking - that tune has a very 70's prog feel. But as proggy and psychedelic as Freedom Bondage often gets, Zeni Geva never let up with their ferocious metal, which aside from maybe Ratos De Porao has got to be the heaviest shit that Alternative Tentacles ever put out. An awesome fusion of Swans' trudging nihilism, math rock chops, cosmic prog, and blistering Slayerized thrash slowed down to a (mostly) crawling stomp. We only have a few of these LPs, and once they are gone they are gone for good, so move quickly if you need to pick this killer album up!

Z'EV Rhythmajik CD $14.98
Small Voices

First new studio album in years from Industrial forerunner and avant-garde percussionist Z'ev that has been created as an accompaniment to the Italian translation and publication of his Rhythmajik book, which had originally been released through Psychic TV's Temple Press. The concepts presented by Rhythmajik involve the harnessing of energies released via the rhythmic process, using rhythm and sound for purposes of meditation and healing along with ritualistic implications. This recording showcases Z'ev's presence as a master percussionist, drawing from an arsenal of homemade instruments (gongs, hand-made metal percussions, titanium plate, low steel drums) to levitate metal and conjure huge, glistening sheets of steel that glide through the atmosphere. Metallic rumble and heavy thunderous drones are accompanied by subtle percussive patterns and tribal drumming forms; one of the more mystic and eye opening heavy drone albums to float through our skulls lately. Disc is housed in a special cardboard wallet with spot varnishing.

Z'EV Symphony #2 (Elementalities) CD $13.98
Blossoming Noise

A pummeling rite of textural sheet metal roar, Symphony #2 (Elementalities) is a recently issued disc from Blossoming Noise that sees the Industrial pioneer Z'ev taking his own live recordings from the Ghost Stories album on Soleilmoon, and reworking them into a heavy, thunderous scrape-n'-rumblescape that's divided into nine movements. Those original live tracks were recorded in October 1990 at the Wang Concert Hall in Amsterdam, but are here reshaped using digital processing, taking Z'ev's dense, heavy metal-on-metal percussive polyrhythms and turning them into huge floating slabs of metallic, concussive rumble and mighty subterranean thud. Listen to this one on a pair of good headphones and you're tossed into a massive stereo field of roaring metal vibrations that'll loosen your teeth. And in keeping with the occult mysticism that surrounds his work, this album is accompanied by a twelve page booklet filled with esoteric, poetry-style text and strange biblical references, printed in austere metallic gold and black ink. I've been grooving alot lately on Z'ev's recent releases, and this one is a nice companion to both that Rhythmmajick CD that we listed here last year, as well as the new collaborative disc between Z'ev and Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley that just came out on Southern Lord.

ZILLAH Substitute For A Catastrophe CD $11.98
Retribute Records

What's with all of the killer zonked metalcore that has been coming out of the UK lately? It almost feels like we're time traveling back to 1996 when bands like HARD TO SWALLOW and STALINGRAD were pulverizing our eardrums with righteously damaged outsider metalcore, that frankly made much of what was going on here in the U.S. seem foolish. I guess times haven't changed much...with the current state of "underground metal" here in the US overpopulated with a million ridiculous eyeshadow-caked SHADOWS FALL and NORMA JEAN ripoffs, we at Crucial Blast again turn towards the British Isles for the more punishing, bizarro and anti-social end of the stick. Over the past few months I've been bombed by awesome debuts from sicko occult blasters THE ART OF BURNING WATER and the Jesus Lizard-on-steroids art 'core of HUNTING LODGE (both on the always-great SuperFi label) that have taken great liberties to spew out some real menace, and now I've landed this weighty debut from Scottish quartet ZILLAH, who are just about as heavy as their draconian namesake. From the start, ZILLAH unload an avalanche of tumbling, hyperkinetic metalcore with massive dissonant riffs and deep, gutteral bellowing, moving at weird 90 degree angles in a way that reminds me of a sludgier MASTODON, with it's shades of monstrous prog metal, combined with the atonal paranoia of VOIVOD and mid-90's NAPALM DEATH, technical death metal, NEUROSIS-ian minor chord dirges, and a vague resemblance to a pumped-up, steel plated ZENI GEVA. ZILLAH's chaotic assault is bolstered by Bob Storrie's manic drumming, which is pretty rad...his performance on this disc reminds me more than once of MASTODON's Brann Dailor, albeit a bit more raw and fierce in delivery. The drumming is super chaotic, with tons of polyrhythmic patterns and jazzy, and these weird stuttering blast-fills that make my skin crawl whenever they surface. It's a solid debut, total angular aggro. I also really dig the muted woodcut illustrations and booklet design. Recommended.

ZOAT-AON Star Autopsy CD $12.98
Aural Hypnox

Chilling ritualistic caveman drone from this Finnish outfit that creates heavily layers of radiant blackened hum,alien,insectile chirping,swirling/hissing desolate cave wind,distant moans,backward voices,reverb-drenched slave drums, and deep,swelling strings, all of which flows together like field recordings of strange, squeaking lifeforms and squishy sonic textures emitted from forgotten, eldritch depths. ZOAT-AON explore the dimly lit thrum that exists between the dramatic cosmic ambient of SCHLOSS TEGAL and the subterranean drone of SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY. Over 66 minutes of eerie ritual drone. Star Autopsy comes packaged in an exquisite six-panel cardboard digisleeve screenprinted in high contrast silver ink with ritualistic iconography. Very nice. Limited to 1000 copies.

ZS Karate Bump CD $10.98
Planaria Records

Complex,super-disciplined, gradually evolving Chamber Prog from this New York outfit, featuring two saxophonists, two guitarists, and two drummers. The first track, "Bump (Zs)", is a crazy micro-prog piece with circular "clicky" percussive guitar skitter, eye-crossing polyrhythms, and eruptive sax blart that comes together like a tribal Atari video game soundtrack. The second track, "Karate", matches spiralling free-jazz sax blowing to propulsive drumming and breathing sounds (it's pretty neat hearing this is executed, using the sax to amplify the users breath). The final,untitled track,is a weirdly pretty, repeating melodic wheeze. Karate Bump is good stuff, giving us complex composition and modern theory that results in something that is actually listenable. The blurbs for this disc speak of "brutal chamber music", bombastic prog rock counterpoint, and barely audible breathing sounds." Like an ultra-minimalistic mix of Orthrelm, John Zorn, and Battles.

ZOROASTER self-titled CD $11.98
Battle Kommand

Raw, gnarly trance sludge from Atlanta's Zoroaster does a fine job of picking up where Sleep's Jerusalem left off, laying down menacing low-end droning doom riffs that seem to stretch out forever over the propulsive, rolling drumming. Zoroaster are just as, if not moreso, droning and repetitious as Sleep, although these 4 songs run a mere 4-11 minutes in length each. Each song is a massive, rumbling meditation on a single blackened chord that is pounded out for minutes on end, occasionally embellished with a swampy, southern sludge riffa la Weedeater or Eyehategod, before returning to the all-powerful drone riff as deep monstrous death vocals bellow incomprehensible invocations. Imagine an overcaffienated Sunn O))) sped up to near-rocking pace, with rolling drums that are like a combination of raw tribal beats and almost marching-style rhythms, and you might have an idea of the black tar trance these dudes are spewing. It's little wonder that Doom specialists Southern Lord are involved with the distribution of this release, as it's fuckin' righteous hypno doom. Fans of the heaviest doom/sludge shit like Sleep, Soulpreacher, Warhorse, Grief, etc., all need to check this out. The weirdly phallic squid imagery on the cover and song titles like "Mons Venus" and "Honey And Salt" lend a dark sexual imagery to the music. 32 minutes of monolithic and skull numbing heaviness.

ZU self-titled 7" PICTURE DISC $7.98
Public Guilt

New Zu! The latest in the ongoing Implied Sound series of 7"s released by our buddy J.R. at Public Guilt, Zu's new untitled EP is not only a ferocious dose of the band's genre-defying, hardcore-jazz-funk-sludge intensity, but also comes inscribed into an awesome-looking picture disc with grisly, freaky artwork from Scarful, who has worked with Zu on past releases for some time now. On this outing, the trio of baritone saxophonist Luca T. Mai, bassist Massimo Pupillo, and drummer Jacopo Battaglia is joined by the Italian turntablist OKAPI, who uses his vinyl manipulations to add an otherworldly ambience to Zu's heavy hardcore-jazz attack. The record contains three tracks: The A-sides "Observing the Armies in the Battlefield" teeters between a grinding free-jazz workout, and a brutal distorted, almost industrialized bass-dirge riff played repeatedly by Pupillo, while creepy horror-movie synths float over Battaglia's warped angular percussive rhythms. Sorta reminds me of Combat Astronomy, but rougher, more "loose" and agressive. The B-side has two tracks; "The Last Portrait of him Holding a Knife in his Right Hand" is a heavy no-wave dirge with more angular, choppy drumming and heavy bass riffage, layered with manipulated samples of orchestral vinyl records and bits of spoken word twisted into hallucinogenic code, while "Point Final" is a brief, 2-minute blast of wiry, mathy punk-jazz skronk. If you're into the heavy, skronky death-jazz of Alboth!, Naked City, and the Flying Luttenbachers, you need to check these guys out, probably starting with their stellar Igneo album, but Zu fans are going to want to get this platter post-haste.

ZU Igneo CD $13.98
Amanita

ZU whips up a ferocious jazz/prog storm on this 9 song CD, which has gotten quite a bit of word-of-mouth buzz over the past year. Rightfully so - Zu are an immensely talented, tightly wound outfit that play a mix of Euro trad jazz styles and all-out free improv wildness powered by punk ferocity, sometimes getting downright THRASH, others digging into to an almost GOBLIN esque stride. A freaking fire rite of freeform power. The sax/bass/drums interplay is incredible, and often ZU slips into a freeform groove so precise and complex and math, it brings to mind RUINS or NAKED CITY, or a turbo charged MORPHINE. Wiry, raging, rumbling awesomeness. Drummer Jacopo Battaglia plays like a twelve-armed dervish, but can reign it in when ZU slips into a buzzing, skittery drone.They cite The Ex in their liner notes, and their avant-punk assault definitely draws from the improv/punk legends, along with John Zorn and NoMeansNo. There's also alot of melody here too, and it's one of the most "listenable" avant-jazz albums we've heard recently. Igneo was produced by none other than Steve Albini, and features some established guests like Ken Vandermark (tenor sax), Jeb Bishop (trombone), and Fred Lomberg-Holm (cello). Highly recommended to fans of Peter Brotzmann, John Zorn, jazz thrash, and prog punk.

ZU / ICEBURN split 10" $15.98
Wallace Records

The first installment in an ongoing split 10" series being curated by the Wallace and PhonoMetak labels outta Italy, this supreme slab pairs Zu and Iceburn, two of the mightiest dealers of hardcore-infected jazz destruction around. Side one features a collaboration between Italy's Zu and guitarist Xabier Iriondo, a former member of A Short Apnea. They produce 5 tracks of sinister sounding improv-jazz/krautrock dirge with mutant distorted hardcore riffs and monstrous death metal vocals, a complex jazz-core suite filled with Zu's nimble, hypnotic bass guitar/drum grooves locking in on killer grooves, squealing Brotzmanesque free sax blowing and freeform electronic noise snaking around the burly riffage like a mantric fusion of Painkiller and Damo Suzuki. Repetitive, crushing, and totally ecstatic, with a couple dips into sludgy, heavy as fuck dirge metal. Awesome, and probably the heaviest stuff I've ever heard from Zu. And with all of their brutal, heady hardcore and metallic-flavored jazz eruptions, I can't think of a better band for Zu to share a record with than Iceburn, who were clearly an influence on Zu's whole MO. Side two features the final-ever recordings from the Salt Lake City based avant-hardcore pioneers and longtime Crucial Blast faves, and holy shit are their songs awesome !!! These five tracks were apparently recorded back in 2001 and were originally intended to be released on Southern Lord as part of their limited-edition 7" series (which at the time also included EPs from Unearthly Trance, Loincloth, and Cathedral), but for one reason or another ultimately ended up not being released. Luckily they were revived by the Wallace Records guys, who were given a copy of the recordings by Massimo from Zu! And man am I breathing a sigh of relief as this is DEFINITELY the heaviest Iceburn ever! Their entire 12-minute side is amazing, starting with the opener 'Odin's Beard', a monolithic doom-dirge of massive Sabbathian riffage, splattery free-noise-jazz freakout, and crushing angular prog-core. Fuckin' immense! 'Swallow Mighty Earth' is just as crushing, a super slow doom crawl zonked with scratchy electronic skree and feedback, like what Corrupted mighta sounded like if they had started to plunder the old Skin Graft catalog. '1000 Miles Stallion' is a more spacious free-noise jam, all skittery deformed strings and clattery percussion, that gradually forms into a plodding dirge. And on the final track 'Shaolin Taco', Iceburn splatter a pummeling blat of blown-out bass sludge with more ear-shredding feedback. It's basically a sax-less Iceburn taking on elements of extreme doom and mutating it into awesome, noisy deathskree marches. Seriously awesome! Limited to 500 copies, and packaged in a yellow and black jacket, pressed on thick black vinyl.

ZUL El Gope De La Aguja CD $12.98
Basement Apes Industries

El Gope, the debut album from French band Zul came as quite a surprise, as we've been getting accustomed to having our blocks knocked off by mammoth French post-metalcore whenever we had previously thrown in an album from the Basement Apes Industries label. Membrane, The Fantastikol Hole, Superstatic Revolution...all purveyors of monstrously heavy and vaguely artsy post-metal that we can't get enough of, all part of this killer label. So we were just a little bit shocked when we heard Zul's beautiful post-rock lullabyes drifting off of El Gope De La Aguja! Yep, this is all-instrumental, save for some effected female vocal loops that are employed for ambient effect towards the end of the album, and situated in the sort of cinematic post-rock that Mogwai and Mono are known for, although Zul keep their songs pretty short (most run about 3-4 minutes in length), and work with a melodic sensibility that's more akin to 90's indie rock. And while there are some noisier climactic moments, Zul also doesn't really play the quiet/loud dynamic as much, instead focusing on unfolding their complex melodies in a way that reminds us of a mathrock band more than once throughout this album. In addition, there alot of cool instrumentation that sets this apart, including lots of weird chiming percussion, indietronica beats, and some really awesome, mournful slide guitar action that kept making us think of a combination of Mono and The Afghan Whigs. This is a great album, definitely a cool surprise from a label that usually crushes us with really heavy stuff, and we think that anyone into the Temporary Residence and COnstellation sounds, Mono, Gregor Samsa, Red Sparowes, and the lighter, dreamier strains of post-rock will love this.