As metalheads, we’re generally closer in temperament to Mr. Scrooge than Tiny Tim: we wear mostly black, we can usually admit we were the ones who messed things up with our ex-girlfriends, and ever since our first hearing of Master of Puppets we can’t stand the idea of hanging out with muppets.
But today Invisible Oranges is trading in the sneer for holiday cheer, for every day this week we will be posting a prize pack giveaway, each one from a different metal label! Consider it our way of saying thank you for being our awesome readers in 2011, and if the world really does end in 2012, then well, eh, at least you’ll have a cool new T-shirt to wear into the apocalypse.
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For the first day of Kvltmas, Gilead Media will be providing one copy of the new Ash Borer/Fell Voices split and an Ash Borer T-shirt. Gilead Media owner Adam Bartlett explains how the split came to be here, but all you really need to know is how well these two untitled tracks come together to form a split that pulls out the pummeling, howling and drowning sounds of hell and places them on a record.
To win this split and your own Ash Borer t-shirt, tell us in the comments below which artists are on your favorite EP or LP split of all-time. Make it a good one, your answer must impress! The contest will close at midnight on December 26 and the winner will be notified by us. You must have a mailing address in the continental US or Canada to enter.
LISTEN TO ASH BORER/FELL VOICES SPLIT
Ash Borer/Fell Voices (Bandcamp)
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BUY ASH BORER/FELL VOICES SPLIT
Ash Borer/Fell Voices (LP)
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The forthcoming dragged into sunlight/gnaw their tongues split will probably steal the show but I think my favorite is the austere/isolation split just because it is incredible and very well titled “bleak.” Also it is a good looking LP with the triple gatefold and the bleakness palpable in the art as well as the music.
Gotta be S.O.B. and Napalm Death! Shit’s essential.
Oranssi Pazuzu/Candy Cane split. it’s a weird one, hombres.
Bestial Holocaust/Nuclear Devastation. UGH.
Asshole Parade\Palatka Split, Violent angry power violence from the dank, dark spots of Florida. This split is not only pretty as hell and has amazing insert work, but is ome of the most brutal, hateful shit that your will possibly ever hear.
The Hard to Swallow / Underclass split might be the best record you’ve never heard.
Faith/Void.
Converge/Agoraphobic Nosebleed -The Poacher Diaries
Leviathan/Xasthur split
I am going with a classic, the Hordanes Land split from Emperor and Enslaved. Both bands indeed got classier and more progressive with each subsequent release, however this one captures the feral ferocity of their infancy. This release still holds up to this day, and when I spin it, it still feels fresh, and sends me into headbanging spirals!
Converge/Drop Dead. This was my first ever 7″ split I picked up, the artwork rules, and there were something like 500 different colours. Obviously the music rules too!
Graves at Sea/Asunder
I know I’m disqualified from this contest, but the most WTF split I’ve ever seen is the Nunslaughter/Agathocles split. Two bands with such ridiculously long discographies on Metal Archives that literally make my brain hurt everytime I look at those pages. It was just bound to happen, right?
URFAUST/CIRCLE OF OUROBORUS “Auerauege Raa Verduistering” it’s a new one and already legendary. Two experimental black metal bands arguably, at the top of their game. Introduced me into a new world of metal that looks far into the future.
Thou/Moloch — “Tears That Soak a Callous Heart”
Death Metal split by Helloween, Hellhammer, Running Wild and Dark Avenger. Nucking Futs!
I vote for the Horna/Behexen split. First of all, they do it LIVE! Horna sounds super-raw, almost punky on this this. The Behexen material, on the other hand, is the most epic and atmospheric of their entire career to date. This split is a bloody, burnt nutshell of the two types of sonic assault that attract me most to Finnish black metal.
crossed out/man is the bastard
Panopticon/Skagos. Pure beauty. But I already have the FV/AB LP and I live in Europe, so fuck it.
This is a tough one, but I gotta go with the MK Ultra/Seein’ Red split from the Network of Friends series. Chicago area power violence meets the most pissed off hardcore band from the Netherlands. Perfect combo!
Ha. Nearly put that one down too. Great split.
Aside from the Ash borer/ fell voices split itself (which is pretty hard to top), I’d have to go with the Xasthur / Nortt split. Followed immediately by the Panopticon splits with Wheels Within Wheels & Lake of Blood
I don@t qualify for the contest, but as far as splits go consider the Natur and Hessian split from this year. New old-school, great stuff. Just great.
Agoraphobic Noseblood/Despise You – And On and On wrecks my face each time.
*Nosebleed
From Ashes Rise/Victims – Absolutely without a doubt proved that there was still more ground to cover within the traditional melodic-crust landscape on the From Ashes Rise side, and Victims laid down some the BEST tracks of their career here; mixing traditional Swedish hardcore with tasteful modern touches.
I was always a big fan of the Hydra Head Sabbath cover splits, so I’ll say: In These Black Days, Vol 2: Brutal Truth covering Cornucopia, Converge covering Snowblind. Two of the greatest-metal-bands-ever covering THE-GREATEST-METAL-BAND-EVER’s tunes. Doesn’t get much better.
The Thou/Salome split LP. Not really much to say, except that it’s heavy as fuck.
Insect Warfare/Carcass Grinder. All out straight up grind EP. No frills, just grind.
Mare – ep
Faith/Void
The Hooded Menace/Coffins split is monstrous.
Horna/Behexen split has always been my favorite. The Behexen songs are untouchable. Some of my favorite black metal ever. The Horna songs are nothing to laugh at either.
Runner up: Kriegsmachine/Infernal War – Transfigurations split. Both bands just showcasing their best material to date.
FO(U)R BURIALS. LOSS, MOURNFUL CONGREGRATION, OTESANEK, ORTHODOX.
I would definitely have to say the Emperor/Enslaved split. It has the most epic and defining black metal songs on it. I Am The Black Wizards and Allfáðr Oðinn are a completely crushing amalgamation of all that was to become of black metal.
Well, no point seconding ones already mentioned, but:
Thou/Mohoram Atta – Degradation of Human Life
The new Ashdautas/Bone Awl split and Circle of Ouroborus/Drowning the Light split have been awesome, but too recent to call either my all-time favorites.
Skagos/Panopticon. Sure, a recent one, but powerful.
My favorite split I own is definitely the 3-way split put out earlier this year by Canyons, Tigon, and Foreign Theaters. Too good.
The Twin Threat to Your Sanity split, with Dystopia, Noothgrush, Bongzilla and Corrupted.
Probably the best example of fucked up, sludgy nihilism around that isn’t just an Eyehategod record.
Fuckin love splits and in all fairness it would be damn impossible naming just 1 favorite…
For years and years I’ve been joking I should release a Nunslaughter/Agathocles one…until one day someone actually did it! Genius work,haha!
Year of No Light/Machu Picchu Mother Future. Noisy, droney bliss.
Definitely Boris and Torche. I could listen to Luna’s blastgazing forever.
Year of No Light / East of the Wall / Rosetta. YONL are one if my all time favorites, and they sound sludgier than eyehategod on this one. Plus, Rosetta covers the Cure. You can’t tell me there’s any way to top that with any other split.
Thou/Leech Split
Leech was a fantastic black metal band out of the Pacific Northwest. They only released 2 splits and a few demos, I find this split to be their best work.
Thou also pulled out all the stops here, I love their sludge and drone qualities, but the melody in this split along with a track of just operatic female vocals blew my mind the first time I listened.
stop reading my mind!
seriously though, i’ve found little info on leech; did the members go on to do other things?
Bass/Vocalist has been doing a bunch with his solo project “Mania” in addition to playing shows with Hell and Velnias
Then the guitarist is now a full member of Velnias.
I havent heard any news about Leech since I saw them in 08′ which was right around the time the Split with Thou came out.
thou/leech split. thou is consistently awesome; leech is spiderland stuck in the woods. (a.k.a. awesome)
thats pretty epic posting the same split and the same time…
Although somewhat of a hard decision to make, the two releases I can’t ’settle’ for only one are Ash Borer’s Self Titled, and Thou’s To the Chaos Wizard Youth. Ash Borer, on my first listen, was unlike anything I’d heard in usbm this year (with the exceptions of Barghest and Fell Voices), listening to that album while going from city to an endless road full of wildlife, forest, a setting sun. I had a road trip the day I had decided to listen to this, creating an unexpected experience. I believe I read somewhere that this album must be “experienced” and “felt”. I can agree 150% with this.
With Thou, upon first listen, I honestly DESPISED it. I remember thinking “this is their worst done so far, what kind of dumbass would even consider purchasing this?”. Funny how that changed. The A-side of this release is heavy, slow, chordy doom/ sludge, and I love it. The lyrics are some of the best written thus far, especially on the intense track The Witch Cunt. Moving to the B-side, we have two of their best tracks ever (I’m biased, of course). Intense, you can feel all the energy just building up on Helen Hill…, and after 5 1/2 minutes of a massive build up of energy, they end it with an almost tribal drum beat, which then gives way to Skinwalker. Again, exceent lyrics, the guitars are just going the whole time, Bryan is drilling his lyrics out. To me, ending this behemoth of an EP with an execution only Thou will ever be able to do.
I realize this is mostly a review of the two, but deciding on one was too difficult, and I had the urge to explain myself in great detail over these records.
Oh, and the packaging, for both, is just magnificent. The pictures/ artwork go hand in hand together, holding them just makes the purchases feel better and well spent every time.
Thanks for reading.
Reread the instructions.
Melt-Banana/Discordance Axis split 7″…both bands cover each other & do several short, brain melting originals. the bands compliment each other very well – M-B’s spazzy/scratchy songs are the perfect flip side to DA’s guttural blasting grind.
Isis/Pig Destroyer.
Isis covers Godflesh, Pig Destroyer covers Carcass. This is totally a no brainer. You’ve got two great bands, covering great bands with completely different sounds. It’s like the ultimate mash up, and it totally gels.
I’ve gotta go with the Electric Wizard / Orange Goblin split. It was the first thing I heard from both bands, and OG do one of my favorite Sabbath covers.
Always had an extremely soft spot for the Breather Resist/Suicide Note – Double Split CDEP that came out on Hawthorne Street Records. Suicide Note were in prime form, yet always seemed to be a band that never got due attention for the weirdo-noise-swagger they dished out, and Breather Resist continued their sideways-stumble down the path that would lead to Young Widows (and who doesn’t love their measured slink/skulk?).
Definitely the Odz Manouk/Tukaaria split. Rhinocervs is extraordinary! Honorable mentions include: Bone Awl/The Rita, Sump/Sexdrome, and Prurient/Mindflayer.
My favorite is definitely the StarGazer/Invocation split- Harbringer/H.A.S.T.U.R. It’s probably the coolest avant-garde blacky death metal split ever made, and the bands go together so well.
I’m going with the Hard To Swallow/Canvas split… Canvas were one of the greatest bands I’ve ever seen (at least one of the most entertaining – same goes for Humanfly which they went on to form later) and the track “Womb Plague” is still stunning after all these years. Hard To Swallow just pure OWNED! Both sounded completely unique and could only come from England. A must for any fan of “heavy shit”
Fight Amp / Ladder Devils / Kowloon Walled City – “Lose / Lose / Lose”
This is a tough one, but I may have to go with the Horna/Behexen split. “Authenticity” can be hard to find, and this split oozes with it. Recorded live in studio, much more in a punk fashion than metal, Horna probably play their best material ever. Behexen, a band who’s never impressed me other than this release, put out the hypnotic and brilliantly simple and raw track “Ritual of Flesh and Blood.”
The production is so vital to this release as Horna’s vocals sound amazingly organic and possessed. Little things like the drummer counting off songs and the singer gasping for air highlight the one-take feel of this amazing split.
Lighting Swords of Death/Valdur. A truly classic split of American Black Metal.
I’m going to go with the High on Fire /Ruins split from a few years back. “Brother in the Wind” is one of HOF’s catchiest tunes, in spite of the fact that the lyrics seem to be about farting (“My brother’s wind goes on and on and on and on”) And the Ruins song is typically insane. No clue what those bands are doing on the same 7″, but it’s a memorably wacky pairing.
Dumbass that I am, I failed to read the instructions, which clearly state “EP or LP.” So I’m going to nominate the Burmese /Fistula split from Crucial Blast instead. Like the HOF /Ruins 7″ split, here are two bands that have little to nothing in common, except that in this case they both make really ugly music; Burmese make really ugly music that is also really fast, and Fistula make really ugly music that is also really slow. And yet somehow it works, with the whole thing produced by Scott Hull for maximum ugliness. My ears hurt just thinking about this one.
not my pick, but hot damn that’s a brilliant split. Fistula’s Basalisk kills it.
Grief/Corrupted split 7”
i mean come one, do i really need to write anything else?
loss/necros christos was amazing too.
Has to be the Acrid/Left For Dead circular sawblade shaped split 7″.
C’mon! It was shaped like a sawblade! This was years before Exhumed released “Slaughtercult” as a sawblade shaped CD.
Tied with: Vlad Tepes/Belketre – March To The Black Holocaust, cuz LLN still rule.
Yeah, that acrid/LFD was pretty killer. I was always afraid it was going to fuck up my needle.
…and I forgot:
Necromantia/Varathron split 12″ “Black Arts Lead To Everlasting Sin”
I’ll admit, I’m kindof a new jack to Greek black metal, but this split is one of the few in existence where the bands are well matched, both totally bring it, and both contribute some of the best material of their career. One of the defining platters of the style along with “Non Serviam.” This split should be uttered in the same breath as “Hordanes Land.”
Crossed Out/Man is the Bastard split EP. Followed closely by Faith/Void split LP.
Enslaved/Emperor.
Read wrong. Splits. Haha.
Actually, the Ash Borer/Fell Voices split is my favorite so far. Each side is great, Fell Voices side sounds slightly different from their other material. Ash Borer’s side is one of their best songs, its dramatic, the song itself has ’shape’ (for lack of a better description), and makes an interesting 21 1/2 minutes. Both sides are equally listened to, unlike most splits, these bands have their own styles, but together they make an amazing pair.
As a rule, I don’t particularly like splits (I’m an album kind of guy). They tend to feel forced to me and far too clipped. While I like the idea of bands getting together to do something because of a shared ideology, sound or whatever else, splits just kind of bore me or never impress. That being said, the splits I do tend to enjoy are those which feel like cohesive records (and knowing Ash Borer and Fell Voices, I feel this split is/will be). So, the Xasthur/Leviathan split from a few years back is my favorite. It feels like a record, not just a collection of songs.
Either Thou/Leech – We Pass Like Night From Land to Land, or Thou/Moloch – Tears That Stain a Calloused Heart. Both contain my favorite Thou material, although WPLNFLTL is probably my absolute favorite. Leech’s side is equally great, and Moloch’s sludge is a perfect match for, well, Thou’s sludge. Which split I like best really just depends on what mood I’m in.
Spazz/Romantic Gorilla. DAT SHIT FUN.
Faith/Void
Runners Up:
Dystopia/Skaven
Ottawa/Jihad
Coleman/Three Studies for a Crucifixion
Vlad Tepes/Belketre, if only for Belketre’s side. Truly some of the most evil, essential black metal ever released.
Drummachinegun.
Aphotic/Dusk because I love the music from both bands and it was the first album that I did artwork for.
mine’s the Melvins / ISIS, well not much to say thats not been said before about the Melvins, and ISIS, 2 songs worth an album by themselves, oh I miss ISIS….
Dekapitator
Blood on Steel/Nunslaughter split! It is so good!
Beherit/Impaled Nazarene – Day of Darkness Festival LP
I know it is classified as a bootleg…but!!
Failing that not being classed as eligible;
Asphyx / Hooded Menace Split.
I guess if I want to be perfectly obvious, I would have to go with the split that has been in my life longest, Faith/Void. But that is a bit boring. Instead, I am going to go with the Crebain/Leviathan split for notable reason; despite Crebain releasing nothing else (other than a few demos) and disappearing from sight, I think that side of the split is vastly superior to the Leviathan side.
Man is the Bastard/Born Against 8″ split. We get the slower, noisy later BA era stuff, that just crawls (comparatively for hardcore at the time) with loathing and misery. Then on the MITB side they strip it back a bit, run the bass through clean channels and we get an almost jazzy feel. THE ROLLER! Two of the best bands, some of their best material on an odd sized record. Classic and essential.
Thou / Leech
We Pass Like Night, from Land to Land
One of the most epic shit ever recorded!
Other than the Ash Borer/Fell Voices split of course…
Titan – Colossus EP. (The Toronto Titan, not the Brooklyn one) It’s so heavy, they knocked out power to a city block playing it live. True story.
Melt-Banana/Discordance Axis split. I love how Melt-Banana are rather silly and Discordance Axis were rather serious. But they both make extremely intense music!
Vasaeleth/Cruciamentum split-Engulfed in Desolation
Definitely Melt Banana/Discordance Axis
Discordance Axis/Corrupted/324
Thou / Leech
I suppose I’ll have a slim chance at winning this with a well known and already well voiced choice, but I’ll be honest in saying it’s my favorite. It has to be the Emperor/Enslaved split. It’s the perfect snapshot of that particular moment in the Norwegian BM scene, where the raw energy of youth collided with the ambition to be as epic as possible.
Ottawa/Jihad – quintessential essence of budget 90’s emo-powerviolence, no fun club bummer party jams. Captures pre-interwebs scene gerrymandering at its apex. All of that aside, the Ottawa contribution is particularly vicious and holds up just fine these days.
Easy -> Thorns vs. Emperor.
Neither is my favorite band ever but that thing is classico. Like my pasta sauce.
Gride / Lycanthrophy (Insane Society, 7”)