Up until this point, the FF/RW column has almost exclusively showcased black metal; with this installment, I’m happy to be able to broaden the scope a bit with the inclusion of Ouija Ouitch’s debut, Halloueen, which is stoner doom in the grand tradition of Electric Wizard. Halloueen was released on A Terre Records, a label out of Minnesota that’s gathering a growing and impressive roster of Midwestern bands—among them is Abyssus, a band that plays old school satanic black metal. A track off of Abyssus’s self-titled debut is on the mix, too. Tracks from Colloquial Sound Recording’s A Pregnant Light, Primal Vomit’s Black Lands, and Fallen Empire’s Tardigrada round out the mixtape.
. . .
Abyssus – S/T
Abyssus’ throwback melodic black metal is much more polished than what you’d expect for a debut demo limited to 25 tapes. By turns depressive and muscular, Abyssus’ debut draws inspiration and features lyrics from Dante’s Divine Comedy.
[Buy: A Terre Records]
Ouija Ouitch – Halloueen
Plodding occult psych doom from Michigan that’s full of hooks, Ouija Ouitch’s Halloueen was released around, uh, Halloween of last year. The first edition sold out, but a second pressing thankfully appeared a few weeks ago in the A Terre store.
[Buy: A Terre Records]
Black Lands – S/T
Black Lands’ Cursing the Light of Modern Times is three tracks of thrashing, unadulterated fury. The Floridian band’s debut demo is a strong showing of raw black metal with punk influences.
[Buy: Primal Vomit Records]
Tardigrada – Widrstand
Tardigrada’s Widrstand is the Swiss band’s first demo, and it’s a bleak and tortured whirl of mournful guitars and drowned screams. Tardigrada’s depressive black metal is occasionally more melodically complex than your typical DBM, but it sticks to the genre’s production values: lo-fi and muted.
[Buy: Fallen Empire]
A Pregnant Light – Live to Tell
Colloquial Sound Recordings (Aksumite, Dressed in Streams, et. al.) is no stranger to FF/RW, and A Pregnant Light landed at number seven on my Best Cassettes of 2011 with their powerful punk-infected melodic black metal. Live to Tell showcases three new excellent APL songs, including a cover of Madonna’s “Live to Tell” featuring guest female vocals. Incredible.
[Buy: Colloquial Sound Recordings]
DOWNLOAD: FF/RW #4 – BEST OF CASSETTES JUNE & JULY [71.91 MB .zip] (Link Updated)
Abyssus is already off of the A Terre website, which is kind of sad considering the song on the mix is pretty good! It definitely had me contemplating digging out my cassette player and ordering one.
Found a stream of Abyssus on A Terre’s Bandcamp.
http://aterre.bandcamp.com/track/vii
great finds, i love this shit
There’s only one edition of the Ouija Ouitch tape and it hasn’t sold out yet.
You’re right, my bad. I guess I confused the standard edition with the die-hard edition, which has sold out.
Abyssus, Black Lands and A Pregnant Light tapes all rule. Great list!
Skullshitter tape is legit. Not sure when it came out, but it’s recent.
http://skullshitter.bandcamp.com/
these lists have been mainly black metal, but some death/grind is needed
I’ve downloaded this twice, but some of the songs are incomplete. Anyone else have this issue? The Tardigrada song is coming up at only 1:14.
I’ll look into it. These uploads can get squirrelly at times.
FYI, I can confirm that tracks 3 and 4 are both wonky for me too. We’ll get ‘em fixed. Thanks for your patience, it might take til the end of the day.
Dude where do you hear about these tapes/labels? Is there some mailing list you are on, or are you just a huge dweeb who follows all of these tiny labels? Want to know as this is easily the best regular column on this blog and pretty closely in line with my tastes.
You can follow the Fallen Empire label with ease by using Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FallenEmpireRecords or checking the website periodically http://www.fallenempirerecords.com/ . You could also e-mail us and ask to be put on the mailing list, which we only use for updating people on label activity (ie, you only get a message when we have something new out).
A Terre is a little bit sporadic with their activity, and I found out about their last batch of tapes from the NWN / Stench Forums.
Colloquial Sound Recordings is easy to follow, just check their website periodically http://colloquialsoundrecordings.blogspot.com/ or send them an e-mail and ask to get on the mailing list.
I’m pretty much a huge dweeb, but like FE said most of these labels maintain mailing lists, have Facebook or Tumblr and get the word out about releases one way or another. Takes a lot of monitoring.
The two tracks that were cutting off have been replaced with complete versions and the download file has been updated. Sorry about that!
Getting a “page not found” message when I attempt to download the mixtape.
Gah!
OK, it should be fixed now. I just clicked on it and it’s working for me. Let me know if there’s any more issues–this one’s been more of a pain than usual.
Worked that time. Thanks!
Actually, it didn’t. It started to download, but wouldn’t follow through for some reason. If this is a trick to get me to be a cassette player again, it’s not gloing to work.
That’s probably on mediafire’s end, or your internet router, sadly. Our mixtape is clearly cursed.
Must be all of the black metal. I tried it again, and it wanted me to install a bunch of shit on my computer–including a zoomdownloader and something called “funmoods”–so I’m going to sit this one out. Then again, I’m the same person who has spent the past year trying to figure out how to transfer records from my usb turntable to my laptop, so it’s more than possible my technological illiteracy is to blame.
Thanks for all of your work on this though. The mixtapes are a fun way to discover new bands and a distinctive feature of IO.