Blackfire - Silence Is A Weapon

Taken from a comic I've been reading for a little bit now, Extinction Parade #5 written by Max Brooks who also wrote World War Z, which was a pretty killer flick. "A verbal placebo for the voluntarily obtuse", that is fucking perfect. A zombie/vampire story with a unique plot and some interesting twists and turns...the artwork by Raulo Caceres captures the brutality of the story perfectly.

My old Bro Alex (shit, we've known each other for 29 years now...damn I'm getting old) turned me onto this band...the epitome of stage presence...raging! [video width="640" height="360" mp4="http://mustard-relics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Act-12-Black-Fire-Silence-is-a-Weapon.mp4"][/video]

Karjalan Sissit - Viinaa Pittää Juua 7"

Got my first negative comments on one of my reviews yesterday. I suppose any time you open your mouth you run the risk of someone trying to stick shit into it.  Negative or positive, all comments are good and in this cae, for the first time, I was called "press".  As a result, figured it was about time for one of my patented mega-posts, filled with random ramblings, nonsense and whatnot... I'm in love with Sharni Vinson just based on her role in You're Next. It's one of those victims fights back slasher flicks, with admittedly not the best acting and a pretty simple plot, but it does have a couple twists and turns to keep it interesting. I'm easily pleased when it comes to my horror flicks, and really disappointed (butthurt) when they don't meet up with my relaxed criticism. This movie though had one huge thing going for it, she made sure the job was done...nothing worse than a villain getting up after you've knocked him down. Sort of a metaphor for life I think, when we are confronted by it's inevitable wretchedness....eliminate one and on with the next. From the pages of Junk Culture (1997). I don't talk about comics much around here even though in the last couple of years they have made their way back into my life and are part of the minimal stimulation I need. When I was a kid it was all about super heroes and I didn't really know what I was doing. I just got comics randomly, based on the cover or hero, and didn't really follow the story from one issue to the next. I dug my old stuff out a while back to give to my buddy's son and looking through them I did not have one issue that followed another one. They were all in terrible condition too, so another strike against me was that I had no clue that they might be worth something some day, although I know now that very few comics are collectible, most of them lose value the second you take them off the shelf. In college a good friend of mine got me into the Lone Wolf and Cub manga, I really enjoyed the bits and pieces I got of that and it led to some killer viewing with the movies. I have since then collected the entire First Publishing series. It was the Walking Dead that got me into comics this time around (I stay away from super heroes for the most part now). And if you like the series, you must read the comics. As expected those comics are very collectible, but you can find PDFs fairly easily if you just want to read the story. The Kick Ass movies are based on a very good comic as well. Another highly recommended comic that will probably be a movie at some point is the Preacher series. Yet another one to check out is any of the various Crossed series' of comics. I am currently following the Walking Dead, Revival, Black Science, Hinterkind, Drumhellar, Ten Grand, Ballistic, Extinction Parade, Kick Ass 3, Samurai Jack... Expensive when you consider they mostly come out every month and they're $3-4 a pop. If there's no store near you or you're interested in affordable (mostly) back issues check out My Comic Shop. Art work, by my old pal, Finn Pette, artist extraordinaire, Volkswagon-aholic and Vincent Van Gogh fan...

More email silliness from my Gramps. Family Tree of Vincent Van Gogh: His dizzy aunt Verti Gogh The brother who ate prunes Gotta Gogh The brother who worked at a convenience store Stop N Gogh The grandfather from Yugoslavia U Gogh His magician uncle Where-diddy Gogh His Mexican cousin A Mee Gogh The Mexican cousin's American half-brother Gring Gogh The nephew who drove a stage coach Wells-far Gogh The constipated uncle Can't Gogh The ballroom dancing aunt Tang Gogh The bird lover uncle Flamin Gogh The fruit-loving cousin Man Gogh An aunt who taught positive thinking Way-to-Gogh The little bouncy nephew Poe Gogh A sister who loved disco Go Gogh And his niece who travels the country in an RV Winnie Bay Gogh

My Swedish comrade, Björn Hansson of De Anhöriga, et al, hits me up out the blue every once in a while to lay some aural sweetness on me. Check out these live tunes (you heard them here first), including a Clash cover, from the early 80's... De Anhöriga - Career Opportunities De Anhöriga - Tyskland Found a streaming SPK live show out there and am compelled to share. There's other SPK treats to be enjoyed here at MR if you're so inclined. Have been picking up their pre-87 gems whenever I can find them, but I'm a cheapskate so 2nd presses are all I can afford. This is a pretty good set, before they started to make a (unfortunate) change in direction... //www.mixcloud.com/widget/iframe/?feed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mixcloud.com%2Fhenry-bogarde%2Fspk-live-performance-in-markthalle-hamburg-germany-11-september-1983%2F&embed_type=widget_standard&embed_uuid=8fea7ab6-0731-4dc8-a13d-d6e38d9f7848&hide_tracklist=1&hide_cover=1

SPK - Live performance in Markthalle, Hamburg (Germany) 11 September 1983 by Xxxxxxxxxxx on Mixcloud

...and now to the original point for this post, the meat and potatoes you might say. Following proudly in the footsteps of his distant ancestors like SPK and Dissecting Table, Karjalan Sissit carves his initials deep in the skin of Industrial music. As the contributor at Wikipedia put it, "He combines neoclassical orchestral arrangements with elements of noise, power electronics and dark ambient. Common themes on his records are alcoholism, mental health problems and domestic violence", and he hits you in the head with a fucking brick. There's not a whole lot written about the collaboration that I can find...are they Finnish living in Sweden or vice versa. As far as I can tell they are Peter Bjärgö-Programming, Markus Mikael Pesonen-Vocals, and D.F. Bragman-Bass. According to Discogs they started out sometime around 2001, have several releases and the tunes I have below are from their latest, circa 2013. The one time monumental blog, Industrial Skads, describes them as, "Truly the hardest-hitting Martial Industrial outfit ever. Truly Martial... Truly Industrial..." I think I'll leave it at that and let the music/compositions do the talking. They're fairly well represented with a Myspace (there's a shit ton of tunes there if you look), a Facebook, and a Soundcloud. There's a very early interview at another dead site, Maelstrom Zine and just in case that disappears altogether, you can also read it HERE. No downloads this time, just listening, you should go out and buy this 7" it's a hell of a listen (as you will see...or not). The second tune is the hit in my book...

"Viinaa Pittaa Juua"

"Fuck Work"

"Loppuun Nussittu Avioliitto"

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h-96yXclwU&w=790&h=444]

Street Sects - The Morning After The Night We Raped Death 7"

I too have been one of those wet brain drunks making a fool of myself at the beach, and I guess really everyplace I went. Hysterical in a sadist kind of way, yet tragic at the same time. Bad Brains - How Low Can A Punk Get

It's a mean world we live in, we're reminded of that constantly. Maybe it's always been that way, dog eat dog.  My own state tried to pass legislation (overwhelmingly passed in the house, but the senate refused to vote on it) against the LGBT population, basically saying it was okay for anyone to refuse them service, including emergency services. All this was under the banner of religious freedom. A bunch of Pharisees running around these days, just as bad as the bomb makers. Everybody worrying about what everybody else is doing.  No happiness, nothing but misery, spreading like a plague.  It makes me want to further isolate myself, as isolated as I am, it would take getting rid of the TV and the computer, and only speaking to people as needed.  I don't even want to share the planet with some people, but that's the kind of attitude that "they" have.  Reason #268 in favor of the extinction of mankind.

Pretty shocking album title and cover, almost too much for me...almost.  But I have an idea of where these guys are coming from and some of it is that they are part of a long line of industrial bands who have a tendency to shock and confront.  The word itself, "rape", is the epitome of ugly without even having to put it in context.  There is a metaphorical meaning though that I think the band is after, and the average person can get that.  I could be wrong, but to me the title means reflecting on how in our own dehumanized state, we have dehumanized death or evil.  That's what it means to me anyway, could be horribly wrong, but what I do know is, that rape is what Street Sects do to your ears. When Leo of the band hit me up, basically all he had to say was, "Street Sects is a new sample/noise/hardcore based duo from Austin, Texas." After a virtual spin, I hit him back, "Fuckin eh, you two really know how to tear shit up, I enjoyed it in the same way a masochist enjoys pain. Good music has been coming out of Austin for as long as I can remember and you guys are proof that the shit is still thriving there." I've listened to these three songs quite a few times now and I would categorize them in the broadest sense as Industrial, but there's this hardcore grind thing going on a la Old Lady Drivers ("Rape Carve Smoke"), especially the screeching vocals and the blistering high speed electronic drumming.  They kind of fall into the category you might find Ministry or Nine Inch Nails in, but this is way deep down underground, it stays away from watered down commercialism that those bands later resembled.  The song structures are cool with these all out attacks taking you to the limit, broken up by thoughtful dirgy parts that give you a minute to take a deep breath.  The compositions have a structure that you can follow, maybe even dance to, sort of an organized chaos, that differs from other bands that label themselves "noise"...where you get just that, noise.  These are much more interesting than that, there's almost a groove.  Leo was a stud and sent me a physical copy for review, and just a heads up, the digital download includes an extra tune.  This DIY masterpiece is worth getting if for nothing else the write up on the insert.  It starts out, "our desire to live?  it was greater that of the street roach perched upon her clit..."  This is extreme music from extremely demented minds, I wouldn't let these guys date my sister...hahaha.  Actually I can relate to Leo at least and have some things in common with him, overcoming the bottle and dope, for one, I wish I could hang with him and pick his brain.  Along with the 7", I got sort of a bio type page... ...this is well worth reading as you get this kind of deep really well written philosophical view on life, along with a back round on the group. I can feel it when he writes, "The moment you lose respect for death is the moment you begin to take your life for granted. We refuse to take out lives for granted." The 7" itself is part of a much bigger project that will eventually be a five 7" box set, which at this point, I fucking know I will be buying. For now, check this duo out at their Facebook and their Bandcamp. My favorite song of the three... "Fate On Her Knees" [audio mp3="http://mustard-relics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2.Street-Sects-Fate-On-Her-Knees.mp3"][/audio] May as well give the rest of the tunes a listen too... http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1002582867/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/