Mixtape 83 - Sea of Bones

Here is the 83rd installment of the Dreams of Consciousness podcast, featuring an interview with Sea of Bones from 2015.

Mixtape 63 - High Command

Here is the 63rd installment of the Dreams of Consciousness podcast, featuring an interview with Worcester thrashers High Command.

Bandcamp Picks - Convulsing, Imperial Triumphant, Mutilation Rites, Churchburn

Australian solo act Convulsing is one of the most interesting acts in death metal right now. Atonal, atmospheric, and dynamic, sophomore album Grievous never gets stuck in one style or one tempo, taking the listener on a claustrophobic voyage through everything the genre was and could be. Ending the album with a moody re-imagining of Porcupine Tree's "The Sleep of No Dreaming" is perhaps the most indicative window to the man behind the project. This is a death metal meisterwork that deserves to be counted among the best of the year - and since it's available as a "name your price" download, there's no reason not to get it right now.


New York's Imperial Triumphant have been chipping away at the boundaries of death metal from day one, but their latest album takes their ambition to a whole new level. Vile Luxury combines the dissonant, skronking style of past releases and expands it to include a horn section and choir, combining death metal and hard bop in a way that recalls both John Coltrane and Immolation. An Ascension of death metal. [$9.99]


Fellow New Yorkers Mutilation Rites keep their death metal relatively straight-forward and brutal. But Chasm has just enough progressive and and punk rock digressions to its blasting fervor that these six songs never get tedious. And the production (recorded, among other places, at Brooklyn's infamous Saint Vitus Bar) brings the most out of the band's onslaught. Death done right. [$6]

Revolving around Vital Remains co-founder Dave Suzuki of and one-time Grief sticksman Ray McCaffrey, Churchburn sounds pretty much like what you'd expect. On their debut full-length None Shall Live... The Hymns of Misery, the quasi-black metal riffs of early VR are dragged to the depths and slowed to a crawl, resulting in one of the most evil death doom albums of recent years. As grim as a New England Winter. [$8]

Mixtape 33 - Weekend Nachos

Here is the 33rd installment of the Dreams of Consciousness podcast, featuring an interview with Drew Brown of Weekend Nachos. Enjoy.

Mixtape 32 - Mitochondrion

Here is the 32nd installment of the Dreams of Consciousness podcast, featuring an interview with Shawn Haché of Mitochondrion.

Mixtape 31 - Nights at Saint Vitus with Black Fast, Artificial Brain, and Sanitys Dawn

Here is the 31st installment of the Dreams of Consciousness podcast, featuring interviews with Black Fast's Aaron Akin, Artificial Brain's William Smith, and Topsy and Holm of Sanitys Dawn. These were recorded over three different nights during three different shows at Saint Vitus Bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Catching up with Kevin Hufnagel

Few people can match the prolific output of Kevin Hufnagel. In addition to his solo work, the guitar maestro is also a member of  Sabbath Assembly, Vaura, Dysrhythmia and Gorguts. With recent releases by Gorguts and Sabbath Assembly astounding and confounding, and an upcoming Dysrhythmia album scheduled for 2016, it seemed like a good time to catch up with the man. Kevin was kind enough to fill me in over e-mail.

Hate Eternal, Vital Remains, Black Fast, Inanimate Existence @ Saint Vitus

Pure death metal shows have become a rarity for me - what with living in a clueless theocracy and all. And so even with Deathfest looming, I couldn't turn down a whole night full of the heaviest of heavy metals.

The Obsessed, Karma To Burn, and The Atomic Bitchwax @ Saint Vitus Bar

Apparently if you're a bald guy of a certain build and you stand in front of a club with your hands in your pockets, people will just assume you're the doorman. If there was some advantage to kids warily pulling out their IDs for me and punks-turned-yuppies condescendingly telling me they're "on the list", I'd have some fun with this newfound knowledge; alas, all I gained was sympathy for the people who have to to this for real. (Fun fact: a lot of door men in NYC are actually off-duty cops. Antagonize them at your own peril.)

Dylan Carlson, Stephen Brodsky, and Kevin Hufnagel @ Saint Vitus

A trio of guitarists playing solo sets was an unlikely choice for my first show back in NY, but the guitarists in question - Earth's Dylan Carlson, Cave In's Stephen Brodsky, and Gorguts' Kevin Hufnagel - are as metal as all get out. Plus, a night where a group of musicians stripped their musical identities down to the bare essentials was appealing to me since I believe that art should be separated from artifice, and that too many metalheads confuse the presentation with the actual music. And hell, now that all my friends are responsible adults with wives and kids, what else could I do on a Sunday night except hang out with all the other aging heshers unmoored by family obligations?

A (half) Month of Sundays

I booked my flight to NY for Friday the 13th. I tried not to let the date bother me, but the weeks leading up to the trip were plagued with bad luck - my bank account was put on hold, my iPod died, and my computer has been shutting down suddenly and without warning. So I was preparing for more of the same.

My flight arrived at Newark Int'l in the middle of a rain storm, and the overcast sky seemed like an ominous sign; but almost immediately after leaving Malaysia and setting foot on US soil, things took a turn for the better. Along with the usual stern demeanor and no-nonsense questions, the immigration officer wished me a happy birthday; and when I arrived in Queens, a huge rainbow stretched over the city. [Ronnie James Dio, patron saint of gypsy heshers, and friend to Wizards everywhere: I see you up there.]

Mixtape 24 - Ghoul

Here is the 24th installment of the Dreams of Consciousness podcast, featuring an interview with Cremator of Creepsylvanian thrashers Ghoul.

Aesthetic Meditations of Death

As I've pointed out before, the larger culture seems to find much amusement when metal is combined with a seemingly unrelated term; "black metal+chef", "metal dudes+cats", and so on. So it's no surprise that "metal yoga" is not only a thing, but a thing that gets reported on with increasing regularity in the mainstream press. It takes two things that are ripe for parody and combines them in one Mr. Show-ready concept. Let the memes begin.

Full of Hell & The Body @ABC No Rio; Cryptopsy & Disgorge @ Nihil Gallery 5.16.2015

The last time I was in ABC No Rio was 13 years ago; there was a hole in the floor near the back of the performance space roughly the size of the average foot. Stare at it for a few seconds and it would spell out "L-A-W-S-U-I-T". Luckily, it's been fixed in the intervening years. Also new: Separate cans for trash and recyclables, showing that anarchy and organized waste management are not mutually exclusive...except in Malaysia, where I've been told that having recycling bins in Rumah Api will not work. Clearly it works for ABC No Rio; are New York punks that different?

Antigama, Drugs of Faith, The Communion & Buckshot Facelift @ Nihil Gallery, Brooklyn 5.13.2015

The Nihil Gallery is a new(ish) venue south of downtown Brooklyn; formerly an art gallery, it's got a bar, some picnic tables to sit around and an adorable little pug who scampered around before the show started, but that's about it. [It's also got a front door without a handle, which I stared at for a full minute before being instructed to get in by pulling on the mail slot]. Which makes it perfect for a metal show. Who needs all the tchotchkes in Saint Vitus or the Acheron's kvlter than thou clientele? The sound at Nihil was great, the space was big, and the bands more than made up for the commute from Woodside.

Mixtape 22: Master

Mixtape 22: Bow to Your Fucking Master by Dreams Of Consciousness on Mixcloud

Here is the 22nd installment of the Dreams of Consciousness podcast, featuring an interview with death metal godfather Paul Speckmann of Master, Death Strike, Krabathor, Abomination...the list goes on.

Bandcamp Picks: Mortals, Tombs, The Sheltering Sky, Wolves in the Throne Room

The long awaited full-length debut by Brooklyn's Mortals is finally upon us. Cursed to See the Future is described by their label as "equal parts High On Fire and Darkthrone". You should always be wary of label write ups, but this is the rare instance where that's truth in advertising. There is a definite similarity to Matt Pike's steamroller riffing, and some blackened melodies cover the songs with a frostbitten sheen. But most impressive is the trio's use of dynamics. Not since Kylesa went all psychedelic has a band done something this interesting with the style. Big things loom on the horizon. [$7]



Brooklyn's Tombs were early pioneers in mixing black metal with doomy post-hardcore; while in the past I may have found their black metal sections to be stiff and uninteresting, on Savage Gold they're definitely the best the band has ever done - so much so that it doesn't matter that the other elements of the band's sound have largely been muted. When they do slow things down, it results in the kind of cold menace that Red Harvest did so well. One of the better chapters in the ongoing story of USBM. [$9.99]



Speaking of pioneers...one of the best forgotten bands of the last decade were NYC's Cattlepress. And so it was a big deal for me when I learned former Cattlepress guitarist Eddie Ortiz has returned with The Sheltering Sky. That Which Obstructs The Light is in some ways a sandblasting throwback to the late 90's/early 2000s when hardcore was bursting at its seams with unique and groundbreaking albums (and not coincidentally, when Cattlepress was at their apex). I'm glad Ortiz has a new vehicle for his unorthodox style after The Dying Light and Cattlepress called it quits. [$3]



Black metal bands releasing instrumental synth albums is nothing new; in a way, it was the next logical step for Wolves in the Throne Room. Celestite evokes the keyboard-heavy soundtracks of classic 70's horror and sci fi films by Tangerine Dream and Goblin. To that end, I tried syncing it up with the only sci fi movie I had handy, 2013's Riddick. As goofy as that movie is, the results worked surprisingly well. The Weaver brothers may find a second vocation scoring films. [$9]

Mixtape 11: Noisem

Mixtape 11: Noisem by Dreams Of Consciousness on Mixcloud

Here is the 11th installment of the Dreams of Consciousness podcast, featuring Noisem. My buddy Lucas is friends with the band, and was responsible for organizing the interview after their set at the Acheron. Our talk took place in the cozy confines of their van, with all the members present, plus Lucas, and members of Jarhead Fertilizer dropping in as well. It was pretty chaotic, to say the least.

Unkured Interview

Sometime in the middle of my recent NY trip, I decided to walk across the Williamsburg Bridge, and came across a trio of young heshers. I flashed them the horns, as required by law. Imagine my surprise when I saw those same young heshers play a set at Saint Vitus Bar that night. And that's how I discovered Unkured; I was blown away by their chops and after the set asked if they wanted to do an interview. The result is as follows:

Mixtape 10: Saint Vitus Detritus

Mixtape 10: Saint Vitus Detritus by Dreams Of Consciousness on Mixcloud

Here is the tenth installment of the Dreams of Consciousness podcast, featuring a few interviews I did with bands I saw at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn this past May.