Abolisher-Lament the season 2001

Hailing from Chicago, these guys landed Brian Griffin for production duties who always does a great job. They are classified as death metal but tend not to be as "brutal" as your standard death metal band. The release is slightly progressive and seems like a good stepping stone for the band but as it's been ten years since we heard anything from them, things seem bleak. Anyways, check it out.lament the season

Dark Lore-Life Scars 1996???

The second demo from Beaver Dam's death metal band Dark Lore. For this one they enlisted the services of Corpsicle's Toby Hull on drums. Another great one to add to the collection.

life scars

Demonished-Dominion (1999??)

Demonished were based out of the Monroe/Freeport area in the late 90's. They played a technical brand of death metal heavily influenced by Death and Morbid Angel. Lyrically, the band was on the Christian end of the scale which surprised me since I hung around them quite a bit and had no idea they were Christian until I got the cd home and read the words.Adam used to be in Anshar with me previously and when I joined Affliction these guys were a blast to play gigs with. Great band and highly recommended.


demonished

Dark Lore-Threads of Life (1994)

Awesome demo from these guys. Jason Lueck went on to play in a bunch of bands and now does sound for several bands in the area. Jay Austin was a band mate in Anshar and went on to play with a few different bands. I can't remember who played drums. Killer death metal that's highly recommended.threads

Born of Witch-Oward to Sabbat-2009

Solo black metal project from Vermillion's Bill Werner. Primal and primitive. Highly recommended for fans of Krieg, Leviathan, and Burzum.

 bow to the witch

Vermillion-Rehearsal demo 2011

These guys just played a great show this last Saturday. Brutal and uncompromising, these guys are an extremely capable 4 piece who have been playing throughout southern Wisconsin quite a bit over the last year. Kurt Manthe who used to be the lead vocalist of Madison death metalers Corpsicle, also decided to take up rhythm guitar duties here as well. He shares lead vocals with bassist Rob Michels in a verbal display of contempt that complement each other perfectly. Bill Werner is a guitarist who has been with Kurt since the Corpsicle days. Along the way he played technical thrash in the band Soulkeep and was the sole musician in black metal project Born of Witch. Filling out the four piece is drummer James Kalagian who also has served time in Corpsicle and his technical ability is firmly on display on this rehearsal demo. Please remember to take the sound on this with a grain of salt as it is just something meant to tide them over until they can enter a studio. If you like what you hear, get your ass to a show, buy some merch, spread the word and tell your friends. The sound is vaguely a cross between Mortician and Macabre with a dash of Skinless tossed in for good measure. Great shit so check it out.

vermillion

Anshar-Defacing Humanity 1993

In retrospect, we spent too much damn money on this cd but it was alot of fun at the time. Metallica, Pantera, Megaeth, Slayer, Testament were all some of our favorite bands and though this isn't as progressive or as heavy as I would like, the tunes still went over great live. We could never find a consistent practice place and the fact that we practiced from midnight till 3 in the morning didn't help.
Jeff "Shitz" Tetzlaff-vocals
Derek Davison-lead guitars
Roger Benter-r. guitars
Dean Gehrmann-bass
Ed Castle-drums

defaced

RABID CAPTOR - Last Rites - demo 90

Saw these guys at a Milwaukee Metalfest where the singer quit the band shortly before the show and the band proceeded to play the show anyway with the bassist doubling on lead vocal duties. It was a great set and I honestly preferred his voice over the singer on this tape. The tape still kicks ass no matter who is on vocals but I think that show was the event that inspired the band to change their name to Arc of Descent and keep going with the aforementioned bassist still doing vocals in the new band. Could be wrong, though. When Anshar was doing tracks at Cornerstone Studios we kept on running into the bassist who was getting ready to lay down bass tracks and I was always impressed as the guy was usually pretty drunk but always did great a job laying down his tracks.

 
rabid

Silence the freak 2002 self titled

To be totally honest these guys are not really my style of music as the band seems to fall into that niche occupied by bands like Godsmack and Disturbed who are both bands that i cannot stand. That being said, for this style they seem pretty competent and appear to be jamming together again. They have another release besides this one out and are based out of the Sheboygan area . They have a facebook page so check them out there.

stf

Soulkeep-final nail in the coffin

The final release from Soulkeep.  We added another vocalist for this final batch of songs and mixed thrash, power metal, and death metal together. A great line up but considering the distance and family obligations of all involved, it became too much of a hassle to keep the band together.

drums-toby hull

bass-eric anderson

guitars-rob parkinson

vocals-dean gehrmann
vocals-matt devries

1.a bitter pill to swallow
2.hypercritical
3.the right to remain silent
4.the day that reason wept
5.bleed for gods

a bitter pill

Liquid Clockwork-Father Time 1996

Extremely cool alternative band originally from Beaver Dam when this cd was made-now they are spread all over southern Wisconsin. These guys were all in the end of high school when this was recorded which makes the maturity heard on the disc all the more remarkable. I was good friends with Vaughn for awhile which is how I ended up obtaining a copy of this. I remember that we both ended up driving to Madison and paying some guy $15.00 each for cdr copies of our bands' releases! I think we both ended up spending a couple of hundred on cdrs that would cost ten dollars in total with today's technology. For awhile I heard that he was playing in Madison band Livid who were starting to get pretty popular but ended up disbanding a couple of years ago. This band has a strong Seattle sound and I remember Vaughn was extremely into Alice in Chains but I guess I would compare the band's overall sound to the band Sweetwater. They do have a page up on Facebook stating that they are still making music together all these years later.


Tim Cornell - Lead Vocals, Vaughn Klein - Guitar, Sean Berry - Guitar, Shawn Christensen - Drums, Brad Salzman - Bass/Flutaphone

   father time

Rebels Without Applause-Low End Head Stomp 2000

Let me start by saying that trying to separate Wisconsin and Illinois bands is an extremely difficult task especially when many Chicago bands regularly include places like Madison, Milwaukee, Janesville, Beloit, Appleton, et cetera.....   within their "local"playing circle. Keeping that in mind you will be noticing more regional bands step into the picture and this blog. I saw a physical version of this cd go for over $500.00 recently online and I'm sorry folks but that is ridiculous. It made me really wish I never traded mine off when i was in the middle of a big effort purging anything that resembled nu-metal from my collection. Since then I've reobtained some of those that I missed and this would have been one of them had the price tag been more reasonable. Before the purging however, I did make a decent 192 rip of this to tide me over and it is that i present to you now. I believe you are able to purchase a 320 rip from Amazon for around 10.00 and if you like this -please support the band by doing so.


Here's a review written by an Amazon customer who describes it way better than i can/could.

"Rebels Without Applause Are The Pride Of Chi-Town Metal. 
These Guys Set The Benchmark For Underground Bands. 
Greg Lays Down Some Of The Best Riff's I've Ever Heard. 

In 1996 We Were Introduced To Greg Fulton's (a.k.a. Ian Tafoya), 
Latest Vision, "Rebels Without Applause" 
With A 5 Song Demo Tape Distributed In Concert. 
(For Those Of Us Lucky Enough To Have Caught Them Live). 
Tracks Included: 
01 Chalkline (Demo) 02 Shallow Genius (Demo) 03 Sublime (Demo) 
04 My Success (Demo) 05 Paperthin (Demo) 

Greg's Band RWA Featured Tony Heath (Former Znowhite Drummer) And 
Mark Alano On Guitar (Former Cyclone Temple Guitar Tech), Joined By 
Scott Schafer (Former Cyclone Temple Bassist). 
Greg Fulton (Guitar / Vocals) Developed His Own Brand Of 
Heavy-Groove Metal That Has Been Unsurpassed Ever Since. 

1997 Saw The Release Of Rebels Without Applause 1st Offical CD 
"Rip-Hop-Soul-Core-Crush" On Rhythm & Dues Records. 
This CD Redefined The Metal Scene With Greg's Trademark Chi-Town Style. 
Tracks Included: 
01 Needlejuice 02 Me & Mine 03 Take My Rest 04 Been So Low 05 Words Weigh A Ton 

In 2000 Rebels Without Applause Released 
"Low End Head Stomp" On Rythm & Dues Records. 
This CD Picked Up Just Where "Rip-Hop-Soul-Core-Crush" Left Off, 
And Fans Were Once Again Left Speechless With The 
Down-Tuned Grooves And Pattened Riffs Found On Tracks Like "Weak" And "My Success". 
Tracks Included: 
01 My Success 02 Rain Or Shine 03 Weak 04 Someday 05 Sublime 06 Shallow Genius 
07 Paperthin 08 Chalkline 09 I Don't Wanna Know 10 Shout Outs 

In 2007 RWA Premiered A Long Awaited Taste Of Their Upcoming CD 
"Grand Funk Hell Hole" Preview Available On MySpace 
http://www.myspace.com/rwachicago 
Tracks Included: 
01 This Time 02 I Ain't 03 Still 

Stompin' The Underground & Beyond 
Grab Low End Head Stomp. 
It's Well Worth It!  "

ice ice baby LOL

Talamasca-Projection-1998

Appleton is the unlikely home for a progressive metal outfit of this ilk. The most obvious point of reference here is Fates Warning as the vocals are highly reminiscent of a pissed off John Arch. The music is closer to mid period Fates Warning but don't get me wrong, these guys are not a cheap carbon copy. If I remember correctly, they  used to play several shows with Madison's Mirror Black which was a perfect stylistic fit but unfortunately I was never able to make any of them. The production is adequate but tends to get a little muddy in places since there is always so much going on.
They have one other album out besides this and a couple of tunes on tributes but split up sometime around 2005. These scream for a rerelease from a label such as Metal Mind who could remaster and throw the tribute tracks on as bonus tracks. Another great band swept away by time.



1. Consumed 04:14 
2. In a Mind 05:49 
3. Secret Life 03:26 
4. Self Aware 05:25 
5. Faded 04:15 
6. Vitam Eternum 04:26 
7. Resistance 04:40 
8. Lost Within 05:18
----------------------- 
Total playing time 37:36

Steve Gentz - vocals
Andy Paredes - guitars
Brad Schuler - bass
Matthew Lee Belanger - drums and percussions

open your mind

Foetopsy In the Bathroom 2007

in the bathroom dudeBrutal death porn grind from Milwaukee-this shit rips. It's also extremely offensive but hey, that's pretty standard for the genre. These guys are on a small label so if it bothers them, this link will come down but they are way too killer not to be mentioned here. One of the guys in the band used to work at Ear Wax in Milwaukee-which was one of the most killer all metal music stores I've ever been to. At least it's sister store in Madison is still going strong. Anyway, that's where I got this disc and anytime I'm in the mood for grind, this one definitely scratches that itch.

 

tracklist 1. Vaccum Extraction Action 2. Deformed Foetal Scrotal 3. Scab In A Puddin' Cup 4. People With Vaginas 5. Awake To Intake 6. Greasy Feces 7. Withered Labes, Crippled Legs 8. Fingering Faces And Faeces 9. In The Bathroom 10. Offended By Butts, Not Turds 11. Lick The Parts 12. Everything's A Song Title 13. Ear To Go 14. Corpse Divorce 15. Choking On Vaginal Pubes 16. Weird Pills 17. Shake n' Make 18. Why Are These My Thoughts...Why Am I Weird? 19. She's Roast Beef 20. What Is This Mucus? 21. Uteral Waste Disposal

If you get into this please seek out a real copy, go to a show, or buy some merch as these guys are still active so every little bit helps.

bathroom

Fogcrawler - Welcome to your suffering 2005

I finally get around to posting my own current band. Although the line up for this one is different than the current line up. For starters I'm not singing on this slice of grinding death. These guys evolved from the groove metal based Stone Misery into the far heavier Fogcrawler. They recorded their debut back in 2005 with the line up of;
Chris Hazel : bass
Jason "Thor" Thomson on drums
Scott Usher : Vocals

Wes Edge : Guitar
Wes left the band to focus on other projects and the trio continued to play out live after Chris switched from bass to guitar. They attained Matt Hadley on bass sometime last year and I answered a Craigslist ad they put up at the end of last year. It worked out pretty cool after realizing we used to play shows together in our previous bands. I now end up driving 3 hours just for practice but it's worth it just to be able to jam with some good friends who could care less what any of the current trends are. We hope to be back in the studio around the end of summer/early fall as the new tunes are turning out awesome. We just started playing out as well too, so it's all good. It's kind of funny how I was always told that I would "grow out of " metal but instead my bands keep getting heavier and heavier. This one is definitely the heaviest yet. Anyway, here's Welcome to Your Suffering.

welcome

Cholernik-Epic viking doom from Milwaukee

Cholernik is a one man band from Milwaukee who seems quite prolific as he has three albums available for free listed online plus two earlier albums that I haven't been able to get my hands on YET. My only complaint about these releases is that they would sound so killer with some heavy vocals but the man behind the music has chosen to do everything as instrumental which occasionally causes a sense of sameness to the entire package. As such, it is great background music to get lost in and most of this would make a great soundtrack to an epic viking movie. It is self described as "epic death viking instrumental doom"  I'll go with that. His myspace site is http://www.myspace.com/ihateeverybody . All I can say is "hey man. if you ever need a vocalist for this stuff, please get in touch, because I'm your man"

  A hopeless glimmer
Freyr's Aett
 nine noble virtues
 If you get into this stuff-send the man a note of thanks-acknowledgement is always appreciated by those who put their blood, sweat, tears, and beers into making their music.