{"id":10128,"date":"2011-06-10T16:15:29","date_gmt":"2011-06-10T06:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stuartbuchanan.com\/?p=10128"},"modified":"2021-01-30T23:38:05","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T23:38:05","slug":"new-weird-australia-bleak-metal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/2011\/06\/10\/new-weird-australia-bleak-metal\/","title":{"rendered":"New Weird Australia, Bleak Metal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\n“This isn\u2019t your Slayer or Metallica or Pantera, to be certain. It\u2019s heavy sonic seance shit. Big walls of fuzzed out guitars or sludgy numbers swimming in the murky murk or knob twiddling feedback frenzies or straight up droooooooone or sort of industrialized punk frock and ghoul. It\u2019s all here, it\u2019s all hear.\u201d Grindtheives<\/strong>
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[otw_shortcode_button href=”https:\/\/newweirdaustralia.bandcamp.com\/album\/new-weird-australia-bleak-metal” size=”medium” bgcolor=”#000000″ shape=”square” target=”_blank”]Stream \/ Download.[\/otw_shortcode_button]<\/p>\n

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Sleeve Notes. <\/strong>by Ian Rogers
\nI once attended a lecture in Liverpool by sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris where he described heavy metal as an essentialist ideology, a genre of music borderline obsessed with what it means to be a \u2018true\u2019 heavy metal fan. Expanding on this, Kahn-Harris was careful to point out that this \u2018trueness\u2019 was not fixed in reality. Unlike punk and hip-hop, heavy metal does not aim to authentically represent everyday life. Instead, metal operates in a much more fantastic realm: it pushes aside the complexities of everyday life and replaces them with myths and stories about \u2018power, conflict, violence and death,\u2019 all the good stuff. It works \u2013 and we like it \u2013 because, like all other popular music genres, it delivers us from mundanity.
\nWhy is this relevant here? Because it is metal\u2019s essentialism that makes it so pliable. There is no fixed, grounded core to heavy metal and we\u2019re all starting to realize this. While Slayer will always be metal, in 2011 an ambient experimental duo can also be metal. A popular music festival can be metal. A cartoon can be metal. An online cooking video can be metal. And despite what teenage virgins everywhere will tell you: this is a tremendously good thing. It is metal\u2019s ability to channel its fantastic, ominous, silly, amazing essence through anything a self-ordained metal-head picks up and calls metal, that gives the genre it\u2019s true power. Diverse things thrive.
\nWhen Stuart and I first started thinking about this compilation, we had very meager ambitions. In short our aim was to document weird heavy shit happening in Australia. Along the way, we started to think this was actually heavy metal. First, Eli from Heil Spirits describes what he does at a party as \u2018thrash metal\u2019. Then we hear the black metal tinkerings of Spheres, the Godflesh inflections of Hobart\u2019s Machines Of Indeterminate Origin and the brittle textures at the top of the mix in AXXONN (and remembered Tom\u2019s ever present Motely Crue tee). We had a band called Machine Death, how could we ignore this? We realized that without much thought, we\u2019d wandered into Australian heavy metal\u2019s underbrush.
\nIn the end that\u2019s why we\u2019re calling this compilation Bleak Metal. That and fuck you, that\u2019s why. But also relevant is an article from The Guardian published a few years back now. Writing on Grief No Absolution, Louis Pattison described them\/him (who knows?) as bleak metal. Pattison wrote of how the genre name sounded apt enough for such a wintry sounding sound but also of how he felt it appropriate because, well, that\u2019s what Grief No Absolution themselves were calling it.<\/p>\n

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Tracklisting.<\/strong>
\n1.\u00a0AXXONN\u00a0From Black\u2019s Void (8:21)\u00a0(previously unreleased)<\/em>
\n2.\u00a0ABTREIBUNG feat. GRIEF NO ABSOLUTION\u00a0Blutennacht (5:59)\u00a0(previously unreleased)
\n<\/em>3.\u00a0AMBROSE CHAPEL\u00a0Undead (7:36)\u00a0(previously unreleased)<\/em>
\n4.\u00a0M.0.1.0 (MACHINES OF INDETERMINATE ORIGIN)\u00a0Fatigue (4:51)\u00a0(previously unreleased)
\n<\/em>5.\u00a0MACHINE DEATH\u00a0You Ruin Everything (6:45)\u00a0(from forthcoming album on New Editions)<\/em>
\n6.\u00a0ALEX WHITE\u00a0Customer Service Experience (NWA Edit) (7:42)\u00a0(from \u2018Genuine Instability\u2019 on Avant Whatever)<\/em>
\n7.\u00a0NO ANCHOR\u00a0Dead Pony (2:58)\u00a0(from \u2018Real Pain Supanova\u2019)<\/em>
\n8.\u00a0ANON\u00a0Spite Moves Downward (7:21)\u00a0(previously unreleased)
\n<\/em>9.\u00a0SPHERES\u00a0Ritual 7 (4:43)\u00a0(from \u2018Terra Bethel\u2019)<\/em>
\n10.\u00a0DEAD BOOMERS\u00a0Superannuation Deficit (8:36)\u00a0(previously unreleased)<\/em>
\n11. DIE ON PLANES\u00a0Hunting For Teeth (8:59)\u00a0(previously unreleased)<\/em>
\n12.\u00a0UNDECISIVE GOD\u00a0Non Play (7:45)\u00a0(previously unreleased)
\n<\/em>13.\u00a0HEIL SPIRITS\u00a0Heat 6:10\u00a0(from \u2018Heat Death\u2019 C12)<\/em>
\nCompiled by Ian Rogers & Stuart Buchanan.
\nArtwork by Alex Gillies,\u00a0againstthewoodgrain.wordpress.com<\/a>.
\nAll music donated by the artists for use in this compilation only, all rights reserved.
\nCatalogue.\u00a0<\/strong>NWA009<\/p>\n

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Press.<\/strong>
\n\u201cWell this is a revelation. In the 400 or so posts on Ducks Battle Satan, this is the first time that I\u2019ve ever reviewed a compilation \u2026 The bands on this run the full spectrum of noise nastiness from the noise\/doom\/DanFriel-esque of Axxonn, the black metal of Blutennacht to the sine wave crackle noise of Alex White. The mighty psychedelic noise metal of No Anchor makes an appearance in Dead Pony but the absolute killer for me was the track from Dead Boomers which is a glorious exposition of rumbling noise. Another highligh is the Lightning Bolt ferocity of the fantastically lo-fi Dies on Plane\u2019s. Their track Hunting For Teeth starts full of Sword Heaven malevolence before launching into some groovy post-metal throb. In fact there is hardly a dud on this.\u201d
\nDucks Battle Satan, February 2012<\/strong><\/a>
\n\u201cStu Buchanan (with help from Ian Rogers) has put together the latest New Weird Australia compilation called \u201cBleak Metal\u201d focused on the more avant side of Metal (Avant Metal\/Black Metal and other experimental forms). Of the 13 artists only Axxonn and Undecisive God where the ones I am aware of, so lot\u2019s more to discover.\u201d
\nTwice Removed, August 2011<\/a><\/strong>
\n\u201cAustralia comes through once again with the goods, though. On the real. Courtesy of New Weird Australia (you know you love it already, based solely on the name!), here\u2019s a collection of music entitled \u201cBleak Metal\u201d. That\u2019s about as good of a descriptor as one could hope for, in terms of nailing down what the music is in a clear and concise manner. Essentially a compilation consisting of 13 tracks of music tinkering in the realms of metal and other things. This isn\u2019t your Slayer or Metallica or Pantera, to be certain. It\u2019s heavy sonic seance shit. Big walls of fuzzed out guitars or sludgy numbers swimming in the murky murk or knob twiddling feedback frenzies or straight up droooooooone or sort of industrialized punk frock and ghoul. It\u2019s all here, it\u2019s all hear.\u201d
\nGrindthieves, July 2011<\/strong><\/a>
\n\u201cBleak Metal is full of heavy, fucked up and generally ace new music from Australian artists (but then, you could have got all that from looking at the record cover). Particular highlights include Ambrose Chapel\u2019s \u201cUndead\u201d, Axxonn\u2019s \u201cFrom Black\u2019s Void\u201d, Machine Death\u2019s \u201cYou Ruin Everything\u201d and the absolutely epic \u201cCustomer Service Experience\u201d from Alex White. There\u2019s a lot of longish, heavy drone here. This is perfect timing for my plans for the weekend, which largely involve testing how loud my stereo can go and, on a completely unrelated topic, pissing off my neighbours who seem to think it\u2019s cool to have loud parties until 5am on a Monday night.\u201d
\nLife Is Noise, June 2011<\/strong><\/a>
\n\u201cOur newest intern, Tom Hall, has a track from his band Axxon on this comp (the lead off track, no less!). We haven\u2019t heard it yet, but dude seems to have some taste, so we\u2019re hoping it\u2019s awesome. If we find it un-good then we probably won\u2019t tell him anyway;) Dig it!\u201d
\nHydra Head Industries, June 2011<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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New Weird Australia Catalogue.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“This isn\u2019t your Slayer or Metallica or Pantera, to be certain. It\u2019s heavy sonic seance shit. Big walls of fuzzed out guitars or sludgy numbers swimming in the murky murk or knob twiddling feedback frenzies or straight up droooooooone or sort of industrialized punk frock and ghoul. It\u2019s all here, it\u2019s all hear.\u201d Grindtheives<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[478,495,507,37,543,696,714,872,890,1054,1056,1172,1373,1504],"class_list":["post-10128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-weird-australia","tag-abtreibung","tag-alex-white","tag-ambrose-chapel","tag-anon","tag-axxonn","tag-dead-boomers","tag-die-on-planes","tag-grief-no-absolution","tag-heil-spirits","tag-m-0-i-0","tag-machine-death","tag-no-anchor","tag-spheres","tag-undecisive-god","missing-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10128"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15892,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10128\/revisions\/15892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}