Posts Tagged ‘Sunn O)))’

The Most Disturbing Halloween EVER!: Of Scary Monsters and Super Creeps …

That’s right, folks, the most disturbing Halloween EVER! From now until Halloween, the Popdose staff are going to be thumbing through their record collections in search of the music that gives them the worst case of the heebie-jeebies. In the second installment, Dave Steed gives us six songs that continue to wig him out. Anthony Hansen

Since we have some of the best writers on the planet here at Popdose, they of course are probably going to think outside of the box to come up with various ways to define the most disturbing, twisted, evil, or creepy music they’ve heard. On the other hand, I just cut a hole in that box, and I’m begging you to look inside.

I listen to lots and lots of metal. So when you start throwing out words like “evil” and “twisted,” it’s not hard to find that in my collection. I thought of going the evil route, but that seemed a little easy; I could give you any Deicide song and post a picture of singer Glen Benton with the inverted cross burnt into his head and just stop right there. Or I could’ve gone the twisted route by posting a Cannibal Corpse greatest-hits set and been done with it. Or I could’ve gone outside the box and posted tracks by BrokeNCYDE, who are scary because it disturbs me to think that four people have that little talent.

I’ve often mentioned to others how “creepy” a certain song is, so this seemed like the best path for me to choose. Below you have the soundtrack to your Halloween, because it’s time the adults have some fun as well. Do you live in a neighborhood where kids come to your door all night long looking for candy? Tired of it? Download these six tracks and play them on a loop out your front window, and next year the kids won’t be getting anywhere near your Smarties. But beware — they might just piss themselves when they hear what’s coming out of your little shop of horrors, so this year, instead of Tootsie Rolls, it might be best to hand out diapers. Just warning you.

And now, six of the creepiest songs ever written …

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Test of the Boomerang: Best of 2008

Test of the Boomerang – Top Ten of 2008

I will dispense with the usual bullshit “Let’s take a look back…” year-end review. USA Today will have that shit in spades for the next four to six weeks. Nothing is ever truly over. There is no true end. Nor is there a true beginning.

Dramatic music swells in the background

In these past twelve months I have seen horror and I have seen wonder. I have seen triumphs

Cymbals crash

and I have seen the agony of defeat

Trumpets

and no doubt we shall see more. The utter collapse of our financial institutions and increasing aggression and war. I have seen the naked face of evil…

photo montage now strikes up of Sarah Palin and Ashley Todd shooting at wolves from a helicopter, Dick Cheney strangling a rosy-cheeked orphan with a telephone cord, John McCain eating a big greasy cheeseburger while his wife does a line of coke off of a small mirror, George W. Bush with a jet pack…

and I have seen images of hope…

Barack Obama and Joe Biden riding on a soaring magical eagle over a beautiful stretch of California coastline as the music comes to a soaring peak…

But enough of all that. Let’s get to the music, shall we?

My Top Ten of 2008.

10. Sunn O))) – Dømkirke 2-LP (Southern Lord)

Say what you will about the mighty Sunn O))) — at their fundamental core, deep beneath the waves of feedback and within their black robes, O’Malley, Anderson and company are a live band. Part performance, part transcendental experience. This limited edition double-vinyl set documents a performance by the band at a Gothic cathedral in Bergen, Norway. If that wasn’t perfect already, the band composed an actual piece of music specifically for the performance. Church organs, horns, strange electronics, vocals both sublime and guttural, soar within the old cathedral like a  medieval plague. Haunting, intense, (beautifully packaged) and definitely my favorite Sunn O))) release thus far. (more…)