Usually on here I yammer on about Double Eagle and/or TAH Records and what is happening with the associated music. This time, I want to talk about METAL music coupled with a bout with poison ivy.
Poison ivy grows in most of North America, but I think nowhere else typically, but similar ivy or vines grow all over the world. Poison ivy has an oil which is a skin irritant to varying degrees for many people. Some people are not allergic to it their entire life, some people suddenly become allergic to it, and others, like me, have strong allergic reactions with any contact (so far in my life). Poison ivy has bunches of 3 leaves and is typically easy to identify thru this:
The oil which is an irritant is in the leaves, but it is also concentrated in the roots and vine tendrils/hairs. So if someone is clearing vines somewhere new, and there are no leaves on those vines, then it is much more difficult to identify poison ivy, and so very easy to have exposure if one is not extremely careful.
This someone was me about a month ago, and I unknowingly heavily exposed myself to poison ivy oil, and I am a strong reactor to this irritant. When the proteins in this oil are on the skin, before the proteins bond to the skin, the oil can spread to different parts of the body of the person exposed (an hour at most, apparently). This can result in secondary rashes in other parts of the body. Direct contact rashes can result in blistering and/or swelling, and secondary contact can be extremely red and itchy with some swelling, but is less severe than the direct contact reaction. All of this stuff happened to me, and I essentially could not move for a week, and have had to take a very long treatment of steroids to clear up all reactions. While I am tempted to post a photo of my gnarliest blisters, I shall refrain.
While lying in bed (in pain, itchy, and swollen!) I did a lot of listening to music on my laptop. For some reason, I found EXTREMELY HEAVY music very healing and a very good thing to listen to and enjoy. Somehow the heaviness helped me feel like I could defeat the reaction. There is also something which felt very metal with having essentially chemical burn blister all up and down both of my forearms. I listened to a lot of metal and hardcore music which I already knew about, but I also learned about a lot of such music during this healing time. I am a vinyl/record collecting enthusiast/addict, and while I was listening to all of this music on my laptop out of necessity, I was also buying vinyl of releases I could find (either directly from the labe/band, or on the marketplace/discography-wiki site discogs), while digging deeper into other releases.
I bought a total of 10 records (and listened to many more songs and albums by other artists) during this time, and so I am going to post pictures of these releases along with descriptions and music links. I am going in no particular order, except I will start and finish with releases by local artists.
I did some local music searches on Bandcamp, during which I found the thrash metal/hardcore crossover band Enforced from Richmond, VA. I quickly came to love their sound, and I bought both of their LPs (both used on discogs, and one from the Richmond metal/punk/hardcore record store Vinyl Conflict):
Here is one song from each of these albums. First is the album opener of their first album At The Walls, "Reckoning Force":
Here is what might be my favorite track on their second album Kill Grid, the song "Hemmorhage":
TAH Records has recently stocked multiple copies of the At The Walls LP to distribute at the TAH Records local record stand as well as on our discogs store. I am really hoping/planning to see Enforced live in Richmond on May 15.
While listening to all Enforced music I could possibly find, I saw that many people compare them to the band Power Trip, whom I did not know. Power Trip is a thrash metal crossover band from Dallas, Texas, who unfortunately are no more because of the death of the lead singer in 2020. They released two LPs and a lot of singles, along with a compilation of their early singles and EPs, and digitally released a live album in 2020. I listened to a lot of Power Trip, and ended up ordering their compilation LP Opening Fire: 2008-2014. Their other records are on my wantlist, as they area all excellent, but I went with this compilation LP because it captures a big time period, and it also has my favorite cover art of their releases:
Here is the song "Divine Apprehension," which is also the opening track of this compilation:
There is some fantastic live footage of Power Trip on YouTube, and they looked to have put on an amazing show. I wish I had been able to catch one!
Moving slightly more in the direction of hardcore/post-hardcore music, we turn now to the band Converge (from Boston), who is a hardcore/metalcore band who has been around and performing & releasing music continuously since the early 90s. This is a band which I knew of before my recent wretched battle with poison ivy, but I had only learned about Converge recently. Even though they play music with a lot in common with the hardcore and post-hardcore music I have known and loved since the early 90s, they somehow missed my radar until I was invited by a friend to see them live in Richmond on March 12 with Full of Hell, Thou, and Uniform. I had heard of Full of Hell from the same friend, which is that friend's favorite band currently. Even though Converge has released something like 15 albums (or split albums), and just as many singles or EPs, I had just not known about them. Funny how that will continue to happen with music (and other things) no matter what, I love it.
Anyway, after having seen Converge live, I bought their Live At The BBC 7" EP, which is fantastic, but during my recovery metal 7-10 day period, I listened to more Converge and really wanted to get one of their many LPs. One problem is that there are so many to choose from, but another problem is that many tend to be out of print and/or collectible, and so sometimes not too affordable. Luckily, one of their best albums to my ears also happened to be available at reasonable prices, which is the album All We Love We Leave Behind from 2012:
Here is the opening track from that album, "Aimless Arrow," which kind of reminds me of a much heavier version of some Fugazi tracks sung by Guy Piccioto. The guitar hook on this track, along with the subtle timing arrangements, is what gets me right in the blisters:
If you like that track, I suggest you go listen to other Converge tracks. Their most-loved album seems to be Jane Doe, which I have enjoyed a lot, but vinyl copies of it seem a bit hard to come by!
We continue with bands I had known about previously, and also switch to doom/stoner metal and psychedelic metal. One psychedelic/doom/stoner metal band which I learned about in 2011 is the band Graveyard, from Gothenburg, Sweden. They describe themselves as heavy psychedelic rock, but I definitely hear a lot of Black Sabbath influence, which I think of as metal. They have 5 albums, all of which I already had, but they came out with a Live EP Live At Pustervik Gothenburg 14 & 15 December 2018 in 2019 which I never got around to buying as it seemed to not be imported much to the US, and I finally got around to getting it during this metal itch week:
Here is the live track "It Ain't Over Yet," from that EP:
That track is also the opening track of their 5th album Peace. If you like this track, I suggest listening to the Graveyard albums in chronological order, starting with their first (and arguably, most metal) self-titled album from 2008. I have not yet caught Graveyard live, but very much hope to before too long.
Another band in the doom metal arena who I learned about around the same time as Graveyard, is the band The Sword from Austin, Texas. When I first learned about them, the album of theirs I fell in love with and listened to repeatedly was Warp Riders, which also has some nice prog and science fiction influence. I got to see The Sword perform in September 2021, when they opened for Primus in Charlotte, NC. They completely rocked in that performance, and I figured it was about time to invest more in their catalog while I was using their music as medicine. I bought their first two albums, Age Of Winters and Gods Of The Earth:
Here is the song "Freya" from Age Of Winters, which was also on the band's first 7" single:
Here is the song and official video for the track "Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians" off of Gods Of The Earth:
The Sword have a total of 8 albums, along with a bunch of singles and a 3LP compilation of rarities. I have only absorbed these first 3 albums so far, but plan to dig deeper soon.
A prog/stoner/doom metal band which I had only heard whisperings of in relation to other music I liked, is the band Baroness (from Savannah, Georgia, first release in 2004). Somehow I had never gotten around to playing any of their tracks even though I knew about them, but I am glad I finally got around to giving them a detailed listen. They are heavy, have interesting and complicated composition, and from YouTube videos they sure seem to put on a great live show. I bought their first full-length album entitled simply Red Album (from 2007):
Here is one of my favorite tracks from the album, "The Birthing":
More recently, but after my metallic battle in bed, I picked up a reissue of the first two EPs of Baroness remastered and combined on one record (entitled First and Second, both of which are great). This band is also on my "to see live" list...
Now back to hardcore. While I was doing virtual shopping at the Vinyl Conflict discogs store, I explored a lot of the releases they had for sale, and found a glorious classic-hardcore sound 7" EP, but with modern production, by a band called Result Of Choice from Florida. They have released two other EPs on cassette, but their most recent EP Place Of My Dreams (2019) on 7" is the one I purchased and have enjoyed numerous since:
(Note the record is only one stair tall, rather than almost two, whence one may perceive its 7" dimension). In true hardcore style, the 6 songs on the EP clock in at a total of just under 9 minutes, so here is the whole EP:
I do not know if Result Of Choice is working on anything new, or playing any shows, but I sure hope so!
Lastly, and certainly not least (and perhaps heaviest and most healing) is the metallic hardcore split LP by the bands Amygdala (from San Antonio, Texas) and Listless (from Richmond, Virginia). The same friend mentioned earlier told me about Listless when I asked him if he knew of any local hardcore bands. I found the split LP online (they also have an EP on cassette), and loved both the Listless side and the Amygdala side. The split LP is a collaborative release between Get Better Records (Philadelphia/NY/LA) and Quiet Year Records (Philadelphia/Richmond, VA), both of who are doing great things. I was very happy to learn about Quiet Year Records with one foot in Richmond right up the road from me, and I'm looking forward to checking out more of their releases. This split LP is about the heaviest thing since cinderblocks were invented:
The Amygdala side starts with a very cool instrumental noise track which serves as a kind of intro, and that leads into the following song, "A Kind of Death in Life":
The Listless side is relentless throughout, but I think my favorite track is the second one, "Rat Queen":
I very well might see Listless play in Richmond this Sunday, who are opening for the Philadelphia band SOUL GLO. I fell in love with them after defeating my blistered response to a vile vine, but have records from them on my way to my house as we speak. I have recently purchased distribution copies of the Result Of Choice - Place Of My Dreams EP 7", the Amygdala/Listless Split LP, and a SOUL GLO record, all of which will be available at the TAH Records Stand as well as our discogs online store (under user name bluesnag as in my alter-ego DJ Blue Snaggletooth). Check it out if you like this stuff, and let me know if you're interested but need international shipping (which I don't want to bother with on discogs but would be happy to figure it out for anyone out there who lets me know they are interested).
So this was my metallic journey to health, and the last of these records ordered was received just early this week.
There is more to tell about in near-future posts, for example:
--My recent attendance at the Norman Music Festival in Norman, Oklahoma, where I enjoyed some live music and hustled TAH Records in an alleyway of the festival with a make-shift pop-up store.
--Recently imported small label reggae records from around the world, which I will also sell in the TAH Records stand and discogs store.
--The upcoming release of The Stress Cones - Dub Plate EP (TAH-004) on translucent green vinyl.
Anyway, more to come as always, so thanks for reading and stay tuned!!!