apatheticlife.com

Tim ‘The Toolman’ Taylor would be proud. (Link opens in a new window)

It’s a Friday night, and I’m chilling with a couple of beers, listening to some rocking choons and getting my geek on. So, sue me!

Here is a fairy tale for our times. (Link opens in a new window.)

The cover for From 'The Gutter To Your Ears', from Slow Death Factory

This album has been around for a wee while now, having been released in 2008, (I have only had a copy for the last month, that’s right I’m a bit late, as usual lol!) and has certainly had a few plays on the ‘ol apl towers gramophone. So, I thought it was about time I did review of it for all you lovely people.

So who are Slow Death Factory?

Hailing from Denmark this  5-piece metal crew have variously been involved with such luminaries as Barcode, Panzerchrist, and Illdisposed. We have, Søren Kirkegaard (vocals), Rasmus Henriksen (bass), Morten Gilsted (guitar), Rolf Hansen (drums), and  Lasse Bak (guitar).

Having grown distrustful of record labels, the band  have chosen to bypass them, and are self-releasing their material via the internet. Both ‘From The Gutter To Your Ears’ and an E.P., ‘Music For Tough Guys’ are available to download freely from the band website. Also available to buy direct from the website is band merchandise, including actual CD versions of the album and E.P.

So the moral of the story is, download, give em’ a listen, and if you like em buy em. Nuff said!

Now onto the music……

Damn! This is one fine album, and it would be well worth your time to check these guys out.

Slow Death Factory play the kind of scuzzed up, bombastic, and somewhat sludgy grinding metal that is sure to win them many fans. The band clearly know their craft inside out and back to front.

Without even realising it, your are carried along from song to song, headbanging like a loon, and not caring because you are on your way acheiving some kind of personal nirvana. That could well be the beer talking, but after only the first “Old Speckled Hen” I very much doubt it.

Album opener, ‘Small Men’, comes thundering out the speakers like some kind of demented freight train, knocking you off your feet and dragging you along in it’s wake. Whether you want it to or not. ‘Too Weird To Live Too Rare To Die’ continues the trend ina spectacularly bombastic fashion, as does the third track, ‘Enthusiasms Sneakin’ Decay’.

To be honest, it’s fair to say that the whole album does. By the time you get to the final track, ‘The Consolation Prize’, you are left feeling drained and elated at the same time. With your ears still buzzing to the echoes of the relentless assault, and a shit-eating grin plastered on your face, you will feel like you’ll have come through and triumphed.

Consolation Prize? Hell no!

Goddamnit! I want to see these guys live.

This one is for all you GWAR fans out there……. Oderous Urungus gets an interview spot on Fox News

In other news, somebody has gone and done a Power Metal remix of Katie Perry’s ‘I Kissed A Girl’ *

* Link came by in a tweet/dent by the Internet’s Jono Bacon

Well, the updates were done without any excitement or fuss.

And so the ‘Big Red Button’ has been packed away in foam, and stored safely in a deep underground bunker in a secret location, safe until the next time.

So, what has happened out in the wider world while I have been metaphorically stalking through the trenches in the basements of apl towers, wearing a tin hat? Plenty, as it happens, and I’ll cover it a s best I can.

Unfortunately, Millicent Martin (Warning! Wikipedia! Link! – opens in a new window) was unavailble to do a quick number, a la ‘That Was The Week That Was’ (early 1960’s satirical comedy television programme).

1. The MP’s (for those not in the know, MP = Member of Parliament here in ol’ Blighty) expenses scandal rumbles on, as it may well for some time. The police are now involved looking to see if there are any cases of fraud/embezlement to answer.
2. The Calman Comission reported back with their findings and recommendations, after being tasked to look into furthering devolution in Scotland. Cue much to-ing and fro-ing between the pro-Union parties, the elected Scottish government, and the various supporters and detractors. In keeping with many current themes relating UK democracy today, many are wondering when the people are going to get their say.
3. Arguements, u-turns abound over the will-it-be-private-will-it-be-public inquiry into the Iraq war. Hints and suggestions fly all over the place, and as far as I can tell, I’m still not sure if there is a defintive answer yet.
4. The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation – public service broadcaster, paid for through the obligatory TV license) releases some of the expenses claims of some of it’s top management. The hunt for transparency and accountability in public service arenas continues apace.
5. Fallout from the greed of bankers and pension settlements contiues to make waves.
6. Winbledon week has arrived, along with the consequent media frenzy, piling the hopes of the nation on the current top UK tennis player (currently Andy Murray).
7. And of course, (certainly not the least of these, whether left till the last or not) the continuing crisis in Iran, where supporters of political opposition have taken to the streets in protest of the recent election results, which by all accounts have been fixed in favour of the current incumbent regieme. I lay no claim to having all the facts of the situation, other than what has been reported in the media, and posted on the internet from those actually in Iran, and involved in the protests. However, it has to be said, the evidence coming through from Iran is very compelling in shining a light on the particular excesses of the Iranian regieme.

What interesting times these are………. (I neither say that flippantly nor complacently)