Bela Lugosi's Still Dead BUT...

THE GAULT - Even as All Before Us

San Francisco's John Gossard is one of the most baffling human icebergs plying his trade in the underground metal scene today. He's been involved with some excellent and much-lauded bands like Black Goat, Weakling (with Josh of the Fucking Champs) and currently doom behemoths Asunder, and yet you can count his songs on yer fingers and toes. It seems that in his world, everything needs to be grand, sweeping and EPIC. Not only that, but until Asunder released "Works Will Come Undone" last year, he seemed to have a phobia about appearing on a second release by any outfit with the same moniker. For those in the dark, his stellar guitar work encompasses the thunderous heaviosity of early Swans, the poetic mystique of Burzum and the "anything goes" inventiveness of Neurosis.

The Gault were formed in 1999 by Gossard and another ex-member of Weakling, drummer Sarah Weiner. They recruited bassist/vocalist Lorraine Rath (later of Amber Asylum) and enigmatic lead vocalist Ed "Dead" Kunakemakorn and became, in Gossard's words, "San Francisco's most hated band." Which ain't too hard to believe as the Gault were quite a stylistic U-turn from the ferocious, arty black metal Weakling peddled: they were a pure, no vampire bullshit allowed, goth rock band. Although Kunakemakorn's voice sounds almost unbearably like Peter Murphy (with a dash of Ian Curtis), with their free-form excursions into acid-fried yet corpse clammy experimentation, the long-forgotten outfit that comes most to mind is Arizona's Mighty Sphincter-- in fact, if ya were a fan of theirs, this LP will make yer undies nice 'n' creamy.

My Pick to Click is the 12-minute album centerpiece, "Country Road, Six Miles In." Gossard lays down a shimmering bed of heavily flanged/phased chords before taking off into an nigh psychedelic, apocalyptic netherworld of disjointed riffing-- kinda like free jazz if it'd been invented post-Joy Division-- laying the foundation for a perverse duet between Rath and Kunakemakorn. Rath's voice enters first, sounding timid, almost brittle, but gains power with every phrase until reaching into an operatic stratosphere not unlike the Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser... positively gorgeous. Gorgeous that is until Ed Dead joins the fray with his cadaver croon. I'm telling ya kids, this dude sounds like one of the most tormented human beings to ever haunt this doomed mudball. Don't take my word for though, check it out...

In comments.


DEATH SS - In Death of Steve Sylvester [1988]

All youse hysterically lefty types can stop wringing yer manicured little paws right now-- the "SS" stands for Steve Sylvester, the band's vocalist, and hey, KISS approximated the Waffen-Schutzstaffel logo too... so fucking chill. Anyway, with that outta the way (why I continue to care I have no idea), here's the lowdown on Death SS: they were formed in 1977 in Pesaro, Italy by doom/psych guitar wizard Paul Chain and the aforementioned Mr. Sylvester, both of whom shared a love for B-horror flicks and Alice Cooper. They recorded a slew of great singles & EP's with a crude, garage-metal sound and took to stages with each member dressed up as different monsters (Vampire, Mummy, Werewolf etc.), until Chain got religion, causing 'em to disband in 1984 (actually, he already had religion, but it was that of a Satanic Sect; word is he'd conducted a few black masses and that kinda shit).

Steve Sylvester resurrected the band in 1988 with all new members: Christian Wise (guitar), Kurt Templar (guitar), Erik Landley (bass) and Boris Hunter (drums). It is this lineup that recorded this LP, their first official full-length. All of the tracks-- with the exception of the Alice Cooper cover, "I Love the Dead," natch-- are re-recordings of material on those fabled early works. Powered by Sylvester's insectival invocations ("unique" doesn't even begin to describe his voice), Death SS Mk.II added some (very) slight sophistication to their sound, incorporating malevolent keyboard texturing, razor-sharp thrashy guitar riffing and an obsession with dank, claustrophobic atmosphere. They still exist today albeit as a Gothic Club-Boy band with Sylvester as the only constant-- playing to legions of fuckwits wearing musty capes with their canine teeth filed into fangs and one of Anne Rice's Harlequin Romances disguised as a bloodsucker epics cradled tight to their breasts.

In comments.

YAY! Bonus Album!! (or over-ambitiousness, I dunno)


ZESS - Et In Arcadia Ego [2004]

In my neverending quest to stay within Uncle Frank Zappa's theorem of Conceptual Continuity, I present to thee yet another Italian combo-- in this case, one utterly and completely influenced by the one I just finished beating my gums about. This outfit is shrouded in mystery, but what I do know about 'em is that they split in 1988, recorded the material contained here between 1987-88, and that their membership was Mercy (Vocals), Lord Ruthven (Guitar), Dr. Polidori (Guitar), Dr. Freudstein (Bass) and F. Rosenkrantz (Drums & Synth). They were obviously heavily enamored with Paul Chain-era Death SS, right down to the ultra-kooky vox and B-movie obsessions. But why oh why would ya need a clone band of Death SS, you ask? Well... there ain't many of 'em for starters, which makes this platter an oddity already, but what really matters is that they manage to outdo the Old Masters at times. Great gargantuan riffs St. Vitus' Dave Chandler would be proud of, as well as reckless, wah'd guitar solos every bong-huffing stoner or self-righteous doomer will instantly fall in love with. Whatever, I expect about 15 of y'all TOTAL to take the plunge with what I've presented here, so until next time...

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