My friend Tanner Anderson recently reminded me of these guys, one of my favorite demo bands from the early '90s. Timeghoul was the piece that just would not fit. They were ahead of their time, oddballs and rejects that didn't have a home or an easily classifiable sound to help them get noticed. They released two demos, the last of these being released in 1994, and shortly thereafter split up.
Here we have their first demo "Tumultuous Travelings," released in 1992. John Haughm and I were both friends with Jeff Hayden, Timeghoul mastermind, and spoke with him frequently around this time. If I remember correctly, Jeff was a high school teacher, and was very odd. At one point he sent John a piece of bacon in the mail.
This album was released in 1997 on the legendary Elfenblut/Misanthropy Record label. The band consisted of Svein Egil Hatlevik of Fleurety, Dodheimsgard, and many others, as well as Vicotnik of Ved Buens Ende.
When this album was released, it opened doors to me. It showed me realms of sound I knew little about, but was hungry to explore. One day I sat in my apartment and did nothing else but listen to this album on repeat, like reading a sentence over and over, striving to glean what meaning you can from it. Later that day a friend dropped by and when he asked me why someone would take the time to make such a noise and record it to CD, my only response was "I don't know."
Now many years later, I still hold this album close to my heart.
Many years ago, my good friend Food Fortunata sent me a VHS of some live Sockeye, live Fossil Fuel, a Boy In Love; movie, and some other nonsense. He also sent me these wonderful black and white short films starring himself, Matt Lindsay, and some other goofs. I loved them. I play them for everyone I can find. I was thrilled when last year, a DVD of these films arrived in my mailbox, and almost as thrilled when I recently found them on youtube.
The thing I love about these films is that they are very well done, and perfectly exhibit the strange unique quirkiness of the Ohio "tardcore" scene that these guys embody. Critics get hung up on the base and juvenile humor, so they miss out completely on how brilliantly clever these jokes and themes are as well as how they so deftly dodge boring comic pitfalls. These guys have always been my heroes. Enjoy.
The year was 1995. I was moving from Missoula, MT to Minneapolis, MN via a Greyhound bus, with little on me but my bass, a few items of clothing, and a CD Walkman. The ride was around 48 hours or so, if not more, and the landscape of Eastern Montana and North Dakota is nothing but barren, brown wasteland dotted occasionally with a gas station or small run down town.
A week or so earlier I had purchased the newly released RasAlgethi debut album through the Fullmoon Records catalogue. I bought it on a whim, never even being slightly familiar with the band at the time. Perhaps if I had known that it had affiliations with Monumentum, I would have been more prepared.
It was about 1am and I was in a ghost town populated by perhaps 100 people at the most called Oxbow, Montana, right at the edge of the MT/ND border and I put this album in my CD player. This is the closest thing I have ever had to a religious experience while listening to someone else's music. It changed me, it moved me, and every dead town, every slab of road kill, and every solitary mysterious light in the distance fit in with what I was hearing at each moment. I listened to that CD non stop until I hit Minneapolis, about 8 times in all.
Once getting settled in Mpls, I contacted RasAlgethi main-man, Mauro Berchi, and we have been friends ever since. Shortly after this album was released, RasAlgethi morphed into Canaan, and Mauro started the eclectic and awesome label, Eibon Records.
This album is one of my favorite albums ever, and one of the best and most convincing moments in doom metal. Period.
MC Hawking is one bad mofo. He rules the streets and those bitches from MIT better recognize. The Hawkman has been rhyming and running the streets for years now, and the creationists better watch their backs.
"E = MC Hawking" is a compilation of some of the better tracks from this master MC, even including a Led Zeppelin medley.
Info on MC Hawking HERE and download this album HERE
In Junior High, I was obsessed with this album. It reflected my urge to roam, my new found taste for rebellion, and my raging hormones. A friend of mine named Mark who lived in some kind of half-way house for bad teens told me about this album. He told me it was really hard to find, and one of his favorite records. Later, when I found it on cassette, I thought I had struck gold. I loved it intensely. Sure, it is a Rock N Roll album, not much more, but its beautiful, evocative and always fills me with hope and reminds me of those days in Junior High.
I love this album even today, although I have to admit that much of it's appeal most likely lies in nostalgia, but I do think it is a strong album. None of the other records this band released since did a thing for me. Just this one.
Check it out if you haven't, one of my favorite records ever, and oh yeah, by the way, Warrior Soul's singer is Kory Clarke, who now sings for Trouble as well.
Here is their one semi-big hit, you may remember this video from such MTV programs as Headbanger's Ball. "We Cry Out" from the album "Last Decade Dead Century."
I was a huge Skeletal Earth fan back in the day. I traded tapes and letters with vocalist Travis Ogletree for years, so in 1991 when their first full length album came out entitled "Eulogy For A Dying Fetus," I was more than excited for it. It shares much with Napalm Death, but also injects some Pungent Stench style humor with catchy melodies and interesting hooks.
Skeletal Earth were the biggest and best of the TN/AL grind/death scene going on at the time that also included bands like Necrospasm, Cannibal Holiday, Mule Skinner, and one of my favorite unknown doom bands, Crematorial Death. The band split up in 1993 around the time I got a letter from Travis stating he had found God and was splitting the band up and selling all his metal.
"Eulogy For A Dying Fetus" proved to be just a stepping stone to much greater music later; my favorite being their 1993 cassette EP "Dreighphuck."
