Joe's Tape Deck Classics: Pungent Stench- "Club Mondo Bizarre (For Members Only)" (Nuclear Blast, 1994)

I don't remember at all where I picked up "Club Mondo..." on tape, I just remember that it was $4.00 and I was super excited. Pungent Stench was a band that I heard about from older guys at Cleveland's famous Extreme Musick. As a younger death metal fan, I learned that if the older crew was talking about a band from the 80s or early 90s, chances were you needed to pick up some of that shit or forever be doomed a poser and a fraud. With the internet still in its toddler years, I was forced to actually pick up a Pungent album on a whim and give it a listen without really ever hearing them before. The logo looked legit, the song titles were beyond disgusting and offensive, and the band members were wearing bondage gear. Needless to say I was digging this before I ever put the tape into the deck.

Before the opening track "True Life" was over, I quickly discovered that Pungent Stench was unlike any other death metal band I heard previously. These songs contained a groove, a catchiness that more closely resembled traditional rock than the blasting, ultra technical death metal I had grown accustomed to. Martin Schirenc's guitar playing (and unconventional use of the Fender Telecaster) stood out immediately and the blues-inspired riffage caught my attention instantly. "Family Man," "In Search of the Perfect Torture," and "Treatments of Pain" are well written songs despite their horrendous lyrical content and tongue-in-balls humor. This was one of the first albums I remember listening to all the way through consistently and never wanting to skip tracks not because I couldn't easily, because I didn't want to.

While Entombed's "Wolverine Blues" and Gorefest's "Erase" are often considered pioneering albums in the Death n' Roll subgenre, I cite "Club Mondo..." as an equally important record demonstrating death metal's experimentation with rock in the 1990s. This record would prove very pivotal for me as a music fan and would eventually inspire me to get into sludge metal bands like Eyehategod, Iron Monkey, and Acid Bath. The mixture of blues, hard rock, and death metal is something I still find infectious and precisely why I consider this album an essential tape deck classick.

- Joe

Mind Blowing Live Shows

 

 I have a somewhat lengthy post in the drafts right now, so I want to post something a little easier to digest for my rabid blog fan base. Now that I have the attention of all three of you, this is about bands I've seen live that blew me away for different reasons. 

Nine Inch Nails

 Just Like You Imagined (2009)
 This song just may take the cake for best live song, especially because I was actually in attendance for this show. This was on their Wave Goodbye Tour. This was a much more stripped down, in your face style of Nine Inch Nails than most of their tours. It wasn't in an arena, it was in a room the size of the House of Blues with people smoooooshed in together to see this. Not a single square inch of this place was free. They only played a few nights in only three major cities in the entire country for these special shows, and I got to see two of those shows while living in Los Angeles. This song gives me goosebumps on the record, let alone seeing it two feet in front of you played for what was to be the very last time ever. It was fucking INTENSE for me.  Take me back!!

Ghosts 31 (2008)
This is the side of NIN that blows me away for entirely different reasons than any other band. This was the Lights in the Sky Tour in 2008 which was geared heavily towards high end live production. This was definitely the biggest SIZED show of any band I have seen, even for Nine Inch Nails. I have so much respect for Trent for funneling the money he makes from the band back into his live shows. I'd imagine it'd be pretty easy to hire a lighting crew and pocket all the money from tour, but running a massive visual rig like this has to be more of an investment than anything else. As great as it is seeing a band with just the house lights and a loud, raw set, it's mind boggling to see him pushing technology into a new era of live performance like this. I felt like I was in a movie for this show. Absolutely incredible!

Wish (Featuring The Dillinger Escape Plan) (2009)
Here's my last example of why Nine Inch Nails blow me away live. Now this video is from a different leg of the tour when I saw them. This is them playing to a huge audience in an outdoor arena setting. I saw this in a tiny club just like I saw the first video in. I remember fearing for my life when all of Dillinger came out to join them for a few songs for their "last" shows back in 2009. They broke the entire fucking stage before ONE song was over, then it went black and they played a few more. It was the loudest, meanest few songs I have ever seen any band play. I'm not a Dillinger fan, but holy SHIT are they fucking awesome live.

 Autolux

 Reappearing (2007)
Autolux of course had to make my list. I've talked more about this band on this blog than I've made fun of Stephen Hawking on my Facebook. This is my soul mate band. I don't care what format their material is in when I hear it or see it because it sucks me in regardless. When I was living in Los Angeles I had the luxury of seeing these guys a few times as well as meet them. I can't say enough how much I love these guys!


Off! 

Black Thoughts (2010)
This band blew me away live for a completely different reason than Nails did. When most NIN shows were accompanied with intricate lighting and visuals, Autolux had layers of tones and drones.. Off just gives you a no bullshit punk show from start to finish. As a drummer, I know the cathodic feeling of playing your instrument with intent to break it. It's an amazing outlet that I wish more people had the luxury of releasing. These guys fucking nail it!

Ghost

Monstrance Clock (2013)
This would definitely be the newest band to take my breath away live. I've only seen them once, and it wasn't very long ago. I heard this bands music before I knew anything about them and I fell in love. When I started to read about how no one knows who's in the band and saw the vision they had.. I was hooked.

Now I know, you're all too fucking cool for this band because they "aren't real metal" and you think they're only popular because they wear masks. Get back on your shit plane and head back to Jackass Island, because these guys are outstanding! Never once have they claimed to be any genre or anything people so foolishly go out of their way to argue them to be!


-Novak