been waiting a long time to say this:

THE COMMUNION BUZZ CLIP

Here is the video for the song HYMEN BALACLAVA, made by the incredible Gretchen Heinel (http://www.gretchenheinel.com/). The song is featured on our split CD with Helmsplitter coming out on Horror Pain Gore Death Productionson November 6th. Spread this. Gretchen did an amazing job and we couldn’t be happier with the results. 

Final OKCupid Profile Edit

My self-summary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH17AHIklCM

What I’m doing with my life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb8ADIdNuME

I’m really good at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEOximWoFd0

The first things people usually notice about me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjHm065YKMg

Favorite books, movies, shows, music, and food

movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf1Vt6r-sj8

books: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFJpK2kulTQ

shows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diR4dCn0R0s

music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J0p3FxOEpg

food: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brbtxjriN4c

The six things I could never do without

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDt42Vs-teI
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9jQmvynpTQ
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxuWCS9XLC4
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Yg62JYpIU
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS0_uKHQ6OE
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Mq2K7LS4A

I spend a lot of time thinking about

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHVGNvA8Yo4

On a typical Friday night I am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcIJf7ID47A

The most private thing I’m willing to admit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IivGqwQvdCI

You should message me if

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CTbycx2Pfo

Graduation Day Pomp and Circum-Mix

as the class of 2015 moves on to the emotional-pit stop of morally questionable academia and alcohol-blurred rape accusations, i'd though i'd take the time out of my wasted education to put together a mix from some of my recent favorite Bandcamps, songs that in some sense reflect the space between where you've been and where you'll be. welcome to the void, dipshit.

Lee Altomare Mix

photo by Matthew Melnick 

it was 5 years ago today that my best friend Lee Altomare passed away. with everything that we did together; writing songs, playing shows, traveling... i think what i miss the most is hanging out in his basement and listening to music. sometimes it was an old favorite, sometimes a new discovery, sometimes something he totally forgot he had down there (he had a formidable collection). much of it would serve to inspire our writing, but a lot of the time it was just good songs that we enjoyed (or background music for our bitching about the state of pro-wrestling or what a piece of shit the Watchmen movie was to be).

anyway, i took the liberty of compiling songs that remind me the most of Lee. bands that he loved (Celtic Frost, Bolt Thrower), bands that he was friends with (Deathcycle, Disassociate), bands that i think he liked just to see the look on people's faces (No Doubt), stuff he would randomly start singing in my car for some reason (King Diamond), shit from movies we couldn't shut up about (Goodfellas, Bad Lieutenant)  and a few 90s hip-hop tracks that served as a cool down after practice/shows. 33 tracks, one for each year of his life.

i miss him everyday.

Lee Mix d/l

the history of RAINCOATER: Lost Porn Doom from the early 90s

RAINCOATER existed from 1989 through about 1995. after several demos they recorded and released their sole album, Blue Extreme, in 1992. though their sound was something of a blend between SLEEP and early PARADISE LOST, they transgressed from the themes most prevalent in doom music at the time (suicide, drug use, Lovecraftian mythology), opting to explore images and ideas common with the more perverted strains of brutal death metal, early PE groups like WHITEHOUSE, SUTCLIFFE JUGEND, and the sort of imagery associated with John Zorn's NAKED CITY project. there were also heavy references to various European exploitation films/film makers and transgressive/decadent literature.

 on the track "Lifeless Head Wreathed in Flowers", the band began incorporating sinister synth elements into the sound. it is believed that this would've been the direction they would've headed on the follow-up to Blue Extreme; the deleted album Born Pregnant, which frontman/guitarist Richey Walker promised would be the most depraved and twisted release not only the group would ever produce, but the genre itself would ever produce. only one song ever made it to the public; a demo entitled "Salo Diorama", a near 1/2 hour long track that mixed bong rattling doom, eviscerating PE, and throbbing synth, coupled with samples rumored to be derived from a genuine snuff flim Walker had obtained during his travels to the Philippines. no lyrics were ever made available to the public, but what could be discerned from listening to Walker's performance detail the rape and murder of small children in lurid, graphic detail that brought to mind the works of Peter Sotos; and author Walker had recently discovered.. this proved to be too much for the other members and Walker was ex-communicated from the group.

Without the driving force of Walker (who wrote all the lyrics and roughly 90% of the music), RAINCOATER fell in line with what other bands in the genre were doing, and were lost in the shuffle. They dissolved and all their recording seemed to remain lost. though copies of Blue Extreme still appear on various blogs and auction sites, it is more often then not a bootleg of a 4th-5th generation tape dub, which by either some stroke of luck or genius of design, serves only to enhance the scorched earth prurience of the record's atmosphere. let's hope one of the more adventurous metal labels out there will soon provide a complete remastered discography.

until then, the closest you'll get is on the upcoming split release between Helmsplitter and The Communion on Horror Pain Gore Death Productions, where the Raincoater track "Gallstone Seedbed" will be covered by The Communion.

Using Withering Strands of Machine Yeest as the Whitey Prowler's Sewn Mouth Pulse Architect: Relapse Records top 10

as you've read in every metal publication since the dawn of forever becoming until, it's Relapse's 25 anniversary this year, so everyone's been doing their "Top So-and-So Essentially Groundbreaking Groundbreakingly Essential Relapse Releases.". most of these lists are vacuum sealed dog turds. here's another.

1. HUMAN REMAINS - Using Sickness as a Hero

the fact that this hasn't appeared on any list i've seen is grounds for automatic nullification. take Miss Machine's dick out from between your ears and fucking recognize.

2. DEAD WORLD - The Machine

back in the 90s it seemed like every label had their own Godflesh. Nuclear Blast had Fetish 69, Roadrunner had Skin Chamber, and Relapse had Dead World; the most sinister (and arguably, the most interesting) of the lot, underscoring the trademark industrial metal riffings with scorching Sadean concepts that main man Jonathan Canady would further explore in PE titan Deathpile.

3. DISSECTING TABLE - Life

opening with a heavy techno beat that dissolves into a collage of slaughter and crunch, the most accessible album from the prolific Japanese act is none the less a fascinating listen for admirers and detractors alike.

4. BENUMB - Withering Strands of Hope

there was a time that whenever someone would say the word "grindcore", the first name that would pop into my head was "Benumb". this is them at their most fruitfully desperate.

5. LUDDITE CLONE - The Arsonist and the Architect

unfairly (dare i say cruelly) labeled a DEP knock-off upon release, LC seemed to dissolve upon touchdown. a true shame, as they seemed the most worthy candidate to pick up where Human Remains left off. oh well, at least we got Car Bomb (*cocks gun*)

6. SOILENT GREEN - Sewn Mouth Secrets

i can trace a lot back to this album. it acted as a guide for my vocal/lyrical aspirations (aspirations that would be further morphed by the following entry), as well as being my comfort zone during a particularly vile summer. but beyond the anecdotal relevance, it's a truly sick ass "extreme metal" record (whatever that means anymore) that goes where Great Southern Trendkill only whispered.

7. PIG DESTROYER - Prowler in the Yard

this album not only said everything i wanted, but said everything in the way i wanted. it might be my favorite album of all time. and much like the previous entry; i'm still ripping it off to this day.

8. MERZBOW - Pulse Demon

i have been sitting here for like 5 minutes trying piece together an adequate description of what might be Masami Akita's masterwork. no matter what i say, it'll be wrong... but also it'll be right. great noise is both a gift and a weapon. this is such.

9. FLESH PARADE - Kill Whitey

tightly wound shriek-grind coupled with swampy sleaze make this a must for any fan of the fast.

10. BLOOD DUSTER - Yeest

no country does Grind quite like Australia. countries need to get on that. if i hear one more pompous ass Nasum sound-a-like i'm gonna pray for tsunamis. get figgity-fucked, son.


honorable mentions:

Abscess - Seminal Vampires and Maggot Men

Atrax Morgue - Sickness Report

Zombi - Surface to Air

Coalesce - 012:Revolution in Just Listening

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Honky Reduction

Anal Cunt - Morbid Florist

Exhumed - Gore Metal

Uphill Battle - s/t

Gore Beyond Necropsy - Noise-A-Go-Go!!!

Cephalic Carnage - Exploiting Dysfunction 

and some of my favorite "recent" releases (last 5-10 years or so);

Sayyadina - The Great Northern Revisited
Unearthly Trance - Electrocution  
Tombs - Path of Totality
Looking for an Answer - Eterno Treblinka
Noisear - Subvert the Dominant Paradigm
Anatomy of Habit - Ciphers + Axioms
Pyrrhon - the Mother of Virtues
Cretin - Freakery
Indian - Guiltless
Primitive Man - Scorn

Happy Birthday to Mix

here's a me-day present for you all; 32 tracks (one for each year... fuhhhhck me) about instant infanticide, suicidal pessimism, and vulgar displays of post-adolescent decadence as a mask for the prolonged futility of human endeavor. you know, birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MIX

01. Syreeta - Happy Birthday to me
02. Broken Hope - Dilation and extraction
03. Oil Seed Rape - Infant
04. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Born on a Day the Sun Didn't Rise
05. Unruh - Complex
06. Black Sun - Baby Don't Cry
07. Icona Pop (featuring Ty Dolla $ign) - It's My Party
08. Intrinsic Action - First Cold
09. Triptykon - Altar of Deceit
10. Guns 'N Roses - Estranged
11. Perturbator - Future Club
12. Christian Death - Resurrection - Sixth Communion
13. Iron Lung - Future Corpses
14. Lydia Lunch - I Wish... I Wish
15. Naked City - Sperm, Sweat, + Blood
16. Koreisch - a Premonition of Life's Erosion
17. Deathpile - Happy Birthday
18. Autopsy - the Birthing
19. Total Abuse - the Same Mistake Since Birth
20. Mr. Bungle - Carousel
21. Deviated Instinct - Slow Death Suck
22. Nuclear Death - Stygian Tranquility
23. Millionaires - Party like a Millionaire
24. Sutcliffe Jugend - Born Again
25. the Dillinger Escape Plan - Three for Flinching (Revenge of the Porno Clowns)
26. Prurient - Let's Make a Slave
27. Swans - Stupid Child
28. Cloud Rat - Dwell
29. Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
30. Sentenced - No One There
31. Andrew WK - Party Party Party
32. Whitehouse - Birthdeath Experience