December Vice Reviews

Here are some reviews that were submitted for the December 2006 issue of Vice. Not all of them made it so you are getting some exclusive content right here. Wow.

Wolves In The Throne Room
Diadem Of 12 Stars
Vendelus

9 So all the founders of the Norwegian Black Metal scene who made their music famous by burning down churches and killing gays as well as each other are now out of jail. Instead of making terrifying music they’ve chosen to be in At The Drive In covers bands with Casey Chaos or Motorhead covers bands called ‘I’ while the one that’s still in jail pretends to be the son of a little known Eastern European despot and makes tunes with plastic spoons. Way to go guys. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic some twisted Yanks are feeding off the sheer terror meeted out to them on a daily basis by producing true, grim, black, putrid metal that outsrips even its inspiration. Best Black Metal since Dead To Dreams. And it’s from Washington.

Coki
Tortured/Shattered
Tempa 12”

8 Dubstep is in danger of becoming formulaic. Benga builds wobbles, Skream does arpeggios, Loefah makes slabs of sub-bass and Mala brings the dub. For my money the only producer still switching it up every release is Coki. Whether it’s the vocal anthem of the year (‘Burnin’) or simply the tune of the year (‘Thieves In Da Night’), when Cokestar’s on button you know you’re on for a winner. Man’s sitting on so many sick dubs it’s ridiculous. If you don’t know these two riddems you clearly know nothing about Dubstep and the last fifty words will be as useful to you as Schott’s Misscelany. (If you use this please do NOT credit it to my name, thanks)

Wire
Live At The Roxy London: April 1st & 2nd 1977
Pink Flag

9 The other day I saw Don Letts’ ‘Punk Attitude’. Apart from laughing at how much like a paedophile James Chance now looks it was a bunch of complete shit that Jimmy Carr will have already presented to you on Channel 4. It did however remind me how good Wire are. How many other faggy art school, new-wave bands tore it so hard that Minor Threat covered them? Flex your head.

Brain Dead/Crash The Pose
Split 7”
Force Fed Records

8 Don’t you wish that someone was making band t-shirts as good as Pettiboon right now so you could wear ‘em and rep something that was going on now instead of spending a fortune on e-bay to wander round with that weird puppet dude from My War on your chest? Fear not! Crash The Pose’s t-shirts are kinda Pushead inspired and look so cool I sometimes wear them to bed and Brain Dead have one of Charles Manson but with their logo branded on his forehead. Go by this split from Distro’s. It’s sold out at source.


Townes Van Zandt
Be Here To Love Me
Snapper DVD

10 A long time ago when I went ‘travelling’ I made sure that my first stop was L.A. I’d never been to America nor had I ever really been that bothered going. Seven years ago though Tomato hadn’t re-issued Townes Van Zandt’s back catalogue. When I picked up three of his albums in a record store in Venice Beach the dude behind the counter did one of those whistle’s and said “Jeez, never expected to shift them”. Townes wrote in his High School year book that all he was after was “another tube of glue” and threw himself out of six storey buildings just to see what it felt like. He lived in a trailer and drank whiskey till his body gave out while all the while singing that to live was to fly. If you thought you were big and clever for ‘discovering’ Nick Drake, Townes is gonna rip your soul in two.