Ludicra

The most important American Black Metal band?

Without a doubt Ludicra was one of the coolest bands to emerge from the Bay Area. They created these sonic soundscapes of crushing off-kilter black metal/shred/and all out fucking awesomeness. Ludicra was genre defying, innovative, and a breath of fresh air to the Black Metal and Underground community.

I was fortunate enough to make the 3-4 hour trek to see Ludicra before they broke up. They played this Epic show with Asunder and Corrupted a few years back and their energy, performance, and crushingness blew me away. They totally stole the night with their performance. I rarely bother listening to bands recorded music anymore/SO many studio bands and not enough people that can play/However, Ludicra was more than capable of absolutely ruling live and recreating the aura/if not better in a live scenario than they do on record, which is so Appreciated and Respected. They are a band's band.

Another radical thing about Ludicra is that they didn't care to spend their time wearing corpse paint and walking the traditional path of Black Metal, they stood apart by being different and having an open minded approach to their art. For that- they were really fucking special and unique. I found this band through file sharing about a decade ago. I listened to them a bunch when I first found out about them and Im still listening now. They withstood the test of time and I really feel like in the next couple of years people are going to truly appreciate what they did for the genre and scene as a whole.

Here's some videos of them performing live:







And here's my favourite albums of theirs: Fex Urbis Lex Orbis & Hollow Psalms
&
Another Great Love Song & The Ludicra Ep

Praise to Ludicra!

Siege

This record and this band was life changing for me. Watching them decimate a T.V. station and being floored by this Angry Pissed off band going absolutely apeshit has been stuck in my conscious mind ever since first witnessing it. Siege is a huge influence for me, vocally and performance wise. It seems like their goal was to destroy and have fun and that's fucking killer. Their style and approach to the genre was different/new & exciting. Always wild, & super fun- they had tons of high energy and that's exactly what I want from a punk band.

Ultimately, the goal is grander exposure for really cool and radical things. If you haven't given Siege the time of day, I'd highly recommend it. They are thee purveyors of the fast-and-insane methodical punk destruction sort. This record is a collection of why they were so special and is one of my favourites. They existed as an entity of destruction and for that I will always dig this band.

Check out the classic footage that helped convert me to the darkside many years ago.



Here's their debut album, Drop Dead

Hails to Seige

Aktiv Dödshjälp - Active Euthanasia

Aktiv Dödshjälp is a particularly strange Swedish band, they are of the new school of experimental hardcore bands that are borrowing themes from extreme metal and incorporating it into their own sound. My interpretation of this sort of music is that it's party music and having a good time is a good time. This is fast, it's snotty and it's angry punk weirdness from Sweden. This is a cool record to check out if you have any fascination with "dark hardcore", crust or whatever people are calling hip metalcore these days. I dig it

Check out a single of theirs from the album:



"En Tid Av Smärta Och Förnedring/A Time of pain and humiliation"
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