Biography from Last.fm
Black Sheep Wall formed in early 2007 in San Francisco, California. They play down tempo music influenced by many bands focusing on more minimalistic approaches (post metal, sludge metal, drone doom bands). The band named themselves after one of the cheat codes for one of the most played computer games of all time, StarCraft - an idea originally coined by the late Daniel Kraus of Admiral Angry (RIP). The band consists of Brandon Gillichbauer on bass and vocals, Scott Turner on guitar and Jackson Thompson on drums. Read more on Last.fm
It’s not often that we dedicate a Sunday Spotify Slaylist to a new release (although – guess what – you can expect more of this in future), but the new album from Californian post-metal/noise beast Black Sheep Wall is too good to go uncommented upon. With all the huge releases that were put out this January, I’m Going To Kill Myself is going to get overlooked by a lot of people. Don’t be one of those people.
What industry crisis? Cult progressive alt-metal label Shelsmusic just hit their 10th anniversary. How? As Alan Partridge once nearly said, the proof is in the pudding. And the pudding, in this case, is a backcatalogue. Thing is, a decade leaves a hell of a lot of intense post-metal and atmospheric folk for a newbie to wade through. So when we caught up with Mehdi Safa, Shelsmusic commander-in-chief, we set him the following poser…
We’ve always had a soft spot for labels who think differently. Shelsmusic – born in the UK, bred in California – has made its name on atmosphere, from tremulous folk and consciousness-expanding walls of sound, to muscle-shredding, gut-pounding metal. Albums from artists as diverse as Black Sheep Wall and Ancients make regular dents our end of year top tens. In recent months, they’ve not only expanded into production, through their Purple Buffalo Studios, but to mark their 10th anniversary, they’re re-releasing Mahumodo’s cult record Waves on vinyl. High time to catch up with label head and *shels frontman Mehdi Safa, we reckoned…
Yesterday we published part 1 and part 2 of our contributors’ Albums of the Year lists, but today we’re moving on to our editorial team. First up is our #NoFunClub Deputy Editor, mischief-maker, and all-round bitter old fraud: Hugh Platt.
Raz is back in “the studio” for this week’s podcast, where he joins Hugh in looking back at the best albums of 2012 so far. There’ll be bands you’ve heard of, bands you’ve never heard of, and bands you’ve criminally under-rated up until now because they had stupid names. We’ve got the lot.
The Thrash Hits Podcast 004: Albums of the Year (so far)
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