The Morningside - Moving Crosscurrent of Time

Artist: The Morningside
Album: Moving Crosscurrent of Time
Genre: Doom Metal
Year: 2009
Origin: Russia

This is an excellent melodic death-doom metal album. It's unusually technical at times, and the production is clear without losing that distorted doom metal feeling. My comrade Bart has posted an earlier album, which is also quite good.

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Hammers of Misfortune - The Locust Years

Artist: Hammers of Misfortune
Album: The Locust Years
Genre: Progressive Power Metal
Year: 2006
Origin: USA

I can't believe I only recently started listening to Hammers of Misfortune. They're from San Francisco, and they include members of GWAR, Christ on Parade, and even Pansy Division! That's a strange combination, but it doesn't really hint at what the band sounds like, except that the music is also an interesting combination. It's power metal, or traditional heavy metal or some-such, but it's definitely progressive and there are folky parts and hints of something heavier. The melodies and the female vocals on this album are tremendous. It almost seems like the lyrics must be political somehow, from the song titles, but I haven't noticed anything overt.

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C.U.T.E. - Find a Place to be Safe

Artist: Collapse Under the Empire
Album: Find a Place to be Safe
Genre: Post Rock
Year: 2009
Origin: Germany

More happy electro-post-rock from Collapse Under the Empire, released in the same year as Systembreakdown. I think I like the first album better; it feels more consistent in its style, whereas this sort of jumps around in unexpected ways. Don't get me wrong, that can be a great thing, and this album is a lot of fun. Thank you C.U.T.E., for making and sharing this release! collapseundertheempire.com

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Cobalt - Gin

Artist: Cobalt
Album: Gin
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 2009
Origin: USA

Gin is a progressive black metal album that really made the rounds on the Internets this past year. It is rather unique for the genre, and I'm not at all surprised it attracted so many new fans. The percussion in particular doesn't sound anything like you'd expect from a black metal band, and I've seen comparisons to Tool, which I don't want to get into, but that's just to say that this isn't just coming out of the black metal tradition. There's a lot going on in this complex recording, and I'm not sure I've even processed it properly yet, but I definitely recommend this download.

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Dub Guerilla - Dub Guerilla

Artist: Dub Guerilla
Album: Dub Guerilla
Genre: Dub
Year: 2005
Origin: Germany

This album combines dub and jazz wonderfully. The instrumentation is impressive and the production is smooth, so that three trombonists feels like just the right number. If this album doesn't make you feel calm and happy with the world, I don't know what will.

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NOTE: MediaFire gave me a weird message. I downloaded it myself to test, and it all seems to be working, but let me know if there are any problems.

Gravy Train!!!! - Hello Doctor

Artist: Gravy Train!!!!
Album: Hello Doctor
Genre: Electro-trash
Origin: USA
Year: 2003

"They're such a horrible band, they just get stuck in your head."
- a last.fm shoutbox comment

Gravy Train!!!! is a completely ridiculous electronic pop group from Oakland. Normally I don't think that anyone should ever be embarrassed about the music they listen to; if you don't think it's good music, why listen to it? But Gravy Train!!!! is pretty much a guilty pleasure no matter how I look at it. That quote is about right: the beats are thrown sloppily on top of explicit rapping about sex, junkfood, and more sex. But there's something that keeps me listening, I can't really say what! It's the same kind of sick enjoyment I get out of Hollaback Girl, only magnified.

Sippin' 40z - a sample of what the band is all about; because I think you deserve fair warning (also, this is one of their catchier songs and it isn't on Hello Doctor)

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Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick

Artist: Jethro Tull
Album: Thick As A Brick
Genre: Progressive Rock
Year: 1972
Origin: UK

Jethro Tull is an amazing progressive rock band that hopefully everyone knows already. Aqualung is their masterpiece, but since my comrade Bart has already posted that one I'll share Thick As A Brick, which is also excellent but seems to be less well known. I suspect this is because it is really just one long composition broken into two parts to fit on a record. It's got some of Ian Anderson's trademark flute along with some occasional brass and a lot of great bass guitar parts. The album has a compelling concept about a young boy and his poem. This is from before the band's folk period (which is also quite good, I may post Minstrel in the Gallery sometime later).

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