Sunday, January 25, 2009

BLACK QUEEN/WORMWOOD

BLACK QUEEN - THE ANTHROPOCALYPSE (2000)

Black Queen was an obscure S.F. Death Metal band featuring Pete Jay (aka bZZrd) from Assuck on guitar and vocals. Formed in 1996, they released one demo and one EP, a buzzy, four song freakout called "The Anthropocalypse". Apparently obsessed with witches and biological specimens (especially crabs), Black Queen played a weird, off-kilter brand of lo-fi Metal, the kind of shit that would make Demilich or Gorguts proud.

Interspersed with bouts of atmospheric noise and strange samples, "The Anthropocalypse" is a tasty platter of brutal experi-metal, thank Odin that these fuckers managed to release something before they split up in 2001. In retrospect, I'm not even sure how I got ahold of this little nugget. Jumanji?

Download HERE




WORMWOOD - REQUIESCAT (2000)

Black Queen broke up as a result of Pete Jay moving up to Seattle. Upon his arrival there, he joined up with Wichita, KS, imports Wormwood, singing and playing drums (rather than guitar) for this oddly ambient Doom/Sludge outfit. Wormwood's back catalog is chock full of tripped-out goodness, featuring 4 EP's, 4 splits, and 2 full lengths over the course of 11 years. "Requiescat" is their first full-length, released the same year as "The Anthropocalypse".

Wormwood's unique lineup made for a crushing, singular listen, as they had no guitarist, but instead filled out their sound with 2 bass players, 3 singers, 2 drummers, a keyboardist, and a sampler. Unfortunately, they also called it quits in the Summer of 2008, putting an end to an awesome decade-plus run on the world of Trippy Metal.

Download HERE

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aesop wrote that "everyone has a particular band from their hometown that they loved and wanted to do real well and take over the world" on Cosmic Hearse the other day. Wormwood was probably mine and i was thinking about exerting the effort to put their vinyl on my computer the other day, but now i don't have to. Thanks! "The Endless Search For Food"- with Sean Ingram of Coalesce and one of The Esoteric's singers is a great snapshot of Kansas/Kansas City hardcore at about 1999.

trodden said...

Wormwood moved from Lawrence, KS to Seattle summer of 2000, after recording Requiscat at Red House recording studio with Ed Rose in the spring of 2000. Mark Renfro played drums on that release. Joey Mass played drums for the band 2000-2004. Wormwood's last full length release, Starvation, features Pete Jay on drums.