R.I.P. The Living Broway

It's inevitable that with "intellectual property" hysteria all mp3 blogs will eventually be terminated.  That has been the fate of our favorite Metal/Pet/Idiocy blog, The Living Doorway.  I may make fun JGD a lot, but truth be told, Triple B wouldn't exist without The Living Doorway.  Just like that Portlandia episode about Battlestar Galactica, I'm gonna go to his house and demand that he write a sequel.  It could happen...  

Elitist - Fear in a Handful of Dust

What, crusties doing Death Metal?  I know you've heard this before with Sanctum and Stormcrow, but these guys are actually good.  What I mean is that this band actually succeeds in playing Metal, something which is lost with most Crust/Metal or "Stenchcore" hybrids.  This record sounds just like it should, cavernous, dark and muddy; no solos or "technical" anything.  In addition to the Death Metal base of this smelly stew, you'll also hear "epic" Crust influences (ala His Hero is Gone) as well as some Sludge influence (ala Noothgrush).  At it's heart though is early-humanoid barbarism.  Seriously, this is the best band to come out Portland since Sleater-Kinney (just kidding, I'm pretty sure Portland had no good bands until now).  If you like your Death Metal oafish and moderately lethargic like Asphyx, early Incantation, or Witchrist, you should probably stop smoking so much pot... and then listen to this.

near a handful of bust

Thy Infernal - Warlords of Hell

What does a Black Metal "flop" sound like?  Ok, so maybe this wasn't quite a "flop", but I did indeed buy this in the fabled bargain bin for 2 dollars.  You'd probably be hard-pressed to find a new copy of this album for sale.  For all the hard time I give it, and for how forgotten this band has become, this album is actually pretty damn good. 

Thy Infernal actually made some waves ten years ago with this release, people were even considering them one of the best US Black Metal bands.  Of course, this was before the "myspace era", cheap digital recording, and the current hipster fascination with the genre.  Thanks to the first two, there's now seemingly a wealth of good Black Metal coming from America.   Half of this band went on to form super-campy Goregrind bands Engorged, Splatterhouse and Frightmare.  So, you can definitely expect some cheesiness sprinkled on this dish, but not overwhelmingly so.  The riffs and even the vocal lines are quite memorable and good.  Had this album been produced better and some of the cheese cut out, it could have been rather "stellar". 

thy-in-girdle