Various Artists
F.T.W. – A Tribute to Gideon Smith
Scorpius Triangle Records

F.T.W. is an improbable, yet not unworthy, tribute album for underground Southern rock icon (I guess I can use that term now, right?) Gideon Smith. It seems as though Gid’s inspirational sage and hustle has influenced a whole bunch of Dixie Damned disciples and they’ve gathered to growl and howl their way through some of Gid’s finest songs, paying homage to a man whose bearded prowess is as potent as the music he makes. Now, I haven’t the foggiest clue who any of the bands on this compilation are or what swamps and caves they crawled out of — we’re dealing with some serious subterranean subjugation here — but judging by the 16 interpretations on display, Gid’s cosmic biker boogie lends itself to all sorts of twisted variations, like death metal, doom, rockabilly, and even some reggae. It’s all about the deep and dark for me, though, because Gid’s music has always pushed the heavy, ghostly, psych-rock boundaries, so the contributions from Ossastorium (“Ghost Rider”), Tremble Saith Thy Master (“My Darling Black Rose”), Dear Druid (“Lay Me Down in Ecstasy”), Trocarion Fate (“The Witch’s House”), Witch Bone Ash (“Blood and Fire”), and Dannros Systems of Romance (“Dionysus Child”) are the obvious stand-outs. Biggest disappointments, however, go to Red All Over and Bill Carroll for mistreating two of my favourite Gideon Smith songs, “Draggin’ the River” and “Outerspace Girl,” respectively, and the fact that no one covered “Shimmering Rain” and “Blacklight Wizard Poster” is a real bummer. Anyway, good on Gideon for this benchmark and, as always, in keeping with his outlaw spirit, Fuck The World, Forever Two Wheels, and Fight To Win.

Listen to “Dionysus Child” by Dannros Systems of Romance from F.T.W.!

The Crown
Doomsday King
Century Media

The Crown have returned. After a six year absence, the Swedish death metal band has a new singer (Jonas Stålhammar of God Macabre) and a new album, the colossally brutal statement, Doomsday King. That statement, as best as I can make it, is a steadfast one, a waving, tattered black banner under which a united front of undead, steel-helmeted militia stand tall and hungry, whose demise was nothing more than a self-imposed exile from which they could choose to rise at any time. Well, the time is now; the front-line swells, sharpened scythes are held high, the victor’s spoils waiting to be plucked from the night sky amidst flying blood and angel’s screams. Perhaps driven by the desire to erase their absence from our collective conscious all together, the resurrected Crown strike with obvious purpose, unleashing a relentless slaughter of death thrash that sounds ultimately more sinister than anything they’ve done before. It isn’t, of course. It just sounds that way because it’s been so long, but there does seem to be a slight shift away from the motor-driven death n’ roll of previous albums, probably because they’ve turned off the long highway through Hades and now it’s time to kill…and eat like kings.

Listen to “Age of Iron” from Doomsday King!

Sons of Tonatiuh
Sons of Tonatiuh
Hydro Phonic Records

Real nasty spawn, these Sons of Tonatiuh, born under a bridge in the worst part of Atlanta, left to muckrake a miserable existence from wee hellions with pockets full of coal to teenage pariahs with duffel bags full of stolen goods, now barely alive, toothless and hungry, channeling their anti-social behaviour into a rent-by-the-hour racket. This here self-titled full-length debut is what happens when street urchins demand to be heard; ugly, crusty, disease-ridden doom that’s lost all sense of control and shoved a twisted scrap of sheet metal into your leg just to get at that moldy, half-eaten sandwich in your pocket. Socially morbid, squeegee-bleed, spastic death metal with the rank odor of sewer water, fetching flies and whores, holding dominion over the unseen, chemically ruined, appalling and bloated rot, lecherous companion to all kinds of Black Cobras, Weedeaters, and Scum. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

Listen to “From Ashes” from Sons of Tonatiuh!