Nocturnus - The Key

For my first contribution to this blog (swill has been on me to post for a while but I'm a lazy stoner), here's one of the most insane and atypical death metal albums ever released. Does this album belong on Burning Minds? Not sure, but theres no doubt it completely fucks my brain.

Anyway, Florida band Nocturnus released The Key in 1990 on Earache. Vocalist, drummer, and main songwriter (!!) Mike Browning had played earlier in Morbid Angel, a far more well-known Florida death metal band. DM from this region was exploding in popularity during this time, but Nocturnus never quite got the exposure of peers like Obituary, Death, or Morbid Angel. It certainly isn't due to inferior musicianship, so I suspect that it has more to do with the fact that this album is fucking weird.

First of all, Nocturnus was basically the first death metal band to use keyboards - this may not seem terribly novel eighteen years later, but it was definitely new and innovative in 1990. The song structures on here are more complex than your typical DM release and there is an absurd amount of soloing everywhere that's pretty much guaranteed to shred your head. This disc also has very unconventional lyrical content. While Satanist themes remain, the band has an unheard of sci-fi angle to their blasphemy - The Key is a concept album of sorts about a cyborg sent back to year zero via time machine in order to kill baby jesus and head off the rise of Christianity. Pretty hilarious and cool if you ask me... and just look at the fucking badass cover art. I love it.

01 - Lake Of Fire 05:04
02 - Standing In Blood 04:20
03 - Visions From Beyond The Grave 04:09
04 - Neolithic 04:51
05 - Undead Journey 04:16
06 - BC/AD (Before Christ/After Death) 04:57
07 - Andromeda Strain 03:42
08 - Droid Sector 04:21
09 - Destroying The Manger 06:09
10 - Empire Of The Sands 06:27

You can pay 50 bucks for it on amazon or download it free here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DP0YD28I

The Trees Community - The Christ Tree Box Set (1975; reissued 2007)

One of the more unique musical statements you're likely to hear in this lifetime, The Christ Tree box is a retrospective collection of Christian acid-folk troubadours The Trees Community, a wandering band of Jesus People who composed haunting, lushen reinterpretations of classic and contemporary hymnals. With more than 80 instruments played by only seven members, The Trees Community explore a compelling space between religious and psychedelic consciousness, mixing hippie communitarianism with Christian agape to produce a powerful alternative to contemporary fundamentalisms. My own discomfort with devotional music aside, this collection ranks among the finest psych-folk I've come across, its lyrical tone serving as icing on an already freaky cake. Check out 'Psalm 42' below, guaranteed to soothe even the most Satanic beast within.

excellent allmusic review

boomp3.com

downloads: disc one - disc two - disc three - disc four