My fascination with New Zealand began sometime my freshman year of high school, when I was 14. Less than two years later, I met my first New Zealand native, and for the next several years I was in love. I seriously considered moving there for years. It wasn't until my lifestyle began to shift towards music and music appreciation that I quietly abandoned the concept. Why would I go to New Zealand? They don't get many touring bands, and I needed those things to happen for me. Big Day Out sounds like an annual nightmare, and I have only briefly encountered bad knowledge of some kind of metal scene. The people I knew best from New Zealand were never really into "metal", and certainly not the fringe/underground/sub-genre sounds I've grown to appreciate, so I never learned about anything else.

Of course, I know my distance keeps me from seeing the whole picture. I know there's something worth exploring on those two islands - why else would the Melvins go there? If there are enough people to make it worth the trip, there have to be some good inspired bands happening. I found my local bands with a lot of gradual exploration, so it stands to reason that if I took the time to find some decent bands as I did with Portland's scene, I'd find similar amazing things within that country.

Instead, the amazing came to me as it tends to do lately. I do work for the representation of Wizard Rifle, who recently had a review written by the blog Six Noises. It's great to see them getting press* and attention now. I find it kind of sad that so many people are never going to get to know what they're like live right now, though - live Wizard Rifle is worlds beyond the recorded output. They're going on tour in April (dates) but, of course, destinations will be skipped by matter of economy and various people will miss them whether or not they live in a remote place.

Nevertheless, skimming the page of the review, I noticed the very large tag "New Zealand Bands". Wait, what? Is this a New Zealand blog? And they've reviewed Wizard Rifle? WHAT ELSE HAVE THEY REVIEWED? Well, Whores, for one. (There I go again, being an early adopter on a band to a pindrop reaction only to find their name everywhere I visit the following year.) They also have short reviews of Witch Mountain, Arabrot, Corrupted, YOB, Hammers of Misfortune... Obviously Six Noises is a Nanotear fan, if only by accident/incident. It's good to see that "boutique metal" music crosses international barriers, in addition to the evidence of language, gender, age, and occupation.

I decided to follow Six Noises on twitter after checking out the Wizard Rifle review, as we clearly have something in common and it's possible I might learn something outside of the Portland/American bubble. I have weak "following" habits as I'm generally annoyed by twitter, and tend to let my feed stagnate a day or two before reading it (usually just skimming through). Monday, though, I read one of their earlier posts, something about a New Zealand band described as being similar to Sleep and OM. I'm on a Lamprey kick and had been watching Al Cisneros wax retarded about OM just beforehand, so it caught my eye and I decided to give this band a shot.

Yes.

I assume this song isn't the whole album, considering the release date is a month out - but it's a good song, regardless. It definitely has that Sleep/OM heavy trudging sound, but they seem a little aesthetically lighter, friendlier, less introverted. It's more stoner rock than metal, in other words, with doom outlining the entire sound. I've heard similar presentation before, but not out of a known New Zealand band, and well...

And well, I think I finally have a musical reason to visit New Zealand. I have some work to do!

* Mid-writing this, I learned that Wizard Rifle is in the new Decibel magazine. Fuckin' A.

Slowbone - "The Last Goodbye"
Danava covered this. I prefer Slowbone's version even though they're not that different.

Black Sabbath - "The Writ"
The word "cats" said by itself now automatically mentally results in the word "rats". "Cats... rats..." I originally had this song connected to the username of a friend. Guess that association didn't pan out.

Slo Burn - "Pilot The Dune"
I haven't heard this song in ages. I also put Unida on my hard drive again. It's not as affective as it was when I originally discovered either band but it's still quite lovely.

This song tells the story of the hard life being half of a duo.

I did not realize the ending was black metal-ish until youtube was kind enough to point that out for me. You're right for once, youtube.

Also, today I learned that the Hawthorne Theater has changed management or ownership (I'm confused) and they repainted and took down all of the fliers on the walls. What the? They're also "reopening" in a few days to accommodate a more drinker-friendly environment. As someone who doesn't drink and doesn't necessarily want drinkers in the front of the room, that sounds like the premise to a horror story. We'll see, we'll see.

"The Cat is Out of the Bag" by Arabrot from the Arabrot/Okkultokrati split last year.

They just posted this song on facebook. It's nice like getting slapped in the face is nice, so I had to re-post it here. It's only a minute and a half long, so I'm sure you can sample it without too much time taken out of your busy Friday schedule, ya slackers.

Have you heard? I like duos.

Edit: The video was taken down. No song for you... unless you buy their split.

I wanted to post this song three years ago, but it wasn't online and I didn't feel like uploading it. I see it has made the internet since then. Well then. Posty posty.

Danava - "The Emerald Snow of Sleep" from 2008's Unonou.

Fun fact: there were programs in 2009 that allowed the user to upload music to video true to mp3 quality. Funner fact: this person didn't have one of those programs.

Nevertheless, this may have been my first favorite Danava song. I was still annoyed about the vocals back then. These days I'm more annoyed at their production. I liked the synth. I hope it's not gone forever. Give it back to us?

I'm such a nerd.

SeeingtheDark.com has gradually evolved from a song-a-day blog since its start in October 2007 to something a little more nebulous. With a heavy rock and metal focus, I share music that I find interesting along with my personal musical journey and experiences. While narcissistic, in the end I hope you make up your own mind.

Send emails to cyberspaceship (at) gmail (dot) com. Questions & updates are fine, sending me unrequested demos or putting me on your label spam list isn't. I will not review your crap.

02/22 you've got a killer scene there man.
02/20 witch mountain - south of salem CD
02/18 music video of the year.
02/16 masters degree in dumbass.
02/13 videos of audios.
02/09 the force around that makes the planets be.
02/02 jeff the brotherhood - cool out
02/01 how many times can you breach something?
01/31 the video.
01/31 teenager melodie.
01/28 things that are new.
01/27 what was it doing in the bag in the first place?
01/26 red fang - hank is dead (video)
01/25 a history of drunks.
01/23 warning, danger, etc.

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