Black Sheep Wall is a band from L.A. somewhere that I stumbled upon over the weekend. They are a doomy/sludgey band, and their riffs are so heavy they will knock your dick in the dirt. It’s dirty, grimey, sloppy, they tune to negative Z, and scream at the top of their lungs about 90% of the time - and it’s bad fucking ass. The copy of the album I got contained a burned CD that was spray painted black….and that was it. No song names, no contact info, nothing. And they probably only used black because they couldn’t find anything darker.  Awesome. Go to their Myspace and jock them as hard as I do or you are composed exclusively of loss.

Big thanks to Sludge Swamp for turning me on to this stuff. I was perusing their archives for some cool stuff to put on a mix CD for an upcoming BBQ, when I stumbled upon the psychedelic doom of Jex Thoth. Formerly known as Totem, the band takes its name from its beguiling frontwoman, who seems to have a bit of Grace Slick coursing through her veins (and God knows what else).

It’s nice to see how diverse the metal scene is getting, especially since that’s all I’ve been listening to lately, and I usually like to mix it up. This stuff is spacey, hypnotic but still has plenty of rock punch, and it doesn’t completely drag ass like a lot of doom you’ll hear. Jex Thoth releases albums on I Hate Records, which is out of Sweden (Jex Thoth hails from California), but unfortunately, their debut LP seems to have been delayed due to a printing error. With any luck, they’ll be able to fix that up soon.

I remember a few years back, Kittie came out and most people thought it was kind of novel that there was a group of young girls playing pretty heavy music. They’re also Canadian, which is totally precious. I’m not hating on Kittie (I’m not a fan, but whatever, there are far shittier bands that wave the metal banner), or Canada, and it’d be nice to go to metal shows and not have them be like comic book stores, sci-fi conventions and other nerdy sausage fests. Unfortunately for Kittie, most people have a hard time getting past the whole “girls playing metal” thing. But that’s probably because they’re not as brutal as Grey from Seattle, WA.

American metal heads can finally boast about having as stong an extreme metal scene as they do in parts of Europe thanks to Pacific Northwest bands such as Book of Black Earth. Grey is another band that should be added to that list. A power trio in every sense of the world, Grey consists of Suzanne (vocals/guitar), AJ (bass) and Becca (drums), who are also known as Gypsy Witch, Luna Loca and Bitch Hammer respectively, which is pretty damn metal. All their most recent press photos also take place in the forest, which is also very metal.

The most metal thing about them, though, is their sound which is a heavy, sludgy witch’s brew of earth-loosening doom. Three songs are posted on their MySpace page (my favorite of which is the despairingly beautiful and savagely heavy epic “Fields of Grey”), and that’s all I’ve been able to hear from them, but their first release, Mother Maiden Crone, will apparently be out in the spring of this year on Kreation Records–hopefully in time for Beltane.

Middian, the towering monolith of stoner rock riffage formed by former YOB frontman Mike Scheidt, is apparently calling it a day, after being sued by some a Milwaukee metal band of the same name, getting dropped from their label as a result, and being forced to stop selling copies of their debut CD, Age Eternal:

So, we had a hell of a time finding a name. When Middian was suggested, we did a search and found nothing out there. So we went ahead and called ourselves Middian.

However, in October, we received a cease and desist demand from Midian of Milwaukee, LLC. After checking our options, we have found ourselves with no choice but to comply with the demand. So, Middian no longer exists.

We have also been dropped from the Metal Blade roster as a result of this litigation, being unable to sell our album Age Eternal ever again as well. The three of us are still going to be playing music together. It just isn`t going to be Middian anymore. We do not know what it is going to be called at this point. But we are still really into playing music with each other. Lots of folks were really good to us during the course of our existence and we really appreciate it. Please keep an eye out for us. Hopefully, you`ll be hearing from us very soon.

We are too overwhelmed with the situation to respond to e-mails regarding this, so don’t take offense if we don’t reply. Trust that we are grateful for people’s love and support and ours is with you.

DOOM
Mike, Will, and Scott

If you want to say hi to the OTHER Middian (who are actually just Midian with “d”) check out their Myspace here.

UPDATE: Middian has decided to not give up without a fight. From the band’s web site:

“Middian may not be dead after all……..

As many of you know, Middian received a cease and desist demand in October from Midian of Milwaukee LLC. This demand required Middian to stop using our name completely, stop selling our album, and further demanded that all of our recorded cds and albums be destroyed. Middian was served a cease and desist by a band that has never played outside of Wisconsin, hasn’t put out a single record, or had a steady line up in the last 7 years. They hadn’t even updated their website since year 2000, as of a few weeks ago. We played Milwaukee in May, and no one there even mentioned a local band Midian of one “d”. Nor did one of their “fans” come to the show.

Prior to this demand, we had never heard of them. Upon further research into the group, we discovered they had not used their name or trademark in years or even played outside of Wisconsin, ever. Our initial response was that our bands could peacefully co-exist. Especially since we learned that our usage combined with their non-usage entitled us to the name, rendering their trademark useless. But we felt it would be wasting everyones time and money to send the issue to litigation. Besides, before the name Middian was chosen, a careful online search was done, proving that no other active unit had the same spelling.

Instead of responding or agreeing to our offer of co-existence, they filed a federal suit against the three of us individually, our label (Metal Blade, who dropped us because of the suit), our booking agent Nanotear Booking, and an online merchandiser we had never even heard of until we saw the complaint.

We sent them word that we would give the name up and even agreed to some other demands that seemed unreasonable, simply because we’re not in a financial position to fight it.

They refused to accept our settlement, demanding we pay them tens of thousands of dollars. By right of actual usage worlwide, the name Middian is ours. Regardless of that we have no choice but to FIGHT and defend ourselves in court. We intend to strip them of their trademark and deny them their unfair demands of money and of our music.

We’re humbly asking for YOUR help. Spread the word far and wide, to wherever you can. If you can afford it, please donate some money to our defense fund. We’re going to have A LOT of legal fees and we’re simply not in a position to pay for it by ourselves. You can donate funds at www.middian.org in the news section. You will find a link there under the “Middian Defense Fund” heading.

We would like to thank everyone that has sent us messages. The underground metal community’s love has simply been overwhelming.

With your help and support, Middian will stand triumphant against this truly evil attack on our persons and families.

Mike, Scott, Will, and Nanotear Booking.
MIDDIAN”

The title of this post was originally going to be “In My Room, Furiously Beating Off Until I Cum Blood” but I figured Bill might get pissed off at that one and stop paying me….But really, that’s exactly how stoked I am at the announcement of these upcoming tours.

Seriously, if you claim to appreciate heavy music you must attend one of these shows. (Actually, I can’t personally attest to Man Man’s heaviness, but they sound kinda vaudeville/old-timey, and that’s pretty rad too).

RAD TOURS ALERT:

Big Business w/ The Melvins: September 16th - October 22nd

Jesu w/ Torch: October 18th - October 30th

Man Man: September 16th - October 19th

I will be doing nothing but pushups and curls until these shows, then smoke all sorts of opium right before the shows and be THAT GUY. Look out for me. I mean it. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

Tour Dates after the jump: (more…)