An Ethereal Journey...

Hailing from Bloomington Indiana, Thee Open Sex is a psyched out experience in droning lushness. Occasionally shoegaze-y,their sound is pulled from the ether dripping with acid tinged excursions in meditation and desire. By sharing members with Apache Dropout and Racebannon, Thee Open Sex is quite experienced in the ecstatic release of emotion and longing. On their self--titled release, the band delivers a reverb laden explosion of analog goodness. The guitars swirl in and out, only to growl in heated waves that never seem to fully break. The understated female vocals compliment the torridity of the instrumentation with howling peaks and valleys. The rhythm section holds the entire band together with reservation and well timed pulsating nuances. This debut release should be taken as a whole. No one song outlives or is better than another. It's an excursion in to warm meditation and back alley ardor. In seven songs clocking in just over a half an hour, Thee Open Sex cultivate a radiant experience of pleasure based heat in a timely fashion. Though this album has been released for over a year it still holds up throughout the seasonal changes and breaking spring resurgence. Let Thee Open Sex enter your head space and take you on a transcendental jaunt.

theeopensex.bandcamp.com/

www.facebook.com/TheeOpenSex

A Late Winter's Blast...

Indiana's winter will not be defeated this year. Coupled with the hangover from daylight savings time means many natives of Indiana are restless. With that in mind, here is the video for Giraffes Eating Lion's Daylight Savings. It's a short blast of riffs and oddball tomfoolery. Giraffes Eating Lions is an Indianapolis four piece of noisy, no fucks given rockers bound to push a lot of air and stay corn fed. All members have been around the block a few times in multiple bands (Sleepbringer, Apostle of Solitude, Necropharmacon, and Nidus), but GEL won't be contained or restrained. Let this two minute blast of audio and video cure your hangover and fidgeting by directing your wanderlust towards the burgeoning signs of spring's arrival.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pY8aHUzRtA



Giraffes Eating Lions...
giraffeseatinglions.bandcamp.com/
www.facebook.com/GiraffesEatingLions

Radio to Ritual...

When something good is going on then people should know about it. Get familiar with Sonic Ritual Radio, and tune in to some quality people playing music they care about. Based out of Indianapolis, the men behind Sonic Ritual Radio play what they like and are committed to filling the airwaves with a much needed dose of independent heavy music. They're also branching out with interviews of the various musicians from the bands they play. Banter, jams, interviews... Tune in, and fall in or out...

www.sonicritualradio.com/

www.facebook.com/SonicRitualRadio

And while you're at it... Check out Conjurer for a de-tuned hammer fist of thunder... Never have a Fender Jazzmaster and Rickenbacker 360 sounded so heavy.

http://music.conjurer.in/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uI54b8iMto

2012 Year end list...

This year has supplied many excellent releases. The following are The Cracked Skull's top picks of 2012 in no particular order.

Velnias--RuneEater
Horseback--Half Blood
Swans--The Seer
Blut Aus Nord--777 Cosmosophy
Om--Advaitic Songs
Ash Borer--Cold of Ages
Neurosis--Honor Found in Decay
Wreathes--Wreathes
Kinit Her--Storm of Radiance
Earth--Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II
Pyramids/Mamiffer--Bless Them That Cusre You
Mutilation Rites--Empyrean
Barghest/False--Split
Bosse-De-Nage--III
Worm Ouroboros--Comes the Thaw
Samonthrace--Reverence in Stone
Nate Hall--A Great River
Scott Kelly & The Road Home--The Forgiven Ghost in Me
Alcest--Les Voyages De L'ame
Hell--Hell III
Acephalix--Deathless Master
Lord Mantis--Pervertor
Anhedonist--Netherwards
Black Goat of the Woods--Black Goat of the Woods
Kata Sarka/Boddicker--Split
Kata Sarka--Existential Oblivion
Kata Sarka--Crucible of Misanthropy
Chelsea Wolfe-- Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs
Killing Joke--MMXII
Flourishing--Intersubjectivity
Atriarch--Ritual of Passing
Grails--Black Tar Prophecies Vol. 5
Circulation of Light--Acheiropoeita
Wreck and Reference--No Youth
Knelt Rote--Trespass
Panopticon--Kentucky
Aluk Todolo--Occult Rock
Rhinocervs--RH-12
Ahab--The Giant
Drudkh--Eternal Turn of the Wheel
Mgla--With Hearts Toward None
Wodensthrone--Curse
Agalloch--Faustian Echoes
Circle of Ouroborus--The Lost Entrance of the Just


Indiana bands that ruled either live, recorded, or both.

Kata Sarka... katasarka.bandcamp.com
Thenn... thenn.bandcamp.com
Casque... casqueindy.bandcamp.com
Torturess... torturess.bandcamp.com
Black Goat of the Woods... blackgoatofthewoods.bandcamp.com
Boddicker... boddicker13.bandcamp.com
Chaotic Neutral... chaoticneutral.bandcamp.com
Chinaski... chinaski317.bandcamp.com
Overpower... overpowerxxx.bandcamp.com/album/overpower-7
Coffinworm... coffinworm.bandcamp.com
Giraffes Eating Lions... giraffeseatinglions.bandcamp.com
Nak'ay... http://nakay.bandcamp.com/

Bloomington's grimmest...

Hailing from Bloomington Indiana comes a bare bones black metal beast: Thenn. Seething and churning, Thenn play a very true and grim version of black metal on their EP release Threshing the Golden Fields. Thenn ascribe to the rawest essence of black metal: its fury, its rage, and its misanthropy. There does not seem to be any gimmicks with the band. Thenn mix slight elements of crust and brief moments of doom into their chaos as they follow the path blazed by early Scandinavian black metal bands. Threshing the Golden Fields has a grainy, lo-fi vibe that offers a familiar but satisfying take on oblivion.

http://thenn.bandcamp.com/

Overpower Band Camp 7" Review...

An aptly named Overpower is the curb stomping Straight Egde hardcore band that Indianapolis has needed for quite some time. These three songs are one side of a soon to be released seven inch. And they are a four minute assault drenched in feedback, anger fueled vocals, unapologetic breakdowns, and a methodical churning of instrumentation. This is what hardcore should be; rough, assertive, direct, and bent on pushing back against the status quo. Suffer opens up the release to the caterwauling of feedback only to blast into full powerviolence mode. Once the breakdown hits Suffer swills with mid-tempo angst as the song ends in droning feedback morphing in to a two ton sludge riff. Mercy must be a conceptual hope for the next track. There is nothing merciful about this song. It's fifty two seconds of fury and feedback. The first twenty eight seconds or so are devoted to pure vitriol. As the song shifts gears the feedback signals the end with a bludgeoning of guttural vocals as the sledgehammer crashes down. XXXX is Overpower's longest and most punishing song of the three. It's a hateful piece of aural violence aimed at everyone's skull. XXXX blasts and rages as the song tightly shifts from riff to riff driving home the point: Overpower will dominate you. XXXX only slows to deliver the song's ending message: you're fucking dead. Indeed.

http://overpowerxxx.bandcamp.com/

New Casque song...

So you like your black metal drenched in depravity boosted by a fuck you punk mentality, well Casque's Heroin Dreams is your jam. Recorded by Bob Fouts (Basement Rage Studio, Chrome Waves, Apostle of Solitude, and The Gates of Slumber), this cold cacophony seethes with mid-tempo rage to furious discordance. The vocals are harsh and damaged echoing the song's perceived meaning and sentiment. The drumming is the glue holding the song just above the slum line as the the guitars scream in and out needle in hand. It's a poverty stricken track that begs Casque to continue rummaging through the slime and gutters for inspiration and wrath. As a live act Casque are pummeling. Hopefully Casque can continue to refine and channel their live sound when recorded. This is a very promising first offering from a young band looking no further than the ground beneath their feet and the grime in plain sight.

http://casqueindy.bandcamp.com/track/heroin-dreams