KILLL: s/t CD/DVD (Fysisk Format)

KILLL: "194"

Synchronized light shows have come a long way at rock concerts, but few — if any — outfits have approached the sensory-overload intensity of Oslo's KILLL.

Comprised of members of JR Ewing, Jaga Jazzist, and Altaar — and including visual/sound artist Are Mokkelbost (featured in Chromatic) — KILLL is a live-only band that collides mechanical yet fervid noise metal with insane strobe and LED visuals.

Its concerts feature an enormous backdrop hung to form an open box around the band. Kyrre Karlsen, the band’s de-facto lighting technician, sets off an intense series of colors that are in perfect time with the music, creating a pulsating illusion of movement against the backdrop.

The video footage that was captured for this DVD is unable to recreate the optical phenomenon, so the music videos therein are collages of hyperactive video cuts, built in large part from third-party sources (audience members, show organizers, etc.). Witnessing KILLL's live show is the only true way to experience the band, but if you can't get to Scandinavia anytime soon, grab this dual CD/DVD release — and brace yourself.

- Text by Noah Davis and Scott Morrow.

*** WARNING! This video contains heavy strobe and LED effects. People with medical conditions should avoid viewing! ***

Das Racist: Relax (Greedhead)

Das Racist: "Michael Jackson"

With two free mixtapes under its belt, Brooklyn-based hip-hop trio Das Racist has cornered the market on hyper-literate slacker rap. Its sound is defined by above-average dance-hop beats (from the likes of El-P, Diplo, and Boi-1da) and an unmistakably blasé style laden with off-hand references to everything from philosophical texts to drunk texts.

On Relax, the group's debut album, its satirical nature is on full display, mixing repetitious refrains of frivolous topics with name-dropping nods to critical thinkers. This dichotomy often plays out in rapid succession, demonstrated from back-to-back tracks like "Girl" and "Shut Up, Man." The former is a tongue-in-cheek love rap about "what we came to do," and the latter (featuring production and a guest verse by El-P) references novelist Isabel Allende (a first cousin once removed of Salvador Allende) and 1960s counterculture figure Timothy Leary.

On the surface, it's easy to dismiss Das Racist's music as joke rap or hipster rap, but there is serious thought and effort behind the façade of carelessness. Just try to keep up as the razor-sharp wit and rapid-fire, stream-of-consciousness rhymes draw parallels between seemingly disparate ideas and challenge traditional, mindless rap bravado.

- Text by Kyle Gilkeson and Scott Morrow.

Primus: Green Naugahyde (ATO / Prawn Song)

Primus: "Tragedy's a'Comin"

The oddball rock trio known as Primus is one of those intermittent reminders that something different and strange can pierce the veil of mainstream radio every so infrequently.

Though Les Claypool's pet project has been active on and off in a touring capacity for most of the past decade, the group now is back with its first studio album since 1999. Green Naugahyde is quintessentially Primus on many levels, but it notably includes pre-Suck on This drummer Jay Lane, who has collaborated in some of Claypool's countless "solo" incarnations and who is credited for breathing new creative life into Primus.

Lane's kick-heavy beats keep things moving throughout the album. But first and foremost, of course, the album is carried by Claypool's funky bass distortions and quirky vocals and Larry LaLonde's psychedelic, funky, idiosyncratic guitar blurts.

Predictably, Green Naugahyde is full of more tales of weirdness and occasional sociopolitical commentary (such as "Eternal Consumption Engine," about America's bottomless consumerism, and "HOINFODAMAN," about selling out to the advertising world). The vocals are another dose of half-sung and faux-dramatic bizarreness, alternately doubled by deep and falsetto harmonies, that few can pull off well. In essence, it's everything that you'd want from a Primus album.

The Dirt Daubers: Wake Up, Sinners! (Colonel Knowledge / Thirty Tigers)

The Dirt Daubers: "Wake Up, Sinners!"

The Dirt Daubers is a slight change of pace for JD Wilkes, the wild front man for the raucous, rockabilly-inspired blues-punk band The Legendary Shack Shakers. Joined by his wife, Jessica Wilkes, and Shack Shakers bassist Mark Robertson, Wilkes has slowed down a bit to help craft ragtime-inspired country blues.

The trio's sophomore album, Wake Up, Sinners!, finds JD's gritty and rumbling vocals balanced by Jessica's rich tones and harmonies, floating over finger-picked banjo, bellowing blues harp, and thumpin' bull fiddle. The Southern gothic lyrics spin tales of traveling outsiders, a strong-willed woman, and the true tale of a misunderstood boogey man from the deep woods of Kentucky. The trio's toe-tappin' rhythms and earnest sincerity are apt ingredients for a slice of Americana.

- Text by Portia Medina. Read the Q&A here.

Vader: Welcome to the Morbid Reich (Nuclear Blast)

Vader: "Come and See My Sacrifice"

Vader holds a pronounced place in Polish metal, helping to usher extremity into the country's underground scene in the mid-1980s when Communist rule still reigned.

Welcome to the Morbid Reich is the band's ninth studio album and second for Nuclear Blast. Still led by guitarist/bassist/vocalist Piotr Wiwczarek, the band now features another new lineup (although drum tracks were laid down by the last drummer, Paweł "Paul" Jaroszewicz), and a few new members help to make their presences felt.

New second guitarist Marek "Spider" Pająk is credited for the music on four tracks, including a haunting symphonic interlude. Symphonic accents, in fact, are a little more pronounced here, but an extreme blend of trash and death metal still rules the roost. Over Jaroszewicz's jaw-dropping kick-drum prowess and impossibly fast blast beats, Wiwczarek and Pająk are left to run wild with speed riffs, chugging discordance, and eruptive solos.

Honorable Mentions

Anthrax: Worship Music (Megaforce)

Arabrot: Solar Anus (Fysisk Format)

Astronautalis: This is Our Science (Fake Four)

Barn Owl: Lost in the Glare (Thrill Jockey)

Mick Barr: Coiled Malescence (Safety Meeting)

Anomie Belle: The Crush

Big Harp: White Hat (Saddle Creek)

Blitzen Trapper: American Goldwing (Sub Pop)

Cymbals Eat Guitars: Lenses Alien (Barsuk)

Einjerher: Norrøn (Indie Recordings)

Glenn Jones: The Wanting (Thrill Jockey)

Ladytron: Gravity the Seducer (Nettwerk)

Lydia Loveless: Indestructible Machine (Bloodshot)

W.W. Lowman: Kumquat May (Atavistic)

Mates of State: Mountaintops (Barsuk)

Mogwai: Earth Division EP (Sub Pop)

Neon Indian: Era Extraña (Mom & Pop Music)

Novalima: Karimba (ESL Music)

Jack Oblivian: Rat City (Fat Possum)

Chuck Ragan: Covering Ground (SideOneDummy)

Shimmering Stars: Violent Hearts (Hardly Art)

Toddla T: Watch Me Dance (Ninja Tune)

Toro y Moi: Freaking Out EP (Carpark)

Wild Flag: s/t (Merge)

A Winged Victory for the Sullen: s/t (Kranky)

Wooden Shjips: West (Thrill Jockey)

UCP WHEELS FOR HUMANITY, is a fantastic organization that provides wheelchairs for disadvantaged children and adults around the world. If you're near San Francisco on December 3, head to Slim's and check it out!

About UPC Wheels for Humanity:

"It is estimated that more than 100 million children and adults worldwide need wheelchairs and do not have them either due to lack of access, lack of money, or both. Their lack of mobility stems from accidents, birth defects, war injuries, debilitating diseases, aging, natural disasters and land mines. To address this need, UCP WHEELS FOR HUMANITY begins with volunteers collecting over 230,000 pounds of discarded wheelchairs and wheelchair parts each year from around the U.S.

Since a wheelchair in a developing country is an unimaginable luxury, Therapeutic seating specialists then deliver and individually fit the wheelchairs to disadvantaged children and adults free of charge. Since 1996, UCP WHEELS FOR HUMANITY has helped over 44,000 children and adults living in the poorest of conditions, in developing countries such as Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Ukraine, Mexico, Mongolia, and many others."

Tickets go on sale Saturday, November 7. An online auction, featuring items from The Bouncing Souls, Chuck Ragan, and more, will be set up soon!