CHRISTMAS MOURNING

This is the first Barking Chicken Productions Xmas album compiled in 1995. Originally released on a 120 minute cassette, this is a time capsule back to some of the darkest days of metal. These bands carried the torch. Side A is tracks 1-8 and Side B is tracks 9-16.

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Christmas Mourning

01 Down – Pray For The Locust > Bury Me In Smoke

02 Solitude Aeturnus – 9th Day: Awakening

03 Forbidden – Rape

04 Dream Theater – The Mirror > Lie

05 King Diamond – Killer

06 Blind Guardian – Born In A Mourning Hall

07 Death – Empty Words

08 Geezer – Drive Boy, Shooting

09 Flotsam & Jetsam – Smoked Out

10 Ozzy Osbourne – Spiders In The Night

11 Cathedral – Fangalactic Supergoria

12 Rage – Raw Caress

13 Nevermore – Timothy Leary

14 Grip Inc. – Guilty Of Innocence

15 Voivod – Cosmic Conspiracy

16 Iced Earth – Dante’s Inferno

BURST – GOING FOR THE JUGGLER

To the extent that there is a subgenre for Extreme Progressive Metal that would include Cynic, Opeth, Between The Buried And Me and Dillinger Escape Plan, Burst should be lumped in too. While all these bands are different, they are all pushing boundaries and can be considered progressive. Hailing from Sweden, Burst layer hardcore aggression and NeurIsis atmosphere into their metallic attack. The variety between songs and the twists and turns within the compositions make them hard to pin down. Multiple spins are mandatory. If your brain is equipped to juggle sound, then Burst is for you.

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http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MW77SGAZ

Burst – Going For The Juggler
01 Mercy Liberation
02 Crystal Asunder
03 I Exterminate The I
04 Flight's End
05 I Hold Vertigo
06 Sever
07 Rain
08 The Immateria
09 We Are Dust
10 Homebound
11 (We Watched) The Silver Rain

SWANÖ – BLEEDING SHADOW

Dan Swanö is a legendary Swedish vocalist, guitarist, bassist, drummer, keyboardist and music producer. He is regarded as influential in the underground progressive metal, progressive rock and death metal communities. In addition to having an enormous resume as an engineer and producer, Swanö has fronted a huge number of bands. This Barking Chicken Production combines highlights from several of these including Edge Of Sanity, Nightingale, Moontower, Odyssey, Steel and Pan.Thy.Monium. Separately, each one of these bands sets the standard for its genre, combined they are the mark of genius.

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Swanö - Bleeding Shadow
01 Ekkhoeece
02 The Masque
03 Blood-Colored
04 Shadowman
05 Sun Of The Night
06 Raincheck On My Demise
07 15:36
08 Stalingrad
09 Until Eternity Ends
10 Alone?
11 Amon-Ra
12 Patchworks
13 White Darkness
14 Twilight
15 Say Goodbye (To Love)

REINERT MASVIDAL DUO - EVOLUTIONARY SLEEPER

The Duo, Sean Reinert (drums, vocals, keys) and Paul Masvidal (lead vocals, guitars, keys), initially made a name for themselves in the Florida metal scene as Cynic. In the late 80s, Cynic released a series of highly regarded demos. As Cynic progressed from an underground thrash band to a progressive death metal legend, Reinert and Masvidal were recruited by Chuck Schuldiner to record and tour Death’s critically acclaimed ‘Human’ album. Following these obligations, Cynic released the groundbreaking ‘Focus’ in 1993. By this time, they had metamorphosized into a full-blown jazz-fusion death metal band with an emphasis on extreme technicality and progressive songwriting.

Despite their successes, Reinert and Masvidal were not to be confined by the boundaries of metal. As their music progressed, Cynic dissovled. They formed a short-lived band called Portal that combined ethereal female vocals with some of the spacier elements found on ‘Focus’.

After disappearing for the better part of a decade, Reinert and Masvidal turned up in Los Angeles. They had formed a new band called Aeon Spoke which has been described as progressive ethereal rock. In 2005 the track “Emmanuel” appeared in the film What The Bleep Do We Know!?. Another track “Damaged” appeared on the Warner Brothers television series Smallville, while the song “I've Seen Those Eyes” appeared in the movie Cry Wolf.

As Reinert and Masvidal were still musically active, there was nothing to prevent them from breathing new life into Cynic. To the delight of a hardcore following, Cynic returned in 2008 with the release of ‘Traced In Air’ and a tour in support of the album. The evolution in sound is exactly what you would expect in light of the direction they have taken over the years.

On the surface, each of the projects involving the Reinert Masvidal Duo are quite different. But if you dig deeper, you will find that there is a thread of similarity that runs throughout. This Barking Chicken Production combines tracks from the various projects that have manifested themselves through the collaboration of Reinert and Masvidal over the last 15 years.

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Reinert Masvidal Duo - Evolutionary Sleeper

01 Cavalry Of Woe

02 The Space For This

03 Cosmos

04 King Of Those Who Know

05 Nothing

06 Evolutionary Sleeper

07 Veil Of Maya

08 I'm But A Wave To...

09 How Could I

10 Adam's Murmur

11 The Fisher Tale

12 Nunc Stans

13 Endless Endeavors

KATATONIA - CRASH COURSE

Since hitting the scene, Katatonia’s sound has evolved from crushing doom/death metal to a more atmospheric, depressive rock. This Barking Chicken Production focuses exclusively on their more accessible recent output. For the uninitiated, I would say that today’s Katatonia sounds like a cross between The Cure and Tool. But there is much more to it than that. I would still call it metal, but they are certainly stretching the boundaries of the genre about as far as they can go without breaking.

This release is inspired by the double disc ‘The Black Sessions’ compilation. It combined tracks from the last few albums with B-sides and obscure material. Having all these great songs in one place was great, but the flow was disrupted by the arguably second rate material that was purposely left off the studio albums in the first place. Katatonia has released a string of incredible albums, so I knew that if you trimmed the fat you would have one hell of a listening experience. I was right. Take a Crash Course in Katatonia. You won’t be sorry.

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http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1L91BDW8

Katatonia - Crash Course

01 Teargas

02 Passing Bird

03 Omerta

04 Evidence

05 Criminals

06 Tonight's Music

07 For My Demons

08 In The White

09 Dispossession

10 A Premonition

11 My Twin

12 The Future Of Speech

13 We Must Bury You

14 Deliberation

15 Burn The Remembrance

16 Ghost Of The Sun

17 July

18 Leaders

BIGELF - HEX THE GALLOWS

If you are a fan of classic rock like Zeppelin, Floyd, Queen, Sabbath and David Bowie, then you are going to want to check out BigElf. The most recent albums, ‘Hex’ and ‘Cheat The Gallows’ are very cool. But when ‘Hex’ came out, I thought that they almost nailed it, but not quite. Whether it was the tracking or the inclusion of an overly clunky song, I thought that with just a little more or less of something it could have been amazing. The latest album ‘Cheat The Gallows’ suffered the same fate, in my opinion. The solution, of course, was to take the raw material and give it the Barking Chicken treatment. The result is ‘Hex The Gallows’.

In light of BigElf’s dramatic flair, we can talk about this in terms of the film industry. As the artist, BigElf is the director. They shot and edited their film to their liking, but then the big studio Barking Chicken Productions got ahold of it. How nice, but . . . I have now left swaths of their precious art on the cutting room floor. Tough. Now we’ve got a blockbuster on our hands.

Long term, ‘Hex The Gallows’ may be in league with well worn classics like Mother Love Bone and Monster Magnet’s ‘Dopes To Infinity’. Once you fall in love, though, you are going to want to get the director’s cut available commercially in the form of ‘Hex’ and ‘Cheat The Gallows’.

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BigElf – Hex The Gallows

01 Gravest Show On Earth

02 Blackball

03 Pain Killers

04 Disappear

05 Hydra

06 Black Moth

07 Race With Time

08 Sunshine Suicide

09 Burning Bridges

10 Madhatter

11 The Evils Of Rock & Roll

12 Counting Sheep

MOONSPELL - UNBECOMING

Portugal’s Moonspell was the perfect candidate for a Barking Chicken Production. They have been around since the early 90’s, but only periodically do they nail it with a really good album. Some albums have been better than others, but even the crap albums have something there that is unique and above average. Century Media just put out a greatest hits album a couple of years ago, but it doesn’t include tracks from the latest album ‘Night Eternal’ which is arguably their most complete effort, and it doesn’t include the sweet rerecorded material from ‘Under Satanae’. This Barking Chicken Production takes you from ‘Night Eternal’ back through time ending with “Serpent Angel,” a pre-Moonspell track written when the band was known as Morbid God. Combining black, death, gothic and folk elements, Moonspell is a juggernaut when distilled to the strongest material.

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http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WBSGF01H

MOONSPELL – UNBECOMING

01 Night Eternal

02 Spring Of Rage

03 Shadow Sun

04 Finisterra

05 Everything Invaded

06 Southern Deathstyle

07 Firewalking

08 Soulsick

09 HandMadeGod

10 Opium

11 Ruin & Misery

12 Wolfshade (A Werewolf Masquerade)

13 Alma Mater

14 Tenebrarum Oratorium I

15 Serpent Angel

THE KINKS - BARKING CHICKEN SESSIONS

If you want to talk Metal, let's go to the beginning. The birth of the mighty riff coupled with distorted guitar can be attributed to Ray and Dave Davies and The Kinks song "You Really Got Me". This is pretty much undisputed amongst Metal historians. Now, this was in 1964 and no one would claim that it was metal, but it is where it all started. Certainly, The Kinks were the heaviest of the British Invasion bands. They lit the torch and passed it to the likes of Cream, Hendrix, Zeppelin, and Sabbath who eventually used it to set the world on fire.

This compilation is a celebration of the metal foundation built by The Kinks. "You Really Got Me" has been left off because, between The Kinks and Van Halen versions, it is pretty played out. Instead, we start out with the follow up single "All Day And All Of The Night" which has every bit of the heft that its predecessor did. This is followed by "I Need You" and "Till The End Of The Day" which are both done in that early style. "Rainy Day In June" is as close to doom as you are going to get for 1966, and, perhaps, there is nothing quite like it until Sabbath comes on the scene a few years later. "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" is an unrepentant anthem of rebellion. Other notable items are the dark atmosphere of "Wicked Annabella" and the brutal imagery of "Some Mother's Son". As the years advance, the bite moves from the music to the lyrics, but each of these tracks has a unique flavor that makes it worth your time.

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http://dfiles.eu/files/mmw6jg4po

The Kinks - Barking Chicken Sessions
01 all day and all of the night 1964
02 i need you 1965
03 till the end of the day 1965
04 rainy day in june 1966
05 i'm not like everybody else 1966
06 big black smoke 1966
07 dead end street 1966
08 death of a clown 1967
09 wicked annabella 1968
10 mindless child of motherhood 1969
11 some mother's son 1969
12 brainwashed 1969
13 shangri-la 1969
14 top of the pops 1970
15 rats 1970
16 powerman 1970
17 20th century man 1971
18 shepherds of the nation 1974
19 have another drink 1975
20 headmaster 1975
21 live life 1978
22 destroyer 1981
"It wasn't called Heavy Metal when I invented it."
- Dave Davies