MP3: Winter Coffin, “Forest of Blitzkrieg”
Jay Reatard’s Blood Visions was probably my favorite non-metal LP of last year. I was already a fan of his garage-punk band The Reatards (both Teenage Hate and Grown Up Fucked Up are unstoppable) and the more synth oriented Lost Sounds, but Blood Visions corralled his raw punk, garage and power-pop instincts (spread out over multiple side projects) into one cohesive and really solid album. (Plus the cover of “We Who Wait” introduced me to The Adverts, who turned out to be awesome). Jay’s blog is loaded with home recordings and rare tracks from his various projects. Among the demos, acoustic tracks and even an ambient piece is his one foray into extreme metal as part of the short-lived “primitive black metal” project Winter Coffin. Their only recording, “Forest of Blitzkrieg,” is actually pretty credible; sure, the vocals sound like the vocals on the Reatards records, but for me that’s a huge plus.