Switzerland's Samael was an anomaly in the second wave of black metal. They were less driven by bleary washes of buzzsaw guitar and more fixed on churning out a solid allegretto chug. They also benefitted from a decent drummer and adequate production on their records. But they dropped off my radar with the release of their dismal 1999 album Eternal. The group had always been on a trajectory towards a more industrial sound, incorporating symphonic keyboards on 1994’s Ceremony of Opposites and ditching acoustic drums for programmed beats on their fantastic 1996 album Passage, but they passed a point of no return on Eternal. They slipped too far into a goofy industrial/bro-metal vibe and everything in its wake felt hella campy. That said, they’re releasing their new album, Lux Mundi, in April and the first single is actually kinda good. It’s still a little heavy handed in the synthesized orchestration department, and I don’t think I can handle looking at press shots of the members without feeling a little embarrassed for them, but “Antigod” still sounds sufficiently menacing.

And a golden oldie from the past after the jump…

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The Beatles, the Who, the Kinks, the Jam, Elton John, Queen, the Cure, the Smiths, Blur, Oasis, Pulp, Radiohead, the Libertines, Arctic Monkeys—this guy does it all.

• Daniel Fishel

It's difficult to remember, but once upon a time, there was a long stretch of history when humanity went days, weeks, even lifetimes without hearing the words "Lady Gaga." It was nice. People read books and invented cotton gins. Baby talk was left to babies, and human consciousness was uncluttered with narcotically addictive retardo-hooks suggesting Teutonic chants shouted from a K-hole in Ibiza circa 1988...

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I'd heard the name, I knew she was down with Wayne, even seen her on the cover of The Fader but never heard her just the same. She runs those MTV/BET lanes that I stay out of, she pops up on Clear Channel radio frequently, rapping on R&B remixes (you realize they don't really play rap anymore, right?) with the likes of Ricky Gervais-lookin-ass Robin Thicke and Mariah Carey:

Incredibly, when I finally broke down to see what all the hype was about, I actually appreciated her, uh, swag: as opposed to the all-pussy-no-personality of, say, Jacki-O, or the tired name-brand-dropping her "5 Star Chick (Remix)" co-star Trina does (to be fair, Nicki namedrops all that expensive shit on the same song, yet is far more interesting when she does), she synthesizes Lil Kim's Hardcore bars and the goofier vocal tics of her boss (or is it p-p-Porky Pig?) and maybe, just a teensy bit of Missy Elliott . She's not exactly a Pharoahe Monch-type lyricist but when she pops up on a song, my ears perk up, which is something I can't always say about Jean Grae (who, don't get me wrong here, is dope). Plus—oh yeah, the girl is foine.

But at first, my hype-allergy had me firmly off that , her surely sub-par bars, and the whole "Harajuku Barbie" bullshit she was on, especially when I read the somewhat dick-riding Fader article- but it was the same song jocked so tough in that same article, "Itty Bitty Piggy", that really convinced me she could hang ("like a teste", sayeth she):

"Don't be acting like the Cardinals and go and fumble" is an ill fucking line, and twisted and dragged out with that cartoon voice, it sticks to my tongue like hot Cinnabon. Shit, that "they be thinkin they can spit/spit shine my shoes/you know I keep a bad bitch/lemme sign ya boobs" in the same song is a pretty hot lil' bar too. (The As-Salamu Alaykum/Oscar Mayer bacon couplet is nice too, but fellow Southside Jamaica Queens rapper Grafh first did that on his Oracle mixtape from forever ago.) So now, I'll go ahead and award myself that late pass. Thank you.

Looks like The Dogg got a green screen. And replaced his gold teeth with a sensible baseball hat.