The Birthday Party — Drunk on the Pope’s Blood: Once I had heard the news that Rowland S. Howard died on December 30th, I started revisiting all the Birthday Party albums in my collection. Drunk on the Pope’s Blood is always my favorite. Perhaps because this EP really captures the The Birthday Party doing what they always did best — attacking the audience. Their performances were always confrontational, testing the audience, and the raw energy of Drunk on the Pope’s Blood captures that perfectly.

Sunn O))) — Monoliths & Dimensions: Christ, how heavy can you get? Slow and sludgy, this is one big slab o’ heaviness. It took me a while to get Sunn O))). The complete ambient heaviness approach, sans drums (with bass keeping the only real time), didn’t appeal to me at first. Maybe it was the onset of a cold winter in New York City. Now I can’t get enough of their experiment. Having absorbed their back catalog, I still think Monoliths & Dimensions is their best disc (although Black One is a close second).

Trust — Marche ou Crève: One of my goals on a recent trip to Paris was to find original vinyl of the French versions of Trust’s two definitive albums — Répression and Marche ou Crève. Thanks to the good folks at Crocodisc in St-Germain, I found both in one shot. I even successfully debated (in my worst French) with two older French monsieurs that Marche ou Crève is the better album. Sure, it doesn’t have “Antisocial” or “Les Sectes” (both later covered by Anthrax in English). But Marche ou Crève has better production (courtesy of Tony Platt), overall much better songs (even if “Les Brutes,” “Répression,” and “La Grande Illusion” are not as well known), and stellar drumming from one Nicko McBrain (just prior to his joining Iron Maiden). I still really dig their blend of NWOBHM and French social-political lyrics.

Black Breath — Razor to Oblivion: Another great discovery via Southern Lord records. I read an interview where one of the band members declared that all the best bands combined Motörhead with Discharge and Black Breath was following that lead. I think that says it all. Very death n’ roll era Entombed with tons of energy.

Kim’s Video in the East Village has really beefed up their vinyl inventory as of late and I’ve found three or four good finds in the past several weeks. The latest score was this fantastic split EP from the Birthday Party and Lydia Lunch, circa 1982. Side A, featuring The Birthday Party, is absolutely amazing. You couldn’t ask for a better title — “Drunk on the Pope’s Blood.” And it lives up to its subtitle “16 minutes of sheer hell!” You can literally feel the sweat from the walls of The Venue in London where Side A was originally recorded. The Birthday Party are on fire during the four songs, with Nick Cave in his younger, more visceral style that alternated between gut-wrenching screams and poetic shouting. After hearing the great renditions of “Zoo Music Girl” and “King Ink,” as well as the over-the-top cover of The Stooges “Loose,” it makes me really regret never being able to see The Birthday Party live.