GRAF ORLOCK & GHOSTLIMB streaming new albums! European tour announced!

In a new interview, LA Weekly profiles GRAF ORLOCK and Ghos GHOSTLIMB mastermind Justin Smith and premieres full streams of both bands’ news albums: GRAF ORLOCK‘s Crime Traveler and GHOSTLIMB‘s Difficult Loves, both out this Friday, February 5th, on Smith’s own label, Vitriol Records. Listen to both amazing efforts below and check out their upcoming European dates, including a Fluff Fest apppearance!

By day a college professor in the LA area, Smith has been cranking out noise via Graf Orlock and Ghostlimb for well over a decade. As he tells LA Weekly, “Graf Orlock is the sledgehammer. It’s almost unnecessarily aggressive. Ghostlimb is more of a stabbing instrument. It’s aggressive too, but the ideas are more personal.”

Known and loved for pilfering sounds and concepts from Hollywood action flicks like Aliens and Point Break, the grinding, thrashing, hardcore enigma Graf Orlock advances to the next level on third full-length Crime Traveler, basing the album on a film the band wrote themselves about a Canadian assassin who travels back in time to rewrite history in Canada’s favor. Adding to the awesome is Graf Orlock’s tradition of insane art and design – Crime Traveler’s layout takes the form of an actual newspaper, while past releases have come packaged in cardstock boomboxes, backpacks, and LPs featuring pop-up aliens.

Dead serious in comparison, Ghostlimb finds its inspiration in historical events and works of literature. Fifth albumDifficult Loves references Ancient Greece, California droughts, Italo Calvino, and Bertolt Brecht, over music that straddles the line between world-weary post-hardcore and full-throttle grind – “where Napalm Death and Hot Water Music meet,” as a recent headline on MetalSucks put it.