Church of Misery

Vol. 1 (Emetic Records)

First two albums now remastered with bonus tracks, 2001’s Master of Brutality and ’04’s The Second Coming, this new title from the Japanese serial hammers (see “The Gray Band,” Jan. 14) offers one liner note: “Unreleased album by original lineup – 1996.” Raining Black Sabbath – and the artwork of Oz & Co.’s Vol. 4 – the quartet’s viscous blues vortex “Cloud Bed” first, but in English warbler Kazuhiro Asaeda’s “Kingdom Scum” pounds a beat-punk sermon. “Cerebrate Pigs” huffs pure Butler/Iommi/Osbourne/Ward.

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This article appears in August 26 • 2011.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.