NAILS- UNSILENT DEATH
Entombed, D-beat infested grindcore. Shit like this is too good to pass up. Gaurenteed that its going to make you want to blast your head through your car window/wall/etc.
CHECK IT OUT:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jw2zmnyizvd
-Austin
Metal’s old/new flavor of the month: Power Violence
Calling recent Power-Violence bands revivalists is kinda/pretty/absurdly far from the truth. Firstly, I can’t think of a single one that doesn’t borrow heavily from their grindcore brethren. Secondly, the Power-violence sound is changing. Bits of sludge, metal, and electronics are seeping in like a bubbly cyst. Nonetheless, PV and PV influenced bands having been popping up all over the place. Recently, a few bands have been catching my attention.
Extortion hails from Perth, Aussieland. I’ve only had the privilege of checking out two their records (Degenerate and Loose Screws), but both have been amazing. Formed in 2004, Degenerate (2006) gives one a good idea of what kind of potential Extortion held, while Loose Screws shows off what kind of band they’ve become.
Degenerate shows off a young Extortion who brings out all the stops in familiar grindcore and power-violence sounds. Its almost a comfort food record- nothing new, nothing gained, but one hell of a fun trip. Things get really exciting with Loose Screws, where Extortion amps up their own brand of PV/Grindcore/hardcore. Riffs have been distilled down to a stop-go, blistering fast, chuggachugga formula. Vocals are distorted, often, and thrown right into the mix. All in all, Loose Screws could very well be one of the best records of 2010.
The first time I heard about these folks was after Dudefest 2009. Several people I know came back with accounts of being absolutely floored by the relatively unknown Hatred Surge. Later on, I found out that Hatred Surge started off as the bassist’s side project of the now-defunct Insect Warfare. Their only full-length, Deconstruct, lays out a path of mud-soaked riffs followed by passages of duel male/female vocals.
In retarded metal writer logic, that means an upfront, lofi mix, with tons of blastbeats and sludge riffs. Sounds cool as shit, right? Go get the damn record all ready.
Bastard Noise/The Endless Blockade
I’m putting these two together because I’m specifically talking about their 2010 split, The Red List. Unless you are completely unfamiliar with PV, then Bastard Noise is a familiar name (cough Man is the Bastard cough cough). Both Endless Blockade and Bastard Noise extensively use electronics, the difference is that Bastard Noise actually decided to use real instruments this time as well. I guess you could call it a return to form of sorts?
Bass and drums are blasting like they were in MITB, but with electronics they seemed to have mastered over the last decade. The Endless Blockade half is really only one song and two remixes. Both remixes suck; one is too choppy and metally, going riff after riff without a cohesive flow, while the other is 15 minutes of straight noise without a single note of variation. Fortunately, Endless Blockade’s single new track, Deuteronomy, is 14 minutes of pure sludge/electronic infested PV.
-Austin
DAUGHTERS ARE SET TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM MARCH 9TH
Daughters are finally out on the path of world domination once again. After releasing their first album, Canada Songs, they created a grindcore-meets-Nick Cave album that had never quite settled right with proper grinders. Not that it was bad, but it just wasn’t what grinders were comfortable with. Ironic, right? The genre that defined things on being fast, crude, vicious as possible couldn’t handle one of its own. But the album did not go unnoticed, instead a group of new white belt kids were immediately attract to the stark, semi-sexually uncomfortable attitude that they felt Daughters brought.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, from my perspective), not all was well in the Daughters camp. The sounds they bore, they hated. Unsatisfied with their first effort, their second lp, Hell Songs went an entirely different direction, alienating a majority of their fan base along with it. Vocalist Alexis Marshall dropped his screams in favor of nick cave-esque talk-singing and the guitar tones went from fast to just plain noisy and weird. Not that noisy and weird was bad, matter of fact, for most of the album noisy and weird worked miracles. Most of the album, unfortunately, is not all of the album. Some parts just didn’t feel well put together, sloppy, or lacked focus. I don’t know if it was the drugs, internal turmoil, or what, but the album could have been done better.
From what I’ve heard, Daughters Self-Titled effort, is like what Hell Songs missed. Marshall’s vocals now fit with the music as opposed to always going opposite. Newish members of the band bring a different sort of Daughters sound that wasn’t around in any of the past Daughters/ATSS recordings. Hopefully, this will turn out to be one hell of a record. I dont know, get back to me on March 9th.
-Austin, bees knees affectionato who sucks at grammar and spelling
ARTWORK
I’ve always been a huge fan of quality band artwork.
Here are few that I’ve really enjoyed the past few years:
-Austin
THIS IS AN ODE TO GRINDCORE
Grindcore is not for everybody, hell, most of the music I talk about here never will be. Most people won’t understand it either, but I believe it demands respect. No other genre allows itself to go as fast, as dark, or as rough as Grindcore. How many of you are musicians? Have you ever had a music professor tell you to slow down? Most musicians I know have a problem of going too fast, not too slow. Grindcore thrives on that tendency.
I know a-many of normal folk who think that Grindcore is simply a battery of notes- nothing more than a noise barrage of immaturity. In many ways, that statement is farther from the truth than baby-smoking rape-mongrels. Grindcore, even from its early days of Repulsion and Napalm death, have always relied on musicians that could skillfully out-chop most Jimmy Page wannabes and out-drum Neil Pert look-a-likes. Skill is a necessary trait, but the music is always short enough to keep egos in check.
John Peel, who introduced the world to techno, Pink Floyd, Punk, Rock, and just about anything innovative in the British mainland during the last 40 years, was once so astounded by the brilliance of Grindcore, that he said it possessed the raw passion that punk had lost…or something like that. Even today, the energy hasn’t been lost (on an afterthought from a week later, their are some bands that follow the “grindcore” method, but I feel that there is still a large base of bands that really bring new and exciting grind to the table year after year). Maybe it’s because Grindcore is constantly in a fringe-like state, always outside the norm of music. Or perhaps it’s because innovation and experimentation has always been an a priori objective of Grindcore.
In the first video, Brutal Truth returned for the first time in a decade and released the stellar Evolution Through Revolution. Brutal Truth, in my opinion, has always been a prime example of innovation. The second video is a live performance of Pig Destroyer, who is my favorite Grindcore act. Jennifer is the first song off their LP, Prowler in the Yard. Enjoy.
-Austin, CEO grindcore addiction therapy inc.
Who in their right mind would put My Nieghbor Totoro and Discordance Axis together?
…oh that’s right, nerd/grind heads.
-Austin, the king almighty CEO
