Saturday, December 19, 2009
all is suffering - the past: vindictive sadisms of petty bureaucrats
These guys blend Black, Grind, Crust and straight-up Metal into a bunch of different areas that make maximum use of the diversity, spitting it back out as an angry, dark, killing machine. You could play this album to any kind of extreme metal fans and Im sure they would say AIS is a band from his favorite genre, yet the group manages to keep from being saddled with the baggage that comes from making a concerted effort to be a very specific type of band....
Brittle n belittling shards of crust, grind, black metal, D-beat, doom, melody, harmony, dissonance, disease, lifeblood, chaos, confusion,clarity, calamity, pessimism, optimism, hope, anguish go knee-deep into All is Sufferings bewilderingly assaulting/assaultingly bewildering debut album, The Past: Vindictive Sadisms of Petty Bureaucrats. Not so much a bunch of wankers playing DJs on an extreme jukebox, more so the sound of seemingly disparate elements congealing into an idiosyncratic, startlingly unrecognizable/alien whole, All is Suffering keep proceedings to a stridently urgent n outta-their-heads-with-dread onrush but slip in any of the above elements to jarringly dramatic effect, thereby eluding the easy tag of crustcore by appearing a helluva lot more evolved.
.... they take some of the most creative hooks and arrangements you are ever going to hear in grindcore and fuse them onto a framework of sound that is influenced by crust, power violence, death metal, and the kitchen sink ....
It should come as no surprise to hear that some of this groups favorite bands are Bolt Thrower, Celtic Frost, Repulsion, Bestial Warlust, Discharge and Motorhead, for you've certainly got the best elements of all those unique styles. At the forefront is a vocalist that screams his head off in a style that excellently blends the best of black metal and hardcore. Behind him are musicians that deliver such intensity and precision in their performance of the passionate music that they've written ....
the Past: Vindictive Sadisms of Petty Bureaucrats
suzukiton
... executing an elaborate schematic of progressive, technical musicianship and earth-shaking rock propulsion, Service Repair Handbook delivers an onslaught of anthemic, pulverizing tuneage that intersects math metal, heavy prog and stoner rock
suzuki math-metal manual
born under saturn - reflecting the beautiful design
conceived beneath the ringed planet
so, you like the melvins ... ?
... then you'll prob like these two albums by core of the earth
"HEAVY is the best adjective to use…"
They are heavy. Heavy as fuck. Somewhat metal, somewhat doom, and very Melvins heavy as fuck, to be exact. ....definitely in (Melvins) Stoner Witch/YOB/Electric Wizard territory. It's not a bad place to be, even if the sound is familiar. Besides, it's all in the execution, something that Core of the Earth do well. ... tribal drumming and pummeling guitar ... slower crunch, sounding like a sort of doom-boogie .... Loadstone is the album the Melvins never released.
.... home-grown sonic thunder-crushing crust rock..... heavy rock in the vein of the Melvins ...... they employ numerous examples of hefty basslines and forcefully penetrative percussive strikes as they construct their weighty sound from the groundlevel upwards. .... an album steeped in truly gargantuan sounds, the band utilizes two main approaches to pummel their material into the listener. On the one hand there is their slothful, primitive, repetitious manner that brings to mind the likes of Sleep and Electric Wizard, while at other times the group exaggerate the tempo as they move into the chugging stoner rock territories of Kyuss and Orange Goblin. ..... their multitasking drummers' words are outputted with a gravelly, atonal feel to them which coalesces effectively with the rest of the material. .... the band assert their presence unrelentingly...... heavy as hell. Heavy as in a storm of lead hailing from the sky. These three form Colorado really know how to rock.
... lava flow of sludgy tempos and iron-alloyed guitar.... (like) a viscous and vitriolic compound of the Melvins, Saint Vitus and vintage Black Sabbath. Lodged somewhere between rock-and-roll fantasy and technical ecstasy, Loadstone points the way toward the hidden essence of hard rock, punk and the subterranean grinding of science against magic.
loadstone
shamelady - the winter days were nights
...a collection of perfectly balanced, nonstop heaviness from beginning to end. Even though there are only nine tracks on the recording, the song structures opt for longer lengths, as opposed to shorter ones, and do not disappoint.
shadelamy
Saturday, December 12, 2009
planetstruck
Chicago's PLANETSTRUCK, with their huge, lumbering riffs and desperate, guttural vocals, are plenty rocking. In fact, they are rocking enough to the point where they should get noticed by their music alone, without having to cater to trends. This is the first full length release from the band, who has only recorded a demo prior.... dirty, downtuned dirges that these dudes deliver. Through all the sludge, there are moments of punk energy to liven things up.... they venture into full tilt hardcore territory, from humble, low key beginnings. Fans of THE MELVINS should check these cats out....
Most of the songs revolve around a couple of huge riffs, plenty of squealing feedback that only comes from turning an amp up really, really loud, and a very raw (but still pleasing) production that gives the whole thing a ’four dudes improvising in a rehearsal room’ vibe. It’s a lot of fun to listen too, and the loose feel of the album gives it a bit of a good times vibe.... Still, if your idea of having fun is getting insanely smashed on alcohol and speed, and then going round beating up junkies, then you’ll love this album.
... a simple and really quite enjoyable album. Everything’s raw and heavy, the riffs are massive, and there’s plenty of variety to keep you interested.
Imagine early Melvins crossed with hints of Godflesh, and you have a pretty solid idea of the sonic sludge Planetstruck churn on Mild Chronic Inflammation. Incredibly heavy slabs of molten riffage and relentless rhythmic pounding, enhanced by perfectly suitable lo-fi production, characterize their sound... sludgy, metal monotony
close my eyes - robot retardation
Absolute Insanity!!! It's like the soundtrack of being sucked out of your body and through a dark tunnel on your way to hell!!! But, for real: CRaZy Noises, Robot Sounds, Machnine Gun Drums, Insane Guitars, and Screams Beyond Belief!!! This CD brings NOISE to a whole new level!!!! If your parents hear you listening to this sh*t they'll put you in therapy, for sure
RIYL: converge, dep, meshuggah
futuristic mental deficiencies
kung pao - bogota
heavy as shit, has just the right amount of mathy off beat measures thrown in, but not enough to make them out to be overly clever Indie Rockers trying too hard to impress their other indie rocker friends...no sir- just pure heavy rock... fans of Unsane, Helmet, Clutch, and all that is Heavy on the East Coast, step forward and indulge
... a brutal and heavy riff-fueled maelstrom.... a fine and raw combination of 70's Mountain-like riffage and Noise Amphetamine Records-styled stuff, as Helmet f.e. ....the mighty vocals got enough power to blew away the walls of Jericho, if they weren't still blown away.... KUNG PAO are a real powertrio and instead of much virtuosity, they got a truckload full of brutality.
of angels & gravediggers
this is mid-paced, catchy, melodic type metal
of graves & angeldiggers
the inevitability of mind control through nanotechnology
RIYL: the dillinger escape plan, the locust
iwtky
Friday, December 11, 2009
mindflair - green bakery
... smacks you over the head with 15 tracks of groovy "baked" grindcore with tortured vocals, in league with the punked out blast power of BRUTAL TRUTH's later material, weighed down by massive crushing grooves. While Mindflair speeds up to Mach 10 blasts and unleashs some wacked out intricate structures which might vaguely remind you of Dillinger Escape Plan or Burnt By The Sun, MINDFLAIR mostly keep their green-grind locked into early-EARACHE, Napalm Death / Heresy / Brutal Truth style mode. Green Bakery is an intensely effective mix of crushing raw HC, brutal grindcore, and the occasional element of death metal and crustcore/d-beat. MINDFLAIR features members of esteemed German speecore/powerviolence masters KENT BROCKMAN and FLACHENBRAND.
The guitar sound extremely resembles TERRORIZER's cult album "World Downfall" and even apart from that TERRORIZER can be used as reference. As far as you can see, you get blasting from the barrel, but always with sense and intelligence. Speed for speed's sake won't be found on this CD, no, some "slower" parts bring in at least a minimum in variety. The production also is very powerful, what would you want more, the singer offers the whole spectrum between deep garglegrunt from the depths of the coal chamber and hysteric barking like FILTHY CHRISTIANS.
mindbakery greenflair
Thursday, December 10, 2009
resurrecturis - the cuckoo clocks of hell
The italian band moves in the path of underground extreme and experimental death metal.
.... they have their own style and influences from the american
death metal and thrash scene mostly, with hardcore paths ....
cuckoo for resurrecturis
moonshine
moonshine
motherscratchers - cleaver + hatchet
The MotherScratchers dual release of Cleaver and Hatchet brings to the public their stoned punk-metal sound. Heavy stoner riffs and strong metal sensibility with punk rooted ballsiness, rounded out with vocals that half the time sound like GG Allin toward the end of his career and much of the rest of the time like the Melvins - this is all in store for those of you who expose youself to this. That's a recommendation by the way. Sporting a sound that is referential but possessing of its own personality, the music herein is a bridge between punksters and THC'd-out doomsters.
the Motherscratchers are ass clinching loud, diverse, obnoxious, and meat pounding heavy without sounding like buttrock or heavy metal. no whining here..... the singer has got a mouth that spits raw beef and steel girders. if you like that stoner rock crap, you'll like the motherscratchers.... the motherscratchers have been together over the course of 5 years. their first two releases, "the cleaver" and "the hatchet", is a collection of old and new material spanning over the 5 year period..... their influences are wide and diverse. like: scratch acid, alice donut, melvins, ed hall, secret chiefs 3, and the jesus lizard
motherscratchers - cleaver
motherscratchers - hatchet
Entombed dating the Melvins while making out to old smelltallica....
Their sludgy, grungy metal which resembles, at times, the likes of Unsane and The Melvins is about as heavy as the 8,800 tons of water that the gigantic destroyer used to displace at sea.
A powerful sludge-hammer with nice melodic lead work, where Sabbath riffs meet the power of High On Fire... a goddamn heavy doom rocker, everything is destroyed! Sounds like Down with Crowbar and Eye Hate God together! Killer!!.... they will get big soon! Believe me!
mendozza - hmcs uganda
test-site
The Test-Site sound is like the universes of Dr. Shrinker and Feck colliding in a Big Bang of crushing riff laden mayhem. Sparse harsh vocals pepper the decimated landscape leaving you devastated. Heavy, catchy, powerful and mesmerizing, taking the strength of Metal infusing it with 70's Prog-rock (leaving all the crap out). Throw the influence of Italian horror films and the psych films of Alejandro Jodorowsky into the mix makes Test-Site the powerful entity it is.
test-site
kung pao - sheboygan
Straight in the face, intense, right in the ear... Feel you hair fly back like that Maxell commercial... Heavy as shit... just pure heavy rock.... Heavy sludgy dirt rock.... Bolt down the furniture.... Kung Pao serve up a platter of pure drivin' rock.... Full-bore sludge metal, riff-centric, bong-headed bliss....
..Denim clad noise machine... Frisbee rolled joints and a tank of nitrous oxide... Sheboygan is a visceral outing-no fluff here, just pure, high decibel NYC sludge... abrasive beat-you-over-the-head pummeling noise... Like dead bodies hitting the bottom of shallow graves... This is by far the loudest, dirtiest rawk and roll I've ever heard...
.... stomps around like a caged animal... Well worth many spins while getting high or drunk or looking at that Man-o-war poster above the bed.... A piece of advice, don't listen when you're feeling suicidal
kung pao - sheboygankalmex & the riffmerchants - it goes to eleven
heavy as f***, instrumental prog-core with blastbeats and fist-raising, horns-to-the-skies riffage. If you're into the heavy prog /blacklight-metal stuff coming out of the extreme hardcore punk scene (like all of the killer stuff LIFE IS ABUSE Records has put out), get this.
... imagine Black Flag on acid jamming with Zappa and Beefheart. Twisted instrumental madness ...
kalmex & the riffmerchants - it goes to eleven
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
glitter pals - unleash the compassion
glidder pows
the galvin-wilhelm-miller quartet
Mind-boggling schizoid avant grind / powerviolence from this bizarre trio, errrr, "quartet", from Buffalo, NY, featuring members of Avulsion and Parade of the Lifeless.
Blazing complex grindcore jams stretched to upwards of 9 minutes at a time mixing the most bulldozing blasts of double bass, ferocious, IRATE vocals that shift suddenly into Fantomas-esque throat weirdness, piccolo snare and tornado guitar runs with church choirs, devestating breakdowns, middle eastern motifs, squealing sax, tribal percussion, swirling ambience, jazz structure, sampled vocals, keyboards, and more.
Their brand of complex, epic exploratory grindcore is really unlike anything previously released, effectively turning the genre over on itself with bizarre stream-of-consciousness, attention-deficit disordered amalgamations concocted in the Quartet's music library/laboratory.
It's like Brutal Truth and Discordance Axis reconfigured as some sort of mutant John Zorn / Naked City grindcore experiment, but more brutal than over-the-top avant garde - - from crucial blast
galvinwilhelmmillerquartet
carrion - the crime of idle hands
... effortlessly melds post-hardcore crunch to Am Rep violent insanity and stonerized riffing. Like black flag 's "My War" genetically fused to dazzling killmen and early Today is The Day, while veering between emotional outbursts akin to Fugazi and atonal doom trudge.
... not easy listening music, and although it's quite angular and complicated at times, it isn't aimed at the progressive crowd either... pure bred noise hard rock reminiscent of the dirty American sound of the late 80s, from bog black over to tumor circus to Jesus Lizard and the slower moments of Pushead's Septic Death.....heavy rhythmic work on the bass and drums, the single guitar is more distorted than you would expect, with a dense lyricism on the slower instrumental parts... lyrics are very depressing, carried well by the desperate high strung voice of Nick Skrobisz who is also responsible for the excellent guitar playing and the colourful cover artwork.... the longer tracks drive you deepest into the disturbed mental imagery that their music tries to convey.... mathy and rocking at the same time
Brutal like the squirts..... carrying a post-hardcore torch while wearing an Am Rep shirt with yellow underarms. ... straight ahead f'n heavy, that is if you consider Dazzling Killmen to be straight ahead.... surmises it's punk and metal roots ... could be the crust kids raised on metal's version of slayer's South Of Heaven or perhaps My War
... like MASTODON if their muse was punk and not metal, but no punk would play and write intricate guitar parts and time changes like those found here .... pretty goddamn heavy, as heavy as anyone else, but not in the typical downtuned, bludgeoning, battering way... more cerebral than anything else. It won't make anyone thrash around in fits, but once all is said and done, the ass feels kicked.... vocals & music compliment each other well. Both are frenzied, but never veer out of control. The lyrics, like the vocals, are p*ssed but don't become redundant and are poignant.
.... picture a band standing midway between Mastodon and Today Is The Day, then picture said band standing midway between Neurosis and Black Flag 's My War.... drummer is a powerhouse, the guitarist can veer from Fugazi weirdness to total atonal doom in the drop of a hat, and the bassist has a nice fat tone that propels everything along, while still playing incredibly complex lines. Notice the word complex... not technical, but complex. The arrangements are complex, the playing complex, but none of this is ever technical... There is a huge helping of punk ...
...knocks you straight in the head.... beautifully raw and supremely heavy at the same time..... not metal, not hardcore, not punk, just heavy... discordant riffs & dirgey vocals. These guys have a knack for making you feel the pain in their music.... it speaks of pain and loss more effectively than any whinning maggot with a hip-retro haircut and a record advance could while yelling about how his girlfriend dumped him.... these guys do not think nor write songs like the average heavy band.... (they have a) knack for removing musical boundaries while still injecting an overdose of emotion ....the album sounds seven miles wide.... sheer heaviness. You can hear every damn instrument in the mix... Carrion put this advantage to full use, charging ahead with an energy and live-feel that knocks you for a loop. These guys are making worthwhile and unique music that deserves to be heard.
carrion - the crime of idle hands
grievous - one breath from winter + erebus
"THESE RIFFS ARE THICKER THAN TONY IOMMI'S MOUSTACHE!"
-- Superhero Artist Management
"One Breath from Winter" Reviews:
...dark and heavy all around with good production, interesting and hard hitting songs, and cool artwork. Heavy chugging, post-hardcore romp through the swamp ...a sludgier version of Cult of Luna, the music sets both an epic atmosphere and a layer of filth to bury you under ...hardcore bellowing and screaming and a groove to keep you lurching .... crawling, slow tempo with the infamous double bass roll ...solid molasses soaked slab of heavy, dark and slow
... slow, heavy and painful... like a steamroller over children
... the viscous qualities of sludge and the ambience of doom but w/ an occasional classic metal riff. ....doomy vibe, sludges speed, and metal trappings RIYL: Weedeater, Jumbos Killcrane, Ufomammut, Buried at Sea
.... dense as overgrown swamp land, with the riffs low-hanging and the vocals scraping gravel as they growl and gurgle along. Drum hits flap through songs like gigantic bat wings, melodies clang like bells for the dead and the doomed... channels nefarious alien life forms including a bit of William S. Burroughs, whose sampled vocals add an extra eerie edge
... fantastic doom, with deep throbbing bass and wahed out chugaholic stoner guitar, deep echoing drums and insanely sick vocals... every curdling scream.... takes the listener on a great journey.... like being lost in some foreboding north western woods, in mid winter
"Erebus" Reviews:
... a tight professional unity, with a strong emphasis on a somewhat filthy down-tuned mood and feel. The sound quality and production is far from lacking throughout all five tracks... vocals are strong, brilliant, consistently angry... incredible sense of dread they produce musically... intensity of the tales they unfold before us.
... slices of what it feels like to be alive in a world that glistens on the surface, but seethes and boils underneath... a world which appears perfect and pristine, but secretly writhes in agony, dirty, unclean.... dark and dirty and unforgiving
... Pulsing, pounding, annihilating, attacking with honesty; fully prepared to rip and render any false holiness limp, helpless, begging for mercy in the face of the one with eyes of pure blackness and complete knowledge.
Eerie, disturbing and heavy unlike the mere cookie cutter stomp and growl clutter too common today... drives like a 62 Chrysler 500 with 6 holes in the muffler, doing 45 on a dusty desert road. Sometimes, they may slow to pick up a lonely hitch hiker, then like in a horror movie... all hell breaks loose
chug-a-holic, anti social and disconcerting doom.... Dark, down-tuned, blues-driven riffs with vocals that emit like curdling caustic fumes from the forgotten bogs of the dark lands. The subject matter of 'Erebus' is mostly a reflection of a frightened america with samples, clips, apocalyptic drones, undertones and musings.... soundtrack to the "end of days"... Musically depressing, with not a lot to make you feel good about life, or get you motivated.... fuses said doom with a black metal mentality... with the slowest blast beats I've ever heard.... file it next to Hellhammer, Yob and Burning Witch."
one breath from winter + erebus
Saturday, November 7, 2009
miasis
Explosive metal riddled with style reflecting converge , dillinger escape plan ....
Miasis is a tech metal monster unleashed from the depths of the Chicago area. Rather than have a set vocalist, Miasis prefers to work with vocalists that they admire and respect. The first awe-inspiring collaboration is the mind bending IN AND OUT OF WEEKS. Sean Ingram of Coalesce fame lends his soul searing vocals to this dynamic debut.
my uh, sis
Sunday, October 18, 2009
god's america - s-t cdr
The band's name was inspired by in particular by the Alan Jackson song Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) and the rise of Fundamentalist Christianity in post-9/11 America in general . Vocalist joined before the self-released, DIY cassette that would eventually go out of print and be re-released as a CD-R on Stickfigure Records. God's America played its last show at the Drunken Unicorn on August 26, 2006.
Opening for such bands as Fatal Flying Guilloteens and touring with Deerhunter, God's America demonstrated an uncanny ability to produce cacophonously Beefheartian guitar structures without being bogged down by the constraints of turn-of-the-century post-hardcore excesses.
"Utilizing a mix of jazz and rock style drumming in conjunction with an octave generator driven guitar sound completed with highly reverbed female vocals, God's America astound and leave audiences bewildered at the same time. Captain Beefheart meets Black Sabbath meets Steely Dan meets Elton John?!?" -- stickfigure
"Awesomely peculiar post-rock/art punk/math-sludge-splurt from Atlanta, whose ranks include members of Blame Game.
The trio concoct weird smeared math rock textures and very angular post-punk twitch over which extremely reverb dunked sorta-spoken vocals meander and mutter sleepily, and then shift into dreamlike plodding sludge, like a shoegaze pop band slowing down into a heavy narco caveman-Sabbath dirge cut up with splattery jazz/punk drumming and an octave generator jacked into the guitar. Very nice, very weird.
Angular postpunk indie-dreamsludge with an even more stoned sounding than usual Kim Gordon on vocals? The disc is spraypainted and comes inside of a handmade color calendar cutout assembled into a wallet sleeve with duct tape." -- crucial blast
get it
a blow to the cranium
"This CD showcases Cranium in it's earlier stages of developing a new vision for metal and instumental music in general. Some of the compositions are built much like jazz tunes, using a head-solos-head format, and emphasizing the individual talents of the three members of the band while still creating a strong, tight, and cohesive group sound. The music also borrows melodically and rhythmically from Middle Eastern and world music. Strongly influenced by artists as wide ranging as King Crimson, Rabih-Abou Khalil, John Zorn, Meshuggah, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Screaming Headless Torsos, Dave Holland Quintet, Ornette Coleman, Krysyztof Penderecki, James Brown, Helmet, Napalm Death, and Weather Report, just to name a few.
The overall musical aim is to allow the disparate musical interests of the individual band members to gel together to create a new kind of music while remaining fiercely uncompromising in it's creation and performance." -- cdbaby
features former members of december
riyl: keelhaul, breadwinner, collapsar, icepick revival (sans vox), the fucking champs, don caballero, meshuggah, helmet, loincloth, or any odd-timed jazz-flavored tech metal
pragmatize yer cranium
a very special mothguts christmas
Birthed on Halloween night 2005, Mothguts is a band. And said band creates music in the style of what one might call “free-grind.” “Free,” as in “free jazz,” and “Grind,” as in “grindcore.”
their music is a combination of jazz, metal, hardcore, and noise with a great deal of improvisation. Their influences would include bands and artists like Painkiller, Last Exit, Anal Cunt, Dillinger Escape Plan, Pantera, Black Sabbath, Naked City, Anthony Braxton, and Arnold Schoenberg to name but a few. Mothguts have self-released three CD’s (2 of original material and a Christmas record.), and have a split 12'' vinyl on Kitchen Dweller records (U.K.)
They're toured much of the east coast and continue to do so. They’ve been known to do silly things like making every CD and t-shirt by hand and playing whole sets of instrumental Sabbath covers.
happy holidays
seized - s-t
The lyrics are pure negativity, but there are some surprisingly catchy hooks and uptempo chuggers on here beneath a triple bassist assault. Thats right, these guys had THREE BASS PLAYERS, no guitar, with the basses downtuned as fuck and eerily dissonant, crushing, winding bass lines driving these dirges along, a bulldozing heavy avalanche of catchy tarpit blast. There are also violins on some of these songs, making them even creepier than usual. Featured former members of the even more obscure Human Greed." -- crucial blast
includes a cover of black sabbath's hand of doom; some of seized went on to form the mass (canadian dirgey metal)
seize the moment
mugzu - a comprehensive view of a job well done
"This is a pinnacle E.P by the Texas Metal band Mugzu. This is a limited edition EP that has been hailed as the new sound in Texas hardcore metal. " -- cdbaby
a job: view comprehensively.. done well