Lines In Wax

TWELVE YEARS OF UNWANTED OPINION

Month: August 2013

Talisman – Dole Age (2011)

Talisman – Dole Age (2011)

Totally and randomly got a bunch of reggae records for Christmas 2012, which is great because I love reggae but spend so much time on other types of music that I never get around to buying any. Talisman are from Bristol and play nice dubby reggae, with lots of original groove. The songs aren’t dubbed as such (as far as I can tell), they just have a lot of characteristics of the dub reggae sound, rather than playing typical straight up (and sometimes boring) reggae. There are only five songs here, the opener being rather lengthy and the tracks seemingly getting shorter as the record progresses. Side A dominates side B in my opinion, although both are great, relaxing music. Nothing brings the good vibes quite like a reggae record! There is a whole bunch of history written on the inner sleeve, mainly about Talisman as a band but it covers the entire Bristol scene briefly as well, which is nice. Out on Bristol Archive Records.

Lycanthrophy / Nesoucast Stroje – Split 7″ (2003)

Lycanthrophy / Nesoucast Stroje – Split 7″ (2003)

NxSx play sprightly, punky grindcore with a crazed vocal attack. The songs are short blasts that resemble something between the lines of the fastest garage grindcore and the heaviest powerviolence. A recurring theme is that between songs, the humming of bees, or swarms of insects, fades in and out. This ties in with the cover art, which has a whole bunch of wasps and bees and shit swarming all over the place. If you’re wondering about the band’s funky name (which I believe is Czech language?), it is explained inside the cover that “the name means that we don’t feel to stay and rotate in the only one and right circle”. So there you have it. This Lycanthrophy stuff here is interesting for me, as it doesn’t possess the hellish female vocal barrage that the group is known so well for. I have learned from this 7″ that Lycanthrophy once had a dual vocalist set up of two guys, one with a shouty, punky approach and the other with a lower US-style powerviolence roar. There may be different vocalists to what I was expecting when I bought this, but it doesn’t really matter; the grind is fast, heavy and fucking bonkers. Just what the doctor ordered!

Urine Festival / Faeces Eruption – Split 7″ (2008)

Urine Festival / Faeces Eruption – Split 7″ (2008)

Time for some more sickening goregrind folks! The cover art to this Goatgrind release might be fairly tame but the music is fucking nuts, as you would expect. Faeces Eruption play fairly straightforward, dank and heavy electronic goregrind with low pitchshifted gurgles. The whole thing sails by rather quickly, but it’s an enjoyable four songs that has got me on the look out for more Faeces Eruption shit (pun slightly intended). Urine Festival on the other hand absolutely take the fucking biscuit. Shit, I thought Tumour was insane – imagine that project but a thousand times faster, the bass is so low that it’s almost inaudible and the vocals literally sound like water. Not watery, just pure fucking water. Shit. Replace the horror movie samples with porno ones, and you got Urine Festival. Coincidentally, this project is also by a member of Last Days of Humanity; the drummer for Hymns… era and vocalist on the recent reformation tour, Marc Palmen. It’s like every member of LDOH has their own cybergrind project! Somebody should fucking compile them all on one super gross split, that would be awesome! Nappy from Goatgrind has been so kind as to upload the entire split to Youtube, so wrap your lugholes around this crazy shit; Faeces Eruption first then Urine Festival after.

Looking For An Answer / Catheter – Split 7″ (2006)

Looking For An Answer / Catheter – Split 7″ (2006)

I recently missed the Looking For An Answer UK tour which really bummed me the fuck out, but it made me realize that I literally owned next to nothing that the band has put out! I wanted to listen to a couple of 7″s to ease the pain of missing the gigs, but I found out that I only had the one…I could have sworn I had one or two more. What an idiot! Anyway, at the time of writing, this split with Catheter is the only LFAA release that I have, and this is the well overdue review for it! LFAA have an enormous grindcore sound, not dissimilar in production and riffing style to Brain Corrosion-era Dead Infection, but with a variation from the endless low end growl vocal, often battering the senses with screeches and screams as well. The drumming is tight as fuck, the bass lower than a thousand fathoms, and the guitars are razor sharp, but not “thin” enough in the mix to lose any punch. Here, LFAA play through 5 songs at 45rpm, only one of which consists of any fair amount of length, and with the 5th acting as an outro more than anything, the LFAA side is over in what seems like a blink of an eye.  Catheter are just so fucking awesome! I’m sure if you’re clued up on modern grind shits you’ll know all about these guys, but fuck, they are so good. They are a touch slower here than the all-out blasting of LFAA; preferring the more technical approach with only 2 songs of technical drumming and more complex guitar playing mixed with dirgy, doomy riffs. Just like the flipside however, this is spinning at 45 so it is still fairly short, but Catheter are much more experimental with their grindcore template, almost falling into other “metal” territory yet retaining that chaotic edge. Good listening all round!

Agathocles / VRV – UK Tour Split 7″ (2012)

Agathocles / VRV – UK Tour Split 7″ (2012)

The VRV / AGx UK tour was one of the most entertaining live shows I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing. Catching the legendary Agathocles in an upstairs room in a pub in Leeds was the perfect atmosphere; a whole bunch of sweaty grinders moshing about comfortably on a carpet! When the two bands got together to release this 7″ after the tour had ended, I knew I had to own it, no matter how shitty it would probably turn out to be (by now you should know my disdain for badly recorded grind 7″s). I ended up getting this off Burt at Obscene Extreme fest for literally all the spare change I had in my pocket! I was drunk and he was even more so (ha ha) and I ended up getting it for just less of £2. A fucking steal, no doubt. I resisted the temptation to buy up all the AGx stuff he had with him, but Gumpy succumbed to the cheap prices and fell down the rabbit hole and purchased his first batch of AGx splits. There’s no way back up that slippery slope now, son!!! The split is however, as i suspected, just badly recorded live sessions from the two act’s recent UK tour. The Agathocles stuff isn’t actually that bad at all. It’s raw, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a fairly enjoyable listen, with a good mix of material. VRV on the other hand….well I turned it off after about 30 seconds. I was bone-dry sober on the listen-through and had no patience for his unique display of pummeling noisecore annihilation. These are pretty rare, so if you were at one of the UK shows, I’d definitely say pick it up as a little memento if you happen upon a copy, but it will (rather obviously) never be able to truly show how awesome both bands were in a live environment.

Schnauzer / Punching Moses – Split 7″ (2009)

Schnauzer / Punching Moses – Split 7″ (2009)

Since my first Schnauzer post on here a short while ago I have realized that I don’t own anything else by the band and I have gone about picking up some more of their stuff. This here is their split with Punching Moses, which I got off the guy from Last Days of Humanity’s distro stall on the Cemetery Rapist UK tour last year (I forget his name – D’oh!). This split is a collaboration effort between Rescued From Life Records, Shifty Records, Give Praise Records and Haunted Hotel. Punching Moses are quite punky in their approach to metal; the sound is warm and well put together and the tunes are pretty awesome. They have this whole “we are physco” thing going on with the very colourful sleeve art and the inners which are written on psychiatric report papers. Schnauzer are fucking livid as usual, the first track “Facts of Life” is typical Schnauzer hilarity, although track 2 is with a different vocalist and sounds a lot thrashier. I don’t really understand the concept with their third track but it’s just some audio of some guy arguing with his girlfriend. On the sleeve art it reads: “An attempt to record a third track was made, but was subsequently cut short by a nagging girlfriend”, so there’s obviously a running joke here. Both the purple and regular black versions are still available dirt cheap – the black is currently selling for under £2 on the Discogs website. Although, I will say this is definitely for enthusiastic fans only.

Agathocles – Semtex 10 (2010)

Agathocles – Semtex 10 (2010)

Semtex 10 is a blast-happy, bombastic, fairly recent 3 song EP by unstoppable Belgian grindcore (sorry, mincecore) brigade Agathocles. As it contains more than just 4 different versions of “Trust? Not Me” it is totally worth picking up! As far as I can tell the songs seem to be original, which is what I’m all about. My only gripe is that there is no tracklisting or info whatsoever anywhere on the release. If you bought this at a gig or whilst browsing a distro you wouldn’t even know what it’s fucking called because there isn’t even a title on this thing. Smart move, Sunship Records. Anyway, I’m not here to judge people for their choice of included information, I’m here to listen to Agathocles, bitches. “Detonating Nitroglycerin” is a very typical but extremely enjoyable AGx track, but the title track is all kinds of weird. “Dormant Cell” on side B seems to strangely and surrealistically mix the previous two tracks together into a new concoction. 

Tourettes of the Genitals – Fuck The Fax Demo 1 (6″ Flexi Lathe) (2012)

Tourettes of the Genitals – Fuck The Fax Demo 1 (6″ Flexi Lathe) (2012)

Tourettes of the Genitals is a short-lived noisecore/grindcore project featuring members of Drogheda, but with Paul Phipps of Rectal Twat infamy on vocals. Basically what you have here is 18 untitled blasts of noise on a one-sided 6″ lathe cut flexi. I’m not really sure what material this is cut onto but it is ridiculously thin. If bent too much it will probably crease and become unplayable. This is extremely collectable, with only 15 copies in existence thanks to Paul’s own label, Dingo Ate My Baby Rex. I have number 8. The little bastard comes in a paper envelope with inkjet artwork glued to the front, certifying it as “fucking DIY as fuck”. Legendary.

Devourment – Unleash The Carnivore (2009)

Devourment – Unleash The Carnivore (2009)

I’ve never really considered myself a proper Devourment fan although I am quite partial to their heavier-than-the-mass-of-9-planets mix of slam and brutal death metal. When I saw this absolutely stunning Goatgrind picture disc version of Unleash… at Obscene Extreme I knew it had to be mine. Just look at it! Damn! That’s metal as fuck! Ha ha. Unleash… boasts quite a polished and clinical approach to things, and is a far cry from the band’s cult classic sound on 1.3.8. I can’t decide if the music needs more slams or more blast beats, as the songs tread the line carefully between the two choices. One minute it’s all the body-slamming, next minute it’s all the waving of the fingers in the air at the blastbeats! I guess I don’t really need to tell you how Devourment sound, but I just love this slamming mess so much. On that note, I’d like to quickly round off this review before I have to listen to any more Devourment. I am currently in no shape to be chair-dancing to this shit ha ha ha! Finally, massive kudos to Goatgrind for putting this on vinyl and making it much more appealing for me to buy. Legend!

Bongripper / Hate – Split 12″ (2013)

Bongripper / Hate – Split 12″ (2013)

Hate sound absolutely nothing like what I expected. Being totally unfamiliar with them, I should really have looked them up before buying this record, but Bongripper’s name alone carried enough weight to seal the deal for me. This split spins at 45rpm, so it is unfortunately very short, but hey – give me quality over quantity any day of the week. So like I said, Hate sound nothing like I anticipated. Splitting with Bongripper made me assume that they would be slow and heavy by default, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Hate do have a few slower songs, but mainly play lightening fast sludgy hardcore. Imagine Eyehategod meets Converge at a grindcore all-dayer and you should get the picture. Bongripper contribute one long track; the elegantly-named “Fisting”. Whilst not as brutal or punishing as the title suggests, it is still groovy, down-tuned and heavier than the weight of the entire ocean. Maybe it isn’t the best place to start with Bongripper, but longtime fans should be more than happy with the material on display here. A perfect soundtrack for the ripping of bongs, as the name suggests. There are 400 copies on black and a limited run of 100 on a smokey wax. This record is still available at the time of writing. You can get it directly from the band’s mail order at Great Barrier Records, or fairly cheaply on Discogs (2021 edit: its now worth between £20-£40).

Playing With Nuns ‎– Schizo Spectrum (2013)

Playing With Nuns ‎– Schizo Spectrum (2013)

Playing With Nuns is an absolute pleasure – pun definitely intended. After a while a lot of experimental and harsh noise projects all tend to sound the same to me, so when a noise record comes along and stands out for me it really must be a good one! Schizo Spectrum starts like many other harsh noise albums before it; the first track is nothing to write home about, but it’s interesting enough for me to want to keep playing the CD. I had just started my shift delivering for a pizza place when I first played this disc – and after being at my main job all day beforehand I really needed to chill out for half hour or so before working on for another 7 hours doing deliveries. Thankfully, the sun was out and the people of Merthyr refrained from ordering kebab and pizza long enough for me to zone out in my car with Playing With Nuns on the stereo. Track 3, “Dental Museum” is where the project really gets interesting for me. A simple yet subtly complex tribal beat is taken and looped over and over again through various stages and forms of distortion, creating a mesmerizingly cerebral effect which is uplifting and thought-clearing just like Earth’s Earth2 record claims to be but actually isn’t (perhaps I’m not listening to it loud enough – but that’s another story). By the time track 3 ends, I am almost put into a state of unconsciousness that closely resembles sleep. What a way to start a 7 hour shift of non stop driving. The rest of the CD continues in this vein but none of the songs better track 3, which is just fantastic. I got this CD through a trade with the label; Japan’s excellent Fuck The Industry, who are really putting out some amazing stuff right now. Between this and the To Die and Shitfun tapes, Fuck The Industry is off to an exciting start as a DIY label. At the time of writing I still have a few copies of this on CDr for sale or trade over at the Pointless Records distro, so get at me if you want a copy of this excellent noise release. Failing that, you can obviously go straight to Fuck The Industry, but I’d act quickly because this release is strictly limited to 50 copies only. There is also a super-rare edition rumoured to exist in DVD cases, with extra bonus tracks.

Anathema – A Fine Day To Exit (2001)

Anathema – A Fine Day To Exit (2001)

This is one of my favourite Anathema albums – if not my favourite out of them all (that I have heard). It was also the first “soft” Anathema record I got hold of after discovering the band didn’t play doom metal anymore. I spent a while worshipping the Serenades album, which was probably one of my first introductions to the ultra-slow and miserable side of doom metal. I was so excited to see the band play live at Download 2007, as they were one of the few decent acts on the line up. Having only heard Serenades, you could imagine the fucking shock I had when the band took to the stage (with Lee Douglas in tow, as I believe they were still touring A Natural Disaster at the time). It took me a while to adjust to these fancy English-folk with their flowery shirts and uplifting music, and A Fine Day To Exit helped me greatly to appreciate the softer side of music! For somebody who through 2007/2008 was pretty much 100% living and breathing shitty grindcore, A Fine Day… was one of my more experimental purchases, but it has through time cemented itself as one of my favourites. I don’t really listen to it that much, but when I am in the mood for it, there really isn’t anything else that can be accepted as a substitute.  Opener “Pressure” is epic as fuck, which a huge piano leading a stomping drum beat and soft vocals. Second track, “Release”, starts off all twinkly and acoustic but develops into something much more progressive and “rock-band” based. This song can really sum up what Anathema is all about! “Underworld” has one of the weirdest (and best) guitar riffs in the history of music and track seven, “Panic”, is one of my favourite songs of all time, sounding like an upbeat and slightly heavier (and a whole world less boring) Radiohead. I won’t go into every song here, but the four above are probably my favourites so I’ll just leave it at that. If you’ve never heard Anathema I implore you to check out the link below and chillax to the fuckin’ max. If you’re a regular on the metal or rock festival circuit, keep your eyes out for these charming gentlemen as they still seem to play a rather large amount of heavier festivals. I guess that’s where their roots are, as are a lot of their fans despite their softer sound, and whilst they do seem out of place sandwiched between the likes of Candlemass and Turisas etc., I promise you it will be a refreshing and eye opening break. 

Sunn O))) & Pan Sonic / Alan Vega / Stephen Burroughs – Split 10″ (2009)

Sunn O))) & Pan Sonic / Alan Vega / Stephen Burroughs – Split 10″ (2009)

This is a nifty little split 10″ that I keep forgetting I own. It’s in a plain white sleeve with a stamp like a club 12″ and recently until I separated my 10″ and 12″s onto different shelves I would keep losing it in the pile of vinyl that I have. The choice of artists appearing alongside each other here is pretty varied, but there isn’t a shit song on the entire thing. It spins at 45rpm so it doesn’t last very long but it’s a nice little cross section into the work of the featured artists. Side A is taken up entirely by Sunn O))) collaborating with Pan Sonic, making a slightly more higher pitched drone than usual, complete with brooding vocals and creepy as shit synths. The fat tones just build and build and then about half way through this full-blown organ-sounding synth kicks in and the entire thing becomes so epic that it’s just bloody brilliant. Side B begins with a fellow named Alan Vega, rambling on about “13 Crosses” over and over, accompanied by some spazz-happy electronics and a rabid audience. The first time I heard this I didn’t like it, but it eventually grew on me. Last but not least, Stephen Burroughs sings us a mournful tune with just an acoustic guitar. “Goodbye Darling” is a slow, sorrowful track that starts off great but kinda loses it’s way towards the end. It’s a great song, but I just think it goes on for too long. Also, I just can’t shake the thought that it was sound a thousand times better being sung by Michael Gira. Che by SUNN O))) & PAN SONIC

Hymen Holocaust – Hot Love (2010)

Hymen Holocaust – Hot Love (2010)

I suppose it was only a matter of time before Hymen Holocaust did an album for Rotten Roll; nasty European goregrind and that label go hand in hand! Hymen Holocaust is my favourite type of goregrind. Sure, it doesn’t blast a thousand times a minute, but it’s slow, heavy, nasty, watery as fuck and absolutely hanging. It’s what GUT should have “cumback” sounding like, give or take a nudge on the groove and porn factors. If you could only describe filthy as a sound…you’d get Hymen Holocaust, and I’m not talking “my girlfriend likes kissing other girls” filthy, I’m talking “piss on me and call me a whore” filthy. You read that right. The whole thing opens and closes with some creepy piano shit but other than that and the odd horror movie sample separating a few songs, the whole thing sounds like one big garbled mush. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I’m just saying there’s nothing really stand out here; it’s just one fairly short album of pure groovy goregrind and all the songs kinda blur together. Hymen Holocaust records only differ slightly from each one production wise, so people experienced with his/their works shouldn’t expect anything groundbreaking here, just more sloshy as fuck love anthems from some of Europe’s leading (red) lights in the goregrind scene. We demand more Hymen Holocaust!!! Grindcore is love!!!

Mushroomhead ‎– Savior Sorrow (2006)

Mushroomhead ‎– Savior Sorrow (2006)

When Mushroomhead dragged themselves out of the Ohio backwaters onto the international “nu-metal” stage back in 2001, they presented metal fans around the world with a fresh and somewhat confusing sound. Mushroomhead’s diversity is what made them so exciting; the infamous live shows, the crazy costumes, the “metal/is it metal?” thing they had going on – not to mention they had managed to sell over 80,000 copies of their first three albums entirely by word of mouth and from touring. It really is a fucking mystery how it took Mushroomhead eight years, three albums and a remix compilation to get signed. When Slipknot etc. exploded in 1999, the band felt that it’s image had been stolen, but anyone with even the slightest bit of positive foresight could see that the way was now paved for masked crusaders, and it did not take long for Mushroomhead to rise from local oddities to “fame” on an international scale. Roll on five years to 2006, and the music industry is done with Mushroomhead. “Nu-metal” collapsed, just like any other trend. If your band didn’t have a bunch of black fringes and tight girl jeans you were fucked at any chance of success in metal, unless you could emulate a sound like Killswitch Engage. Mushroomhead were dropped from their major label (Universal), a fact I think they were actually happy about – and it was back to business as usual for the band; self-producing a record and keeping on touring. And then, as a crushing blow to mega-fans such as myself, vocalist J Mann quit the band. Mushroomhead quickly recruited another local performer, Waylon Reavis, as his replacement. In what seemed like no time at all, Mushroomhead were pushing a new album; Savior Sorrow. Holy fuck, I was excited! Despite the sheer pressure against them, one step forward two steps back and all that, the band had followed through and actually made a new album! Only, something was missing. Imagine the following said in the voice of Chris Tucker’s character from the Friday movie; “Daaaaaaayum ‘Head, you got lazy!” Savior Sorrow is an absolute ocean of mediocrity: an ocean of bad redneck metal meeting crappy, half-arsed keyboard playing. Did J Mann really hold so much influence over the whole band? Because with him gone….Christ, they fucking suck! The whole dynamic that Mann and second vocalist Nothing shared is what made Mushroomhead, alongside the keyboard / synth driven messes that the band called songs. The keyboards here are stripped back to barely fuck all, as are Nothing’s strained melodic wails, placing newcomer Reavis as the apparent focal point, a strange move considering the success of previous record XIII was mostly due to heavier songs led with Nothing’s incredible vocal performances. Reavis isn’t bad at all, it’s just he is the full front-man package; singing, screaming, shouting, growling, and rendering Jeffery Nothing (sadly) useless. If I heard Mushroomhead for the first time with this record, I’d be like “what is the purpose of this other “Nothing” guy? He’s better, but why is he even there?” Despite everything, there are a few good songs here. This is Mushroomhead after all, and no matter how awful they have become, they can’t help but accidentally churn out something awesome. But that’s it. Other than that I cannot shake Savior Sorrow from being the album that ruined my favourite band for me. At the time this dropped I started listening to a whole world of grindcore and death metal, and this just couldn’t compare. Somehow, this record was also pressed on vinyl, but there is no fucking way I’m buying it again, ever. If my collection was destroyed in a fire I wouldn’t replace Savior Sorrow. In fact, if my copy was destroyed by fire I think the world would be a better place.

Swans – Love Of Life / Amnesia (1992)

Swans – Love Of Life / Amnesia (1992)

This little remix EP accompanied the release of the Love of Life album by Swans back in 1992. It makes things a touch confusing whilst researching online as both 12″s have the same title. It takes two tracks from that record, and pairs them alongside “long versions”, which are essentially drawn-out, more atmospheric takes on the classic original tracks. This “single” isn’t particularly rare, but at the same time it isn’t very easy to find either. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but don’t expect these to fall off trees. Despite this, you can still get it fairly cheap (expect to pay around £15). I found my copy buried in among all the crap at Kelly’s Records in Cardiff market, much to my delight. This will eventually go inside my Love of Life black box set, which to date is still missing a record (White Light). When I get a copy of White Light I’ll do a separate review for that as well and then do the Love of Life album review + box set overlook in another post, probably as something special like the 1000th post or something (2020 edit: the 1000th post didn’t end up being Swans related). The title track remix doesn’t really offer much, just drawing out the track a bit more and adding a weird funk to it, as well as a strange dance beat. When it kicks in proper, it has more time to unfold that the 3-minutes-or-so album version, but it does get a bit repetitive after 6 minutes. The “Amnesia” remix however is totally brilliant. It takes the drum pattern and extends it, filling the void with hellish screams, horns, mysterious sounds and Jarboe’s haunting vocals. The original version of “Amnesia” is so short and to the point for a Swans song, so this creepy atmospheric version definitely feels more like the real thing! Both remixes were done by a guy called Martin Bisi, who runs a recording studio in New York with Bill Laswell (the guy who produced The Burning World (2020 edit: and a general all round genius)), and the 12″ was put out by Gira’s own label, Young God Records. You check out both extended remix tracks below. Get in! 

Carnival of Carnage – Chilli Con Carnage (2011)

Carnival of Carnage – Chilli Con Carnage (2011)

Carnival of Carnage appears to be a pre-Tumour project of Rogore (ex-LDOH). As far as I can tell it was a fairly short lived affair, with one album, one EP and one live 7″ (this) (2021 edit: the band have a lot more releases than this, I suspect Discogs just hadn’t been updated). It’s pretty cool to listen to, it’s like Tumour with a full band and a bit more of a groove. I don’t know if I necessarily would have bought this record if I’d known it was a live 7″ (I’m always the best at researching beforehand) but it’s out on Bringer of Gore and is cheap as chips, so no worries there. For cruddily-recorded goregrind fans only.

Insane Clown Posse – The Wraith; Remixes (2006)

Insane Clown Posse – The Wraith; Remixes (2006)

How else can a band cash in on what was supposed to be their final album? Remember, the story went that after the sixth joker card fell…….well nobody fuckin’ knew what was going to happen, so they needed to milk that shit, let’s be fair. The Wraith itself was split into two separate albums and released two years apart, and then this remix album came trailing behind a few years later. It is no secret that anything post-joker card ICP is fucking abysmal, so this is the most recent ICP release in my possession. If it was just any ol’ remix album I wouldn’t have bothered, but when ICP used a whole world of different producers on the two Wraith albums, it just didn’t sit well with me. I think they are excellent albums; comedic “horrorcore” rap at it’s best, but from what I had read and found out, Mike E. Clark – who produced pretty much every single ICP release before The Wraith – was basically the backbone of the sound that made ICP famous; that sick carnival vibe mixed with the old-skool stylings of the early 90s. On The Wraith; Remixes, Mr. Clark has returned to the chair for seven of the tracks, basically re-arranging them into the wickedness they would have been if he was at the helm from the start! This also confirmed to me that there was no bad blood between ICP and Mike Clark, which was great news. Mike Clark’s remixes are generally of a rather high quality, as are those by the Kottonmouth Kings and Monoxide from Twiztid. Kuma’s mixes here seem a bit forced, like he is trying to make the tracks into completely different songs. Unfortunately, Fritz the Cat, the guy who gave us the heavy and dark production on Hell’s Pit, just churns out more of the same; stripping back his own tracks and lashing on more evil vibes. I get it though, it works for him. Mind you, it’s cool to hear his take on some of the Shangri-La tracks. Also, Wolf Pac & FILTHEE Immigrants both contribute seriously awesome mixes to disc one, but my favourite of the lot is Tech N9ne’s reworking of “The Witch”. All in all this is definitely a completists item, or unless you’re some sort of DJ or hip hop head who loves the remix shits. What is really refreshing here is that in some of the songs alternate verses are used instead; sometimes they are ones that were recorded at the time of the original record and then cut out, or a few times fresh new lyrics are worked in by the producer or a guest rapper of their choice. All the usual Psychopathic artists show up vocally here, like Blaze, Jumpsteady, Zug Island and ABK. Unsurprisingly, this double album was released by Psychopathic Records in America, and by Cortex in Australia. 

Necro Tampon / Gonorrhea Pussy – Split CD (2007)

Necro Tampon / Gonorrhea Pussy – Split CD (2007)

This was one of the first goregrind splits I ever got hold of, so therefore it holds a very special place in my heart (ha ha). Both bands seem to have fallen into obscurity these days, but this is still worth talking about. It’s maybe not the longest CD in the world, but it’s still worth getting if you see it around. If you are interested in groovy, nasty goregrind in any way I strongly recommend it. The fantastically named Gonorrhoea Pussy start things off. The mix is a bit strange at first, sounding very hollow, and it takes a while to get used to. The drums are very high up in the mix and possibly a little too treated, whilst the guitar is fuzzy and muddy. The vocals are of the usual pitchshifted stock, although different enough to keep purists interested. It doesn’t really matter though, once you start feeling that groove you want to start dancing around like a cretin, and that is the only seal of approval I need. The intro and outro tracks alone are just samples (although the first has some instrumental parts), bringing the GxPx tracklisting down to just three songs, which are over far too quickly. Necro Tampon are a bit more chaotic in their approach, but still share the muddy, nasty rehearsal room sound of GxPx. Necro Tampon are also a bit faster, and their drummer seems more partial to playing something outside of the 4/4 beat. The guitars are absolutely absymal (and I mean that in the nicest way possible), reminding more of Anal Cunt than any names from the goregrind world. They play a few more tracks than GxPx, but again their turn comes to a close fairly swiftly as well. This was released by the excellent German label / distro Rotten Roll Rex, more commonly known as RRR. As they have recently redesigned their shopfront, now is a good a time as ever to click on that link and have a gander a whole world of grindcore.