Lines In Wax

TWELVE YEARS OF UNWANTED OPINION

Year: 2014

Esham – KKKill The Fetus (1993)
hip hop

Esham – KKKill The Fetus (1993)

I’ve really been digging Esham recently. Well, I’ve always loved this guy (one of the few positive things to come out of my teenage obsession with ICP) but I discovered that a whole bunch of his albums are streaming on Spotify, which is absolutely great news because a ton of his early works contained a pile of uncleared sampling and are therefore seemingly forever confined to the “out of print” section of music industry hell. Asides from downloading some awful torrent files or picking up an overpriced CD when it sprang up on eBay or Discogs, Youtube was the only way to really hear these old Esham gems. Until now. I’m sure this sample-thievery will catch up with The Boogeyman sooner or later though (edit: Closed Casket, my favourite Esham record, has already disappeared off Spotify). KKKill The Fetus is a close second though, in degrees of “Tha Wicket Shit”. Perhaps unsurprisingly, KKKill The Fetus is a dark and somewhat vulgar hip hop record that gives off puzzling overtones of violence and misogyny. This is acid rap after all, but I fear sometimes Esham’s message is clouded in an attempt to be shocking and offensive; in his early work, at least. The title-track is a perfect example, what should indicate a full support of a woman’s choice to terminate or not becomes a hamfisted hatefuck of an attack against the black lower class, and seems almost to glorify or even revel in the actual process of killing a fetus. Granted, Esham can say what the fuck he likes – it’s his album – but I’m getting mixed messages here. If you’ve not heard Esham before this older material can be pretty abrasive compared to most hip hop (and no, hipsters; not in the way that Death Grips does it). The entire ICP sound can be attributed to “Game Of Death” featuring Mastamind. To be honest, the similarities here are uncanny. “Game Of Death” could easily have been on one of the first ICP records. It’s easy to see how Esham has turned bitter towards the duo in recent years, as they basically built their success off of his and his peer’s backs. Nevertheless, this is a pillar in the history of underground hip hop. Without this record there’d may well be no Eminem, and most definitely no Insane Clown Posse.

Emeralds – Does It Look Like I’m Here? (2010)
electronic

Emeralds – Does It Look Like I’m Here? (2010)

‘Scuse the lack of posting guys and gals – it’s that time of year again where I fall off. Just had to drop in to share this post though; one of the most positive and uplifting records I’ve heard in a while. I’ve been craving fresh, new musical experiences lately in amongst flying about being mental-busy, and I’ve been journeying to musical realms that I’ve rarely touched up in the past. I heard of Emeralds for the first time in, of all places, a Pitchfork top 100 list. Bored in work one day I did a drive-by sweep of their 100 best between 2010-2014, and tried to pick out stuff that looked interesting, perplexing, awesome or just not-too-hipstery. Emeralds was one of those bands. Whilst the fact that it appeared in a Pitchfork listing in the first place doesn’t do much to defend it’s non-hipster credentials, I don’t really give a shit because Does It Look Like I’m Here? is one of the nicest things I’ve heard in a while. It is a composition, a series of miniature musical scores, that really bring in some fantastic vibes and feels throughout the entire album. The songs flow with immense fluidity, and the long, bubbling synthesizer passages are nothing short of complete audible delight. This is watching a city come alive at 5am music. This is power-walking through that final 100 meters to the mountain peak kinda music. I’d also say that this is pretty cerebral and would recommend it for tripping too, as it’s extremely immersive and enveloping without being at all threatening or aggressive.

Gangliocytoma – Glioblastoma Multiforme Tumors Generally Characterized By The Presence Of Small Areas Of Necrotizing Tissue (2013)
grindcore

Gangliocytoma – Glioblastoma Multiforme Tumors Generally Characterized By The Presence Of Small Areas Of Necrotizing Tissue (2013)

Gangliocytoma is a drum machine grindcore project that mixes razor sharp guitar work with the muddy blurs of gorenoise and goregrind. Expect relentless drum machine barrages, endless guitar explosions and then on top of it all the signature goregrind watery bowels explusion. Despite the mile-a-second goregrind relentlessness, riffs are actually present and audible. Fancy that! It’s not a very long release, yet it’s only a demo so I wouldn’t expect hours of material. But hey, it’s another wicked-rediculous goregrind project entering into this world and I am super OK with that.

Cradle Of Filth – Total Fucking Darkness (2014)
death metal

Cradle Of Filth – Total Fucking Darkness (2014)

When I first heard of this reissue I was all like – Fuuuuuuuu-u-u-u-u-uck that shit. The price being charged for a copy of this remastered old demo was nothing short of total fucking extortion (kek). I think the fact that it took the almighty unit-shifting Cradle of Filth a month or two to sell the 666 vinyl copies of this album shows that I was not alone in this way of thinking. If a band as big and successful (in the metal world) as Cradle can’t shift around six hundred limited edition records, then something is wrong. Cradle fans aren’t Sunn O))) fans with wallets bursting with cash for limited vinyl from the salaries of ICT or marketing jobs. Cradle fans are (generally) teenagers, who have little to no money. So yep; a farcical cash in on a piece of shit recording the band did when they were kids. Or is it? Despite being put off by the grubby money grabbing tactics surrounding this release, it sounds absolutely fantastic! If you’ve ever been tempted to foray in the world of Cradle’s early tape demos you will surely sympathise with me when I say it’s a complete waste of time. You get a brief outline of the death-metal-with-keyboards outfit the band was in its inception, but serious listening is rendered nigh on impossible by the abysmal production / tape duplication quality. So the clarity presented finally to these cobweb-encrusted gothic nightmares is extremely welcome. I’m just not willing to take out a second mortgage to permanently own them.

Bong – Stoner Rock (2013)
avant-garde doom metal

Bong – Stoner Rock (2013)

What part of this release constitutes as ‘rock’ I’m not entirely sure, but Bong have got the ‘stoner’ part of the title 100% correct. Well, with a name like Bong would more would you expect? Such a simple yet fathomless name can only lend itself to a simple (in theory) yet fathomless (in practice) sound. Bong is music for those who aren’t afraid to sit tight and experience the long haul; the great build up, the magic of the meandering drone into a stoned culmination of noise and bliss. Yes. It certainly made the inane task of steaming spilt coffee / beer / questionable substances off my beige sofa a much more enjoyable  task. For when you want your mundane housework to become a mystical journey into the arcane, I recommend Bong. Don’t be fooled by the 2 track running time, these are enormous stoned monuments of fuzz.

Suicide – Suicide (1977)
punk & hardcore rock

Suicide – Suicide (1977)

Well, this is… different. I’m aware of the influential impact that Suicide and Mr. Alan Vega have had on some of my favourite artists, so it was only fair that in time I go back even further and plumb those original depths. After a bit of research, and conversing among friends, I came to rest on Suicide’s debut album; a puzzling affair of cheap synths, almost early Lou Reed-like vocals and linear narrative and repetition that no doubt cemented the foundations for the no wave genre. Despite the, how should I put it, homely style of synths, the overall recording is pretty flat and claustrophobic. Song subject matter ranges from comic book crushes, to the monotony and crushing feeling of entrapment in Western life (for the working class, at least). Each song does hold it’s own unique vibe and atmosphere, which is quite the achievement for something so linear.  “Frankie Teardrop” is probably my favourite song here. I was unaware that “Che” was originally by Suicide (I love the Sunn O))) version), and I am impressed that it still packs quite a punch without two guitars and thousands of pounds worth of amplification equipment. All in all, I’m glad I made the listen, and I do appreciate what’s going on here, I just don’t think it’s for me. Not yet.

Main – Motion Pool (1994)
electronic noise & power electronics

Main – Motion Pool (1994)

Main is a band that was formed by two members of Loop, including Robert Hampson who was also in Godflesh for a little bit (he played on the Pure album). Main, to me, appears to be some sort of experimental industrial-tinged ambient project that places heavily effected guitar work into a world of noises and other creepy atmospheres. (2021 edit: G C Green of Godflesh also plays on this particular album) And that, essentially, is what Motion Pool is all about. It’s a great, minimal listen for chilling the day away with something a little different. In one sitting it can be a bit hard to differentiate when one track ends and other begins, but then again, I am an idiot, so that’s probably not a fact. You can get this in a digipak CD or even a pretty fancy triple LP package, but a lot of Main stuff is now available on Spotify (oh revered bringer of music!) so you’ve got no excuse; have a go!

Merzbow – Sphere (2005)
noise & power electronics

Merzbow – Sphere (2005)

Look, Sphere is one of my favourite Merzbow releases. Granted, I have in no way shape or form heard them all, but of the ones that I have heard, Sphere is high up there among the best. The three Sphere tracks are pulsing, blooping, bleeping harsh displays of spherical madness. I’m not entirely sure why the tracks were even broken up in the first place, but hey – what do I know. My favourite though is the final track – “Untitled for Vasteras” (which itself is a title – LOLbow) – which is a nigh-on-30-minute disasterpiece of tinnitus-inducing proportions. Can’t really say much more than that about a harsh noise release in a literally fucking endless discography of one project. Long live Merzbow, of course, but for once I am at a loss for words. Enter the sphere! *que Crystal Maze-style music*. 

P.L.F. – Ultimate Whirlwind Of Incineration (2014)
grindcore

P.L.F. – Ultimate Whirlwind Of Incineration (2014)

Ah, good ol’ PLF. Is that Palestine Liberation Front? Pretty Little Flower? Princess Louise Fusiliers? Penguin Liberation Front? Parachute Landing Fall? Pulverizing Lethal Force? Phillip Lewis Fowler? Ha! According to an actual expert that I saw posting in the Youtube comments section (oh, ye exalted one!) the official story is that the band began as Pretty Little Flower, but are now known as Pulverizing Lethal Force. To be honest, they’ve always been known as PLF and idiots like me will continue to make up silly combinations of what those letters might stand for. Anyways, their fans can’t be that pedantic because there is still only one Discogs page for PLF, rather than two separate ones for Pretty Little Flower and Pulverizing Lethal Force. Annnnnnnnyway, this album is, rather expectedly, the absolute fucking dogs bollocks. For everyone who goes “man, I wish there was a band out there that sounds like Insect Warfare” I say “dude, do you even grindcore, bro? DO YOU EVEN GRINDCORE? BRO!?”. Thanks to Earache Records’ continuous spamming of the “only grind record to be as good as Scum” (“do you even grindcore, Earache? Or perhaps you’ve gone a bit deaf in your old age!”) every person with an At The Gates t-shirt now has a passing interest in grindcore (read: Insect Warfare). Stop listening to what Earache have to say and listen to me! My opinion is more credible because my hands aren’t in the pockets of this band. Stop playing World Extermination 40 times a day and listen to this shit! For fuck sake! Sigh… For me though, this is yet another gem in the rough underground of the grind world, and another seriously high calibre bullet on the clip that is PLF (Pissy Little Fart?). Push aside for a time your Exhumed, Napalm Death, Rotten Sound, Pig Destroyer and Nasum. It is time for another grind band to ascend to that level. And that band is PLF (Pretentious Linesinwax Fanboying). Press Le Fuckinbutton! (2021 Edit: There used to be an album link to go with this pun)

Sockweb – Werewolf (2014)
grindcore

Sockweb – Werewolf (2014)

A call on a grindcore group on Facebook for female-front grindcore bands returned the usual list of suspects for someone too lazy to use a search engine, but nestled in that list were two bands I’d never heard of previously, so I guess I’m a bit of a twat for just knocking the Facebook post, but what are you gonna do? Anyway, one of those bands is Sockweb (I’ll get to the other in another post), who I believe are a world-first, being a father/ daughter grindcore duo from this lovely sovereign isle of ours (2021 edit: the band was American, not British). Whilst it matches the super-polished, razor-wire death metal end of the spectrum rather than the messy DIY punk end of grind, it’s still a ridiculously heavy, sharp and enjoyable listen for grindfreaks around the globe. What might blow your mind more than anything is that Sockweb’s vocalist is a seven year old girl. And whilst it feels a bit weird using bad language to describe how awesome a child is, this is primarily an extreme music blog so I think I can safely say – this kid is fucking awesome. The vocals are, for the most part, shrill yelps of insane, feral venom, made even more entertaining that she’s blowing a gasket over mangling someone up in monkey bars, or beating up bullies, instead of the usual subject matter for this genre. The icing on the cake here is that little Joanie writes all of the lyrics for Sockweb herself. Musically, multi-instrumentalist Dad (aka Blackula) is tighter than the proverbial duck’s rear end, and with a sweet mastering job by Scott Hull, this is an enormous sounding record. Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s Kat also makes a guest vocal appearance on the album. (2021 edit: it’s worth noting that unfortunately, the dad in the duo, Adam Young, passed away by committing suicide, leaving a sad and unshakeable shadow over the small body of Sockweb’s work. Joanie would be around 14 years of age by now, and I hope she’s doing OK.)

Nadja – Numbness (2009)
doom metal electronic

Nadja – Numbness (2009)

This is the first time I’ve actually successfully sat through an entire Nadja album. They definitely made delivering kebabs and pizza an ethereal experience, I can say that much. Numbness is like many other releases in the sizeable Nadja catalogue; ridiculously fuzzy, enormously slow, miserable yet hopeful and just a little bit pretentious. Numbness offers (to me) nothing new; it is simply Nadja for Nadja’s sake. Depending on how much you like Nadja, you may or may not be in for a treat. If you’re secretly hoping for the band to mix it up a little bit from the usual template, then you might as well uncross your fingers now. This duo are the Agathocles of the ‘slow and moody’ universe. This isn’t to say that Numbness is a particularly bad album – it’s actually very enjoyable – it’s just that it genuinely baffles me how Nadja can release so much of this stuff sounding all the same yet still be able to craft new and genuine songs from it? Surely there is only so much you can do with a drum kit, a synth that apparently plays only one note and a bass guitar that sounds like radio static pumped through a sunn O))) amplifier. At times songs resemble something altogether more Jesu, and others sound almost like Merzbow fell asleep on the lower-end of a keyboard. Closing track “Numb”, which builds slowly and with menacing purpose, was set to be my favourite track, until some crazy effect on the drums kinda ruined it for me. Honestly don’t know what to make of this. Really on the fence with Nadja. Guess I just gotta be in the mood to listen to them, which is very, very rare. If you know and love what Nadja is all about though, you’ll fucking love this.  

Cintecele Diavolui – The Devil’s Songs (1996)
dungeon synth

Cintecele Diavolui – The Devil’s Songs (1996)

This is probably one of the more bizarre things that I have bought recently. Cintecele Diavolui is an old alias / side project that was used by Mortiis in the mid/late 90s when he was deep into making mainly dark ambient synth and keyboard based music, or as he called it – Dark Dungeon Music. Cintecele Diavolui is a pretty cool name in my opinion. The phrase means “The Devil’s Songs” in Romanian, which is also, rather coincidentally, the name of this 10″ mini-album. The five tracks here are spooky, and a little cooky; dark and suspenseful writing portrayed through the slightly cheesy classic-horror medium of synthetic organ sounds. The record claims that the music here isn’t performed by Mortiis as such, but by an old vampire called Vukodlak, who Mortiis “brought to life” for this release. Make of that what you will. Musically, it is a charming yet cheap sounding record. It depends on entirely how you approach listening to the thing, and the same goes for all of Mortiis’ ‘Era 1’ output; if you can get past the fact that this sounds like it has been composed using the shittiest of the shit MIDI keyboard sounds in existence, then you will probably really enjoy it. These quirky, bargain-basement instrumentations can be over-looked on sprawling works such as Født Til Å Herske, Keiser Av En Dimensjon Ukjent and Ånden Som Gjorde Opprør, but The Devil’s Songs suffers with the same ailment as The Crypt Of The Wizard’s material; once the composition is broken down into smaller tracks with more active instrumentation you can’t really ignore the shoddiness of the equipment used. It feels like music on a really old video game. I suppose that the tackiness to the sound really adds to the overall atmosphere, but if you are familiar with the early Mortiis works listed above, please do not expect Cintecele Diavolui to possess the same haunting and depthless darkness. All in all, The Devil’s Songs isn’t a bad record in any way, the writing is fantastic, it’s just that the method of delivery used could have been more inventive. If you hated The Crypt Of The Wizard era Mortiis, then it’s a safe bet you won’t like this. Considering this isn’t a canon Mortiis release and was marketed as an entirely different project of “vampire music”, it would have been super, super awesome if this was played on a real church organ or something, for extra spooky and spine-chilling effect. But, it is what it is. This was self-released by Mortiis back in the day, using his Dark Dungeon Music label. I would say that this is probably for fanatic-level fans only. Like I said, if you’re not too fussed on the Era 1 stuff then I wouldn’t bother checking this out. Otherwise, tuck in! Does insane, Legosi-accented vampire laugh

Lull – Moments (1998)
electronic noise & power electronics

Lull – Moments (1998)

Lull is another Mick Harris project, one I believe that he worked on between Scorn releases back in the day. Lull takes pages from the book of Lustmord; extremely minimal yet puzzlingly fulfilling compositions of sound, often devoid of any noticeable instrumentation, pummelling you instead with lulling ambience (no pun intended) and claustrophobic barrages of atmosphere. Moments then, is the stifling ambient soundscape of choice for those with a short attention span. Instead of the usually lengthy tracks that come hand in hand with this sort of thing, Moments splits these aural passages into 99, er, moments, I guess. Some last mere seconds, and without a single one of them reaching three minutes, you’d be forgiven for mistaking this to be a short release, but alas it is not. Each piece of the puzzle falls together create an entire whole, something which can be a bit of an issue if you burn this into .mp3 format or download it off the internet – those little millisecond gaps between songs will absolutely ruin this listening experience for you. It’s hard to believe but each of the 99 tracks here are different. It’s like an ever-changing aural landscape, that whilst being as flat as Holland, does vary greatly in weather and atmospheric pressure.

Killing Joke – In Dub (2014)
reggae, dub & soul rock

Killing Joke – In Dub (2014)

I like Killing Joke and I like dub (be that dub reggae or the same remixing technique applied to other genres) but I’ve got to be in the mood for both, so there’s no surprise that I aurally inhaled this gargantuan release in one entire sitting. It took some doing as In Dub is 3 hours long, and contains several remixes of the same few songs. I’m not sure when I’ll actually ever come back to this release again, but I did enjoy it, and it is (surprisingly) more than just a remix album. Killing Joke’s average song structure just begs to be reworked in a rub-a-dub style, meng. I never really noticed it before, but the beats are really groovy. Jaz Coleman’s voice fits the echoic, stoned dubs perfectly. Some of the remixes of “Ghosts of Ladbroke Grove” are simply ethereal. “Eighties” is much sparser here, almost as if sung and performed by ghosts of that decade. Classic! Some of the tracks have genuine reggae elements added to them too, which is just lovely. I almost went to see one of the live shows on the In Dub tour, but when I found out it was just Youth on the stage and not the entire band I decided to be a good slave to the system and not anger my boss by requesting even more time off. What can you do, eh? Skin up, breh.

Aphex Twin – Syro (2014)
electronic

Aphex Twin – Syro (2014)

The hype for hhis record has been unstoppable for the last few months, and rightly so, due to the solid consistency of quality albums that The Aphex Twin has churned out over his long and unusual career. On top of that, Syro is the first Aphex Twin release in 13 years, so to say this album had a lot to live up to would be a bit of an understatement. Luckily, Richard D. James has never really been the type of musical genius that likes to disappoint. He might astound you, puzzle you, or even scare you, but he hasn’t let anyone down yet. Syro epically cements this fact. Syro takes The Aphex Twin back to a more Analord-based sound. Nonsensical song titles (actually I’m sure they make sense to a certain crazy someone haha) reveal forward thinking, yet AFX-roots-worshipping sounds. I can imagine this ringing out on Spotify players in student housing around the world, or in the murky interiors of some of Amsterdam’s hipper cannabis coffeeshops. For me though, it’s the perfect music to get shit done to (high or otherwise). AFX’s Analord series was always my music of choice whilst working in kitchens, keeping me relaxed yet suitably buzzed enough to make it through the working day in one piece. Syro is just a much more polished and refined version of that. It is as close to perfection as electronic music can get, for now. I don’t say that lightly, either.

Voïvod – Phobos (1997)
metal thrash metal

Voïvod – Phobos (1997)

I’ve never really been into Voïvod. I even tried to witness the band play all of Dimension Hatröss at Roadburn Festival 2012, which is hosted in Tilburg’s 013, a venue with arguably the best sound in the world, and I still couldn’t get into it. I just don’t get it – is it thrash? Is it prog wankery? Is it a tired display of both? Phobos though, blew my fucking head off. It works better as background music (I don’t mean that disrespectfully, but most metal just goes in one ear and out the other these days, unless I’m high or something) but it’s a chunky, hard-hitting, more-metal-than-metal journey. Everything I thought Voïvod wasn’t. Typically it turns out that this album is from an “iffy” mid-period in Voïvod’s history that most fans avoid like the plague. All the power to them, I say – you keep enjoying those dodgy stoner rock records they did with Jason Newstead and I’ll keep blasting this epic sci fi record. The reason this album sounds so different from normal Voïvod is that theoretically only half the band performed on it. The usual bassist and vocalist were replaced for a time by Eric Forrest, who took over both duties. His harder vocal delivery really makes this (and the Negatron album) stand out in the extensive Voïvod back catalogue. Some REAL sci-thrash, motherfuckers!!!

Mushroomhead ‎– The Righteous & The Butterfly (2014)
metal

Mushroomhead ‎– The Righteous & The Butterfly (2014)

So I finally took the plunge and came around to dealing with this record. *Deep breath* After the absolute stink-fest of Savior Sorrow and the suicide-inducing snooze-fest of Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children, I had all but given up hope on Mushroomhead. Then I heard J Mann would be guesting on the latest record. And then I heard that the plan to collaborate had been scrapped and J Mann had returned permanently. Fuck! And then, finally, this album dropped. I pretty much went about doing everything in my power to try and ignore it, until I started reading about how this new shit is gonna please all the old fans; how the band have brought back so much of their old-school vibe. It wasn’t just band interviews; fans on forums, Facebook and the landfill that is Youtube’s comments section also chipped in ecstatically that this was the case. So I listened. Yes, there is heaps of old school Mushroomhead in this. Fucking heaps! The keyboards take on a more carnival vibe, and there’s even rapping again, for fuck sake! I can’t tell you how awesome it is to hear rapping in metal music again (never thought I’d say that). There’s a few trying-too-hard-to-be-part-of-the-8-string-crowd tracks which do absolutely nothing for me, and if I’m honest I was enormously surprised at how shit this record isn’t (I’m not counting the Adele cover with a dubstep drop in the chorus – I’m just going to blot that out of existence). But – and it’s a big but – jesus chriiiiiist this shit is a mess. J Mann rejoined, but Waylon also remained. I mean no disrespect to any of the vocalists for Mushroomhead, because they are all amazing, but there simply isn’t enough room here for three of them. It doesn’t help that when Waylon is screaming, he sounds almost identical to Mann. The whole thing that made Mushroomhead work was the unique dynamic between J Mann’s lows and Jeffery Nothing’s extremely identifiable voice. Waylon is a phenomenal front man, boasting a veritable arsenal of vocal styles, but there just isn’t room on these quirky three or four minuters for three separate vocalists. Throw in vocal appearances from Skinny’s new girlfriend and 10,000 Cadillac’s Jus Mic, and everybody is literally fighting for space to spit. It’s ridiculous, to be frank. Nevertheless, I believe that The Righteous And The Butterfly is a step in the right direction for a phenomenally talented band that has been wasting itself on boring redneck metal for nearly a decade. TL;DR version – a million times better than both previous stinkers combined, but still a bit of a mess. But you gotta admit they still look cool as shit – probably cooler looking than ever, actually.

Korn – Korn (1994)
metal

Korn – Korn (1994)

It sometimes seems a bit detrimental to do reviews on albums that are really old, but as I trawl through covering a little bit about every piece of music in my collection (yes, that’s still an aim of Lines In Wax, despite the recent abolition of reviewing individual formats) it becomes an inevitability. A lot of people can take or leave Korn. In fact, I know tons of people who absolutely hate Korn. But, this album had a massive effect on the metal and alternative scenes in the early 90s. Maybe not as much as Korn would like to think (Jon D reckons Korn laid the template for dubstep, for fuck sake), but it can be blamed for cementing the nu-metal genre fully into existence and starting a mainstream craze in down-tuning guitars. You can also blame this record for Sepultura’s Roots. Uch. Korn is a rough but disciplined record. It has messy, raw metal hanging off a military-precise hip hop backbone, with Jon Davis attempting a more grunge-style vocal approach here than the famous whines and barking sounds that he would later become renown for. “Blind” introduced the unsuspecting world to the sound of Korn, whilst “Clown” was not only just another single but my favourite track off this album. There’s also the hat-trick of “Predictable”, “Fake” and “Lies” that lead towards the controversial, monstrous closing track, “Daddy”. I’m still not sure to this day if I like “Daddy” or not, but this album (or even Korn) would not be the same without this track. All in all, Korn’s self-titled is a classic (or is that Klassic?) for me, and a definite staple in the evolution of metal music. It might have led to some pretty drastic music over the next decade or so (rap metal? Uch…) but it still gets the odd semi-regular spin. I’m looking forward to the 20th anniversary tour for this album – even if it doesn’t come near me, I’d love to hear the band play through it again 20 years older and (presumably) wiser. Are you ready?

Mortiis – The Song Of A Long Forgotten Ghost (1993)
dungeon synth

Mortiis – The Song Of A Long Forgotten Ghost (1993)

Out of all the early Mortiis ambient keyboard pieces, The Song Of A Long Forgotten Ghost is probably the one that I am least familiar with, which is a crying shame because it’s a truly beautiful piece of music. Sometimes I wish I had the patience to put something like this together but I have to accept that I just can’t play the piano, organ, synth or what-have-you without any practice or training haha Early Mortiis conjures images of lands lost and shrouded in mystery and intrigue; of misty fjords and leaden skies; crumbling castles and times gone by. Yeah. My favourite way to jam early Mortiis when I was younger was to import all of his Era 1 stuff into the sound files for games such as TES III: Morrowind and the likes, and have them as my soundtrack for exploring fantastical worlds. Some of my most affectionate memories of the times spent in those games stem from extremely moving scores such as this. Sad? Yes. Nerdy? Yes. But, it was fucking awesome. I don’t normally get that nerdy, but I enjoyed it immensely. This impossible-to-find gem has been re-released on a series of formats, most notably vinyl and CD, or even a CD-book in a variety of pretty colours. You can even pick up some signed by Mortiis direct from the man himself if you’ve got a few extra quid spare. It’s artists like Mortiis that make me sad to be parting ways with my physical record collection. Anyways, I implore you listen to the original demo tape recording over any reissue you may come across – the sound here is absolutely amazing; including tape wobbles and treble heavy sound. It’s not perfect, but it’s so goddamn amazing. Lose yourself in another world!

Archagathus – Dehumanizer (2014)
grindcore

Archagathus – Dehumanizer (2014)

Archagathus are currently one of my favourite things at the moment, especially as I gear up for catching them on their European tour with the equally fucking amazing Six Brew Bantha. You could say that Archagathus came up on this whole mince-gore crossover trend that’s going on, but if Dehumanizer shows us anything, it’s that the band have converged these two genres from opposite ends of the spectrum (as far as grind is concerned, at least) and shat them out into their own very unique style. Expect the clarity, speed and punky-edge from modern grind, mixed with the bottomless pits of gurgly shifted vocals, horrendous shrieks and the odd sneaky little tupa tupa moment from the goregrind side of things. I don’t wanna detract from the rest of the band, but the vocals make this shit. Death growls, pitchshifter lows, Kevin Sharp impressions, and even something (or should I say someone) who sounds like the fucking parrot from Hatebeak. It’s a bit overwhelming at first, but surprisingly it doesn’t sound at all messy, everything has it’s place and it all comes together with lethal precision, and thankfully, without overloading the mix. This full-length is only currently available on the perhaps unusual format of double cassette, thanks to a collab between Twisted Truth and Grindfather Productions (2021 edit: it came out on 12″ and CD also in 2014). But yeah – lessons in how to do grindcore 101 – first lesson – listen to fucking Archagathus.

Magrudergrind – Crusher (2010)
grindcore

Magrudergrind – Crusher (2010)

The boys in Magrudergrind seem to always catch an awful lot of flak for “selling out”, perhaps more so than any band that’s done this Scion A/V shit. I’m not gonna go into the bands dodgy appearance on a crappy TV show, I’m focussing entirely on the Scion thing here. I don’t understand why I never hear anybody slagging off Wormrot for doing the same thing? Wormrot’s Noise EP is up on some revered grind-pedestal, which I’m glad for, because it’s awesome, but what makes them so different? Why do Magrudergrind catch it in the neck so much over this shit? If some useless car company wants to pump money into releasing grindcore music (for free) then what’s the issue? Nobody’s making you buy a fucking car. Anyways, Crusher is awesome. It’s everything you/we/I love about Magrudergrind rolled up into a nice 11 minute package. I don’t think anything’ll ever top the self titled album for me, but this is like a condensed version of everything that makes that album awesome. Magrudergrind have this fantastic ability to rip a cripplingly good riff and keep it nice and clear as the blasts and vocal barrage unfold. Mix in a few slow, almost sludgey interludes and a minute or two of sneaky (but not so good) hip hop, and job done! Asides from the original Scion A/V release of this EP on vinyl and CD, this has also been re-issued on 10″ by Bones Brigade and Kaotoxin Records, on CD by Regurgitated Semen, and again on 10″ in the USA by To Live A Lie. So there you go, if you wanna play punk and are against Scion, you can still pick this up off one of several reputed DIY or underground labels. Get in.

Akercocke – Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone (2005)
death metal

Akercocke – Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone (2005)

Akercocke’s fourth album was by far their most experimental. Following up the absolutely monstrous and enormous epic that was Leviathan could have been no easy task for these distinguished English gentlemen. In my opinion, Words that go unspoken… is nowhere near as brutal as the exquisite aural punishment of Leviathan, but the band definitely followed through by evolving in incredible leaps into something far more sprawling, technical and genre-bending. Where Leviathan had that the “oomph” factor that is missing from most death metal recordings, Words that go unspoken has a daring sense of adventure and experimentation; it is the sound of a band flexing it’s creative muscles, to be poetic about it. Things kick off fairly simply; “Verdelet” is Akercocke through and through, with a thrashy pace and double bass, which eventually gives way to clean vocals and excellently composed semi-acoustic guitar sounds. Despite the softer elements, the drums never give out for the duration; David Gray is an animal on the kit. “Seduced” has classic death metal written all over it, and also has one of my favourite Akercocke guitar solos (which is actually one of the simpler and more understated ones the band has ever used). The real fun begins however with track 3, “Shelter from the Sand”. This snarling death metal beast slowly evolves into something altogether more Opeth-y (minus the untold amounts of boredom). I can’t really describe it, but there is a whole world of prog-rock influence here, maybe not so much on the psychedelic side (imagine that? Haha satanic pysch-metal) but definitely on the progressive, “things unfolding at a gradual pace” side of things. I think it was Jason Mendonca himself who once likened the sound on this album to “Morbid Angel and Rush having a fight in a lift”. From here on out, things are much tamer than they have been on any previous Akercocke record. Sure, the staple sounds of the band are all here but they are utilised in much more subtle and experimental ways. The title track, and it’s sequel “Intractable”, are two fantastic pieces of musical art that you would never expect from blasphemous, sex-charged death metal swine such as Akercocke. I think this is what I was trying to convey in my opening paragraph; whilst Words….doesn’t necessarily blast your fucking head off, it showcases a maturity in so many ways, that would continue to unfold on the band’s next record (although in not so overtly experimental tones). All in all this is a fantastic metal record, and I guess if you’re looking for an in-road into Akercocke I would say that this – whilst ironically being their most experimental – is by far their most easily accessible material (I think you wrote this for the Antichrist review too, ya feckin’ eejit – Ed, 2019). Antichrist that followed had a much more direct death metal approach, but the genre scope of Words… more than allows a much wider chance for appreciation from fans of other genres. Like most of their records, this was released on Earache Records, and unfortunately only on CD format. I would absolutely love the Akercocke records to be pressed onto vinyl, but I think that sadly there isn’t ever going to be enough demand out there for somebody to take the risk and get the ball rolling (I know Earache certainly won’t). Give the entire disc a spin in the link below!

Hummingbird Of Death – Goatmeal (2008)
grindcore

Hummingbird Of Death – Goatmeal (2008)

20 songs on a 5″ record? That’s exactly what I’m talking about, ladies and gentlemen! Hummingbird of Death have always been known to bring the high-powered, super-fast grindcore (or powerviolence, if you’re a hardcore kid), but this shy-of-4-minutes monster is just something else. Discounting the last track, which takes up the entirety of side B, each song is a microburst of super-thrashy speedy goodness. This isn’t as polished as more familiar material (like the classic Show Us The Meaning Of Haste) but the production isn’t necessarily bad or so muddy that it all sounds like a pile of crap – it’s still nice and clear. You can stream the whole thing below on Youtube, but you can also still pick up a physical 5″ copy released by Cowabunga! Records for a decent price, even the red repress limited to 180 copies. Warning – is fast. 

Dead Meadow – Dead Meadow (2000)
rock

Dead Meadow – Dead Meadow (2000)

Welcome to a world of fuzz. Boasting one of the greatest (yet simplest) guitar tones that I have ever heard, Dead Meadow’s turn of the century debut dreamscape of a record is a fantastic trip through a stoned, lush world of 60s and 70s influenced rock music. The opening track, “Sleepy Silver Door”, is quite simply one of the greatest things ever put to tape. It’s one of my favourite stoner-related tracks, with simple yet amazing riff, beastly guitar solo and epic lyrics: “Can’t find a key to the sleepy silver door / I’m washed up on the shore of reality”. If you are prepared to wade through a swamp of steaming rock music, viewing life through the lens of a grainy outdoor camera that the BBC used in the 80s, I strongly recommend you some Dead Meadow. It is the perfect music for a serene low-dose trip on nature’s finest psilocybin-rich fungi, to traverse forests and mountains – potentially barefoot – pondering the wonders of nature and generally just feeling really good about yourself and everything around you. I’ll be quiet now. Spark up and love.

Lorde – Pure Heroine (2013)
electronic pop

Lorde – Pure Heroine (2013)

It’s not that often that I usually listen to shit like this, but I burned this album when it first came out and it’s just one of those things that’s been stuck in my car since. My stereo broke a few months ago when I tried to spin a leaked copy of Swans’ To Be Kind (that’s what I get for pirating music, folks!*) but when my car went in recently to get a new starter motor all the electronics were reset, and it freed the stuck Swans disc, allowing me to return to my awful car listening. I found this Lorde album lodged conspicuously behind a copy of Dr. Dre’s 2001, and all the memories and mediocre pop music came flooding back. The mirth! *I bought the 2xLP, and have nearly every other Swans record in existence, before you fucking judge me for doing illegals 😉 Most of you probably know Lorde for being a silly out-spoken 17-year-old who talks a lot of shit about stuff that she actually doesn’t know anything about (kinda like me, only I’m 25). Take away her daftly over-opinionated, sensationalist media-baiting crap, and she’s a fairly talented girl with, no doubt, a long future in music ahead of her. Pure Heroine is a fairly minimal pop record, led entirely by Lorde’s unusual vocal. It kinda sounds like if Lana Del Ray got her head outta her arse, stopped trying to sing like a man, and employed Gary Numan to do all her backing tracks. As is normally always the case with up-and-coming artists signed to major labels, one can’t help but speculate how different this would sound without massive boardroom pressure and a most-likely insanely huge production budget. And for that reason, the link below is of a live performance from Lorde, which I believe does her more justice than any of the tracks on this record. All in all, it’s not a bad CD, as far as mass produced pop goes, but it could be a lot worse. Favourite tracks: “Tennis Court”, “Glory & Gore”, “White Teeth Teens”.

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – Trout Mask Replica (1969)
avant-garde rock

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – Trout Mask Replica (1969)

Okay then…how do I tackle this one (no pun intended)? This is a revered classic of sorts, but I’ve always had a hard time listening to it (I suppose that is kinda the point? I don’t suppose it was recorded with ‘easy listening’ in mind), but now I have this crazy trip on double vinyl there is no longer any excuse to keep putting off the review/post like I did with my CD copy. Again, let me take this opportunity to briefly waffle about music being on the right format. Considering this was originally recorded in 1969 on analogue equipment, it is understandable that the CD version I have sounds a bit flat. This 2000 Warner Bros pressing on 180 gram vinyl on the other hand, is something to behold; a work of art. I’m often sceptical of the ‘boom’ in 180 gram ‘high fidelity’ records on the market, but this is really, really sweet sounding. Captain Beefheart’s psychedelic, funky blues is now more of a pleasurable listen, rather than a challenging one. If you’re not familiar with the ways of The Magic Band it can be a bit of a headfuck at first; even for myself, and I’ve been plumbing the depths of the sonically challenging for quite a while now. With Trout Mask Replica though, it’s the horrendous clashing of almost out-of-tune sounding guitar work, mashed together in a ‘djent’ manner with a random assortment of other instruments – percussive or otherwise – and then all lamented over by what sounds like a crazy hobo just stringing words together for the sheer fuck of it. Typically, I like it, but I can’t understand how this record is held so highly all over the world. Fair, in noise, avant-garde and even the fringes of jazz and blues scenes I can see why this would be held in a positive light, but as for the rest of the ‘music mainstream’ I cannot see why people would like this? Maybe I’m an idiot. Anyway, some of my favourite Beefheart tracks are here on this monster; “Dachau Blues”, “Frownland”, “Ella Guru”, “Neon Meate Dream Of An Octofish”, “My Human Gets Me Blues”, “Veteran’s Day Poppy” and the “Hair Pie” series…all scatterfuck, weirder-than-your-average approaches to the traditional songwriting structure. I don’t know what drugs these guys were on, but I want some.

Death In June – Brown Book (1987)
folk, neofolk & acoustic

Death In June – Brown Book (1987)

Death In June is one strange-ass project. For something as simple as acoustic, folky shit, DIJ sure do have a wide, eccentric discography. Brown Book is pretty weird. Death In June’s lazy campfire strumming and monotone vocal meets 80s-to-the-max drum programming and fairly awful female vocals. It kinda sounds like a poor man’s mid-career Swans. I might be slightly biased here however, and even factually incorrect as Death In June were doing this kind of thing first. Although, for some reason that isn’t entirely clear to me yet, I quite like this. Perhaps it is because I am pretty interested in some other DIJ material, and this is just a perplexing variant on that sound. It is almost soothing, yet at the same time quite unsettling. “Red Dog – Black Dog” is like a cross between a lullaby and a nightmare. “Hail! The White Grain” and “Runes And Men” must be deliberately Third Reich-y? “We Are The Lust” is almost ritual like, with thumping percussion, haunting synth work and chanted vocal mantra. “Burn Again” rounds everything off with a menacing yet pensive tone. Make what you will of the nazi-related imagery (but they ain’t nazis, yo – it’s art, see?), but all in all this is a pretty interesting recording, if you have an open mind.

Reekorrhoea / Urologist – Split Tape (2014)
grindcore

Reekorrhoea / Urologist – Split Tape (2014)

I recently did another Reekorrhoea review (for the band’s demo tape) but I can’t get enough of this crusty mincecore-meets-goregrind crossover sound that’s going on here. Mr. Andy is a goregrind genius, and whilst this doesn’t exactly sound a million miles away from his Hyperemesis shit, it doesn’t really fucking matter at all, because this shit fucking rules. Reekorrhoea’s part of this split also includes a Dismembered Fetus cover, but I’m not familiar with that band to compare it to the original. A creepy sample later, Urologist are pulverizing my eardrums like the Mortician of badly-recorded drum machine goregrind. The vokills are fucking mankin’ (to quote a Welsh chav on the subject), as is the fuzzy guitar tone. The cheaper-than-krokodil drum machine does get on my nerves a bit, but hey, what are you gonna do? All in all a great split from both bands and I look forward to hearing more of both of these acts at some point. You can stream the entire split on the Necrotic Jejunostomy Productions (yes, that’s a real name) Bandcamp page. (2021 edit: the label page appears to be missing now).

Splattered Entrails – Undercooked Intrauterine Delicacies (2014)
death metal

Splattered Entrails – Undercooked Intrauterine Delicacies (2014)

Boy, am I happy this saw the light of day! Initially I mistook this release as a new Splattered Entrails album. I was thinking – “shit, they’ve gone back to the gory stuff!?”, but alas it was not to be. Instead though, Undercooked Intrauterine Delicacies turned out to be a compilation album of impossible to find splits that the band did back in the Myspace days. It includes a three-way split/comp on FDA Rekotz and their splits with Chainsaw Dissection and Disgorgement Of Intestinal Lymphatic Suppuration (yes!), which were both put out by the now sadly defunct DIY goregrind label, Mental Abuse. So, what I am so happy about here is that I get to hear a whole bunch of gore-drenched, slamming br00000tality, which for me, is much more entertaining than the band’s later, more polished and more sci-fi orientated output. Splattered Entrails is truly a lesson in “bedroom music done right”, as this entire compilation, despite spanning three sessions, boasts a stable and chunky production (give or take the odd farting low end on the chug), and a punishing display of drum programming, guitar slammery and vocal putrefaction. Yum yum. Granted, there is the odd stinker or two, and now and then I feel that the “ree ree reeeee” vocal style is used a little too much for my liking, but on the whole this is a solid selection of tracks from a legendary brutal death metal project. Out on Sevared Records. Prepare your diddlyhole!

Fear Factory – Digimortal (2001)
metal

Fear Factory – Digimortal (2001)

I would like to admit that this album is a guilty pleasure of mine, but I’d probably be pushing it a bit too far. Digimortal is a strange one – a rare result of an industrial-influenced death metal band selling their asses out and cashing in on the nu-metal craze of the late 90s. Hey, I’m not saying Digimortal is particularly ground-breaking, but this came across far, far more successful than say, Cryptopsy’s absymal weakening into deathcore territory. Both bands are prime examples of respected musicians abandoning their sound (and even fanbase) in a drastic attempt at getting ca$h moniez (perhaps through record label pressure or otherwise), but where Cryptopsy’s crossover left them almost universally reviled, Fear Factory’s dabble with nu-metal could even be called a triumph, thanks to one word: “Linchpin”. Ask anybody who has ever been into any metal or rock at any time if they know any Fear Factory tracks, and chances are they’ll say “Linchpin”, or at the least know the riff and opening lyrics. It was one of the most over-played music videos on MTV2, Kerrang! and Scuzz TV, and is still being played in crappy rock clubs the world over like it was last week’s number one hit. Why? I have a theory. Rather than watering down their sound to conform to a trend, Fear Factory somehow just managed to cram their brutally heavy metal into the restrictions of their new genre. It might be nu-metal, but it’s heavier than a neutron fucking star. The riffs are the same quick-fire, rapid-shot attack, the drums are the same pummelling, nail-gun barrage. And this doesn’t stand just for “Linchpin”, I’m talking about the entire record here. Give it a listen! I recently dug this out after probably not hearing it for 18,000 years (it was spun drunkenly at a BBQ a few years back, but that doesn’t count) and I couldn’t believe how heavy this still sounds. I’m not saying it’s gonna stand the test of time, but for what it is, it’s pretty awesome, in my opinion. CAT GIMME YOUR PAW!(wait, what….???)

Earth – Primitive And Deadly (2014)
doom metal

Earth – Primitive And Deadly (2014)

Fuck! What happened here? Earth are definitely not messing about on their new record – the heaviest thing the band have done in over a decade. I can get behind this! Since their reformation / regrouping, Earth have been all about calm, serene, bright and wavering tones; colossal monuments of clean guitar work and uplifting instrumental soundscapes – almost like the shoegazing equivalent of their early drone days. But this is something else entirely. Someone finally decided to turn Earth’s amps up, and I couldn’t be happier with that decision. The Bees Made Honey… is one of my favourite things ever, and I loved the first part of Angels Of Darkness Demons Of Light, with it’s dusty, haunting, almost western sound. The second part of that double album was much, much more sparse, and I must admit I lost interest a bit, with Earth’s already stripped back sound being reeled in even further (I gotta say though, the bass playing was pretty funky). I’m not sure if I’m entirely sold on the inclusion of guest vocalists (Rabia Shaheen Qazi and sometimes-QOTSA collaborator Mark Lanegan) but the reappearance of distortion in Earth’s work has made a world of difference for me. It’s not as if it is overpowering in any way, or like it even detracts from the subtleties going on around the guitar, it’s just that everything sounds much more alive and vital – something that can do no harm for a band as far into their career as Earth. Enter a shimmering, mesmerising desert of sonic absolution.

Mz. 412 ‎– In Nomine Dei Nosti Satanas Luciferi Excelsi (1995)
black metal noise & power electronics

Mz. 412 ‎– In Nomine Dei Nosti Satanas Luciferi Excelsi (1995)

I came across Mz. 412 on my quest for bands that mix black metal with power electronics. Although to me Mz. 412 takes elements from both genres of music (with both being quite introspectively similar in some respects and also a million miles apart in others), yet it seems to stand alone from both in a sound more rooted in industrial, or experimental ambience. This is something morosely militant about In Nomine… which lends heavily from the martial side of power electronics, and yes, the repetitive beats are distorted and overpowering, but that’s where the similarities end, for me at least. This creepy, isolated record is more akin to the soundtrack for some independent horror movie rather than anything along the lines of A Blaze In The Northern Sky. I write lots of words and post the pretty pictures but realistically the music itself needs to do the talking. Mad props to Dave Wilson for introducing me to the world of Mz. 412.

Mushroomhead ‎– Mushroomhead (1995)
avant-garde electronic metal

Mushroomhead ‎– Mushroomhead (1995)

We are about to take you into the world of the LSD user… I’ve been on a bit of a nostalgia trip recently so I’ve been spinning this record an awful lot. When I was 12, life was all about Slipknot and Mushroomhead. Mushroomhead, despite having some dud album releases in the last decade or so, remain one of my favourite bands ever. I picked up XX on the strength of the band’s image alone, fell in love with their music and spent the next year or so frantically hunting down the band’s Cleveland-only released first three albums and two remix albums. I managed to hunt down their second album, Superbuick, on eBay, but the other two records were incredibly difficult to find, especially their third album, M3. Then one day I saw one of those shitty ads in the back of K! magazine for companies that ‘specialize’ in ‘rare’ releases, who had Mushroomhead’s first album in stock for £25. So after convincing my parents to ‘lend’ me £25, we rang them up. They had unfortunately already sold their one copy of Mushroomhead’s self-titled, but perhaps rather unethically, offered to copy the CD for me before they posted it out to the original buyer. Despite this being really dodgy, coming from a legit CD wholesaler, I really wanted to hear that album, so the copy it was. I have since gotten a real copy (the repress on Filthy Hands) and even contemplated a real original, but have always dropped out at the last minute, unwilling to pay ridiculous eBay prices. I went on to procure copies of all of Mushroomhead’s self-released records (barring Remix 1997, which is basically a crappier Remix 2000), but all of them were Filthy Hands represses, apart from Superbuick. In the face of adversaries who like to put Mushroomhead down, the usual weapon I’ve had to defend myself against is the statement that “Mushroomhead are just a bad Mike Patton impressionist band, man, they’ve never done anything original!”. And yes, whilst Jeffery Nothing does bear resemblance to Mike Patton’s Faith No More vocal performances, it wasn’t until I got into Mr. Bungle a few years back that I realized how many similarities Mushroomhead owe to them. If you take the jazz and funk elements out of Mr. Bungle and replace them with truckloads of Twin Peaks samples, you’ve got the first Mushroomhead album. This album is, in all honesty, all over the place. It is a total shambles from start to finish. The songs don’t really flow, and they are often meshed awkwardly together with bad movie samples or crappy piano interludes. Despite introducing the world to the dynamic duo of Nothing ‘n’ J Mann, this is primarily a Nothing-led record. J Mann only solos one track to himself (the excellent “Ego Tripp”), backs up Jeff on the rest and is absent from 8 of the album’s 14 tracks. But saying that, 6 of the albums tracks are devoid of either vocalist’s contributions. To confuse matters further, there’s a guest vocalist on the creepy-as-shit “Mommy”. Mushroomhead’s self-titled was a strange debut into the band’s psychedelic, multi-directional approach. The band’s style, whilst unique, relies extremely heavily on external media and influences. I don’t believe it was until the release of Superbuick and M3 that Mushroomhead really began to carve their own special take on things. My favourite tracks on this CD are “Slow Thing”, “Elevation”, “Ego Tripp”, “Indifferent” and “Simpleton”. I’d add “43” to that list, but the re-recorded version for XX is phenomenally better than this one, even if this one has a sample of Windom Earle laughing over the start of it, which is a nice touch. If you liked Mr. Bungle but the ten-minute songs and the endless time changes got on your nerves: listen to this. If you liked XX and hated the direction the band went in afterwards, and aren’t afraid of a slight drop in recording quality: listen to this. If you love Twin Peaks, Mike Patton and nu-metal, and have never heard Mushroomhead before: please, please, please listen to this.

Slithis’ Revenge – The Human Race Deserves to Rot in the Waste He has Created​.​.​. (2014)
noise & power electronics

Slithis’ Revenge – The Human Race Deserves to Rot in the Waste He has Created​.​.​. (2014)

Bobby M is upon us again with a slightly-less-gory approach to noise, which is unusual, to say the least. Perhaps surprisingly for music of this genre, Slithis’ Revenge focusses on the destruction that mankind has wreaked upon the earth as subject matter. I’d never in a million years consider there to be a market for environmentally-friendly gorenoise, but the world is full of surprises.  If you think the artwork looks horrendous, then nothing can prepare your ears for the actual audio assault that is about to follow. Guitars are actually audible, which is another unusual factor in this project, and as far as I can tell, are totally devoid of any tuning. The drum machine sounds like it’s constantly going to burst into a breakcore-patent snare rush or something, and those good ol’ bubbling septic tank vocals are back, because hey, it wouldn’t be a gorenoise record without them. This entire (organic) bubbling mass of mind-bending (gluten free) gorenoise can be streamed at your leisure on the w0w dance Bandcamp page. Enjoy!

Facialmess – Total Liberation (2011)
noise & power electronics

Facialmess – Total Liberation (2011)

Facialmess is a harsh noise project from Japan. Total Liberation is an EP that was released a few years ago on J Randall’s Grindcore Karaoke, consisting of two tracks, a 7 minuter and a 13 minuter. “Suspicious Activities” starts off by oddly mashing together droning, machine-like background ambience with increasingly-erratic cuttings of harsh noise. It just jolts back and forth without any regard for your hearing, or sanity for that matter. It sounds to me like somebody has nominated a supercomputer for the ice bucket challenge, and we are listening to the resulting meltdown. “Unremitting Exploitation” starts in a similar manner, only when the electronic short-circuitry cuts out, we are left with ominous silence. The way this all fits together I’d hazard a guess that this noise was constructed on a series of pedals rather than digitally (definitely seems to be a lot of delay pedal effects going on). The way the noise keeps cutting out randomly makes this release seem a lot longer than it actually is. I love the way that Facialmess is constantly fucking with your head but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little bit tiring. All in all, a wicked harsh noise / power electronics release that’s well worth a listen if you’re into audible torture.

Blood Ceremony – Blood Ceremony (2008)
doom metal rock

Blood Ceremony – Blood Ceremony (2008)

Blood Ceremony’s self-titled is one of my go-to feel good “doom metal” records (I use the term doom like that because I find that this isn’t miserable enough to fall under the doom tag proper, although it does incorporate a lot of elements from that genre). As mentioned elsewhere on this website recently, my distain for the explosion in female-fronted edgy rock music continues to grow, but let’s fuck all that trend-jocking shit for a minute and focus on Blood Ceremony. Imagine mixing Black Sabbath, Jefferson Airplane and an enormously illegal quantity of opiates at a smoky blues club, and you’re on the right track here. Songs about witches, covens, toads, wizards and smoking “black drugs from Saturn’s bong” are abound, as is trippy flutework, masterful guitar sweepery and enough synthesizer alchemy to make Gary Numan prick up his ears. The opening song, “Master Of Confusion” is totally classic, and should be on the playlist of anyone with an inclination towards this type of stuff. The flute solo on “I’m Coming With You” is insane, and my favourite track is “Hop Toad”, which is also mainly flute-driven. I’m lucky enough to have caught these guys (and gal) live twice in the last 3 years, and I wouldn’t hesitate in a heartbeat to go and watch them perform again. Stellar stuff! You can stream this on Spotify, buy it on CD or even take out a second mortgage to buy the Rise Above vinyl version, if you have a big enough hipster beard to qualify for that. Now, onto those “black drugs”….

Black Pyramid – Black Pyramid (2009)
doom metal

Black Pyramid – Black Pyramid (2009)

When I first went to Roadburn festival in 2011 I was in waaaay over my head with my bands-I-know to bands-I’ve-never-heard-of ratio. I’m not saying I didn’t have a wicked time (I went again the year after) but I spent a lot of time high, watching shit I’d never even heard of. Black Pyramid was one of those bands, whom I espied briefly through the packed doors of the second stage in Tilburg’s 013 venue. When I came home I wrapped my lugholes around this album, which by some strange coincidence turned out to be bloody fantastic. Black Pyramid are a good bunch, aye. They seem to mix driving, monumental rock in the vein of Mastadon with the slower, crunchy doom metal vibe. The result is a unique but refined sound that is somehow both all-go and stoned as fuck. The music isn’t exactly challenging, but Black Pyramid present a take on the metal template which I enjoy very much. Guitar widdly-widdly-ness is present, but often in small, manageable chunks or catchy-as-fook hooks, like at the end of “Visions Of Gehenna”. My favourite tunes here are the pacy “Twilight Grave”, the stoned “Worm Ouroboros” and the epic as fuck closing track, “Wintermute”. The band do have other material but in my opinion none of it tops this shit. Check out “Wintermute” below – a seething masterpiece that takes a few minutes to kick in, but stick with it!

Human Touch – Human Touch (2011)
punk & hardcore

Human Touch – Human Touch (2011)

Wow, this fucking rules! Human Touch is some insane shit, playing grind-speed hardcore punk with frenetic, worryingly spastic female vocals. Imagine mixing Minor Threat with Despite You, or something. I’d absolutely love to see this band perform live, because after only 5 songs (only one which has any substantial length) I’m left a little shocked, and most definitely wanting more. The sound is spot on; definitely paying homage to true hardcore production styles of old but incorporating modern clarity. There’s nothing worse than losing amazing grind or hardcore in a muddy, shitty mix, and thankfully that doesn’t happen here. Apparently this EP was recorded in an attic apartment, so kudos to whoever recorded it, because it sounds great. I’ll shut up now.

Gurgle – Scrotum Sap Delicacy (2012)
electronic grindcore

Gurgle – Scrotum Sap Delicacy (2012)

Wow, just how fuckin’ nasty this sounds is really beyond any words! Fans of Libido Airbag better be scrambling to hit play on this shit – I’m not kidding. There’s legions of lo-fi electronic or techno influenced “goregrind” out there at the moment, and if you’re not deep into this shit then sifting through it all can be a bit of a slog. Thank fuck then, for Gurgle, who are just absolutely fucking amazing. Typical porno samples aside, Gurgle is really refreshing for me, simply because it’s some D.I.Y. techno goregrind/porngrind/whatever that has actually given a thought for production ethic and all-round musical quality. This shit is meaty. Gianna Michaels’ thighs meaty. Of course, it’s completely typical that something this goddamn brilliant lasts for less than 15 minutes, but it’s enough – it’s got me hooked; I want more fucking Gurgle in my life, damn it! Whilst I make do with lesser porngrind sounds (or I could just listen to Libido Airbag on repeat whilst snorting amphetamines and crying) I implore you to check this shit out. Favourite track is easily the highlariously titled “Slobberin’ The Throbbin’ Goblin”. Stream this and love this absolutely free of charge thanks to Torn Flesh Records. Or do an Immortal Technique – burn it off the fucking internet and bump it outside. Your neighbours will love it. If there’s anything that’ll win over that girl next door for you, it’ll be this, no doubt. 

Dead Infection / Parracide – Split 7″ (2014)
grindcore

Dead Infection / Parracide – Split 7″ (2014)

Maaan the newer Dead Infection stuff just gets randomer and randomer (I know that’s not a word, but whatever). This particular EP, as you can no-doubt see, features a cat that looks like Adolf Hitler. I’m not sure what the particular meaning is behind all of this surreal stuff, and I don’t really care as long as the tunes are good. Dead Infection have a lot to live up to with every new release, but they have so far managed not to disappoint. The songs on this split are of the chunky, brutal grindcore stock that we have come to know and love from present-day Dead Infection. My favourite is probably “Subduction” with it’s super-tight blasting and cracking riffage. This is my first experience with Parricide, but I love what I hear. The drumming is fucking unbelievable, I’ll give them that. The production on their stuff is a lot more polished than Dead Infection, and it’s kinda obvious that the drums are triggered but I guess that works for them, not to mention it sounds brutal as fuck so who can argue? Not me, let me fucking tell you!  This was released this year on the excellent Selfmadegod Records, on both black and clear wax. 

Extreme Putrefaction – Marbling And Skin Slippage In Early To Modern Putrefaction (2014)
noise & power electronics

Extreme Putrefaction – Marbling And Skin Slippage In Early To Modern Putrefaction (2014)

Extreme Putrefaction is another project in the gazillion ranks of noisemongering goregrind king Bobby Maggard. This particular little variant mixes bassy harsh noise with unstoppable drum machine attacks and septic tank gurgles. To get artsy fartsy in the descriptive sense, imagine earlier, analogue pedal Merzbow jamming with Urine Festival. Extreme Putrefaction literally sounds like shit pellets being machine gunned into a cesspool of unspeakable filthy depths. For the uninitiated, ‘gorenoise’ can seem like quite an intimidating music genre but once you get used to the ridiculously NSFW release artwork that comes with it, you can really lose yourself in some filthy (and often puzzling) sounds. To be slightly more controversial, America should be torturing terror suspects with this shit, not fucking Metallica records. You cans stream this entire bastard on Youtube below. I’m also assuming due to the artwork dimensions that this was also released on a tape at some point?

Alec Empire Vs. Merzbow – Live CBGB’s NYC 1998 (2003)
noise & power electronics

Alec Empire Vs. Merzbow – Live CBGB’s NYC 1998 (2003)

Christ, who’s idea was this? Mixing gabba-techno / industrial kingpin Alec Empire with the father of harsh noise, Akita Masami would surely result in a cacophonous cocktail that would make the world end in any other given circumstance. Somehow the earth didn’t stop turning, and instead we are treated to one of the craziest collaborations in musical history in all it’s glory. This is quite probably the most coherent thing I’ve heard Merzbow being involved in. Empire’s spastic beat programming and bass warbles dominate the forefront of the performance, with Merzbow’s harsh noise attacks bringing up the rear, fleshing out the higher echelons of the audio canvas. It’s kinda like what Libido Airbag would sound like if their members were originally from Ramleh instead of GUT. I’ve not heard awkward synths and industrial terror mashed together so uncertainly since Greed-era Swans. Obviously, the ‘harshness’ of the harsh noise has to be a little scaled back for Empire’s parts to even get a look in, but even when it’s Merzbow’s time to shine, he seems to focus on broken, stuttering loops and staccato, stabbing distortion in lieu of punishing walls of wailing static. There are some clever references in the song titles here, such as “606: The Number Of The Beast” and “Curse Of The Golden Angel”. In case you didn’t know, this references Curse Of The Golden Vampire, which was another short-lived bat-shit-crazy-random supergroup featuring Alec Empire, Godflesh’s Justin Broadrick and Kevin Martin of The Bug / King Midas Sound fame (I know, right?). Whoever thought up this collab might have possibly been smoking a lot of meth at the time, but it fucking works. If you loved Masami’s Merzbeat, Aqua Necromancer or Door Opens At 8am albums, or even his Merzdub collaboration with Jamie Saft, then you’ve probably already heard this. If you’re an Alec Empire fan, I don’t see why you wouldn’t love this either. Everyone is a winner!

Type O Negative – Bloody Kisses (1993)
doom metal

Type O Negative – Bloody Kisses (1993)

Now here’s something I have listened the absolute fucking death out of during the last few months. I’ve always been a casual Type O Negative fan but I’ve always put off buying their albums, because I’m lazy as fuck like that. Anyways, I stumbled upon a free copy of this when I worked clearing out unwanted crap from charity shops, and for the next couple of hours in the van I became baptised in the awesome world of Type O Negative. Man, why didn’t anyone tell me about this shit before? Mix equal parts doom metal and hardcore punk with hammy keyboards, then dress the whole thing up to take the piss out of a subculture that takes itself far too seriously, and bam – you’ve got the perfect recipe!  The opening tracks (20 minutes on their own) “Christian Woman” and “Black No. 1” are stone-cold goth metal classics. Taking the piss or no, Pete Steele & Chums churned out more promise and epicness in two fucking tracks than in the entire discographies of Sisters Of Mercy and HIM combined. “Kill All The White People” marries hardcore punk and Sabbath-worship riffage in a puzzling yet amazing duality. “Summer Breeze” sounds as the title promises, and “We Hate Everyone” pulverises the listener with more hardcore punk-influenced terror before the sheer epic of “Bloody Kisses” kicks in. Nearly 11 minutes long, the title track is a mammoth depressing beast. Shit sends fucking shivers up my spine, yo – especially during the piano solo (hahaha). Joking or otherwise, it’s a seriously heavy track and boasts a fucking wicked chorus. “Too Late: Frozen” is another favourite of mine, starting off fast as fuck and slowing down to a doomy pace for the remainder. I’d absolutely love to see these play live, but I’ll never get that chance as Pete Steele sadly died before I developed any real respect for the band. I consider this album to be an absolute staple in my list of legendary metal records. I have only shame and regret for not discovering this total gem of a band any sooner. They have fecking stacks of good songs, but none of the albums live up to the sheer back-to-back quality of tracks on Bloody Kisses, which might just be the definitive goth-related record for me. Time to crank this up and crack out the black nail polish.

Black Moth – The Killing Jar (2012)
doom metal rock

Black Moth – The Killing Jar (2012)

The Killing Jar is quite possible one of the crappiest names for an album I’ve ever come across, but let’s not let that tarnish things here. Black Moth are a dirty rock and/or roll band with stoner and doom metal influences. They’ve been around for a few years now but I hadn’t heard of them until they were announced for Temples Festival this year. I was too smashed to watch them (story of my life) on the day but they did make my “check out everyone playing Temples” list on Spotify, from where I then migrated to checking out their entire album. The Killing Jar is a brilliant record, combining raunchy swagger with heavy guitar riffs and a rocking pace. The vocals provided by Harriet Bevan are equal parts teasing, powerful and even cheeky. It’s like somebody put the sounds of Kyuss and Blues Pills into a blender, along with some essence of garage rock. Opening track “The Articulate Dead” is a corker, and was even a single release for the band (on 7″ too), but my favourite tracks are the hat-trick of “Chicken Shit”, “Blind Faith” and “Plastic Blaze”, which are towards the end of the album. This record was put out on both CD and vinyl by the New Heavy Sounds label, whose small roster includes fellow stoner/doom influenced rockers, Throne. But yeah, check out Black Moth, they rule.

Fire Walk With Me – ストリートウォーカー (2014)
noise & power electronics

Fire Walk With Me – ストリートウォーカー (2014)

Whilst I surely can’t review my own material, I can tell you fuckers a little bit about it. With the death of Life Is Easy I’ve started a whole bunch of new musical ventures, including Fire Walk With Me; a project born out of my new love affairs with David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and HNW music, if such a crossover isn’t too bold. What I’ve done here however is attempted somewhat at creating texture within harsh noise wall. Basically I recorded a harsh noise wall passage of about 44 minutes, achieved my desired distortion and decided that it just wasn’t enough, so I built on that passage with a further 7 more layers of harsh noise (you can hear them all kicking in within the first five minutes or so). As amazing as 8 layers of HNW playing at the same time sounds, I quickly learned that putting noise on top of noise just results in more noise – but it is a hellish, claustrophobic, repetitive, hopeless, self-depreciating 44 minutes that you will never get back, if you’re into that kind of thing. ストリートウォーカー basically translates to ‘street walker’, be it tramp… junkie… prostitute……vampire…… Stream the entire thing for free, or tapes are available for £3 with a much bassier and versatile mix (created by my tape dubbing machine, which has a mind of it’s own).

Pallbearer – Foundations Of Burden (2014)
doom metal

Pallbearer – Foundations Of Burden (2014)

You probably don’t need me to tell you that the new Pallbearer record is heavy as fuck, but FYI – it’s heavy as fuck. Doom metal is a grossly saturated scene these days, making stand-out records is becoming something of a challenge. I’ve personally given up on loads of underground doom because I literally just can’t be fucked to sift through all the shit, which is a tragedy. When I took the chance with streaming the new Pallbearer though, the pitch-black candle of doom metal was re-lit inside my heart. Yeah. The most interesting thing about Foundations Of Burden is not only the fact that it is much more upbeat that it’s predecessor, it’s the paradoxical balance of sounds that the band are producing here. Somehow, despite being crushingly heavy in every way a doom metal record should be, it is also progressively melodic and bright. Long tracks don’t drag, they grow and progress naturally. Echoic guitar solos somehow do not sound out of place whilst shining over muddy doom chords. I sense a lot of diSEMBOWELMENT influence here, but with the clarity and skill to render aching melody simultaneously with modern doom stereotypes. To round off, this is a momentous doom record, living up to the sheer epicness that Pallbearer displayed on their last record. Out on Profound Lore Records.

Vomir – Renonce (2012)
noise & power electronics

Vomir – Renonce (2012)

Vomir is currently my new favourite go-to name when I fancy a harsh noise massage for my brain and my ever-growing tinnitus. I guess focussing entirely on some endless static attack helps ease the ringing for some reason or other. Anyway, I digress. Vomir is (as far as my knowledge of this scenes goes) the absolute master of the harsh noise wall (often abbreviated to HNW). If you’re wondering what HNW is, well, imagine that if harsh noise could get any bleaker, more hopeless, more utterly, utterly soul destroying and crushing? Nope? Can’t imagine that? Press play below and find out. No variation, no fannying about, just straight up fucking horrendous tones of distortion pummelling your face for 50 minutes flat. Making it through the whole thing is a tremendous test of patience, and at high volumes often made me feel moments of claustrophobia, anxiousness and even panic. But it made me feel. I’d love to see bastard cunting Ed fucking Sheeran do that, the cunt. Vomir proves entirely to me, that sometimes less really is more. Not for those of a weak disposition. Out on Crucial Blast.

Psycho – You Love Us… You Hate Us (1988)
grindcore punk & hardcore

Psycho – You Love Us… You Hate Us (1988)

This was a random purchase for me a couple of Christmas’ back, from some D.I.Y. / punk / hardcore record shop in Cardiff. It’s been a while, and the shop/label is long gone (at least at that location), but I (obviously) still have this record and still spin it every now and then. I picked it up because I am a massive fan of Anal Cunt and was aware that they had done a split with Psycho at some point. Couple that with the randomness of finding a Psycho record in Cardiff, and the deal was sealed, as far as I was concerned. I can’t really remember how much it cost me, but it wasn’t much. I don’t have many 12″ EPs. I think the format has died out somewhat, especially in the underground, what with the increasing price of pressing vinyl (I’m not even gonna go into the pressures of the digital age). Spinning at 45 rpm, this record doesn’t last very long at all, but it’s an awesome little blast through some thrash-paced hardcore punk nonsense. I’m aware that Psycho have several “eras” to their sound, like they did grindcore for a while, etc. etc. I’m not really sure where this fits in in the whole Pyscho “journey” but it’s still a really cool EP that I would recommend to anybody with an interest in the faster side of life. It sounds to me like Motorhead meets Dead Kennedys. This awesome, almost beer coloured 12″ was released in 1988 under Pyscho’s own record label, Ax/ction Records.

Malevolent Creation – Fine Art Of Murder (1998)
death metal

Malevolent Creation – Fine Art Of Murder (1998)

Is it just me or does it look like the cover says “The fine art of Malevolent Creation”? I snoozed at a chance of seeing these cunts in Cardiff recently, which was a bit silly because how often does something like Malevolent Creation come around 25 minutes from your house? I hate to be Mr. Has-an-excuse-for-always-missing-gigs (which I’m totally not; my bank balance and tinnitus will testify) but I’d been burning the candle at both ends, so standing through a death metal gig just sounded like hell to me during my lazy hungover Sunday. Anyways, it’s my fecking loss, if this classic death metal recording is anything to go by! Fine Art Of Murder is probably one of Malevolent Creation’s more well know records, and with good reason. It’s a punishing metal recording from start to finish, often without let up in the speed stakes. It’s popularity also might have something to do with the fact that “Manic Demise” was featured on Bam Margera’s CKY2K film. My favourite thing about this album, even though the drums are fucking shithot, has to be the guitar work. Everything from the menacing, clear-yet-crushing tone to the brutal yet subtly melodic delivery is absolutely perfect in every single way. If I could play guitar I would want it to sound like this record. This was released on a whole bunch of different labels from around the world, and is also available on a sexy picture disc vinyl.

Japanese Torture Comedy Hour – Dolphin Meat (2011)
noise & power electronics

Japanese Torture Comedy Hour – Dolphin Meat (2011)

Japanese Torture Comedy Hour was a noise project that revolved around Scott Hull, J Randall and other related musicians, and eventually became a solo project for Randall in it’s own right. Dolphin Meat is an hour-long improvised live performance (entitled “日本の拷問コメディアワー – EP#62”) created entirely out of feedback loops and recorded to VHS tape (because, fuck it, why not?). I tried doing something similar about five or six years ago; bleeding feedback from mic to speaker in an infinite loop in an attempt to create effortless, endless manipulatable distortion, but I failed catastrophically, so there’s a little bit of respect here to Randall for getting all of this out of a simple feedback loop (I just suck at noise, really). All things considered however, I guess this falls more under the power electronics umbrella and isn’t at all that harsh – for a bunch of batshit crazy improvised feedback loops it’s actually quite listenable. You can stream the entire thing at Randall’s label page Grindcore Karaoke, or even download it if noise is yer thing, like.

Incest – Incest (2014)
noise & power electronics

Incest – Incest (2014)

Donno what the fuck is going on here…wow! It’s like Aborym decided to do cybergrind and then do a collab with 7MON and Merzbow. When the longest track is 25 seconds long, and the entire EP a mere 10 songs in length, you know that what Incest has in store for you has just got to be painful. And it is. Sample-heavy drum machine grindcore mashes devastatingly with chunks of harsh noise and power electronics. I’m not sure if there is even a guitar in use here, or just some clever sampling. Such a short release is gonna spawn a short review, so I’ll just shut up an let Incest do the rest. Released through Vile Noise, a DIY Scottish label.

Data Shit – Reconstruction Deformation (2011)
electronic

Data Shit – Reconstruction Deformation (2011)

Now this is really nice – imagine combining the sounds of gabba techno drum programming (but slowed down a touch) with the random ambience of early Warp Records electronic music like The Aphex Twin. It’s kinda like a drum’n’bassy Venetian Snares making sweet, sweet love to Optimus Prime, at varying BPM. “Time Is A Disease” is a beast of an opener, with moody synths and epic piano lines, before it bursts this EP open with a flurry of garbled electronica and blasting 909 beats. “At Least We Have McDonalds” is a scatterfuck of a track, incorporating elements of dubstep into an already chaotic sound. “The Ghost Of My Girlfriend’s House” is as close to straight-up Snares worship Data Shit can get, before closer “Hypertrophy” is a simmering mirage of operatic samples and grindcore-grade drum programming. What more do you need? I’ve tried looking up more about Data Shit but have so far been unsuccessful. You can stream and download the entire EP over on Torn Flesh Records.

Shpongle – Museum Of Consciousness (2013)
electronic

Shpongle – Museum Of Consciousness (2013)

For me, Shpongle is the perfect music for the expansion of mind, body and soul; the perfect background noise for the ingestion of opiates, fungal hallucinogenics and dimethyltryptamine. However, even though I don’t sit around fires chugging bowls of ayahuasca that often, I do feel that sometimes I am halfway there, thanks to Shpongle’s ethereal “psytrance” (yes, that’s a real genre) and its ability to take me other worlds. Museum Of Consciousness is apparently the final Shpongle album. If you are familiar with the group’s earlier works, then what you can expect here is more of the same – in the greatest way possible. We’re talking 9, 10, 11 minute trips into twisting, turning, lush musical worlds that are dripping in gorgeous instrumentation and driven by stoned yet purposeful beat programming. We’re talking flutes, lutes, harps, synths, sitars. We’re talking blips, blops, bleeps; whirls and whizzes. We are talking total clarity and immersion into the Museum Of Consciousness. The highlights for me are the two longest tracks; “How The Jellyfish Jumped Up The Mountain” and “The Aquatic Garden Of Celestial Delights”. The former is a pacy, fluid journey through an audible hallucination, whereas the latter is a lurching, plodding epic of cataclysmal chill out proportion. Things get even weirder by “The Epiphany Of Mrs. Kugla”, where the Shpongolians tread into territory that can only be described as a bombastic film score. I can conjure up swooping montages of a villain’s lair; a damsel in distress, or a world gone to shit. And who is here to save us? Simon Posford and Raja Ram, most definitely. This thing is longer than 4 DMT trips.

Epicardiectomy- Abhorrent Stench of Posthumous Gastrorectal Desecration (2012)
death metal

Epicardiectomy- Abhorrent Stench of Posthumous Gastrorectal Desecration (2012)

It’s ridiculous to expect originality in a genre as limiting as slam. The name ‘slam’ itself is daft, but it signifies a slightly more slower, groovier approach to the death metal template. I personally welcome a ‘slam’ record now and then because it really breaks it up for me as far as death metal is concerned; sometimes I can just get really tired of super-super-fast death metal, and it’s always nice to slow down and chug out a fucking spectacular riff every now and then (for further reading on the power of riffs, see: doom metal). I first heard Epicardiectomy in an underground bar in Prague, in the Czech Republic. The guy working there was either in the band or his friends were, I can’t remember, I was properly shitfaced even though it was like 4pm. Hearing it blasting through speakers and deafening the ten or so patrons of that particular hole in the floor in Eastern Europe will stick with me forever. In my house however, Abhorrent Stench of Posthumous Gastrorectal Desecration doesn’t sound quite so epic, but it is still fucking heavy as hell. It kinda reminds me of Cephalotripsy, everything is fairly similar, although the vocals differ a bit. It is all a bit one dimensional (it is a slam record, after all) but if brutal music to bang you head to is what you want (and/or need) then I’d recommend Epicardiectomy any day of the week. Also, I bet they are fucking shit hot live!

D12 – Fight Music (2001)
hip hop

D12 – Fight Music (2001)

“Fight Music” is probably one of my favourite singles off the D12 album Devil’s Night, as it incorporates a much harder edge to it. When I was a wee lad the rockier guitar parts of this track helped me get into D12, and whilst it turned out that a majority of their songs don’t actually sound like this, it helped plant the seed, and after the strength of the “Purple Pills” (or “Hills”, as I first heard it) single as well, really cemented my D12 fandom. I don’t wanna perpetuate a 12-year-old-white-girl stereotype, but Eminem’s part of this track smokes all of the rest of the band’s rhymes, hands down, although Bizarre’s lines are pretty funny, and twisted, as per usual. The song also boasted a shit hot production style, the beats being similar to that of Eminem’s own Marshall Mathers LP, which came out not long before this. You can pick this up for virtually next to nothing off websites such as Discogs, if you are somewhat into collecting this shit. You can also get the D12 album which this is off for pennies on the Amazon Marketplace.

Blues Pills – Bliss (2012)
rock

Blues Pills – Bliss (2012)

Boy am I glad I bought this cheeky little 10″ when I did (edit: I’ve now traded it for a copy of Swans’ Filth). Due to Blues Pills’ ever-blossoming popularity this original 4-track EP is now worth a bloody fortune (for a 10″). The difference between Blues Pills and a gazillion other “revival”, “retro” or (dare I say it) “occult rock” acts (that phrase makes me physically sick) is that when Blues Pills first showed up on my radar they were the only ones who seemed even remotely genuine and weren’t just jocking a trend of female-fronted slightly-heavy rock bands that had songs about the devil. Because y’know, that’s edgy as fuck, amirite? I don’t want to sound like a hipster but the more popular Blues Pills get the less I like them – just check out the super polished sheen on their new record. Bliss though, is a rougher, more intimate recording of true rock music bursting with passion, soul and well, songs about the devil. Bliss balances the right amounts of psychedelic without becoming self-indulgent, and balances the right amount of pop digestibility, without having the songs become too predictable or boring. As much as I like to laugh at people with flowers in their hair who think we’re still in the sixties, this record is fucking fantastic. It makes me wanna smoke a bunch of weed and drive a convertible through the fucking desert. Play it!

RazorRape – Slaughter Sluts Supremacy (2013)
grindcore

RazorRape – Slaughter Sluts Supremacy (2013)

RazorRape are a Swedish groovy goregrind band that have been going since 2004. This 2013 EP is a short but sweet journey through some twisted tunes of gory love. Boasting a chunky but honest production job, SSS is a heavy-hitting record, mixing chugging slams and beatdowns with polka-style rhythms and blasting goregrind. The track “Drillbit Defloration” (what a title) is pure CBT-worship through and through, with an absolute massive riff and grooving mid-section. My only gripe with this EP is how short it is; it’s literally over in a matter of minutes, which sucks, but what can you do? With tracks as amazing as “Severed Cock Lollipop”, “Ballsack Blastfuck” and the previously mentioned ditty about the drillbit, who can argue? Groovy goregrind at it’s best! This is the 3rd RazorRape release out on the excellent Rotten Roll Rex.

Reekorrhoea – Demo Tape (2013)
grindcore

Reekorrhoea – Demo Tape (2013)

Reekorrhoea is a project of Hyperemesis’ Andy Ringdahl, focussing more on old-school horror movie themes as subject matter rather than all-out gore. It’s still mincecore-infused goregrind goodness, however, so I love it! Imagine LDOH meets Agathocles at a Tumour gig and you’re along the right lines here. The five tracks aren’t particularly long but they don’t need to be, this shit gets in, fucking gets on with it, and then fucks off. The guitars are nasty as fuck but my favourites have gotta be the vocals and the drum programming. The snare is perfect, and those vocals are just top notch, like, innit. You can stream the entire thing from the Reekorrhoea Bandcamp page (I’ve linked the demo below) but there’s also 75 copies available on tape, for the true crusty goregrinders. Word.

Urine Cop – Stay Smoke Stay Stone (2012)
noise & power electronics

Urine Cop – Stay Smoke Stay Stone (2012)

Nice! What a fucking nihilistic recording this is! I believe Urine Cop was originally a collaboration between members of Winters In Osaka and ex-LDOH vocalist Erwin De Groot, but there’s no trademark De Groot pitchshifter howls on this nine and a half minute window into hell. All that can be heard is noise, and drums. Well, some semblance of drums. It just sounds like a flurry of cymbals, as if a drum track has been recorded and then fed through a whole bunch of filters and pedals. It’s muddy, all over the place, probably improvised and most definitely horrible. Aching over the top of all this mess is a bunch of high-frequency whines and fizzles, almost sounding like alien microphone feedback. It does mix up a bit as the track unfolds but for the most part things remain entirely focussed on being a colossal, possibly stoned mess. It’s glorious.

Portishead – Portishead (1997)
electronic hip hop pop

Portishead – Portishead (1997)

I would probably have never listened to Portishead if it wasn’t for the fact that their first two albums were already on my old computer when I bought it, back in 2009. They always seemed like something my mother would listen to, what with their shit band name and music video circulations on the Sky ClassicFM music channel. It wasn’t until my appreciation for electronic music developed to such a degree that I could hear Portishead in a different way, and then, one day, with the iPod on random, I fell in love. This is so laid back and chilled, yet so epic at the same time it really is a bit of an enigma. How is that even possible? Well, Portishead managed it. Ticking, soft trip-hop beats and sparse instrumentation is pretty much all that’s going on here, complimented by one of the best female voices I’ve heard a long time. As a blue print for an entire record, this approach is extremely basic, but this self-titled record fails to bore me at any given moment. It is simply a magical record. The final track includes some fleeting male vocal contributions, but that’s about as far as breaking the template goes! I got this on vinyl for £12, from the Head chain in Bristol. Turn ting up!

Waking The Cadaver – Perverse Recollections Of A Necromangler (2007)
death metal

Waking The Cadaver – Perverse Recollections Of A Necromangler (2007)

I keep forgetting how much I love this album. Waking The Cadaver seems to be a household name in terrible music, and mentioning to almost any metalhead that you like them usually results in laughs, but for anyone who actually listened a bit further than that Shredded Wheat song (“Chased Through The Woods By A Rapist” is the correct title, which is much more grim) would have discovered an absolute gem of a metal record. Perverse Recollections… is jammed awkwardly between the worlds of deathcore, slam and even goregrind (think piccolo snares and watery vocals), and what a glorious fucking mess it is. This shit is literally all over the place. The drums, in the fast bits at least, are nothing short of spastic. The guitars are razor-wire sharp, twisting and chugging through the tracks like barbed wire twisted around a fence. The vocals are a hydra-headed beast of different styles of grotesquery; drowning in bong water one minute, disemboweling a pig the next, and then barking at you like the frontman of a straight-edge hardcore band, before some amphibian-like creature emerges from Cthulhu’s depths to spit a couple of lines too.

Led By Lions – A Long Time Coming (2014)
punk & hardcore

Led By Lions – A Long Time Coming (2014)

Led By Lions are a band that are fairly local to me, with members hailing from several areas of South Wales. This band was born from the ashes of long-running metal-meets-pop-punk group Man Of The Hour, who have been flogging the local circuit in various guises since 2007, so A Long Time Coming has been, well…a long time coming, really. Led By Lions is essentially the final incarnation of Man Of The Hour, with the added inclusion of a new full-time frontman, Scott Randall. Former vocalist/guitarist Richard Meyrick now focuses entirely on his guitar role, and the main back up vocals are provided instead by second guitarist James Heard (and the rest of the band in a live setting, no doubt). The first notable thing about Led By Lions other than the new vocals is the chunky, impressively professional production standard and heavy sound. Without being over-triggered, the drums are solid and dense in the mix, as is, rather nicely, the bass (provided by Small Fortunes / Start! Start! lunatic Gareth Burrough). I’m not sure what tuning this is all recorded in, but it adds a welcome grating metal edge to what would essentially be a very melodic and poppy performance. This was self-financed and self-released by the band themselves, and you can hear the EP in it’s entirety if you are using Spotify (clicky clicky). Physical copies will be available later in the year, and you can also check out the promo video for the song “Fall Of A Giant” below.

Bongripper / Conan – Split 12″ (2003)
doom metal

Bongripper / Conan – Split 12″ (2013)

The recent (edit: a year and a half ago! Fuuuuuck) Bongripper and Conan UK tour lived up to all my expectations in total sonic annihilation, and this tie-in Split 12″ is a great little reminder of the cacophony the duo made together. On the 12″ we get more of the same from Bongripper, which isn’t a bad thing I assure you. I simply cannot think of anything more to say other than it really is awesome as hell, if only a little short for my liking, even when spinning at 33rpm. Bongripper are slowly growing to become one of my favourite doom metal bands of all time, and they are showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. Conan on the other hand throw a little variation into their usual sound here. It is still down-tuned and massive; horrendous room shaking bass tones are laced with echoic yelps like every other Conan release, but there seems to be a grandiose, building feeling beneath the usual textures, as if Conan have all of a sudden become epic as fuck. It is like giant-monolithic-power-doom-drone-metal. Yes, that’ll do. Ha ha. Out on Holy Roar Records.

Dave Stewart And The Spiritual Cowboys ‎– Dave Stewart And The Spiritual Cowboys (1990)
rock

Dave Stewart And The Spiritual Cowboys ‎– Dave Stewart And The Spiritual Cowboys (1990)

Holy shit this is some chilled out stuff. I’m not talking dubby or ambient or anything, just nice and laid back rock’n’roll with easy, soft vocals and a purring bassline. I would never have bought this myself, mainly because I have never heard of Dave Stewart before; it was a gift from my old man (as the Americans say), who sometimes randomly sends a record my way, which is awfully kind of him. Apparently on a recent holiday my parents took, my father was mistaken for a retired Dave Stewart by the hotel staff. When I was told this story it became apparent that I had never heard of Dave Stewart, and a few weeks later this 12″ landed in my possession. Ha! As I opened up with saying, track 1 is chilled as feck, but track 2 “King Of The Hypocrites” brings all of the funk in the universe, chicken-grease guitars and all. The song that follows it, “Diamond Avenue” has a whole fast-paced abstract lyrical approach that reminds me of something that Bryan Ferry might have done at some point (think “Street Life” or “A Hard Rain’s A’Gonna Fall” (that title might not be strictly 100% correct!)). The remains of the A side are fairly lackluster compared to these first three songs. Side B opens up all guns blazing, with all sorts of shit going on; trumpets popping up left right and centre for the lively yet very rubbish “Party Town”. In fact, “Party Town” is so goddamn awful that I call the listening a day right here. I’ve gotten an over-all feel for what’s going on here! Ha ha! No doubt I’ll spin this again soon but for the purposes of this review I have heard more than enough Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys. Mega recommends if you’re into classic rock and/or roll, otherwise I wouldn’t bother clicking.

Napalm Death – The Code Is Red… Long Live The Code (2005)
grindcore

Napalm Death – The Code Is Red… Long Live The Code (2005)

To me, mid-to-late 2000s Napalm Death releases seem to follow a certain pattern. Each of the records share a similar cover art style, perpetuated by a specific colourising which is different on each record. Order Of The Leech was yellow, this record was red, and Smear Campaign was blue. Leaders Not Followers 2 and Time Waits For No Slave also shared similar artwork to the three mentioned above and even had similar traits in production. Out of them all though, The Code Is Red… has to be my favourite. After obsessing over Scum, FETO and the other early, genre-defying classics that Napalm Death released, I found it a bit difficult to stomach the slower, more groove-orientated stuff of the 90s. With the records listed above, Napalm Death fell into their own unique pattern of mixing blasting grindcore with groove, and vicious death metal. Opening track “Silence Is Deafening” was a single for the band, and even features a really heavy breakdown part at the end, but after that, a whole bunch of blasting grindcore follows, with the right amount of punch and speed. There’s a couple of oddball moments to the regular formula in here to keep it interesting though; “The Great And The Good” features guest vocals from Jello Biafra, and the penultimate track, “Morale”, has a much more different, slow and crushing, early-Swans vibe which you don’t see very often from a band as fast as Napalm Death. All in all, The Code Is Red… is a very focused record but also varied enough to remain interesting.

The Angels Of Light – We Are Him (2007)
folk, neofolk & acoustic

The Angels Of Light – We Are Him (2007)

To me, We Are Him is the “heaviest” of all the Angels Of Light material, for lack of a better way of describing it. In hindsight, their final album was a precursor to the reformation of Swans in 2010. It mashes together the usual artsy, folky vibes of earlier Angels stuff with heavy bass lines and thumping percussion attacks. Listening to the first ten seconds of “Goodbye Mary Lou” is enough to cement that We Are Him is still steeped in the roots from which the Angels Of Light spawned, but there is a palpable menace brooding over this record. Let’s face it, “Black River Song” and “My Brother’s Man” could easily have been on the Swans reformation album, My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky. Both are mind numbingly repetitive, driven by bass and heavy percussion, and narrated by twisted, slightly disturbing vocal lines. But, this is still an Angels Of Light record, and moments of clarity and beauty are in abundance. I never thought I’d ever be into something that resembles country and western, but Michael Gira will take you strange places if you are willing to follow. “Sunflower’s Here To Stay” and “The Visitor” are simply stunning, intricately composed and immensely delicate tracks of American goodness. If you liked the softer side to Swans and haven’t heard Angels Of Light yet, there’s no better place to start than here. Self-released by Gira on Young God Records.

Crowbar Abortion – MK Ultra (2008)
grindcore

Crowbar Abortion – MK Ultra (2008)

This is a classic of the Myspace days, recently revisited by myself as it’s now been uploaded to Torn Flesh Records’ first Bandcamp page (they have four Bandcamps (is that a word? lol) loaded to the gills with all sorts of crazy shit). The world of Crowbar Abortion is a strange one: dancable beats and random electronics mash somewhat excellently with flat-out drum machine grindcore, raspy, distorted vocals and shredding guitar solos (yes!). Don’t let the shitty cover artwork put you off, this is one hell of a record. It kinda reminds me of The Kovenant, if you crossed them with Enemy Soil and, I dunno…Invasion-era Gigantic Brain? It’s all a bit mental and can be a lot to take in on the first listen. I don’t really know how well this has aged seeing as I loved it when I was a young ‘un and I might be a little bit biased, but if you like your music sporadic, challenging and quite simply dripping with insanity, then I’d look no further for the time being. Press play, I dare you.

Malignant Tumour – Burninhell (2005)
punk & hardcore

Malignant Tumour – Burninhell (2005)

I’ve had this album for years, and I can’t remember where I got it from. Anyways, I got it and was expecting some nasty goregrind but instead was met with some metallic punk sound so I fucked it off and forgot that I had it. It wasn’t until I saw Malignant Tumour live in Obscene Extreme Festival 2013 that I remembered I had this 12″; Gumpy said something about really enjoying them and wanting to get some albums and I just clicked that I already had one somewhere. Sure, Burninhell isn’t as polished or as rock’n’roll as later, more accessible material by the band but it’s still a pretty cool d-beat influenced metal record. To me it sounds like Motorhead, Discharge and Agathocles crossed over in a modern studio. I can get behind that! Opener, “Clearance of Century” has a huge punk feel to it, whilst second track “Here We Are” brings the grind that I love so much. The ferocity here is totally non-stop; the vocals are super savage and really match the hybrid sound perfectly. “Commands from the Oval Throne” on side B is another favourite of mine. The whole thing closes out with “Oseriost som fan”, which is crusty as absolute fucking fuck, before ending with some epic chanting shit. This has been out for some time now on CD and vinyl thanks to Insane Society Records. Czech it out in the link below!

Vulgar Disease – When You Get Drunk I’ll Be The Wine (2014)
noise & power electronics

Vulgar Disease – When You Get Drunk I’ll Be The Wine (2014)

Ah…harsh noise; if there was ever a genre of ‘music’ where it is hard to remain original. I love watching noise artists perform live, but listening to harsh noise in the home (asides from the ‘big’ names) isn’t something that I do very often. This is primarily because 1.) if you have a torrent for every single Merzbow release, you’re pretty much set for life in the noise game and 2.) the internet has caused a massive saturation of the scene. You could look at it now as everybody having a fair chance of exposure, but to me the ease of which people can now make and distribute music also has a huge downside. So yeah, I don’t actually listen to that much harsh noise. But, there was something about Vulgar Disease’s cover art for When You Get Drunk I’ll Be The Wine that made me listen. Perhaps it was because it looks a bit like an old goregrind tape, or perhaps it was because it claimed to be inspired by Bon Jovi. Either way, I listened to it, and not only does it (thankfully) not sound anything like Bon Jovi, but it’s actually fucking awesome. Sure, it’s noisy as hell, but beneath those pummelling walls of distortion are haunting strains and creeping textures which mix together in frenetic unison, creating an unique sound that you want to explore further, but can’t, because it’ll melt your face off. Some tracks incorporate barked, distorted and commanding vocals that again, don’t really sound like Bon Jovi but sound to me like a cross between Swans’ Michael Gira in his early days and J Randall from Agoraphobic Nosebleed. It works for me! The closing title track is much more brooding and atmospheric, building slowly and surely until….it just slowly drifts off into nothingness. Check the entire release out below on Torn Flesh Records, you can also download the entire thing for free too.

Tom Waits – Frank’s Wild Years (1987)
jazz rock

Tom Waits – Frank’s Wild Years (1987)

I’ve heard the name Tom Waits tossed around for absolutely yonks, but I never got around to actually hearing the guy properly until I really got into HBO’s The Wire, where his song “Way Down In The Hole” was used as the theme song for every single season. The song appeared in five different guises by five different artists, one for each season, with the Waits version itself oddly appearing second on season two. Logically, that would have been first, but hey, it’s not my fuckin’ show haha Since then I’ve looked for an in-road into Tom Waits’ music, which was provided to me in the form of a recommendation of the Frank’s Wild Years album. It’s pretty nice stuff, material of such a type that I rarely partake in listening to, but harking back to a time that no longer exists and conjuring all sorts of fantastic imagery of culture and emotion. It’s bluesy as fark, as was a really nice break for me from a world of grindcore and hip hop (and that one Type O Negative record I keep playing over and over these days). My favourite tracks were probably the gravelier-sounding ones, like “Telephone Call From Istanbul”, “Way Down In The Hole” and “Straight To The Top”. The opening track, “Hang On St. Christopher” also has a wicked, wicked groove, which I’m sure I’ve heard somewhere else already. You gotta keep the devil… down in the hole.

Nile – Annihilation Of The Wicked (2005)
death metal

Nile – Annihilation Of The Wicked (2005)

(2021 Edit: did anyone notice in my re-upload of this post from Blogger I’ve now used the South Korea digipak cover where the title is spelt wrong? LOL) I love absolutely any band that can keep death metal especially fresh and vibrant, without becoming too gimmicky. Nile have a hit and miss discography, in my opinion, but 2005’s Annihilation of the Wicked on Relapse Records is a monolithically heavy recording of blasting ancient Egyptian brutality. If there is a world in history that was particularly grim and unforgiving, ancient Egypt ranks pretty high on that scale. With sarcophagi bursting open with mystical and disturbing subject matter to fuel Nile’s song-writing fire, the “band what like does songs ’bout Egypt and that” have given us thus far seven albums of Pharoahcious (I went there) death metal. The first thing I noticed through the chunky, Relapse-budgeted production was the immense, seemingly unstoppable wall of drums provided by one George Kolias. On sheer performance, discipline and astounding stamina this record is aeons above other death metal records alone, but couple said drumming wizardry with immensly technical riffs and super-complicated songs about stuff you can never begin to understand, and Nile take the crown with this record for the most elitist death metal performance that wasn’t boring or even maybe contrived. After a brief intro, the first proper song, “Cast Down The Heretic” blasts a fucking hole in your skull. “Sacrifice Unto Sebek”, the single from this album, oddly reduces the pace a bit, before we get the first of three 9-minute epics, “User Maat Re”, which is mind boggling in scope and duration. There’s always time for more ultra-elitist Egyptian tunage – “Chapter Of Obeisance Before Giving Breath To The Inert One In The Presence Of The Crescent Shaped Horns” (lol) – before “Lashed To The Slave Stick” comes in. This track is one of my favourite death metal songs of all time. The album closes off with two more (approx) 9-minute epics, making Annihilation… a long but ultimately satisfying trip into a world of unstoppable death metal force.

Vaginal Penetration Of An Amelus With A Musty Carrot / Teen Pussy Fucker – Split CD (2014)
death metal grindcore

Vaginal Penetration Of An Amelus With A Musty Carrot / Teen Pussy Fucker – Split CD (2014)

Wow! Now isn’t the name of this band a mouthful? It’s almost as thick and penetrating (that’s what she said!) as their ultra-chunky death metal / goregrind crossover sound. Austria’s VxPxOxAxAxWxAxMxC pack one hell of a groovy punch, something that is completely evident on this sick little split CD. Boasting one of the nastiest programmed snare sounds ever, the band chug and groove through 4 apotemnophiliac hymns of gargling gore destruction, my favourites being “Baptized In Clammy Scat” and the gorgeously-titled “Mucus Of A Giant Anal Papilla”. Sexy. Sharing this disc with the Amelus Boys are long-running cyber/gore/porngrind maniac(s) Teen Pussy Fucker. This questionably offensive outfit, along with sister band Pigtails, have been around since the early Myspace days, maybe even sooner, and have been spreading the groovy porno vibe all of this time. Unfortunately, alongside VxPxOxAxAxWxAxMxC’s polished and enormously heavy studio sound, Teen Pussy Fucker’s bedroom-grind sound initially sounds a bit flat. I’m under no illusion that a lot of this stuff is produced this way, it’s just alongside top quality studio quality tracks, it can take a while for your ears to adjust. Teen Pussy Fucker’s material here comes on a bit like GUT vocals meeting CBT’s grooves, and a drum machine. Dodgy song titles are the order of the day (“I Like Your Pussy Shaved ‘Cause That Makes You Look Underage”, “Paedophilic Love”) but it comes part and parcel with these genres so what can you do… (2020 edit: this shit is absolutely not cool at all, fuckin’ weirdos) All in all a pretty good fuckin’ split, finally glad to own some TxPxF / Pigtails material after all these years, but the Amelus Boys definitely take the crown here! This CD was released earlier this year on Kaotoxin Records.

DJ Senator – The Bassline / Roll Down Bass (1993)
electronic

DJ Senator – The Bassline / Roll Down Bass (1993)

This is a sticky-labelled 12″ that I bought 2nd hand when I was experimenting with scratching back in the day (lol). I’d gotten a Ministry of Sound deck for Christmas and I needed some 90s-to-the-max shit to scratch and test pitch correction / matching on. As expected, I failed triumphantly at this shit and gave it up pretty quickly, although I did find it fun to scratch random records now and then, something which I have given up entirely since I’ve gained a serious respect for the vinyl medium. The music on this 12″ isn’t particularly challenging or interesting in any way (both songs are based around THAT d’n’b beat – you know what I’m talking about), and if it wasn’t for the school disco female vocals, the tracks could be ambiguously played at either 33 or 45 for a myriad of different atmospheres and effects. At 33, and devoid of vocals, it isn’t a million miles away from Gyral / Stairway era Scorn. For some reason I can’t bring myself to throw this away, although it has absolutely no value whatsoever. There is no Youtube available for this, so instead I’ll offer you this useless tidbit of information: this was released on a Earache sub-label called Sub Bass Records in the early 90s when Earache was trying desperately to break into the d’n’b and rave scenes. Drastic.

Mortiis – The Grudge (2004)
metal

Mortiis – The Grudge (2004)

Whilst this is entirely on the other end of the industrial metal spectrum that I prefer not to get too close to, The Grudge was one of favourite records as a teenager. Over the last few years I have learned that there is a lot more to industrial than crappy guitars layered with crappy dance music and ripping off old Nine Inch Nails tracks, but that’s another story. Mortiis’ first Era 3 release was a puzzling mix of awkward techno and fuzzy metal, not a hundred million miles away from The Smell Of Rain, but so far removed from any of his Era 1 music you’d swear it was a totally different musical genius at the helm. Nope. Mortiis is one of those artists that has evolved in sheer leaps over the last 20 years. I like The Grudge, don’t get me wrong, but compared to The Smell Of Rain before it, it pales in comparison. The Smell Of Rain had such a distinct and wonderful sound, but The Grudge, whilst it has it’s moments of sheer brilliance, is for the most part clumsy, badly mixed and lacking direction. It is equal parts amazing and awful. The over-all vibe is much more angsty and rougher around the edges (it’s almost like this album should have been made first, and The Smell Of Rain should be it’s more focused and chilled-out follow up) but some of my favourite Mortiis songs are on here. Opener “Broken Skin” sounds like it’s been mixed by a 4 year old, but that doesn’t stop it being one of the greatest Mortiis songs, writing wise. “The Grudge” is the song that got me hooked into this album with it’s constant rotation on Scuzz TV; a clanking dancey nightmare that unfolds into some serious industrial metal heaviness. The longest track here, “The Worst In Me” is a brooding nightmare of riffs and synths, and the first few minutes of “The Loneliest Thing” is by far the best shit on this record; it starts with a cool, semi-acoustic opening with resonant chords fighting over fluttering hi-hats, leading into some heavy drumming and haunting vocal performances. Sheer, sheer brilliance. Closing track “Asthma”, is a quick nod back to the days of old, fading the record out with a couple of minutes of nothing more than meandering, hollow ambience. Bliss. I originally bought this on CD with my first ever paycheck back in 2005 (who can forget what they bought with their first paycheck?). I got the “Mortiis pack” off Earache Records, which was the entire Mortiis-on-Earache discography and a crappy Earache t-shirt, but they made a mistake and sent me two copies of The Grudge (one being the special edition) instead of a copy of The Stargate, and I had to send it back for a swap. In hindsight, I probably should have said it was missing, flogged it, and got a free copy of The Stargate. Oh well. Recently the label have been selling these old vinyl copies of The Grudge off for £7 including postage, so I couldn’t resist picking one up. I was hoping for the bright purple but I got the clear.

The Misfits – Earth A.D. / Wolfs Blood (1983)
punk & hardcore

The Misfits – Earth A.D. / Wolfs Blood (1983)

This is one of the more ‘brutal’ Misfits releases. If anything, it is the fastest, grimiest (studio) recording the band have done. Even the cover art alone is something more crust/grind-looking, although it was released a while before those genres really came into their own. This spins at 33rpm, which is surprising considering how short it is, I was expecting it to be a 45. Still though, Earth A.D. / Wolfs Blood is a short and sweet rampage through some fast-paced, horror-themed hardcore punk. The speed of this record doesn’t stop the few (obligatory) massive Misfits-patent choruses sneaking into a couple of tracks (“Death Comes Ripping”, or “Queen Wasp”), with plenty of “whoaaaaaa”s for good measure, but tracks like “Wolfs Blood”, “Devilock” and the massively grind-before-grind-existed “Demonomania” (at an impressive 45 seconds in length) are in territory that The Misfits would never stray into again. I have this, and a couple of other Misfits things, on CD already, but I had to get it again, cuz y’know, old punk belongs on vinyl. The CD version however, combines this LP with the Die, Die My Darling 12″ single (which I also have separately), and also adds the bonus track “Mommy Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight?”, which is recorded live. The CD sounds a bit flat though, as with a lot of old shit turned into a digital format, so I (perhaps predictably) recommend purchasing the vinyl version. 

Death Grips – NØ LØV∑ D∑∑P W∏B (2012)
hip hop

Death Grips – NØ LØV∑ D∑∑P W∏B (2012)

I already did a review of this record over on Gonzo Karaoke (something I need to do again, that shit is awesome), a wicked website ‘portal’ to a world full of freely downloadable audible awesomeness, but seeing as I also now have the physical edition here in my hands, I guess I have to do another, proper review. It would be a bit cheapskate to just copy the review over, so I’m gonna do a second one, albiet it’ll be a bit brief because I’ve already written about it once before. The first thing you’ll notice about the vinyl version of Death Grips’ rather cocky 3rd full length* (2nd if you count Exmilitary as a mixtape and not an LP), is that the enormously phallic cover art is nicely censored in an almost PVC-feel sleeve. I’m not particularly offended by the cover art, but I don’t make it my business to be staring at enormously blown up images of cocks either.  *see what I did there? As is probably expected of me in this post, I will confirm that the sound quality on this pressing is lightyears ahead of the downloadable version, even at 320kbps. I’m not sure if it’s available in .FLAC or something, but it might be worth a look if your more of an audiophile. The depth that the bass hits sounds so much better coming from the vinyl than it does running at 320kbps through my iMac and the same speakers / hi-fi system as my deck plays through. I also notice a lot more going on; little subtle differences are easier on the ear due to the warmer all-over sound. I also have a feeling that if I took this over to my mate’s house and played it on his professionally amped system it’d blow a fucking hole in the wall. This LP, along with the album before it – The Money Store, are both available at fairly reasonable prices still, which is something of a miracle, as silly hipsters seem to fucking adore this band with their unique and ‘alternative’ approach to hip hop. I know most Death Grips stuff is free, and I’m sure that has contributed somewhat largely to their current popularity, but if you actually enjoy listening to their stuff on a regular basis, I emplore you to buy up some physical records. You won’t regret it.

Swans – Can’t Find My Way Home (1989)
pop rock

Swans – Can’t Find My Way Home (1989)

Unfortunately, Can’t Find My Way Home is one of the weaker tracks off the somewhat-hated The Burning World album (and a cover song to boot), so this single doesn’t really do anything for me in that respect. It is merely a completists item for me, as I go on to collect at least one version of every release Swans have put out. I have the 7″ version here, although there is a 12″ version of this single in existence, which I believe possesses yet another extra track. The b-side here though, is a cripplingly-weak acoustic re-working of “(She’s A) Universal Emptiness”, which is one of my favourite tracks off The Burning World. This version, is for some godforsaken reason, sped up in tempo, and not only sounds rushed, but loses it’s depressive and brooding feeling. To briefly conclude; this release offers nothing to the Swans discography in any way, and is entirely a completists item. I do not recommend purchasing it to anyone, anywhere.

Archagathus / No Thought – Split 7″ (2013)
grindcore

Archagathus / No Thought – Split 7″ (2013)

I’ve never encountered No Thought before, but I really enjoyed their mix of styles. Many bands do the whole doom-into-grind thing, but No Thought seem to pull it off rather seamlessly here, which is fuckin’ great. The production is thick and crunchy (mmmmm yummy) and based more in the low-end of the spectrum, and reminds me rather poetically of Rotten Sound mixed with early Brutal Truth. Well worth a listen, I’d wager, if you’re into both the fast and slow aspects of heavy music. Archagathus seem to have a bigger line up here than usual? (2021 edit: you may have been confusing them with Six Brew Bantha who are a 3 piece) The over-all sound is much more polished as well, which is a first for me. I need to check the dates on these 7”s that I have; perhaps most of the Archagathus stuff I’ve heard is the older material, as this sounds fairly different to what I’ve gotten used to. Things are most definitely much tighter around the edges, and the production is not as harsh. The super-growly vokills are still evident, as is the group’s punky playing style, but everything seems to have been tidied up a bit. Still sounds fuckin’ cool though!

Intestinal Disgorge – Dripping In Quiet Places (2011)
grindcore

Intestinal Disgorge – Dripping In Quiet Places (2011)

I always welcome more Intestinal Disgorge. I should make a crappy Sean Bean meme with the text “One does not simply have enough Intestinal Disgorge”. So, when I got the sexcellent Hyperemesis / Pulsating Cerebral Slime 7″ lathe from Goatgrind Records I had to pick up their release of Dripping… at the same time; it would have been criminal not to! I have three Intestinal Disgorge records now (at the time of writing), so I might as well get serious and get locked into collecting the fucking lot. Holy shit, Dripping… is one polished motherfucking record! The sound here is absolutely monumental. The production values just get better and better with each record, but ID have also tidied up their sound here. Gone are the funny/worrying samples, as are, for the most part, the trademark bitch squeals. The Depravity record showcased a much more stream-lined approach for the band, replacing silliness with outright fucking brutality, and Dripping… takes the band even further in that direction. There are 25 songs here instead of the usual 50/60 you’d expect from an ID full length. The trademark frenzied-shredding is still evident in many of the songs, but I find that the tracks overall are much longer and structured, resembling a very interesting brand of brutal death metal rather than anything more grind-related. On the other hand though, things get really experimental with the inclusion of what sounds like a fucking saxophone popping up in the mix. The album credits “J” to “vocals, clarinet, violin, trombone”, but all I hear is something sax-sounding, but I’m not really educated in classical instruments and the sounds that they make. At times it sounds like a death metal Dead Neanderthals, which is very unusual to say the least. All in all, this is a fucking epic and absolutely tight as a duck’s arse record. The lack of samples / worryingly misogynistic content and crazy-weird goregrind may initially baffle some old ID fans, but the more-focused and heavier than heavy sound more than makes up for it.

Anathema – A Natural Disaster (2003)
folk, neofolk & acoustic rock

Anathema – A Natural Disaster (2003)

I’ve recently been playing catch up with Anathema. They are a band I have now known about for years, but I only own a very small amount of their albums. Thank Zombie Jesus then, for the Amazon marketplace with it’s sometimes insanely cheap prices. A used copy of A Natural Disaster ended up costing me almost next to nothing. And to be honest, I’m really glad. The first thing that surprised me about this record – often regarded I think as one of Anathema’s best – is that it’s an absolute disjointed mess. For the first few songs, I don’t think anybody really has any idea about what is going on; the band just drift from one song to the other with what seems like no real drive at all. It’s like it’s acoustic and floaty for the sake of being acoustic and floaty, and it goes nowhere until the start of track 3, “Closer”, just cuts in clumsily. Here at least, the album starts properly. “Closer” is a hell of bloody good tune, making (for once) good use of a vocoder or harmonizer, that builds and builds until it explodes in a post-rock-esque orgasm of sound. Good stuff! “Are You There?” on the other hand is probably one of the worst things I have ever heard. “Childhood Dream” is almost as pointless, and then bam – another rocking track just cuts in rudely, the thankfully excellent “Pulled Under At 2000 Metres A Second”, which isn’t dissimilar in writing style to “Panic” from the previous Anathema record, A Fine Day To Exit. This album reminds me of Swans’ Soundtracks For The Blind, in the way that dreamlike ambiances and floaty acoustic passages mesh awkwardly with heavy-hitting, full-band pieces. It just doesn’t flow at all, in my opinion. Thankfully though, things are a-okay from here on out; every track is a belter. “Flying” is an Anathema favourite of mine, with a chorus that has a through-the-roof sing-a-long factor. “Electricity” is a lesson in post-rock swelling and building done far better than by many of the restrictive genre’s current participants. All in all, there are some brilliant songs here, it’s just this album suffers from a whole bunch of filler crap as well. Couple that with the “flow” issues and you really have one disappointing record, which is really inexcusable for a band with such passion, integrity, and musical dexterity as Anathema, especially on an album that is only 10 tracks long. I’m glad I bought this, as I can now move on with finishing my collection, but unless you really love this type of music, I’d look for my Anathema kicks elsewhere. That’s exactly what I’ll be doing, at least.

Dead Infection – Brain Corrosion (2004)
grindcore

Dead Infection – Brain Corrosion (2004)

Dead Infection were one of the first goregrind bands I ever heard alongside Last Days of Humanity. Together they made up the dankest sound I had ever heard at 16 years of age, previously having only experienced grind with Napalm Death’s Scum and a cross section of Anal Cunt stuff. When I downloaded Brain Corrosion shortly after, I was blown away by the crisp, heavy sound and high quality production that was the total opposite of the dirgy, muddy tracks I had heard alongside Last Days of Humanity. Early Dead Infection might be vital to the development of the goregrind genre (in Europe, at least) but 2004’s return saw the band blasting out ridiculously heavy and lightening fast grindcore in lieu of their sludgy, gurgley goregrind of old. The song titles show a band that are not afraid to indulge in their silly side. Opening track “It’s Over” possesses some of the greatest blastbeats ever, whilst “You Broke My T-Shirt” takes the prize for stupidest song on the album. Both “Crankshaft” and “Rich Zombie” are enormous, with the former sounding like the angry bastard child of the title track of From Enslavement to Obliteration. With the gore themes scaled back, and growls and vomited vocals used instead of pitchshifted blurs, Brain Corrosion is a modern-sounding exercise in true European blasting grindcore, and it should be heard by any fan of the genre. Originally released on CD by Obliteration Records in 2004, it has since been repressed in 2005 again on CD by Moral Insanity Records, and finally on 12″ LP in 2006 thanks to Selfmadegod Records. In hindsight I would have bought the vinyl version, but I had the CD first. Gutted. Maybe one day I’ll get the vinyl version and I’ll update this post.

The Kovenant – Animatronic (1999)
electronic metal

The Kovenant – Animatronic (1999)

It might have cybergoth written all over it, but this album is the fucking shit. Imagine if Dimmu Borgir decided to start making music like KMFDM or something. Animatronic is a bright, sparkly journey through what should by rights be a dark and mysterious world. The songs are keyboard or female-vocal led, beefed out with chuggy riffage and a combination of programmed beats and heavy drumming. Eagled-eared listeners (is that a thing? It is now!) will recognise the opening track, “Mirror’s Paradise”, from Bam Margera’s infamous CKY videos. The magic in this album though, has gotta be the production job. If this thing was mixed in any other way, it would probably fail catastrophically. The keyboards and electronic sounds really are the driving force here, and if they got buried under the metal and the screechy vocals, the whole thing would fall on it’s arse, like when Martin Foul left Cradle Of Filth; it took you a few tracks to realise that something was missing, and when you finally figured it out, everything sounded empty and boring. I genuinely believe that there isn’t a bad song on this album. I can’t exactly do repeat listens, because the whole goth thing grates on me after a bit, but every now and then I come back to this album and love every second of it, before compartmentalising it again for another random period of time. My favourite tracks are the well-known opener, “Mirror’s Paradise”, the brooding “Mannequin”, the pacy “Human Abstract” (which a really crummy band is named after) and the highlarious cover of Babylon Zoo’s “Spaceman”. Dust off the cyberlocks and glowsticks, it’s time to dance and then take too much heroin and vomit on your Ministry t-shirt. Yay goths!

Scatman John – Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop) (1994)
electronic

Scatman John – Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop) (1994)

SKI BA BOP BA DOP DA FUCKIN’ BOP NIKKA A bit of a jokey post for you, considering it’s April Fools and all. Despite the ridiculousness of the content, this is a genuinely canon Lines In Wax post and has been added to the Collection page and everything. Ho ho! I got this alllll the way back on January the 2nd when I was helping my buddy Phil out at his job recycling textiles, and I saw it sitting on the shelf in a charity shop for 50p. For the sheer lulz that followed in the van for the next 5 minutes or so it was worth the money, especially since I wouldn’t tell him what I’d bought; I guess he thought it’d be really heavy or something. Ha! I remember back in the day when this was on every radio station and in rotation at every school disco the length and breadth of the UK. I don’t particularly like the song, I’ll be honest, but there’s something about that cheap 90s dance vibe that really takes me back, y’know? Next thing I’ll have the 12″ of Cotton Eye Joe or something. Shit. That’ll do. Fuck this. I’ll see y’all tomorrow!

Archagathus / Maximum Thrash – Split 7″ (2012)
grindcore

Archagathus / Maximum Thrash – Split 7″ (2012)

I was expecting more from Maximum Thrash, I will be honest. I’ve seen the name around a lot over the last few years so I was rather excited about finally hearing them. I was a bit disappointed then, when I dropped the needle onto this wax and got some shitty live recording as my first impression of them. Don’t get me wrong, the band sound like they’d be great, but there’s nothing worse than shelling out money for a 7” and it turns out to be of a crappy live recording. As their side progresses we do get some studio material, which is really good, but…c’mon guys! Archagathus seem a lot more “guttural” here than in any other instance that I have encountered them.  Burping over the thrashy, punk-tinged mince sound is a heavy, almost pitchshifted-sounding gore/death metal low vocal. It’s a bit loud but it doesn’t detract from the overall sound. I guess it’s a kinda hails to Agathocles, who’ve often used the pitchshifted vocal over a punkier sound. The third track, “Nazi Smash” has the most insane groove, and it really makes me want to see Archagathus play live (do they even play shows?). All in all, this split is pretty good, but I get the sneaking suspicion that better material exists (from both bands) on other releases. This 7” was put out in a collaboration between Witch Bukkake Records, Mercy of Slumber, Stockroom Records and Grindfather Productions.

CKY – Infiltrate.Destroy.Rebuild. (2002)
rock

CKY – Infiltrate.Destroy.Rebuild. (2002)

Man, now this is a blast from my past! I’d pretty much forgotten CKY existed for the last half a decade or so, until I saw this CD for sale for next to nothing in a charity shop. I forgot just how much I loved this band’s first two records – I can’t really speak much for the rest of the discography (An Answer Can Be Found was OK I guess, but Carver City does nothing for me at all) but this CD is an absolute classic! After spinning this for the first time in probably 8 or 9 years, the first thing I notice is just how unique and odd CKY’s guitar tone is. It is almost synthetic sounding, yet amply fuzzy and satisfying. “Escape From Hellview”, “Flesh Into Gear” and “Sink Into The Underground” sound just as brilliant as I remembered them to. The rest of the album sails by really quickly, because CKY can’t seem to write anything that lasts longer than 3 minutes or so. Not that I’m complaining, there are some great blasts from the past here, with the only song on the entire record I’m not at all fussed on being the closing track “Close Yet Far”.  If your OK with your rock and metal having singy vocals and a sensibility to the songs, then I strongly recommend some CKY for you, if you’ve not heard them before, that is. This version of the CD comes with a bonus DVD directed by Bam Margera (he had to fucking worm his way in somewhere) filled with music videos for every single song on the album. Now that’s value for money.

Korn – Take A Look In The Mirror (2003)
metal

Korn – Take A Look In The Mirror (2003)

I had a little bit of a catch-up with Korn’s mid-to-late 2000s releases on Amazon recently. For some reason, the young-me never picked up 2003’s follow-up to Untouchables; Take A Look In The Mirror, which was unusual, especially considering that this was the last record the band did with the full original line-up. I really think Silveria’s drumming, whilst not incredibly technical, is extremely unique, and is noticeably missing from the later Korn stuff (as is Head’s guitar work). That’s not a diss on the drummers that came alongside / after him – it’s just it is hard to not notice an unique style, if you get what I mean. Unfortunately, the “original five”‘s last record together wasn’t the most inspired thing that they’ve ever done. It isn’t necessarily bad in the grand scheme of things, but it is completely Korn-by-numbers, through and through. The whole thing smacks of their tried and tested formula, made even more consumable by the Untouchables-grade polished production. There’s even a track (“Alive”) where the instrumentation in the chorus (not the vocal) is pretty much exactly the same as “Need To” from their debut album (I’ve posted comparison videos at the end of the blog). I did some research and found out that “Alive” was the original version of “Need To” from Korn’s first demo and it has been re-recorded for this record. On top of all that, sneak 30 seconds of bagpipes in somewhere along the way and hey fucking presto – another Korn record. Also, I get the sneaking suspicion that this record has a similar deal going on as that with Metallica’s Load and Reload; it came out suspiciously quickly after Untouchables (even more suspicious when you consider the gap between Issues and Untouchables) and has more or less the same vibe, minus the weird electronics shit that broke up the previous album. So is  this an album of tracks left over from the previous record? Maybe, maybe not. Does this CD sound like an album of tracks left over from the previous record? Yes. Yes it does. Despite this, things are still fairly heavy – I guess helping me to appreciate this is the full-band dynamic that would become absent on future records. There are some Korn klassics here as well; most metalheads know “Right Now”, “Did My Time” and “Y’All Want A Single”, but there are also some hidden gems in here, as well as some total fucking stinkers. If you love the klassic Korn template then pick this up because it’s cheap as fuck everywhere now. If you don’t, then, well, don’t bother.

Impetigo – Giallo / Antefatto (1989/2000)
death metal grindcore

Impetigo – Giallo / Antefatto (1989/2000)

I gotta come clean here…I know that Impetigo are regarded as legends in the grindcore/noisecore scenes, but I just cannot get into them! I’ve had this CD for yonks but I rarely, if ever, listen to it. Perhaps I need to investigate more of their material, but with the crazy scope of music out there, I always find myself forgetting to do so. Giallo / Antefatto is a collection of the bands first two demos with an extra unreleased track thrown in for good measure. This is my only experience with the sounds of Impetigo. Half-Life Records (who I think have taken a trip to Belize, to paraphrase Saul Goodman) released this CD compilation all the way back in 2006. It must have been a big noise because it’s got incredibly extensive linear notes contributed by Impetigo’s Stevo, who goes into the history of the band and each track on the CD with relentless detail. I think for die-hard Impetigo fans this CD is totally worth hunting down if just for the previously unreleased track and the endless info-spewing by Stevo. To round it off, this CD is a bit so/so for me, but it was a fairly enjoyable listen (and an informative read) nonetheless.

Fury 161 – Armageddon’s Maw (2014)
noise & power electronics

Fury 161 – Armageddon’s Maw (2014)

Fury 161 are a noise / death industrial based project with members hailing from Wales, Ireland and originally, South Africa. They came together in 2013 to produce misanthropic, hateful atmospheres about futility and anger towards all of mankind. Opener ‘Thanatos’ builds a dark, clanking atmosphere without getting too harsh. It is the audible equivalent of an incomprehensible mechanical world gearing up. ‘Spirits’ follows, which almost sounds like the distorted offspring of a Public Castration-era Swans track, that is until the vocals kick in. The vocal attack is reminiscent of the styles used heavily in black and death metal, with feral growls and throat-shredding howls barking across the surface of the searing, depthless and machine-like compositions and noisescapes. Harsh noise enthusiasts shouldn’t be too quick to pass them off here – Fury 161 might not be as harsh or brutally uncompromising as some of their noise and industrial peers, but this is still some disturbing, twisted shit. Fury 161 aren’t afraid to use cerebrally crippling waves of distortion, but instead of blasting us with these audible cannons for entire tracks, Fury 161 play the soundscape game, building dissonant and creepy atmospheres using synths and ambient sounds (and often incorporating some kind of electronic beat) before melting your head off with some good ol’ fashion noise. The track “Black Heart Attack” is my favourite example of this approach, with its haunting synth melody and pulsing distorted beat, meandering in and out between the beautiful and downright fuck ugly. This is a fairly long album, clocking in at 56 minutes with most of the tracks averaging around the 5 minute mark. Closing off the ceremonies is the 7-minute epic “Tears”, which matches rasping howls over a warbled drone and eery, clanking percussion. All in all, I would definitely recommend you giving Armageddon’s Maw a listen to. You can stream the entire thing at the Bugs Crawling Out Of People Bandcamp page (linked below), where you can also pick up the record on CD, and a bunch of t-shirts. As you can see from the pictures, the CD comes in a really fancy card DVD case, which looks absolutely awesome.

Small Fortunes – Say What You See (2014)
electronic hip hop

Small Fortunes – Say What You See (2014)

Ho ho! Now this is something that I have watched grow from a silly one-minute-something demo into a full-blown project of epic proportions. Introducing my good ol’ pal Gareth B, whom is a fellow band-mate with me in Merthyr Tydfilian based rap metal (yes!) group Start! Start!. Mr. B is always grooving our tunes up with his mad bass skills, but he doesn’t get much chance to shine on the mic. That’s where Small Fortunes comes in; Gareth B shows us his unique view on the world with this swanky and professional-as-fuck four track EP. Lamenting us through the medium of auto-tune like some bastard lovechild of Ke$ha and Nate Dogg, Small Fortunes takes us into four real life scenarios told through the exciting method of songwriting. “Baldman Beatdown” tells us how Mr. B mashed up a cider-swilling lout at his local bar, “Mr. Sunday Night” is the hilarious tale of a bloke that he met in the local chippy who didn’t know what day it was, “Crows Nest” is a backlash reaction to some over-enthusiastic music critic, and “A Birthday To Remember” shares the toilet-rattling tale of getting the shits after his birthday meal. I was present for that one, and boy it was ugly! Despite the enormously sexy artwork, this EP is burned onto CDr, although you’d never guess because Gareth B has put so much love into this little package. The CDrs are styled like lil’ 5″ vinyls, which is right up my street, and the production on the songs by Downtown Studios’ Uncle Richard is very polished and modern. The cartoony artwork by Lauren Orrells is the finishing touch here. These motherfuckers are limited to 50 copies, so act fast and get one from Small Fortunes whilst the going is good! I also have the first Small Fortunes promo single “Caution! Wet Floor!” download card free with every Pointless Records order, so get in!

Prostitute Disfigurement – Deeds Of Derangement (2003)
death metal

Prostitute Disfigurement – Deeds Of Derangement (2003)

Before I start, let me just say that this band has one of the most awesome names in the history of all that is grindcore and death metal. Fuck! It’s such a brutal name, and one that still gets thinking “dayuuuum, that’s nasty” even after years of immersion in this type of shit. But, as usual, I digress. On with the music! Deeds of Derangement opens with a million-mile-a-minute blast-a-thon, throwing you right into PD’s sick and twisted world. The vocals are a strange mix between a guttural low and a pig squeal, the guitars are audible, chugging pools of mud and the drums are surprisingly clarified; the blasts are equal, moderate in volume across the board and rock-steady, yet the use of triggers, if any, is very understated indeed. Great production job! As the songs sail by I notice an almost melodic edge to some of the riffage here, harking back to more traditional death metal approaches, rather than sticking to the ultra-brutal template and soldiering through an entire album with little to no variation. It freaks me the fuck out that this album is nearly 11 years old, as it was only 3 years old when I first downloaded it back when I was still in school. It sure as hell doesn’t sound 11 years old. Sometimes death metal work, whilst staying relevant, can sound rather dated mainly due to the production styles used, but Deeds of Derangement is an extremely organic sounding record that could have been recorded yesterday for all I know. It’s great shit. You can stream the entire album in the link below. Originally released on CD by the defunct Morbid Records, which is now merged and under War Anthem Records.

Witch Cult / Drainland – Split Tape (2012)
grindcore punk & hardcore

Witch Cult / Drainland – Split Tape (2012)

Well, this is one short-ass tape. I should have seen it coming really, going on the Witch Cult live sets that I’ve experienced. This tape is Witch Cult to the core; starting off with some building harsh noise before ramming head-on into a grinding fury of total chaos and speed. Drainland have only two songs here, but they are really good; I just wish it lasted a bit longer (then maybe this review could be as well ha ha).  I got this at Witch Cult’s last ever show, up in Brizzle, supporting Despise You on some fairly-big grind/powerviolence/crappy-hardcore bill. It was a crazy show, albeit one that lasted mere minutes, and included a human pyramid and a long outro track that sounded suspiciously like an Electric Wizard cover. It was great, though! I’ve only seen them twice but they will be missed. WITCHCULT/Drainland Split tape by Witch Cult

Björk – Selmasongs (Dancer In The Dark OST) (2000)
avant-garde classical electronic

Björk – Selmasongs (Dancer In The Dark OST) (2000)

As far as Björk albums go this has to be the most boring one I have heard so far, if you can even call it an album at only seven tracks in length. Selmasongs is the “OST” to the film Dancer In The Dark, which also stars Björk in the main role. I’ve never seen the film and don’t particularly plan on watching it, but I expected from Björk and all her super-creative weirdness a very challenging and enjoyable self-made soundtrack, but alas all we have here is a bunch of orchestral scores (which are nice in their own right, I suppose) with the odd Björk tune thrown in for good measure. Massive disappointment. I can’t really complain as I only paid £0.01 for this on Amazon (good luck “bricks’n’mortar” record stores!) but I was insanely let down by this short CD. Totally not worth waffling on about, and for Björk purists only.

Agoraphobic Nosebleed / Halo – Split 7″ (2002)
grindcore

Agoraphobic Nosebleed / Halo – Split 7″ (2002)

I think this is probably the hardest thing in the ANb discography to get a hold of. Sure, the Insect Warfare split and the Converge split can fetch rather hefty prices, and Tentacles of Destruction is fairly limited, but for sheer difficulty in regards to unoptainability (is that even a word? *edit – no, it’s not), the split EP with Halo currently holds the crown (seeing as I don’t have all the ANb shit yet, I won’t say for definite, but I’d be surprised if anything else is more difficult to obtain). The three original ANb tunes are from the Altered States era (they have that sound/feel, at least), and they are the typical old-school ANb stock of uber-fast drum-machine grindcore punishment. What I didn’t see coming however, was the Slayer cover that takes up most of their side. “The Antichrist” definitely sounds a lot better with Richard Johnson on vocals, but I was never the biggest fan of Slayer, so I could take or leave this cover version. Halo are the polar-opposites to ANb, in the speed stakes, at least. Deathly slow drumming and horrendous guitar feedback and low-end vibes make up the main “songs”, where sparse but abrasive vocals howl over the top of it all, creating a rather unsettling yet interesting listen. Despite it’s snail-like pace, the track doesn’t last that long and I am left contemplating whether to search for more Halo material or not… This was released on Relapse Records a while ago now, and was part of some subscription series. That’s probably why it is so bloody difficult to come by. I’m glad I’ve finally gotten a hold of it though, as it goes towards the inevitable completion of my ANb collection, and it also contains ANb material that isn’t available anywhere else, as far as I can tell.

Jesus Cröst – Fuck Powerviolence…This Is Groovy Gore Grind! (2013)
grindcore

Jesus Cröst – Fuck Powerviolence…This Is Groovy Gore Grind! (2013)

Ok…so Jesus Cröst do groovy gore grind now? Dunno when the change over happened exactly, but it happened. Don’t get me wrong, the cover art is pretty hilarious considering the usual subject matter of Jesus Cröst’s material…but other than that…shit….I really don’t want to say it, because I hate dissing bands….but this shit sucks ass. Compared to the insane precision and ruthless insanity of material like Töt, this 7″ comes across as a bit boring and as a lazy joke. It sounds like a sub-par Gut mixed with some random brutal death metal band, all the while trying to imitate Jig-Ai / Rompeprop-esque polka rhythms. The whole thing just falls flat on it’s arse. Please, please go back to fastcore, guys! The porno sample over the first track goes on for so long you’d swear that Mortician had a hand in producing it. Things pick up around the end of side A with “Rachid Bouaouzan”, which has a half-decent groove, but other than that, this thing just goes nowhere. I’m not entirely sure if this record is really as awful as I’m making out or if it is just my own massive personal disappointment in the decline in Jesus Cröst’s output. That’s the thing that hurts the most; Jesus Cröst are (usually) so absolutely fucking goddamn awesome. I dunno what the fuck happened here…I’m sorry for the negativity! I’m sure most of you are already know I rarely do negative reviews, but I just gotta be honest with you here… 🙁 This was put out on Rödel Records. Again, I apologise for the negativity but to quote the internet: “I am disappoint”. Maybe this’ll grow on me

Sete Star Sept / Violent Gorge – Split 5.5″ (2013)
grindcore

Sete Star Sept / Violent Gorge – Split 5.5″ (2013)

Holy Mother, now this is some abrasive shit! Sete Star Sept are currently my go-to band for extra-nasty noisecore skullduggery, and they do not disappoint with this particular slice of shitgrind vulgarity. Violent Gorge takes things a little bit further. Things start off in the noisecore ballpark, and then subtly migrate into harsh noise territory, as it appears the original “band” recordings are cut, spliced, diced and manipulated to create all manner of auditory discomfort. Imagine Suppression meets AxCx in King Tubby’s studio. Ha ha! Uber-DIY and well worth a look-in, you can get this unusually sized 5.5″ slab of tinnitus from Grindfather Productions, Mass Deadening, Aggressive Valley, Death, Agony & Screams and Pan Del Muerte Records.

Total Fucking Destruction / Skat Injector – Split 7″ (2011)
grindcore noise & power electronics

Total Fucking Destruction / Skat Injector – Split 7″ (2011)

Wowzers, what a noise! Ha ha! I got this split because I am slowly making my way through collecting the Total Fucking Destruction stuff. I’m not’ve really been that familiar with Skat Injector, up until now that is. Neil from Legs Akimbo was a legend in finding an unsold copy of this split for me, as this shit is pretty limited now. The TFD stuff here is just some live versions of well known tracks of theirs, but it’s the Skat Injector side that really shines. Skat Injector is some crazy shit. I don’t really know how to describe it; it’s like a mix of every possible electronic genre in one big jumbled bag of super-fast, dancable insanity. I’m not sure if the record is supposed to be spinning at 33 or 45 until the vocals come in; it really works both ways, but the correct speed is 33 1/3. 

Snuffgrinder – Snuffholic (2007)
electronic

Snuffgrinder – Snuffholic (2007)

Ever since I decided to include CDs on Lines In Wax about a year and a half ago I have looked forward to reviewing this album. It’s purely one of the most unique things I have ever heard, and every time I scanned my shelf for something to listen to whilst at work, Snuffholic would catch my eye, but every single time I’d think to myself “hmmm, maybe next time”. Well, finally that “next time” came around and I took this crazy little fuck out to the car with me for 7 hours of raining hell. I’m not sure if it made my shift better or worse! Ha ha! Snuffgrinder is a very unique project with a very unique sound. I guess it falls under the usually-horrendous “gabba-grind” genre, but without the usual ghastly pitfalls of that particular sound. The best (and most alienating) way I can probably describe Snuffgrinder to the uninitiated is to imagine Libido Airbag crossed with Aphex Twin and a DJ in a fetish swingers club or something….Ha ha! Yeah, that’s about right. There aren’t really “tunes” here as such, any synths or instruments are very minimal, as are the sparse vocal performances, the entire thing is driven by a pile-driving drum machine barrage of pain, death and anguish. Swans’ Holy Money-era nail gun experiments ain’t got shit on this motherfucker! Some of the drum hits sound like fucking gun shots, I’ll just put it that way. This album isn’t very long, but when you think of it as 14 tracks of pummelling drum programming, it’s plenty long enough; it’s enough to give anyone a permanent fucking headache, in the best way possible, of course. I’m not sure of the rarity of this release as I got it through a trade years ago, but it was put out on Apathic View Records back in 2006. Some facts to finish up on: Snuffgrinder is/are from Poland, and when he/she/they talk of snuff, they are talking about tobacco, not snuff films (so readeth thy booklet: “SGR has nothing to do with a crap called ‘snuff movies’. It’s all about tobacco.”). Also, QNZ – the guy who runs Rotten Roll Rex – guests vocals on track 2. Check out some Snuffgrinder carnage in the link below!

Anathema – Hindsight (2008)
folk, neofolk & acoustic rock

Anathema – Hindsight (2008)

Yes yes, I know you’re all probably thinking the same; “not another bleedin’ Anathema post!”, but tough shite! I’ve done a lot of listening to Anathema recently, and that’s how Lines In Wax works; I don’t randomly just pull reviews out of my arse, I generally try to write about what is fresh in my head to give a more accurate, in depth review. That’s why there isn’t any tangible order to the stuff I get through, and new and old releases are reviewed in no particular sequence. When I first started Lines In Wax I did posts alphabetically, that’s why most of the A & B section of the 7”s is almost complete, but you’ll also notice that when I started, I was purely posting images posts with no reviews, and posting multiple blogs per day. The reviews came afterward. Annnnnnywaaaay, how I can ramble! Where were we? Yes, that’s it; Anathema’s Hindsight. This very fancy little CD package marked my first physical purchase of a brand new CD in an actual chain store (it was HMV) in an ungodly amount of time. I don’t like paying top-drawer (read: over the odds) for CDs but this looked really shiny on the rack and with a tenner burning a hole in my pocket I couldn’t resist and caved. Hindsight is beautiful, providing the listener with “MTV Unplugged” kinda versions of classic Anathema tracks. The opener, “Fragile Dreams” sounds absolutely epic on strings, and the acoustic version of “One Last Goodbye”, whilst a bit sappy, shows a whole new heart-wrenching side to an already cripplingly emotional song. “Are You There” sounds just as awful as the original, and songs like “Flying” and “A Natural Disaster” don’t really sound that dissimilar to their original recordings, which does get me thinking about the point of their inclusion, but I’m not really that bothered as these newer versions of both tracks sound absolutely fantastic. All in all, if you’re an Anathema fan, you need Hindsight in your life, although to be fair you probably don’t need me to tell you that. 

The Berzerker – The Berzerker (2000)
death metal electronic

The Berzerker – The Berzerker (2000)

Before The Berzerker became a fully-fledged band with Dissimulate and the tour that came before it, the project was – if footage from the Principles and Practices.. DVD is anything to go by – basically one very angry Australian man shouting at his friends until they made a death metal record with hardcore gabba drumming. I don’t really know how or why Dig from Earache signed Luke Kenny on two mediocre, dancy Morbid Angel remixes, but I’m sure as shit glad that he did. How The Berzerker was born from that initial session, I’ll never know. You could argue The Berzerker’s existence before the self-titled, but in my opinion, they/he didn’t really come into their/his own until they/he started making albums for Earache. This first output, a ramshackle collection of unfinished tunes by Luke and several musician friends, left much more of a mark than I think anyone ever expected. It is now no secret that this album was released in an unfinished form, the band simply running out of time before the release date. Couple that with the group handling a lot more experimental and dirtier grindcore here than on any other of their albums, and you have a recipe for disaster. But, in the long run I think it is what made The Berzerker; that dirty sound with the awkward mix of gabba techno and death metal guitars; each genre lurching over the other uncomfortably in the unfinished mixing. “Reality” and “Forever” are two of my all time favourite tunes, “Burnt” isn’t far behind and “February” just seethes absolute fucking loathing for the human race, which is just gravy. Throw in a bunch of medical samples and the intro for Faces of Death and hey presto, you’re onto a winner. Who needs mixing and mastering? Excluding the final two tracks, which are the shittiest excuses for harsh noise to ever be exported from Oz, The Berzerker is an absolute animal of a record, one that lays bare the disgusting reality of human existence, and emphasises the all too easily-forgotten looming presence of death. Grim stuff.

Joe Pesci – At Our Expense! (2009)
grindcore

Joe Pesci – At Our Expense! (2009)

Joe Pesci play really blurry sounding fastcore, somewhere along the grind highway between sounding like Anal Cunt and (really) early Magrudergrind. At Our Expense! sounds like more of a demo than anything, but it is a great, yet sadly quite short, trip through a grinding world of total speed. Bones Brigade released this CD back in 2009 after some self-released splits/demos and a 12″ four-way which the band appeared on around 2007. After the release of this album, 4 years ago now, Joe Pesci seems to have disappeared into thin air. It might have something to do with The Afternoon Gentlemen being rather busy, but, hey, what do I know? The first thing I notice about the sound here is that the drums are oddly panned to one side, with a slight echo of the track on the other side a split-second later. I’m not sure if the guitars and drums were recorded separately in a rehearsal environment and what I’m hearing is the drums bleeding through on the guitar track, but it takes a while to get my head around this confusing anomaly. Oddities aside, this CD is a fucking animal! The guitars are an endless blur, rarely stopping to break into the odd riff, and with the drums the standard speed is “blast, motherfuckers!”, sometimes slowing down to a crust-punk kinda speed and sometimes even speeding up into gravity blasts. What is this, a death metal record? Ha! 

Older Posts