Lines In Wax

TWELVE YEARS OF UNWANTED OPINION

Month: April 2015

Circle Of Dead Children – Human Harvest (2003)
Uncategorized

Circle Of Dead Children – Human Harvest (2003)

To be fair, CODC are one of the few bands that successfully managed to mix death metal with grindcore. I bought Zero Comfort Margin when I was a teenager and didn’t really get it; the band play quite an artsy, progressive spin on grinding death metal, and also in hindsight I realise that Zero Comfort Margin probably wasn’t the best place to start with this band. But thanks to the powers that rule on the ‘net (idiots like me who think they know everything) I was directed to this little shit of an album. That’s more like it, pal! The first thing I noticed about CODC is the sheer depth of the low vocals. This shit is off-the-chart low. I’m talking Glenn Benton and Jason Mendonca low. The low vocals work perfectly (alongside the odd ‘reee’, ‘breee’ and ‘skreee’) with the buzzing ferocity of the guitars and the clean, precise drumming. The majority of the songs are ferocious one minuters, but there’s a smattering of microblasts too, the shortest being “White Trash Headache” at a meagre six seconds. The longer, more drawn-out tracks like “Mother Pig” and “My Supernatural (Bells Ring Slowly)” are captivating, nauseating and generally uncomfortable. In the best way possible, of course. All in all, a brutal and disturbing grindcore / death metal crossover record.

Trepanation Penetration ‎– Bound Torture Fantasies (2014)
grindcore noise & power electronics

Trepanation Penetration ‎– Bound Torture Fantasies (2014)

Trepanation Penetration is a gorenoise (or is that pornoise?) project in the vein of Urine Festival, Enema Fountain and the likes, and probably is the first project of this kind I’ve done a review for that wasn’t recorded by USA’s Bobby Maggard (lol). Bound Torture Fantasies is the second demo / EP / release under for this ‘band’, and contains 20 untitled blasts of watery drum machine harsh noise. It warbles and farts rather than resulting in shrieking ‘n’ peaking like some noise stuff. Definitely for serious noise/gore sickos only, Trepanation Penetration offers nothing to the casual grindcore listener. In fact, this probably can’t be classed as grind anymore. Behold the watery wastoid sickness!

Agathocles – Fascination Of Mutilation (1990)
grindcore

Agathocles – Fascination Of Mutilation (1990)

There’s a whole ton of crap Agathocles out there so it’s always enormously refreshing to come across the band’s absolute golden material, especially on the 7″ format. With the full lengths you kinda know where you are, but it is so easy to get lost in the group’s endless reams of releases. Fascination Of Mutilation was a flexi released in 1990 on Rigid Records, so it’s an early one in the band’s life. General rule of thumb is – early Agathocles can’t go far wrong. In my opinion, at least. Fascination Of Mutilation is super short at only 5 minutes in length (being only on one side of a flexi, not like the fancy two sided flexis we get these days) but contains so many awesome recordings of Agathocles classics that its ironic quality-over-quantity approach more than makes up for it. “Threshold To Senility”, “Gorgonized Dorks” and “Lay Off Me’ all go down as well as the first beer at a summer festival. Cannot fault it.

Horsebastard – Giraffetermath (2014)
grindcore

Horsebastard – Giraffetermath (2014)

Horsebastard are a grindcore band from up’t’north of England. Well, I’m in South Wales so they are pretty fucking far north to me, at least. The hilariously titled Giraffetermath is the band’s first release since their Equestrian Blastcore CDr demo, which I also have lying around here somewhere or other. This second EP is also a massive step up in recording quality, and looks fucking cool as fuck on a 10″ record rather than on a CDr. I’m not against CDrs obviously, but this vinyl looks sweet as. Ontae the music! Blastcore is definitely a word I would associate with the racket created by Horsebastard. The drums are an endless barrage of blasting insanity, complimented by razor sharp guitars and a seriously deranged vocal attack. My only complaint about this release is that it’s only 14 tracks long – I want more of this shit! Long live the Horsebastard!

Cemetery Rapist – Plundering Into Vaginal Demolition (2013)
death metal

Cemetery Rapist – Plundering Into Vaginal Demolition (2013)

Cemetery Rapist is perhaps the wiggerest of all slam projects. I guess if you’re gonna listen to this type of stuff, go straight to the most ridiculous, insane project of the lot. He might not have gansta grills like members of more recent slam bands, but Cemetery Rapist is also probably one of the longest running projects too, and according to my I-used-to-spend-too-much-time-on-Myspace radar, he’s probably been going for about a decade. When your game is super chuggy pornogrind-tinged slam, you gotta give the guy props for still managing to churn out fresh and relevant music. Asides from a brief foray with superstardom (lol) by releasing a record on Rotten Roll Rex, Cemetery Rapist has been releasing and supporting his own filth in a true DIY style ever since the project’s inception. In that respect, Plundering Into Vaginal Demolition is no different; it is a self-recorded, self-released CD that is an absolute fucker to get a hold of at a decent price outside of the USA. The pros and cons of the self-funded underground, folks! Plundering… offers up another slice of what Cememtery Rapist is all about; sludgy slams over ticking drum machines and str8-from-da-cornfieldz cricket vokills. Skreeeeeeeeeee, motherfuckers, skreeeeeee. Top off the whole circus with some frankly disturbing artwork and hey presto, another fuckin’ slamming porno groove gem in the bag. That’s how he do. Props, homes.

Wormrot – Noise (2011)
grindcore

Wormrot – Noise (2011)

I’m not touching that fucking Scion debate shit with a fucking barge pole. I covered it briefly on my Magrudergrind Crusher post, and I’ll leave it at that. This EP, whoever fucking released it, is absolutely sick as fuck, and is easily probably some of the best grindcore on the entire planet. 5 tracks in 5 minutes is a decent pace to keep to, and it suits Wormrot’s riffs-then-smash-shit-up approach perfectly. I never noticed how fucking brutal Arif’s lows were before! I’ve seen Wormrot live more times than I can remember, and recently spinning this EP has made me realise just how much I miss those fuckers. Easily one of the best grindcore bands in the world, and Noise is probably the best place to start with modern grindcore, in my opinion. “Perpetual Extinction” has a weird widdly guitar part but other than that this is straight up, unrelenting grindcore brutality done in the best possible way. 5/5. 10/10. Whatever. Perfect!

Fukpig / Kroh – Split 10″ (2012)
doom metal punk & hardcore

Fukpig / Kroh – Split 10″ (2012)

Fukpig bring their haunted crusty d-beat mind-melt to this 10″ with Kroh; a confusing clean vocals ‘n’ super heavy doom combo act. I believe both bands share the same guitarist, but I could be wrong. The guitar tone is really similar by both bands though, even if musically they are completely different. Fukpig bring us three tracks of blackened punk madness, my favourite of which must be “The Prisoner”, although opening track “Docile Subjects” brings all the synth creeping in the universe. Kroh lament us through two sludgy hymns of stonery goodness, my favourite of which has to be “Retribution”, that although with a softer vocal has a bit more punch to it all round. I believe that this is quite a collectable now; not that many of these 10″s were made and like all Fukpig vinyl (this is no exception), it has a habit of disappearing very quickly. Self-released under Devizes Records – also home to both bands.

Total Abuse – Total Abuse (2007)
punk & hardcore

Total Abuse – Total Abuse (2007)

Total Abuse play messy, vicious hardcore with a downtuned, sludgy twist. Tracks range from the short ‘n’ fast machine gun cannon to more plodding, progressive numbers, and to the downright weird and unusual. This self-titled record is noisy as fuck, and probably has some roots in the harsh noise or avant garde. I originally mistook this as a full length album but it’s classed as an EP (2020 edit: I think?), which is unusual because y’know, records just shy of half hour usually get counted as albums in these circles. Not that it particularly matters. It still sounds amazing. I’m not really into hardcore punk that much so it’s always fuckin’ great when I hear something that I can really enjoy jamming. It’s probably Total Abuse’s noisy tendencies that help them fall into my comfort zone. Some of the slower songs actually sound a bit like Big Black, for example, “Banned In Austin” sees layers of screeching dissonant guitars fighting over a plodding bass line.

Vulvulator / Malignant Germ Infestation – Split CDr (2007)
death metal grindcore

Vulvulator / Malignant Germ Infestation – Split CDr (2007)

I’ve never really been impressed by this split. It’s just been one of those ‘meh’ releases for me that I ended up owning through a trade or something similar. I’m only really doing a review of it because I’m selling it and if I don’t review it now then it’ll just fade out of my memory forever and I’ll forget I ever had it. To be completely honest with you, better material exists out there by both bands (who are both great at what they do, by the way), so this is a completists item for serious goregrind collectors only. UK’s Malignant Germ Infestation fart and piss through a world of muddy drum machine goregrind, which is all well and good but Vulvulator offer up some – if I dare say it – stale and frankly pointless remixes or demo versions of tracks from their excellent debut record, Obscenario. I don’t see how these tracks are of any worth to absolutely anyone in existence. So like I said, better material exists elsewhere and this is for the die hard collectors only.

Burzum – Belus (2010)
black metal

Burzum – Belus (2010)

Burzum’s comeback record effectively split his fanbase in half. Many called out for the lost ferocity of old, yet equally he was praised for his progressive approach to rebirthing the project (heading in a more folky and mature direction). Personally, I don’t see what the problem is – the metal re-recording of “Belus Doed” from Daudi Baldrs sounds like it could have fallen off the arse end of Filosofem, give or take the shitty drum machine. “Glemselens Elv” is a majestic 11 minuter of beautiful hypnosis; the way the guitars just lap over each other like waves caressing distant shores is truly fantastic. Yes, it’s a bit repetitive, but I love Swans, so that’s not a problem! The real problem for Burzum I think started with the follow up album, Fallen, which is basically a tired re-hashing of Belus. As far as shocking comebacks go (GUT takes the fucking cake for me, personally), I think Burzum could have done a lot worse than Belus. People ragging on the lost sounds of old need to realise that this man has been in prison for 16 years, and has started a small family. He is not the same angry fucked up youngster he was when Burzum began in 1991. The biggest downside is the enormously lazy drum programming. But the riffs are spot on; khold, grimm and frvstbittvn as fvvkkk, svvvn. \m/

XXX Maniak / Coffins – Split CD/LP (2008)
doom metal grindcore

XXX Maniak / Coffins – Split CD/LP (2008)

I love it when weird, totally out of the blue splits happen with two bands that are in absolutely no way related musically. This phenomenally weird split 12” between American sicko porno grinder XXX Maniak and Japanese death-doom titans Coffins is no exception to that rule. I guess the only  link between these two bands that I can decipher is that XXX Maniak love their slow, death doom shit; their label released a fancy box set version of diSEMBOWELMENT’s “Transcendence…” and related demos a few years ago. This split though – nowhere else can I hear 20 blasts of insane grind followed by a fucking Cathedral cover. 3XM’s nauseating debut will always have a place in my heart (lol) but I think I prefer the super-refined sound here. Gone are most death metal or goregrind vocal influences (as is the old vocalist) which are replaced with a more straight-forward shouty, screamy approach, which is just lovely. Don’t think 3XM have changed up though; this is still hyperblasting drum machine grindcore littered with their trademark hilarious sampling. Despite the abundance of grinding hilarity on show here, my favourite track simply has to be “Smoking Sumerian Debris”, with its menacing riff and evil pitchshifted vocal. Coffins are not a hyperblasting drum machine goregrind band. Coffins are a death metal influenced doom band from Japan. Coffins are slow; slower than the agonising death of a seagull smothered in spilt crude oil. Alongside their frankly excellent cover of Cathedral’s “Ebony Tears” is the single track, “The Cracks Of Doom”; a meandering, bludgeoning affair of sludgy, growly goodness. To top off all this awesomeness, the LP release of this split uses the original Lou Rusconi artwork. Whilst it’s not quite as flashy as Visual Darkness’ CGI skeletal affair (VD did the artwork for the 3XM full length and for their split with Lymphatic Phlegm. The cover for this split is actually rather tame compared to these other disturbing creations) it’s still really, really twisted. I love Lou Rusconi’s stuff and I implore you to check it out! Eagle-eyed grinders will noticed that the second 3XM member has had his face erased from the cover art. 

Tetrahydrocannibal – Putrescent Whiffs From The Thrice-Used Dildo Bong (2014)
grindcore noise & power electronics

Tetrahydrocannibal – Putrescent Whiffs From The Thrice-Used Dildo Bong (2014)

I recorded this beast over a year ago and I still haven’t written to ya’ll about it because I’m a festering bloody idiot. Hot off the heels (lol) of my first EP on Grindcore Karaoke, I decided to make hay when the sun was shining and go straight into recording a Tetrahydrocannibal full length whilst the gimmick was still fresh. Weed-themed grindcore is nothing new, even in the minuscule gorenoise department (I’m thinking Boggy Bong, A Man So High Floating In Outer Space, etc. etc. – there’s probably more) but I’ve not come across a project yet that uses genuine bong inhales as vocals. Hence, there was a gape in thon market and THC was born. There’s another band called THC but it’s spelt Tetra Hydro Cannibal so it doesn’t count. Plus, it’s not as br00tal as my shit, so… Haha! I’m just kidding! But, this is messy gorenoise so who really gives a shit. Out of all the shit noise I have recorded this album has by far been the most successful. It’s hosted online at various locations, is rife on the pirate music scenes (top fucking lol, it’s a free album you dicks!) and has been downloaded thousands of times thanks to Neil at Legs Akimbo Records who not only hosted this on his website but also spread it like bad porn across the BitTorrent underworld. As always there are those of you who like to get physical (that’s what she said) so I pressed up some CDr copies as well, but these are limited to 100 pieces only, and there’s about half left a year or so later. If by some crazy chance you actually want one, or want to trade for one, drop me an email.

Sakatat – Bir Devrin Sonu (2012)
grindcore

Sakatat – Bir Devrin Sonu (2012)

Sakatat are a relentless old-school grindcore band from Turkey (yes!). I first heard them on a split 7″ with Agathocles, which fucking ruled, so I eventually got around to checking them out again properly. Bir Devrin Sonu is a 2012 EP consisting of 8 minutes of flat-out blasting goodness. The resemblance to some of Insect Warfare’s shit is uncanny, but perhaps Sakatat pull it off with a bit more of a hardcore punk edge. Regardless, this is some mosh-pit inducing ferocity that cannot be ignored. This type of sound is like the perfect grindcore for me; no fucking around, rough around the edges but still clear enough to get a good feel for everything that’s going in. The vocals are nauseating, the guitar work akin to Minor Threat on bath salts and the drums sound like heavy duty machine guns. I’d buy that for a dollar!