Lines In Wax

TWELVE YEARS OF UNWANTED OPINION

Month: April 2018

Severe Torture – Feasting On Blood (2000)
death metal

Severe Torture – Feasting On Blood (2000)

The first thing that blew me out of my chair when playing this record was the drumming performance from Seth van de Loo. Holy shit! That is some insane stuff! Kudos. The second thing would have to be the bass guitar work of Patrick Boleij, which clanks away, underpinning the carnage, akin to the sound on early Cryptopsy records. Feasting On Blood is a solid, solid album, and is a nonstop trip through some of the best death metal that I’ve come across in quite some time. Really savage stuff, with an unforgiving and dry production. Highly recommended.

Smashing Dumplings – Side Effects (2017)
grindcore

Smashing Dumplings – Side Effects (2017)

Ok, so Smashing Dumplings sound a whole lot more death metal than when I saw them live four or five years ago. I mean, either they’ve given their sound a bit of a more ‘brutal’ overhaul in lieu of spazzy, fast grind, or my memory is terrible and I’m just an idiot. Either way, Side Effects is pretty fuckin’ great. Chunky, nasty death metal that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Jesu – Infinity (2009)
doom metal electronic

Jesu – Infinity (2009)

Infinity is a task of a record, if I’m being real here. Just sitting down and honestly, thoroughly listening to a track of this scope is a bit difficult for me, which is weird considering how much I love harsh noise. There is just something about the pace of Jesu’s music, which is heartbreaking as it is at the same time enormously uplifting, that results in me only being able to ingest it whilst in certain moods. Whilst aligned and receptive to the barrage of bittersweet emotions and frequencies that the transcendent Jesu project can deliver, then there is nothing else like it. A balance is struck between abstract heaviness and the beauty of fragility; the aural equivalent of a crystal chandelier falling from the ceiling, hitting the floor and shattering into a thousand pieces, only it takes 50 or so minutes to actually happen and is told through the medium of introverted, shoegazing post rock. Truly, this is magical. Infinity (Digital Deluxe Edition) by jesu

Autophagia – Anatomical Septicemia (1998)
grindcore

Autophagia – Anatomical Septicemia (1998)

I love goregrind, and I love Autophagia. Unearthing ancient tomes of dusty demos is part of the fun when it comes to this particular sub genre, but unfortunately, Anatomical Septicemia fails to offer anything of any value, to absolutely anyone. Sure, you’ve gotta have a ear for badly recorded demos, but the quality on this cassette demo sounds like your listening to a band rehearse in another room, recorded on a mobile phone. It doesn’t even succeed in being “noise”. It is, simply, just crap, which is a shame. But y’know, rough with the smooth and all that!

Phyllomedusa – In League With Uperoleia (2018?)
noise & power electronics

Phyllomedusa – In League With Uperoleia (2018?)

More haunting gorenoise from the Big Frog himself. This short EP seems to be compiled entirely out of layered vocal gurgles, like a whole swamp itself is teeming with enough life to create a gorenoise racket. A good place to start if you’re into Phyllo’ but some of the track lengths to the noisier stuff puts you off. (2021 edit: My original link for this died. If anyone has any info on this release, please let me know!)

Antigama – Meteor (2013)
grindcore

Antigama – Meteor (2013)

Antigama are a very special grindcore band, in that I don’t really believe that they play grindcore at all. I mean sure, their music has roots of chaotic grind elements, and the vocalist’s roar is reminiscent of Napalm Death’s Barney Greenway, but Antigama draw from all over the musical spectrum. You can probably tell from the record sleeves that this isn’t just another grindcore band, and to the un-initiated, I would describe Meteor as a clusterfuck of jazz and mathcore stylings, but with a brutality that lies in the worlds of death and grind to counteract this. Is this…. prog-grind? Whatever it is, it is brilliant. Like Brutal Truth lost in space forever, but with lots of drugs and jazz records to keep them company.

Big Business – Here Come The Waterworks (2007)
doom metal

Big Business – Here Come The Waterworks (2007)

Imagine High On Fire crossed with Mastadon and you should get a good idea of what is going on here. Throaty vocals propell these dreamy, heavy-stoned musical explorations of sound through the infinite cosmos of experimental wonder. It is progressive, but with the underpinning vibe and, I guess, performance lulling in the school of doom metal, providing busy, Sabbath-after-twelve-Dabbeths (lol) drumming and rumbling, chunky bass guitar underpinning the soaring guitar and vocals.

Samsara Blues Experiment – Long Distance Trip (2010)
doom metal rock

Samsara Blues Experiment – Long Distance Trip (2010)

Everything about this album is looooooonnnnng, including the amount of time it has been on my review “to do list” (about 7 years – my bad!). I first became aware of the Samsara Blues Experiment after a trip to Roadburn Festival in 2011, and I fell in love with their excellently balanced heavy / psych approach to prog. The songs are meandering, jam-like, but held together by an underpinning heavyness with stops the record from flying too far off the handle into self-love of the guitar variety. Frittering away in almost inprovisational ecstasy one moment, and then rolling out the big guns for slightly bombastic but ultimately satisfying stoner rock the next.  It is a long distance trip – it literally says so on the tin, so clunk-click kids, and enjoy. 

Mortician – House By The Cemetery (1995)
death metal

Mortician – House By The Cemetery (1995)

I’ve had something of a bloody rekindling love affair with Mortician as of late. I’ve been jamming some goregrind stuff and I guess some of the slower riffs resonated with me and I went digging through my Mortician stuff. Finding only Hacked Up For BBQ and Zombie Apocalypse on CD, I went straight to Spotify and devoured the entire discography (sans Re-Animated Flesh), of which this House by the Cemetery re-issue stood out to me the most. The live tracks at the end are a bit shit (are they live or just badly recorded? (2020 edit: was possibly listening to the compilation version – Ed)), but otherwise this is Mortician at their absolute best, easily.

Nightmare City (1980)
exploitation horror

Nightmare City (1980)

Nightmare city is a decidedly average yet somewhat quite enjoyable zombie horror movie from the 80s. It tells the story of a radioactive army plane returning from an unknown destination, bringing with it an army of crazed undead. As unfortunate for the viewer as it is for the victims trying to escape in near slow motion, the pacing of this feature is somewhat dire. This even makes the most chaotic or gory scenes seem boring and tiresome. The dubs are nothing short of abysmal, which catapult straight past being entertaining into the territory of downright irritating. That being said, Nightmare City does offer the rare kind of zombie that is functional enough to run and use weapons. There is a small amount of nudity and the fake blood is very silly looking, but these elements add to the production rather than detract. The zombies themselves just appear to be regular humans with Homer Simpson’s recipe for leprosy glued to their faces. Nightmare City is an enjoyable rehash of all the tropes of the zombie movie but is poorly executed, and suffers heavy due to the one-speed pace.

Cradle Of Filth ‎– Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness Of Decay (2017)
metal

Cradle Of Filth ‎– Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness Of Decay (2017)

Cradle really seem to be firing out albums lately, or perhaps I’m just getting old and time is sailing by with the pace of say, a methamphetamine powered Concorde. Stylistically, Cryptoriana is not dissimilar to the excellent Hammer Of The Witches; it is nimble and well-produced, with the band still enjoying its most reliable and consistently strongest line-up in quite some time. However, I cannot shake the feeling that the band are just going through the motions here. Asides from some post-something style guitar playing on some of the more relaxed passages, this is excruciatingly latter-day Cradle by numbers. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t boring, like Manticore or Venus Aversa, and whilst the songs here are incredibly musically dexterous, there is nothing challenging, nothing new and perhaps most importantly, nothing exciting about any of them. Disappointing.