TWELVE YEARS OF UNWANTED OPINION
This was a strange one. The Franco / Rogan et al contingent and their purile humour tackle the subject of the world ending, of course with a six hundred billion celebrity guest cast list and the main set being James Franco’s house. Honestly, this was absolutely rubbish and I dread to sit and think of what better uses the money used to make this film could have been used for.
Drukqs has always eluded me. I’m not really sure why, but it just has. Maybe it was the length of it? I would be speculating, to give any more reasons. Well, I finally listened to it, and after completing it, I exclaimed: “Oh OK, cool”. Of course, the maddening Aphex “acid” is on par as per always, but as far as some of the mellower moments go… They seemed to drag a bit, I won’t lie. I love the more chilled or ambient Aphex Twin works, there is an unique melancholy to it to the point where, no matter how spacey it gets, you know you’re listening to a RDJ composition. My one complaint with Drukqs then, is the sheer number of mellow and piano compositions in a double album of this length. If anything I feel it hurts the flow, rather than contributes to it. None of the individual pieces are bad, but together as an album, I’m not sure if it is a true success.
This is a fantastic 4-track EP from JK Flesh, released on 12″ by the Downwards label. Expect less of the guitar-orientated tracks of the early 2010s and instead embrace the body-moving, cerebral techno explosions that we have surely come to know and love from the project. My favourite track on this thing has to be “Bullied By Love”, but to be honest, all 4 are absolute corkers. One for the late nights when the weed or booze facilitates shit talking long into the night.
My uncle, Terry Oakes, did the cover painting for this one. He did a few Exploited releases actually, I believe, although he mostly did fantasy novel cover paintings. Just a random bit of information for you there. Troops Of Tomorrow is primo old school Exploited though, before the thrash influences crept in. Its raw, ready and definitely rough around the edges. But wouldn’t it be shite if it wasn’t? This is punk after all. I don’t really need to waffle about this one, just fire it up. Stand outs for me are the title track and “U.S.A.”.
Bleeechhh! Hitting you right in the sweet sweet sickness button (your prostate?), Lymphatic Phlegm bring their often-imitated, never-beaten spooky goregrind to the table. The riffs are just super intense here, how do they keep things fresh whilst also sounding so consistent? S.M.E.S. seems weirdly loaded towards the left channel, which is a bit of a head fuck at first but if anything just adds to the cheap, synthetic electronic sound and vibe. If you’ve never heard S.M.E.S.’s bizarre electronic gore then here is a good place to start.
With the latest Mastodon release unleashed on the world, I figured I’d go back and actually finally check out Remission. Having only heard “March Of The Fire Ants”, I had a lot to learn about this record. The sound stage is huge, with the enormous meat grinder bass taking up the center. Not to shit on the rest of the band, but what captures and ensnares my attention for this entire listen is the drumming of Brann Dailor, which is just insane. I definitely prefer this hard hitting material to the more proggy stuff the band dropped later on.
I saw Jex Thoth once (fronting Sabbath Assembly), and whilst there is something a bit magical about that band, I prefer her “solo” work (even though this is a band all in of itself). This has a bit more stonery crunch and fuzz to the guitars, a bit more of a dirtier sound and a bit more go to it, where I found Sabbath Assembly to be quite pensive. Granted, there are larger themes at work here, there’s a whole section of tracks about the Equinox, but the material on this self-titled album is gorgeous, hard, fuzzy rock. 10/10.
I always thought Pulver would remain out front but I think this mini album (EP?) has won out as the favourite. There is no time wasted here. The running may be short, but it’s nothing but pure quality from start to finish. Any fat has been trimmed. Every single track is an absolute belter and they all stand up there as my favourites from Lifelover. The opening riff on “Lethargy” makes it the smash hit for DSBM, if there ever was one. For fans of miserable metal.
Birdflesh are probably one of the most fun grindcore bands you could hope to see live. The Farmer’s Wrath is a solid, well-produced full length effort from the comedic trio, who I guess are to “regular/traditional” grindcore that Rompeprop are to gore/pornogrind. Yes, there’s a silliness to proceedings, but the grind on show is 100% serious. Its deadly fast, with razor sharp riffing and barked vocals.
When Doom II was ported to Xbox Live Arcade just over a decade ago, the guys given the job (Nerve Software) also made their own expansion / mini-WAD called No Rest For The Living. Honestly, these are some incredibly solid levels and they can be pretty damn difficult if you bite off more than you can chew. It has the length of an Ultimate Doom episode, rather than a full Doom II campaign, but that doesn’t stop the levels being long, hellish and brutal slogs. This is a very high quality piece of work, and a Doom II level set that I highly recommend.
There’s a firmly drawn line between “evil” Slayer and “angry” Slayer, and this 80s classis is of course firmly in the “evil” camp. For me, its not as good as South Of Heaven or Reign In Blood but damn this is some sinister thrash right here. Stand out track? Fuck it, just play the whole thing through in one go and be done with it.
I initially decided I would split out the game review and OST review for this one (like I’ve done with some games and not others – we value consistency here at Lines In Wax) but honestly, the two elements are so completely interwoven and linked, to separate them is alien. Broken Sword was one of my favourite games as a kid. Granted, I was far too young to really understand the plot and also far too young to be any good at it, instead getting places purely out of sheer luck and process of elimination. However, in recent “adult” replays (I think the most recent being 2009), I can confirm that Broken Sword (and its first sequel) are two of the greatest games ever made. Note: fuck the Director’s Cut, which retcons a bunch of shit, adds a bunch of unnecessary extra scenes, and a ton of absolutely shite puzzles. Put that shit in the sea, next to the 1996 Lucas Star Wars re-tweaks. There is just something so special about Broken Sword. I don’t know how or why, but Charles Cecil and his devs blew the PlayStation apart, making a game that was long, detailed and absolutely dripping from every pore with mood and atmosphere. When I finally went to Paris, imagine how disappointed I was to find it wasn’t like the Paris in Broken Sword. Broken Sword romanticised our dark and miserable real world, in a pre-internet age where beauty could be found in the little moments (yeah, the ones you now fill with pointless scrolling on your smartphone). It’s plot, honestly, doesn’t matter all that much to me (even though I enjoy it), because the locations, characters and dialogue are so perfect, I’m happy to just be here. And that leads us to Barrington’s incredible soundtrack. It’s very low key, yet utterly unique. You know instantly, no matter at which point you could randomly select in its total run time, and instantly know, this is the Broken Sword soundtrack. The musical cues, little flourishes and sparks of emotion through a minimal yet classically composed score, are honestly to die for. I think I’ve gushed enough. If you’ve never played this game, I implore you to do so, even today, in 2021. I hope that when I close my eyes for the last time, the piano music from the Hotel Ubu plays me out.
To say that this is a “strange” Pink Floyd album probably does the band a disservice, but it feels like the penultimate firework in a display, just before Meddle comes flying out as full-blown peak Floyd of the early days. Side A is whole piece, which is easily the best bit about this record, with the B side containing smaller, more digestible songs which are, unfortunately, a little bit forgettable. The final track is some dude cooking his breakfast, which predates this AMSR shit by 40 years.
I see a lot of Internet people moaning that the production on this is shit. Its too dry and too sterile, they say. Motherfuckers, are we gonna pretend the whole Morrisound death metal saturation thingy never happened? Shiiiiiit. On the scale of dryness from a martini to the Sahara desert, Blessed Are The Sick is lodged firmly on the tastier, lip-smacking beverage end of dry. So yes, the production is sterile. But the riffs are absolutely fucking sinister, especially when the band slows to a crawl, and Sandoval’s drumming really shines through the mix here. Vocally shit is on point too, and whatever you make of the pointless interludes (nobody seems to slag off Nile for doing this), this is really solid, evil death metal. I have no complaints. Its awesome.
