STONE DAGGER – ‘THE SEIGE OF JERUSALEM’

2 tracks of Master Crafted Heavy Metal of a very high calibre, made by Punks from various well-renowned Metal and Hardcore Punk bands. Two tracks of  galloping poser death; Soaring and kind-of intricate melodies, thunderously simplistic rhythm arrangements, melodious solos and full throated Vocal battle glory, with a sound similar to the older end of Power and Speed Metal. The song craft on display is epic and majestic, but the production is on the more demo side of things, rough hewn yet clearly audible, with the Guitars and Bass in particular battling for space, allowing the bass lines to often dominate (not a bad thing). None of your canned ‘retro’ vibe here either, just Heavy Metal played lovingly by devotees. Ride!

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KILLER RABBIT SELF TITLED

Goof-around, not-very-angry Noisecore made by a couple of silly rabbits, released on Mortville Noise. Totally improvised and recorded in a single sitting – and  what a pointless thing it is. It’s brilliant Tardy Noisecore. Hardly distorted Guitars do battle with silly Drumming, with yelling, muffled vocal, hardly any interest in genre beyond the basic, and a free-associative style. Tempos run the gamut from very fast to ponderously slow. Rudimentary, cruddy sounds played for good fun, by the sounds of things, ticking Tardcore boxes left and right. Reminds me a little of Japan’s Huh, with less artistic intent (if that’s possible). Noisy fun for the foolish. Guaranteed to impress your colleagues and peers.

Mortville Noise

BACKSLIDER – ‘MALADAPTED’ EP

Two piece Backslider from Philadelphia’s 2nd EP. A combo of insidiously clever riffing and brutalist stop start Hardcore Punk of the Lack Of Interest, furiously intense variety. Speed and power, progression-in-hardcore bombast. 5 years ago this would have been labelled Power Violence (perhaps it still would be?) – Backslider have that Hardcore Punk on steroids, stop/start tempo upheaval, hugely influenced by that certain West-Coast sound from the ’90s, that the lazy just love labelling something-violence. Not that it matters; Burly, crushing riffs, pounding and varied rhythms bend you into some sort of crippler cross-face, brutal tuff vocals yelled in your ear from the submission hold. Massive Drum sound battering the shit out of you, and Riffs both complex and caveman arrive and disappear before you can enjoy them. ‘Pain Rock’ is now their sound, an abstraction of Noise Rock with more Riffs and less Noise, and and I like it plenty. But this stuff, and Backslider’s material older than this, is killer shit.

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WE COME FIRST – ‘KNEES UP OF SUBURBIA’

1 track, 6 song EP from local legends We Come First. Ramones-core Punk Rock for the tasteless. Very upbeat chord progressions and tight rhythms, kind-of fast and with influence pulled from stuff like The Queers, with a half-way silly, half-way pissed off sound and an inebriated swaggering vibe. There’s a little old Hardcore influence here too, particularly in the deleriosly cool vocal delivery – dude doesn’t give a fuck and clearly isn’t trying to sound like his hero Joey, and man do these songs benefit. The urgency of the vocal elevates these 6 songs about being drunk, or being hungover, or farting on people (whilst drunk); I recommend drinking 6 beers during your listening experience. What an epic.

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RAWHEAD SELF TITLED

Pulverising one-man Goregrind from Australia. Mortician worshipping, sloppy overdriven Goregrind for the devoted. Super low grunted death vocal without pitchshifters (or at least very little), hammering unwieldy Drum Machine blast parts and fast Gore grooves, with a really very downtuned and heavy Guitar/Bass sound, and super heavy slow parts reminiscent the aforementioned New York legends. Gnarled, horrible, Deathly Goregrind of the reprobate, ignorant and punk kind. Rawhead has more than one member these days – their upcoming full length ‘Spineless Pigs’ will be released on Cadaveric Dissolution records, and can be sampled here. Hideous!

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HYPERDONTIA – ‘ABHORRENCE VEIL’

More mouldy, fungal Death Metal with members from Denmark and Turkey, oozing pus and other fluids in a slow-ish, creepy manor. 2 tracks of shambolic head bangin’, steaming Riffs melting over skeletal drumming and ghastly low vocal. Magisterial melody progressions drenched in necrotic phlegm over fast ride/slow beats, shifting tempos from the mid paced to the slightly less-mid paced, to bursts of full-speed death blast, slathered in very loud in the mix low vocal exhalations. There are surprise noodly riffs here and there too, and it’s Doom-y yet fast paced enough to remain true Death Metal. The closing galloping section of the last song, which introduces a kind of classic Heavy Metal type riff before plummeting back into the opening, deadly Guitar part for the climax, shows the kind of promise these two tracks bring. Here’s hoping for something longer next time!

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GATEWAY SELF TITLED

One-man Death Doom torment from Belgium. Torturing and slow, rhythmic riffs driving nails into your wrists, melodies crushed on the breaking wheel, impaled on slow working groove(ish) Guitars and hammering rhymthm section interplay, and low slow vocal doom. Long sections of repetition and a very murky, crackly production create an atmosphere of dank, heavy DEATH. Noxious, somnambulist and unsettling. Medieval methodical deathcrush. UGH. To me, this sounds like a meeting between US weirdos Black Mayonnaise and something like Winter – singularly driven, slow moving Death Doom for dungeon dwellers. Get squashed, sinner!

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MORTIFERUM – ‘ALTAR OF DECAY’

Ripping necro Death Metal demo from the US. Opens with creepy Evil Dead dread sound, dungeon-style, then the riffs slither out of the crypt at a shamble-pace, festering low death vocals and excellent sidewinding deadly Demilich-ish riffs, and distant drums command your rotten soul to Banishment! Serpentine, crushing Death Metal that worships the Finnish masters and creates a memorably evil and disgusting Death Metal tape, with a great atmosphere, perfectly cold yet audible production and a sense of craft; there’s memorable riffs and passages all over these tracks. Fucking Killer! There’s been a real glut of great Death Metal demos over the past couple of years – this one’s right up there with the best of ’em. Buy a tape, if there’s any left!

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LUNK – ‘REEK OF PERSPIRATION’

Sweaty Deathgrind from Ohio. Roid-retarded stomping ping snare blast beats, super low deadlift-grunt vocal and Death Metal fat Guitar sound. Burly and foul-tempered, heavy low tuned Death Metal/Grindcore idiocy, with a hint of the Gore thrown into the protein Gains ‘shake. Fattened grooves, lots of tempo variations and really tightly executed songs. Features members of Pizza Hi-Five, and will appeal to fans of theirs, and Powercup, Mortician and Hemdale. Tantalisingly short and excellent demo. Buy a tape, nerd.

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ERDSTALL – ‘CAVERNS OF ENDLESS’

Stoic, sombre  Doom-paced Dungeon Synth from the States. Long and stately Synth melodies play in slow motion, describing the hunt for an ancient Wyrm in a deep crypt. Melancholic and stern, a very thoughtful and pensive listen, this one. The mouldy, clammy ambience of cold stones and dragon bones is enveloping and enjoyable. It’s kind of epic in a quiet way, and shows restraint in it’s foreboding repetition. Doom-laden and derelict.

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PINK FINK SELF TITLED 7″

Creeper boogie from the States. What the fuck could I really say about this – Its sleazy serial killer music, boogie beat hairspray and greasepaint stalker sound. Steamy beats and python boot Bass. Sounds sweaty and glittery; I can imagine this playing in a 70’s slasher, right before some comely lass is knifed in a grimy alleyway. 2 Spooky grooves for the dusted and busted and/or zooted and booted. Largely pointless and very enjoyable – Jheri-curled Captain Howdy is a great visual coda to the contents within.

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OOZING MEAT – ‘RAWHEAD’

Seriously dangerous, volatile Noisecore from the States. Jason Hodges of Suppression  and his colleague Eric Tomilon just smashing your fucking head into obscurity with caustic Noise and irritant blastbeats. Furious Noisecore blurts waltz into strange samples and tape delays sections, dumb hissing mess, really 90’s cut up sound collage style Noisecore freakout. Sounds genuinely bizarre, angry and strange.  Uniquely weird and disruptive as only Mr. Hodges is capable of. It’s essential; Just don’t get it in your eyes, for Christ’s sake.

Chaotic Noise Productions

AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS – ‘GIDDY UP’

Horny mullet Punk Rock from down under. Cough-sweet sore vocal, dirty Guitars working out hooky riffs, simple stripped-down rhythm section. This thing reeks of poppers and hairspray, cigarette breath and genital pheromones. A little Cramps, a bit Link Wray, a little Punk and a bit  70’s sleaze rock. Catchy, pissed-up and brilliant, with a streak of introversion playing throughout, with a hint of the vulnerable lurking behind the brash and bold. A bloody good time’s to be had here. Rad!

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BODY INFLATION SEQUENCE – ‘HOMEFRONT PSYOPS’

Noise fun from Texas. A weirdo palette of processed vocal destruction, crispy soundscape creation with flaring Harsh Noise signal abuse and samples. A kind of art school perversion of Power Electronics, mining exotic psychedelia from reflux sound. Goofy, gurning Harsh Noise high on homemade LSA and huffers. Rampant home-made paranoia, buggin’ out through the shades, building detailed theories about your neighbours clearly-suspect daily routines. Evidently not taking itself all that seriously, and rather enjoyable for it. Gonzo!

The FriendZone Records

 

 

INCINERATED – ‘LOBOTOMISE’

Furiously intense Deathgrind from Australia; horrendous bogan Death Metal/Grindcore ‘songs’ just smashing your face over and over, one after the other, in an utterly hostile and aggro fashion. There’s an abundance of mad stupid stomping, Bass rumbling overkill death metal riffs over rough hewn swarming blast beats, downward-spiral pit fuel riffs for the subtlety-impaired, tempo variations with sort-of breakdown parts swimming in grease and gore and car-crash vocal death. Deathgrind works for me when it’s like this, the pairing of ignorant death riffs over fast blast parts, no noodly riffs or much nuance, just Deathly, Grinding madness. Excruciating Terror, Repulsion and old Carcass are signposts to enjoyment. Grab a shirt or a tape! Essential.

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PUMPKIN WITCH – ‘HOVEL OF THE PUMPKIN WITCH’

Equally spooky and silly Synthscapes from the States. This is basically Dark Ambient Music created on terrible Synths (to my ears, at least). Ambient weirdo witch coven music. Pumpkin ghoul grimoire of Dark Synth shamanism, venturing between the macabre and sugar-sick; Really simple melodies repeat into a 2D horror narrative RPG, psychedelic candy corn tabs eaten in a corn maze, at once scary and totally goofy. Simple, synthesised and spook-tacular!

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MYXOMA DEMO #1

Rank Goregrind from Taiwan. Bubbling gooey vocal spew, overdriven crusty Guitars and fevered samples nicely arranged into punk part/blast part songs. Devotionally played, not all that original and yet so satisfying. Extra punky and blasting, with little to find in terms of overt Death Metal influence, and with that crusted-over Guitar sound that’s just right. Sizzling, toxic Gore for fans of Metastasis, Maggut or Gangrene Discharge. Gruesome shit – a promising demo, this one.

Bandcamp

CANNIBALISTIC MISCARRIAGE DEMO I

 

Ringdahl returns… yet another indispensable Punker-than-punk Gore tape from Canada. Expect Guitar/Bass carbonization oozing rendered fats, ulcerated mutant teeth-gnashing vocal carnage and overdriven rudimentary drum machine, plonk/pingy snare sound, catchy as fuck riffs, utterly deranged blastbeat sections with slower stomping/blasting Mincer parts. Neanderthal D-Beat Punk Goregrind. Andy really is very good at sneaking deliciously stupid and catchy melodies into these gross demos he churns out. As has I have said here before, many of the man’s Gore projects sound not all that different, but when they’re pretty much all this putrid/stupid good, who really gives a shit? Extra points for the combination of the terms Cannibalistic and Miscarriage, too. Fuck me, that’s really rather silly.

Sewage Splatter Records