Thunderous Burning Spirits Metalpunk from US’ wardogs Loud Night – Soaring, banging Crust songs borne of consonant minor chord rock and roll riffermania, building melodiously to orgasmic upper mid-paced, broad bass-lead white-flash blinding result, with eruption of scything shredding leads, master crafted motorlord drums lithe and brimming with nuclear energy, vocal drunken as hell and boiling with Burning Spirits mayhemic mana. Early Venom and Bathory via Death Side, Bastard et al supreme, and a dash of brazen, spicy NWOBHM. Like a zweihander berzerker on fire, a suicide bomber run in enemy territory with no hope in hell… sounds like the spirit of vengeance incarnate, affixing enemy combatants in the penance stare from behind some sweet mirror shades. I haven’t yet checked out their full length, but if it delivers a measure of the verve and fervor displayed here, it’ll be a fucken melter.
Mystique-shrouded entity Triple Darkness is the UK hip-hop collective by which all others must be judged; a multi-tongued, fire-spitting superorganism whose infrequent but game-changing records account for some of the most uncompromising, politically charged transmissions in the whole of rap music’s storied canon. The long-anticipated follow-up to 2015’s volcanic ‘Darker Than Black’, ‘Kurayami’ levels a devastating polemical broadside at both the perpetuators of racism and their slave-trading antecedents whose subjugation of Black people laid the grisly groundwork for centuries of all-pervasive bigotry and scapegoating. Soundtracked by some of the steeliest boom-bap this side of Mobb Deep and boasting a 9-strong company of spitting talent that includes such heavyweight lyrical luminaries as Ramson Badbonez, Tesla’s Ghost and Ray Vendetta, TD offer the ultimate in art as weapon, unleashing bar upon scalpel-sharp bar of instantly quotable rhetoric that pinpoints then annihilates its targets with unerring precision. Don’t get the idea though that this is all napalm without nuance. ‘Kurayami’ is littered with moments of near-unbearable poignancy, Cyrus Malachi’s gut-wrenching soliloquy on the dehumanising grind of racism that closes out the incredible ‘Wolfsbane’ being but one example. Corundum-hard and addictive as an opium-laced Sachertorte, ‘Kurayami’ simply slaughters the opposition and those of us afforded gratuitous societal privilege just by dint of our white skin should shut the fuck up and listen as a matter of paramount urgency. Staggering.
Any person who’s talked to me these past two years knows how much of an obsession UK Drill has been. To me it’s probably the most exciting subgenre of hip-hop to catch a wave in recent times. The major aspect about it that deserves acknowledgement is the fact it’s a genre that got picked up, given a different spin on and executed by kids and teenagers from the streets of London. Whereas hip-hop and its subgenres that gained popularity in the past have mostly come out of the USA, UK Drill is really something that belongs to the UK. And its influence only keeps growing.
There’s already been so much digital ink spilled to simply explain what the genre is, so I’ll keep that part short. Drill is a subgenre of hip-hop that originated in Chicago, popularized by artists like Chief Keef in the early 2010s. Hip-hop has never been a stranger to featuring violent themes in its lyrics, but these artists kicked it up another notch by rapping pretty much exclusively about gang violence. The dark and ruthless sound quickly spread all over the States and to the rest of the world. Since then, drill rappers and producers from (mainly) London have turned the sound into one of their own, both in sound and lyrical content. Drill rappers from the USA mostly rap about carrying firearms. While these are still used and all over the place in the UK, they are very much illegal, which means gang members often tend to go with the “safer” option of carrying knives instead.
In an effort to both keep the aforementioned growing influence going and to be somewhat original, this post is not going to be a list of songs or facts you *need* to know, since there’s so little room for creativity in a write-up like that. Rather, the rest of this post is going to focus on lesser-known songs from nonetheless well-established artists within the genre, with a bit of background to make sure I’m still hitting my word count (kidding).
Lil S x JMash x MJ x Earna – Normal Procedure
There are a lot of drill songs where it is quite obvious the artist(s) involved don’t really care to make a musical statement or even a quality song. This was especially common in the early days where there was not yet much of a chance to find fame or money in the genre. In those instances the “song” was purely about sending a message to rival gang members; to boast about violence, to make threats or to make fun of deceased rivals.
‘Normal Procedure’ loses none of that violent energy while perfectly channeling it into a fast-paced, aggressive and dynamic song with rude disses, catchy flows and memorable bars. Every artist was pretty much a newcomer to the drill scene when this song dropped in late 2020, which only makes this powerhouse of a posse cut all the more impressive.
Armz – Slide First
Woodgreen’s young Armz as of right now is still fairly new to the rapping thing, with this only being his third official song. You certainly wouldn’t say so; starting at his excellent beat selection, it only gets better once his fiery delivery and rapid flows are on full display. Even on the hook Armz doesn’t allow himself a break. Anytime it comes on it feels like the highly anticipated climax after all the speed he built up in the verses.
Suspect – Covid
“Sample drill” is a term that’s been floating around for a bit, referring to drill songs on which the instrumental samples an often high pitched or cartoony vocal chop from a popular song, a videogame soundtrack or another source. Its “merit” within the context of the drill genre has been highly debated, as its often goofy and playful sound takes away a lot of the brutality that drill first became known and loved for.
Suspect shows that when it’s done right, it’s done right. He delivers funny and clever bars over a high-pitched vocal sample beat while still sticking to the dark and violent style him and UK Drill as a whole became popular for.
Lil Krafty x BroadayYay – BOOM
South Side Kilburn has long been an underrated gang in the drill scene. The beat on this (crafted by Saint Cardona) alone is such an impressively multi-faceted piece of music, and the way Lil Krafty floats over it with confident boasts and detailed descriptions of violent attacks proves you don’t need an aggressive delivery to come off as convincing.
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That’s all for now, though I’m very keen on sharing more songs, information and background in the future. I tweet quite a bit about drill on my Twitter, so feel free to hit me up if your interest is at all sparked. – @CaughtInDaRain
Absurd Noisegrind split from Mortville Noise stalwarts Captain Three Leg and mad Danes Uddercock, both favourites around these parts. C3L belts out a scourging firing line of rehearsal room live-sounding Grindcore in superquick succession Noisecore style. Scathing chords whip up and crank out super short stop-start non-metallic Grindcore songs, killer blasting live drum sound with tasteful snare clattering, slathered in Andy and Brian’s trademark grumpus pissed stepfather vocal trade-off with occasional low bort borts and super lows. Incensed and grumpy as we’ve come to love and cherish, with typically irreverent, sardonic lyrics. Still the best samplers in the game. Sumptuous grindfeast! Then Uddercock milks up a foaming electronic Grindnoise affront, rocketing from the earth’s surface with extreme programmed cybergrinding beats, sneaky grooves and snappy flat snare erupting in formless fruitions, bubbling insane Noise emanations in chunky distorted array and super distorted hellacious vocal madness. Free flowing, fun and fucking as brief and mental as it gets. Dig it on CD for just $3 and be a #scenesupporter! (Is that still a thing? I haven’t ventured onto facebook in quite some time…)
‘Live From the Relapse Contamination Festival’ is a perfect encapsulation of what makes High on Fire so special, and from so relatively early in their existence, their brute Metal affront made all the more evident in a live setting. The majority of tracks are plucked from their warring masterpiece ‘Surrounded by Thieves’, ‘Hung Drawn and Quartered’ being an energetic highlight, but the opening and closing tracks are the mana for me – a frenzied opening rent of ‘Blood from Zion’, Cimmerian groove and colossal chords, cleaving, reaving, droning riffs riding surging tom-heavy/fill-heavy drums of percussive doom, and astride a swell of lumbering Bass, Pikes’ voice quivering with barbarian wrath. The journeying bridge section and possessed, zealous solo dazzling and destroying. One of their best songs, this being the definitive recorded version for me, mistakes and all. Then, a clamoring cover of Venom’s ‘Witching Hour’ to close, equally bloodlusting and fierce, bubbling with pocketed rhythm and drunk warlike vocal. A furious set, a deadly proposition, with excellently loud and rough soundboard recording. Killer.
Ecchymosis’ second full length album of mephitic Brutal Death Metal, their most inventive and assured, playing in the fecund space between genre defining and genre defying. Songs are replete with unbelievable tempo changing drums that blast, slam and roll in incredibly dexterous ways, muddy Guitars and superlow scraping sub-Bass constructing extra double tight fleshy walls of roiling Brutal Death, squirming with obscene and often unexpected grooves that impel off time headbanging in dribbling rapture, slamming pinching and chugging into bizarre putrescent oblivion, with mauling low vocal attack punctuating the mass in percussive perfection. Sheer disgusting excellence. Big ups due to the star of this show, Polwach Beokhaimook, blast drummer par excellence, Harsh Noise producer, Gorenoise dealer and all-around champion of the unlistenable and unpalatable extreme music underground. ‘Ritualistic Intercourse Within Abject Surrealism’ combines the deranged uber mega slams of Cephalotripsy and the lurid slurry of Gory blasting in early Devourmemt, with the experimentation, musicianship and skronking dissonance of Ulcerate. New Standard Elite continues setting the ‘ahem’ standard in Brutal Death Metal at the furthest expanse of Metal influence, and Ecchymosis represent the cream of the crop. Warped.
Given that their enduring friendship was forged in the fires of a mutual addiction to the heaviest dub reggae, a collaboration between stoner doom titan Al Cisneros (Sleep/OM) and Kevin Richard Martin aka The Bug was never destined to pull punches and this seismic 4-tracker released on Martin’s own Pressure imprint plays implacably for keeps. Cisneros sets the (cannon)ball rolling with ‘Rosin Immersion’, a paint-blistering roots wrecker that puts low end theory into practice with surgical precision. Dub version ‘Dabby You’ ratchets up the dread quotient still higher, snares ricocheting like baseball-sized hailstones off a corrugated roof as precipitous walls of reverb close in from every side. Predictably, Martin opts to transubstantiate rather than remix, grinding Al’s sinewy original into two succulent, subwoofer-shredding Bug burgers so bottom-heavy that if bass were calories they could feed an SAS regiment for a month. Prospective peregrinators through dub’s furthermost fringes, your carriage awaits. Magnificent.
Striation’s most recent cassette release on the marvelous, mellifluent No Rent Records. This one is GNARLY, even by Striations’ sensory-affronting standards – total US style Harsh Noise domination, Skin Crime/Macronympha influenced to the extreme, with little of the Industrial or Power Electronics elements present elsewhere in Striations releases. Brutal walls of dense signal torrent and annihilated sampling swell and crash, overloaded synth tones bubbling up from the effluvia, mangled completely and enmeshed within various other maligned sound sources, dead signals bleeding out, impossible to locate audial North within the maelstrom. A sound and presence of live recording direct to tape. I would assume this cassette explores Finklea’s fascination and obsession with post-mortem pathology and body farming – this sounds like the breakdown of human tissues stretched across a millennia, extracting audial confusion and the terror of academic observation and impending corpse gas explosion from every passing moment of its run time. Blackly psychedelic, voluminously hypnotising, confusing and serrated, reeking of the diesel fumes of generators and human gore, drenched in bleaching florescent lighting. Fucking horrid.
GonzoKaraoke 