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Saturday, January 20, 2018

Traumatic Haematomyella

I bought this tape solely off the Sulfuric Cautery side. I've been pretty slack at getting their releases, but I'm gradually getting around to picking things up here and there. They're definitely one of the more exciting grind bands to come out in the past few years, and hearing about their hyper intense live shows makes me hope I catch them live soon. I had only heard Metastasis and Butcher M.D. by name, but many people with tastes I trust have recommended them in the past so I figured I couldn't go wrong with this tape. Released back in 2015 by Campaign For Musical Destruction, every band is on one side, limited to 50 copies.

Metastasis is up first; a one person goregrind band that gives us some pretty solid tunes overall, but it didn't blow me away here. The recording is super raw, the snare pops out rather loudly, but the cymbals and guitar have that windy/washy sound that sounds like it was recorded on a bad tape machine. The guitars do have a thick tone sometimes, and the drums are performed pretty well, just nothing spectacular.


Butcher M.D., a duo drum machine goregrind band featuring Erwin from Last Days Of Humanity, comes up next and instantly won me over. The better recording quality and rapid blasting was like a gunshot after Metastasis. They are actually probably my favorite band on this tape. The drums sound quite good and are programmed really well, with a nice balance of blasts and mid-tempo sections. Super chunky guitar and bass too, it definitely has an early LDOH sound. Super brutal and crushing in all the right ways, I dig it a lot.

Going right back to blasting raw fidelity, Sulfuric Cautery close the tape out with 4 originals and a Gore Beyond Necropsy cover. I'm heavily fascinated by just how extreme these dudes take grind, the speeds these two reach is just massively impressive and exhilarating. Their songs are almost exhausting, but catchy at the same time. At this point, S.C. wasn't even really doing that much with the gravity blast/hyperspeed blasting like on more recent recordings, and it's still fast as fuck. The guitars are a noisy, blurring mess, but there is obviously a structure to every song. A rad batch of gore/noisecore blasting craziness, can't wait to hear more.

The J card is a photocopied and multi-paneled, the layout looks nice and rough. The tape sounds really good too, all the tape his or washed sounds only comes from the bands own recordings.


~VII

Friday, January 19, 2018

Squatter Water

I got to see Disease twice last year in Portland and Seattle when I was on tour. Bruh, lemme tell you, they are a band to look out for this year. A duo from Seattle, WA featuring Jim from Acid Feast/Exogorth and more. Tremendously nice people who know how to lay down true fucking gory and fun as hell grindcore!!!! Both nights they essentially played this whole demo cassette, their only release thus far. It was definitely a highlight of that whole tour for sure. Released in a run of 200 tapes by Nihilistic Despair, Snowbunny Records, and Rain City Grindcore.

Every once and a while a band comes along that I can only describe as "pure fucking grindcore", cutting right to the chase and just being fast, brutal and fun all at the same time. This demo, which contains a pretty hefty 20 tracks on it, has all the things I want in a great, old-school influenced grindcore tape. The riffs, all of them, are so on point; keeping everything familiar enough but at the same time incorporating a ton of influences from other grind styles. Seamlessly blending in stomping mince riffs, chromatic goregrind tremolo picking, fist-thrashing punky sections, and more. The lack of a bass player isn't all that noticeable, everything is recorded pretty well and EQ'ed enough to make it sound full. The vocals are cavernous and deep, both members supplying their own highs and lows. They also use a lot of very fun and catchy stops and starts, one of my very favorite song writing touches. Each track has it's own life, giving each song just enough variation to make the whole thing an enjoyable listen front to back, but not going "experimental", if you will. I love it all!!!


Even before I saw Disease perform the first night, I saw their tape on the merch table and it just screamed "buy me". This tape looks exactly how a good grindcore/death metal demo should look. Great illustrations and a drippy, eye catching logo, I knew I was gonna be into it. The tape dub sounds super excellent as well, everyone did a real good job.

My version also came with a dope mini-poster of the artwork. I'm not sure if every label's editions has this. I'm not entirely sure which label made this one actually..


If you see this demo I'd highly suggest picking it up before it's gone forever. Buy or die, hopefully they do a 7" soon.

~VII

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Obsessed With Cruelty

Here's a split that I'm sure most people in the noisecore world are pretty hip to already. Obviously, I just got around to getting it in my grubby mitts. The incredibly mysterious and aesthetically pleasing group, Facepalm Death, have been floating around for the past couple years. I always see friends posting tapes that they've released. Actually, FpDth mastermind Colton Pickles assembled maybe the most impressive noisecore compilation from last year, simply called "Pieces". Still haven't gotten that either. This is the split with Mental Abortion, released on Perverse Taste Tapes and Breathing Problem Productions last year.

Mental Abortion is a band that I actually really like a lot. They're definitely one of the more impressive and focused noisecore bands (yes, a full band) that has come out in the last several years. Hyper sexual, titillating, and extreme in their subject matter and imagery. Basically what you would get if a bunch of serious power electronics/harsh noise people started making grind, which is what Mental Abortion is. Their side is all recorded from a live show, and it plays out how a standard noisecore set does. Short bursts of blasting and screaming with pauses in between, sometimes so they can say the tracks title, recorded super lo-fi of course. By far the least exciting stuff I've heard from Mental Abortion, but it's serviceable.


The Facepalm Death side fucking rules! I heavily dug this side a lot; tons of variation in "song" structure and lots of different sounds and tones. Like a mix of Ops-Psf, Traci Lords Loves Noise and Nihilist Commando. Sometimes there's lyrics, mostly for the shorter songs, samples from exploitation movies, and impossibly fast programmed drums that are simple but effective. Noisecore that sort of play's like a mixtape made by someone who lives in a warehouse full of fucked up instruments. Definitely the winning side on this split for me.

The aesthetic of this tape is on point too. Mental Abortion's sexually obscene imagery takes up a little too much space, but the lay-out and look of everything is super nice. Really good sounding tape too, crispy as hell.




~VII

Friday, January 12, 2018

Slowly Melting Away

A beautiful, large haul of great tapes landed in my mailbox today. Finally got my hands on some pieces I've been after for a while. This split in particular is one I was looking forward to getting the most. My appreciation for both of these brutal bands has been written on this site in the past. Here is the Deterioration/Gastroptosis split cassette, released on yellow tapes by Shattered Dreams Productions in 2016. Probably in a run of 100, give or take.


This is some of my favorite Deterioration material, all killer no filler. Kind of "duh obviously" description for their side, but the 4 songs they contribute are a smidge more ear-wormy than most of their split material. Brutal, hyper blasts with tons of catchy cymbal accents. It sounds ruthless and rageful, like someone threw an extra bit of pepper in the sauce. I love the riff at the end of "Fucked Up Device" that progressively gets slower and chuggier. Great stuff all around, Deterioration always keeps it crispy. I'm pretty happy that they did a split with one of Chris Tapo's endless amounts of goregrind bands.

Speaking of which, lets move on to Gastroptosis. One of my very favorite projects from Arizona gore master Chris Tapo. Anything involving Gastroptosis, I'm instantly on board. Genuinely angry sounding and gargantuan goregrind. No one can program some brutal drums or roar into a pitch shifted microphone like this guy. These tracks were made pretty shortly after this project started releasing stuff if I remember correctly. Nothing but quality sounds on their side too. One of the best crafters of goregrind/gorenoise doing stuff right now.

As can be expected with all Shattered Dreams Production releases, this tape is all pro. A wonderfully vibrant yellow cassette with padded logo's on each side. The J-card is full color and sturdy, and the cassette case is even in a nice, seafoam blue color.  

This also was released as a 3" CD-r, but good luck finding that one. I think there was only 28 copies made. I'm definitely keen on snagging that too, haha. It's a sickness what can I say. Anyway, this is a great split and I recommend it, duh.

~VII

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Prince Of Reality

I've posted my list of favorite records from 2017 in a couple places on the interwebs. Several of them individually on here over the year too. I'll try to catch up on a few that I feel compelled to talk about (the new Hummingbird Of Death LP and Beggin For Oxy's 7" to name a couple). This record right here though, was by far the my most listened to and cherished piece of wax that was released last year. One of my new favorite grind records, the BxSxRx/Parlamentarisk Sodomi split 12", released by Haunted Hotel Records. On orange/brown split vinyl, limited to 500, 33 RPM.

Everyone and their dog knows Parlamentarisk Sodomi; the one-man grind band brilliance from Norway. Mandated entirely by a person known by many names, mostly by Steinar. We all know him, we all love him. Mr. Steinar released multiple records from his many bands and projects in 2017, all of them absolutely fantastic. Nowadays Steinar has taken a liking to releasing split records with another one of his own projects, in this case it's BxSxRx. Basically P.S. as a trio, featuring people from Laserguys and Hellstorm. 

I love Parlamentarisk Sodomi dearly, and their side is great and I'll get to it. But the BxSxRx side, this is my jam. I've listened to their side probably close to 100 times this year. It's some of the most exciting, refreshing, original and if I dare say, rocking grindcore I've heard in a long time. Coming in at over 20 minutes, their half could be a full LP as it is. Consisting mainly of reworked and rerecorded versions of songs from their "Böyfil II" demo, plus a couple new ones. Steinar's signature wrist-snapping riffing is crystal clear, so sharp and accurate it's almost superhuman. Lots of chromatic chord progressions and guitar techniques, like hammer ons and atonal chords that stand out. The guitar tone is bright and very slick, but with the backing bass and drums everything sounds incredibly full and almost chaotic. The drums in particular add a very interesting sound. Often times they are quite loose, almost like they're trying to keep up with everything going on. It's a very interesting dynamic, if you can call it that. Especially when coupled with the razor sharp precision of Steinar, and you can audibly hear the drummer finding the groove. All that said though, it fucking works, and it really makes sense when put in context with the sound of BxSxRx. They are loud, cartoony, and over the top. 
I gotta talk about the vocals too, probably my favorite part of the band. All 3 of them contribute on the pipes, and they are off the wall bonkers. Sometimes taken to such an extreme over the top level it reaches absurdity. But they're so engaging and captivating, I just adore them. I can't remember a grindcore band I could take seriously that had low growls that sound like the Gungan leader from "The Phantom Menace" ("Anal Queen Of Minor Preperations"), or have cock rock falsettos mixed with NY thrashcore bro vocals. Everything is just taken to such a perfect level and it's all wholly original. Although I have to admit they cut back on the zaniness of them compared to the demo, which is truly demented. I consider this to be perfect grindcore, I'll listen to it for many years to come, and I hope the band records more material in this lifetime. 


Now all that being said, the Parlamentarisk Sodomi side is probably the part of this release that will have people scratching their heads the most. I remember going in when this was first released, the sound was shockingly different from what I was used to. Gone were the crust soaked, hammer blasting, catchy compositions, in place of a more Psudoku styled space/future grind sound. A year later, it's definitely as extreme and polarizing as it was back then, but I love it a whole lot more. Steinar apparently had many interesting opinions about Scion getting it's cold, industrial mitts into the grindcore world when these pieces were being made. It blatantly and ironically dedicates this whole recording to the importance of merging automobiles in contemporary grind. Har har har. 

Essentially, this plays out as a cybergrind record through and through. Instrumentation and sonic production that's programmed to play, and sound inhuman. It's very cold, claustrophobic, and does not give you any room to breath. As a rabid consumer of hard-to-take-in music, I love it for that reason. The kick drum and the rapid, ever changing guitar and bass riffs become completely hypnotic at points, and you transcend through the wormhole into the cyber realm. Like the Mahavishnu Orchestra on "Breaking Bad" style blue crack, or Magma performing on a rocket getting sucked through a black hole. 
All these recordings were recorded over the course of 2011-2014, a bit of a lull point for Parlamentarisk Sodomi, but just around when Psudoku and Brutal Blues started putting out records. It's easy to see where Steinar's head was at at this time. Especially when listening to the bombastic, almost circus music sounding track "Total Sodomi". Or the ending piece,"Schlammgebert", featuring vocals from Ouchsock Panzer. Which has to be one of the most intense and completely insane songs ever made by this project. It definitely ends this record off with a huge bang! Completely nailing a concept and performing with the most impressive accuracy, Parlamentarisk Sodomi has done it once more. 

This first came out late in 2016 I believe, in Europe thanks to Grindfather Productions, who released it on cassette. Haunted Hotel Records gave it a well deserved vinyl treatment here in the states and did a superb job. A nice, sturdy double sided insert, and a full color double sided jacket. The vinyl looks and sounds fresh as hell too. I'm obviously hyping this up as an essential record, so if you haven't listened to or bought this yet, you're a fool.  

~VII

Friday, January 5, 2018

Radiation Mutation

First post of the new year! I'm not really much for resolutions and all that malarky, but I do intend to increase my productivity on this blog, and already a steady stream of interesting tapes and records are coming my way. Maybe some interviews will start actually happening too, who knows. Let's just get right into the real meat of this post though, and talk about this Cystoblastosis/Deterioration split tape I picked up last year. Not sure how many copies were made, but there are a few different variants over the three labels that put it out; Thoracopagus RecordsGrindfather Productions, and Shattered Dreams Productions.

I finally got to witness Deterioration for the first time last year and it was probably the best grindcore set I've ever seen. It was a pure, angry grind barrage and they stopped maybe twice their whole set. I was floored from beginning to end. This is one of the new recordings to have a bassist on it and as usual the band delivers. Brutal riffs and screams, constant blast beats, in your face genuine grindcore. With the bands usual presence of charm of course. The opening of "Beat That Nerd To Death" is pure genius, you have to hear it for yourself. Theirs also an excruciatingly long field recording of all of them eating into a microphone, which almost makes me gag. Killer stuff as always, y'all already know!


Some of you may or may not know Cystoblastosis; a brutal mince/goregrind band from Russia that has been really kicking ass the past couple of years. Their releases perfectly blend the line of having quite good recordings, but still managing to have a pretty vicious and raw sound. Playing to their strengths and delivering quality gore! You'll find all the mince riffs you could want, with the frantic and spontaneous energy to match. It's simple and familiar, but very strong. This stuff is genuine as hell, and definitely checks all the marks I look for in this kind of grind. Everyone should definitely check out Cystoblastosis, snare drum ring on!!

I'm not sure if this is the Shattered Dreams version or the Grindfather one. It's definitely not the Thoracopagus edition, that one has slightly different cover art. The packaging is crispy as hell, with a nice multiple panel J-card printed on very sturdy card stock. The dub is pretty good, not great. The snare drum is really buried on my copy, which is a pity because both bands have quite favorable snare sounds. I can live with it though, it's still good.

There will probably be quite a lot more Deterioration posts this year, and hopefully some more Cystoblastosis ones. If we all aren't blown up that is. Welcome to planet Earth everyone!

~VII