Disgusting Taste

I have not been very good at keeping up with my beloved Archagathus very well this year. Truly, the pains of being an avid collector of an active-as-fuck band like the this are heavy. And the Prince of Mince has definitely not been slowing down. They released the brutal, gore worshipping full length "Dehumanizer" last year, and the usual spree of crucial splits with bands like Sordo, Lt. Dan, Sete Star Sept, and Carcass Grinder. Sadly, many of these are still not in my possession, and I mourn that every day. However, one split I was very happy to recently land is the incredible split 7" with Self Deconstruction from Japan. Released on Agromosh Records this year in a run of 1000 copies.

This split seems to be unanimously received as one of the best things that Archagathus have done recently. I do definitely place myself in that club of opinion, to me one of the best group of songs they've done since "Canadian Horse". Opening shit up with that perfect and notorious cover of Dahmer's "Thomas Hamilton". Absolutely nailing it with an attention grabbing drum intro and the right amount of shameless worship of the band they're honoring. Dahmer's influence is all over this side, most notably in the layered vocals (which are the bomb btw), and repetitive and consistent riffing styles song-for-song. Archagathus's more recent evolution into a mincegore band often doesn't always leave me satisfied, but they really nailed it on this one. Throwing in a lot more catchy riffs, like on the closer "Government Influenza", which to me is an excellent blend of the gore side, and the fun punk as fuck mince of their earlier works. Goddamn I love this band.

Strangely enough, I really don't see many people mention Self Deconstruction's side when they're talking about this split. Which is really unfortunate, because I feel like that definitely would detract people from checking this band out. I initially wasn't that motivated to turn the record over and hear their side, cause I didn't hear any real hype. Holy crap though, Self Deconstruction's offering is just insanity! Admittedly, a pretty weird band to share a split with Archagathus, as their approach to writing grind is almost night and day. If you didn't know this band was from Japan, you'd probably figure it out pretty quick from just a few seconds of their side. Metallic, semi-free, chaotic and dissonant spazzcore is what they bring, with a huge thrashcore influence. Distinctly over-the-top and unhinged song writing, bouncing from riff to riff at the speed of light, but still sounding tight and professional. I was really pleasantly surprised with this band, and I'll definitely be on the lookout for them in the future.

Standard packaging on here, with all the proper info and credits on the inside. All copies are on this purpley, marble vinyl. Fun fact: Archagathus side plays at 33 RPM and SD's plays at 45 RPM. Don't let that fool ya.

There's 1,000 copies of this, so you should have no problem finding one. Buy or forever pose.

~VII

Religious Ignoramus

I'm actually going to be heading up into Canada for the next couple of days on tour! My first time ever in the country I feel a lot of kinship to. So allow me to bring a belated finish to Mince Month with the final new Archagathus split 7" I bought, this excellent split slab with Soil Of Ignorance! Black vinyl, 33 RPM.

It seems like this split was supposed to come out a longggg time ago. Archx's recordings come from 2010, whien it was still essentially just Dan. Great stuff and terrific recordings on there side. Along the line's of "Canadian Horse" recording quality. Opening up with one familiar track, "Hey Agathocles", and a couple I guess unreleased songs. "Religious Ignoramus" and "Life If Just Once" (a quick Discogs search told me so). Great stuff all around, more of the same instantly lovable grind I except from Archagathus.

Soil Of Ignorance are a band who's records/tapes I've seen floating around in various distro's for years. And goddamn if I'm kicking myself for not checking into them sooner. These recordings come from '09, so not too sure what they sound like now, but these 3 tracks dished out some unexpectedly heavy and brutal grind. Thick walls of distorted bass and guitar, chunky tones, and commandingly loud drums. I guess I was expecting something more thrash metal sounding due to the look of their logo.
Consider me a fan now.

We got another printer-paper cover like the Violent Gorge split. Complaining is pointless haha.

See you soon Canada!!!

~VII

Bummer Alcoholic

This was one tough son of a gun to find for me. I heard fair tale of this already essential split around the mid point of 2013, and searched high and low for it for months, only coming to dead ends and "Sold Out" notifications in scattered distros.  I didn't even know who put this record out! And when I finally did learn of the few collective labels, many of them said that they hadn't received their copies. Diseased Audio finally hooked it up and I landed me one of the dangerously brutal Archagathus/Nak'ay split 10"s. Red/black marble vinyl, 33 RPM.

*As I am uploading the pictures for this post, I am curious as to why I did not take a picture of the cover and record together as I normally do*. I found out about this record right around the time my love for Archagathus and the mid-west grind scenes were peaking. This record was a mandatory purchase for any junkie of those particular brands. Nak'ay are a ruthless Indiana grind trio, who have have slammed the pedal straight through the metal on every release they've put out. This record is no exception, it's barbaric blasturbation grindcore. Insect Warfare on a meth/coke cocktail is about what I can describe this as, with some disgusting lo-fi as shit recordings to give it that extra "umpf". Archagathus bring what I believe are all new songs on this record, and it's a solid handful of tracks. Their current more metallic sound is very strong on here, some tracks like "Decapitated Priest" have a huge amount of straight Swede-grind influence. This is also some of their best sounding recordings to date. Great heavy guitar tones and thunderous drums, and of course the bellowing troll vocals I always love.

(Unintentional artsy angle)

This record is thankfully much more common now. Pick it up, it's good for ya. 

~VII

Majestic Aggressor

 This split was another recent buy, and a bit of a follow up to the post about the "Archagathagorge EP" post. Here is a proper Archagathus/Violent Gorge split 7" on some nice transparent red vinyl, 45 RPM.

 Now this one is really cool to me for a couple reasons. First, when I ordered this I didn't know I was going to get the limited color variant, something that I rarely manage to snag for this band. So that's pretty neat. And, from what I can tell from a quick search on Discogs, these appear to be new Archagathus songs! With this and the split 10" with Nak'ay, Archx have seem to be getting more and more metal sounding. The blast riffs are much more grinding and metallic, and the musicianship in general has gotten tighter. Kind of morphing more in the the band Violent Gorge is! This was a great proper listen to this band for me. Disgusting, super-blasting grindcore with tons of "bree-bree" vocals and gory growls. To repeat myself from a couple posts ago, VG is essentially Archagathus, but with Joe Warkentin tearing it up on lead vocals, and I think he does bass on this too. Really after their split 5.5" with Sete Star Sept now.

Pretty punx-as-fuk packaging. It looks like the cover sleeve was printed on stock copy paper. The Archx/Soil Of Ignorance split was like that too.

~VII

Konfident

Here's a split that seems to have been made just to please people like me. Two of my favorite current grind bands teaming up and sharing one record. Happy happy joy joy! Here's the Suffering Mind/Archagathus split 1-sided 7", black vinyl, 33 RPM.

Now for as excited as I was for this record, honestly as a whole it came of only as average to me. Two tracks from both bands, Suffering Mind first. The first track is an under 30 second ripper, solid blasting track from beginning to end. The 2nd one has the delicious grindage in the beginning, but rides this not very awesome mid-tempo chord progression throughout most of it. Archagathus come next with "Inexperienced Cannibal", a short little number, closing out with a cover of Rot's "Russian Roulette". Nothing bad by any means, but nothing mindblowing at the same time. Oh well I guess. Tons more great stuff is coming up from both of these bands to get bummed by it at all.

Fun fact, this was going to be a 5". That would have been pretty cool. Metal/grind mega label Power It Up Records took care of this and pressed it as a single sided 7". I believe there is a limited color variant, but I couldn't afford to get it.

~VII

Archagathagorearchy

I actually acquired this today! As well as some other choice jams that I can't wait to listen to and post about. I was really hoping I would be able to add this to my collection, and Blisteredmind (search his distro on tumblr) helped me out yet again!Here is the "Archagathagorearchy EP", black flexi, single sided, 33 RPM. No idea how limited it is.

The "Archagathagorearchy EP", is a modest split between Archagathus and the brother band Violent Gorge, who share pretty much the entire band. This is, from what I can tell, a selection of live songs from their sets at the Leatherhouse venue (the only place I would ever want to play if I performed in Ohio). Archx play two of my favorite songs, "Hair Dresser" and "Fuckin' Ebola". Violent Gorge have 3 songs, and since I am honestly pretty new to the band I can't tell is these are new or not. My guess is that their not. Good stuff though! More of a pummeling, straightforward grindcore sound with a gory edge that I'm definitely in favor of. The recording isn't the best, the guitars are sometimes completely drowned out, but it's a neat gem of a record. I really dig the hell out of fun releases like this.

~VII

Putrid Entrapment

I think I got this the same time as the Compost split. Another Archagathus split with an Italian band, this one being Bestial Vomit. Black vinyl, 33 RPM.

More recordings from 2011 on the Archx side. so that janky guitar tone pops up again. Some real angry sounding songs on this split. Standout gems like "Paranormal Investigator" and "Fuckin' Ebola" pop up, the later of which being re-worked with a Part B song; "Goddamn Cholera!". Bestial Vomit are a band I only have one other record from (the split 7" with Agathocles), and they're a lot better then I remember them. I thought their three songs were great! A pretty solid mix of traditional OD grind with some modern riff and vocal dynamics, and a killer screaming vocalist. Kind of like Dahmer meets Capitalist Casualties mixed with early Rotten Sound. I wish the almost minute long sample at the end was another song though.

Revered labels, you strike again!  

This one's pretty easy to find. 

~VII

Languorous Tyrannosaur

Here's an older Archagathus split that I recently picked up. I've had my eye on it for a while, mostly because of the cool cover. This is their split with Camphora Monobramata (that name take's a couple tried to type too), black vinyl, 33 RPM.

These Archx tracks were actually recorded the same year that this record was release (2011). While I have to question the super janky guitar tone, these songs still do come out sounding quite heavy thanks to some much needed low end from the bass. "She Grinds" and "Languorous Tyrannosaur" are some stand-out heavy mince jams. Great sounding vocals as well.

Camphora Monobramata are a raw goregrind band from Russia, as the tricky name should tip you off to. I was pretty ready to hate this side of the record because of the unimpressive opening riff, but when the vocals kicked in, this band really picked up and I eventually came to enjoy track after track. What CM make is simple, fun, lo-fi goregrind, Bands like a raw Spasm or Torsofuck come to mind, but without the samples, or porn. Some slam riffs are thrown in for good measure. Pretty fun stuff.

~VII

Intractable Tarantula

The next handful of posts are going to focus all on Archagathus. Let's consider January to be "Mince Month" here on Built To Blast. My collection has had a major increase in the recent weeks. In fact I ordered about 6 crucial additions earlier in the week, which should be getting here soon. This one I got from Third Eye Grind, the Archagathus/Compost split 7", black vinyl, 45 RPM.

We got three tracks recorded sometime in 2011, so they're all been visited before. Quality jams none the less, "Intrateable Tarantula" and "Sexy Grinder" are particularly nasty. Very raw recordings, with a dirty, clanging guitar tone. Compost are an Italian goregrind project, this is my first exposure to them. Pretty fun, simple goregrind tunes. Lots of groove, early Regurgitate and Rot worship for sure. I enjoyed their side too.

Very nice and sturdy glued sleeve with some thick vinyl and an insert, an excellent package! Been waiting for an Archx record to come in a glued sleeve actually.

~VII

Perennial Loser

Can't stop the mince, don't want it to stop!! "Canadian Horse" is an album that I bought when my interest in Archagathus, and mince in general, was still in an infant stage. I bought it when it came out from TLAL, almost 3 years ago (that's really hard to believe, wow), and within the last couple months it's actually started to become one of my favorite albums. I'm very happy to own the rarest variant of this record. Lavender vinyl, limited to 100, 45 RPM.

Can't go on without mentioning the epicness of this album cover. It's just so...well look at it! I don't even think I should have to explain what's going on here, you're most likely already making your own judgements on it as we speak. Really, it's a love it or hate it cover, and I'm on the side of the former. It's just so cheeky (no pun intended) that I really can't see how anyone can't love it even a little bit. A fun cover for a fun band, let's but it that way. Listening to this album makes me want to see them play in someones basement, with drinks flying everywhere and endless sweaty party-moshing. 

Nothing short of a mince masterpiece. This album has The Prince of Mince displaying the best recording he/they've ever had, and their strongest songs to date. Every song on here is an upbeat, charging, mish-mash of classic Agathocles mince, crusty hardcore, old-school grindcore, some Euro-style riffs here and there, and an endless amount of vocal styles. You got low growls, SUPER low growls, piggy squeals, crusty barks, and some of the most throat-wrenching high screams I've ever heard. Honestly, the vocals are one of my favorite parts of this record, they give every song tons of variety and keep them interesting. And dammit, they're just so catchy! I get the riff to "Mincecore Fabio" (previously called "Hairdresser" before it was reworked for this record), stuck in my head at least once a day. "Perennial Loser" has one of my favorite riffs on the whole record, and the last two songs throw in some very nice slow, sludgy riffs. The only time they appear on the whole record. 

Comes with a nice big poster and a double-sided lyrics sheet, which I would have pictures of but my camera seems to have derped while I was taking them. 

The larger variants of this record are still pretty easy record to find, and TLAL recently did a nice looking split-color vinyl repress of it. Treat yourself.

~VII