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

Found In The Mud

Real quick post about another devestating goregrind/noise tape released by some very quality labels. The Arizonian, 1-man, goretank project that is Gastroptosis, and Japan's Oniku. Another excellent 1-man band. This sweet little split tape was released in a total run of 75 copies by Ill Faith Records, Fermented Bile Vomit Records, and Craniophagius Parasiticus Records. I got my copy from Ben of CPR when I was in Toronto last month, it is a single sided tape.

Gastroptosis is yet another stupidly good goregrind/noise project created by Chris Tapo (most notably of Oozing Pus fame), and I love pretty much every new band he starts. Gastroptosis has been one of the more active projects in his roster and one of my personal favorites as well. We get 5 new tracks on here, featuring the usual traits of what makes great goregrind; hard hitting, to the point riffs, thundering drums, horror movie samples and absolutely monstrous, wet vocals. Chris is a master at programming good drums, and while the drums here are a bit buried under the gunky guitars and vocals, their power is undeniable. Great, raw, angry and savage goregrind, so good.

Oniku is a band that I really have not given many listens to (outside of this tape), but every time I do I realize I need to get more of their releases. Five tracks of very solid goregrind, also featuring programmed drums. These songs actually sound very well developed, like some real time was spent writing these riffs and compositions. Strong obvious influences are bands like Active Stenosis, Blue Holocaust and Regurgitate, very chunky groovy riffs with a lot more variety than Gastroptosis's side previously. The recording is a heck of a lot cleaner than the average 1-man goregrind band, it has a real 90's sound to it. There isn't any noise influence at all. While this recording may lack the savage, blown out fidelity I usually like, the quality of this material is undeniable.

Very loud and crisp sounding dub, both bands are one one side as previously mentioned. I'm not sure if the other label's releases are also single sided. 

~VII