Chokin' On Bones

Another Haggus split 7" post today. I've been trying to slowly catch up on all these new records that keep coming out this year. This split 7" with Heinous, an awesome gory grind band from Phoenix, AZ. was put out by a whole crew of labels (Suicide of A Species, Grindfather Productions, Fuck Your Life Records, Morbid Reality Records, and Not Kvlt Records). This is the standard black vinyl press, I couldn't find a clear vinyl copy, 33 RPM.

I'll start off with the Heinous side, which was released a little earlier than this split as an EP called "Four Under The Floor". This definitely stands as my favorite material the band has done so far. The five songs on here just straight up slap. Starting off with the devastatingly heavy track, "Chokehold", which is about as good as a first song gets. That slam part in the middle gets me every time. Heinous are an interesting band for sure; rooted in goregrind but with some war metal riffs and heavy as hell slower, more groovy moments. This is probably the recording that best conveys how great the drumming is live as well, fast and tight as hell. I also really dig the guest vocals on the 3rd track, "Dissected". At first I thought that they were trying out more non-pitch shifted, low and high vocals until I realized that it was Payson from Gimp and another person who I don't recognize. Great, great stuff, I come back to this side often.

On the flip side is Haggus, who give three tracks of fun, bouncy, gory mincecore. More songs with that earlier sound and style. Coming in hot on the opener "Septic Aroma" with a pit starting mid-paced beat and guitar leads. There's not as many blast beats as I would like overall, lots of metal-ish riffs and d-beat passages that kinda just do the job but have a little too much of a bland flavor too keep eating. But it still is hard to deny that good ol' Haggus energy every time.

Got a nice, and tidy packaging job split with both bands different art styles. That Heinous art is so great. Gimme those big, bold, high contrast B/W illustrations all day!

This split should be pretty easy to find still. Again like with all of these Haggus splits, it would rule to have the cassette version as we'll.

~VII

Premature Necropsy

I feel like I keep saying this, but I was very excited for this split to come out and to finally get a hold of it. I missed out on the pre-vinyl cassette release, which would be sick to have since I kinda listen to tapes more than records these days. However, this 7" record is definitely a very much coveted purchase. I actually bought two copies of this record because I thought the first copy I bought got lost in the mail. Here's the Haggus/Acid Feast split, released by Suicide of A Species, Fuck Your Life Records, Grindfather Productions, and Bloody Scythe Records. This tri-color pressing is limited to 66 copies.

I was so excited to hear the Acid Feast side, and it was very well worth the wait. Acid Feast is straight up awesome, I don't think they have a dud release in their whole catalog, this split included. Four new songs and an groovy Ulcerous Phlegm cover to close it out. As usual, the recording is as gnarly as the stench from the putrefying insides of a crypt. Powerful, fast blast beats and crushing riffs with a smart use of groove, and catchy mincecore breaks. The songwriting is just top notch, "Parasitic Infestation (In The Coffin)" for example is just one amazing riff after another, just stomping your brains out. A real stand out track. It's just a pretty dang perfect slab of ugly, gross grind, I love this shit to death. However, very sadly Acid Feast broke up almost a year ago. Word is they have one more posthumous release coming out, fingers crossed! Jim, their guitarist plays drums for a ripping band called Disease now.

This is some of the riffiest Haggus material I've ever heard, with two lengthy tracks filling in their whole half of the record. I don't listen to crust punk at all, but I'm just gonna say that the first track, "Picnic At The Morgue"sometimes sounds like Wolfbrigade. But it has these horror/surf/death metal riffs in the first big verse. Kinda reminds me of Ghoul. It's a fun song I gotta say. Kinda silly, but I'd totally dance to this live. The closer, "Marinating In Coagulated Pus" is more of mincecore stomper, with lots of stops, and a totally rabid closer. Twin guitar leads are included. Awesome stuff, lots of variety and a jump-kick energy.

The front cover is pretty gnarly. 

I was SO happy I found the tri-colored split. It's a thing of beauty, I'm very impressed with how they look.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDE SPLIT! All the distro's I linked above should have this is stock. Please buy it.

~VII

Fascination Of Regurgitation

This wonderful 4-way split was on my want list for a long time. I'm turning into a big sucker for the 4-way splits, particularly ones that stick to the C20 time length like this one. What a great line-up of bands, put out by Ill Faith Records, Suicide Of A Species and Fuck Your Life Records. Limited to 200 copies.

So first up we have Haggus, undoubtably the hottest flame in the newest generation of mincecore bands. These four tracks were actually recorded back in 2015, pretty close to the beginning of the band. The vocals were recorded in 2017 however. This is more of that classic Haggus sound before they became more of a down tuned, goregrind band. Lots of major key, punky riffs, polka beats, and fun, catchy breaks and transitions. This is the kind of sound that made me really fall in love with Haggus back in the beginning, top notch mincecore riffing!
Meatus are up next. For those who don't know this is a long-going solo project from Joe of Archagathus (and Cannibalism, Violet Gorge, Raw Addict, etc). Joe is a grindore madman, constantly creating and recording some of the roughest and most real brutal music. The fidelity and volume level just fucking drops as soon as Meatus starts going. It was shockingly quiet, I had to really crank up my stereo. This stuff just sounds so gross and raw, I have no idea what kind gear you need to record on to make it sound this way. I love it. Completely raw and uncompromising goregrind, with plenty of sick riffs clawing through the muck.

I actually mainly picked up this tape for the Disemboweler tracks, to be honest. Disemboweler is a Simpson's themed, brutal grind group duo made up of Brandon Denetsosie (who runs Ill Faith records and contributes to many grind projects in the Arizona scene), and Chris Tapo, who is by far the person I trust the most to deliver the hardest gory grind I'll hear. This is the real deal stuff, it's fucking heavy, slamming, slapping grind. Just straight up, to the point brutality with punishingly heavy drums, vocals and meat-shredding riffs. Not to mention I always appreciate a good Simpson's sample. Definitely the highlight of the whole tape for me, I really dug this quarter a lot.
The Disembowler side ends with a looped sample that goes on for an almost disorienting amount of time. Which goes right into the rawest portion of this 4-way split, a band called Albratos. I had never heard anything about this band before, and according to their little bio in the jcard they were never really active at all. This quick little spurt of songs is insanely rough and sloppy. Almost like they just never picked up instruments at all before hitting record and just went for it. I can dig that a lot most of the time, but this was just a little bit "meh" for me. It didn't really have that punch in any of the instrumentation that really grabbed me, like a gross guitar sound or a sharp snare tone. Nothing terrible, just not my favorite of this whole tape.

This tape looks and sounds great, a top notch, quality job all around. The red cassette was a very nice choice of color. I also like how both side ends with the much more lo-fi sounding bands. 

There are 200 of these things floating around in the world, so you should have no problem scoring a copy if this interests you. Buy from the labels!!

~VII

Waste Of Notes

This was a split that I knew I had to buy right away,  as soon as it popped onto my radar, no questions asked. Hard to believe it actually took this long for these two legends to do a proper split 7" together. If you need an introduction to either of these bands you probably aren't the type of person who would read a blog where I'm geeking out about them. You also probably know if you want to buy this regardless if anyone says it's good or not. This was released by the infamous Ratgirl Records, in probably a multitude of color variants. The white color press is limited to 100, 33 RPM.

There was a time when I aggressively collected Agathocles records. Nowadays, I've definitely slowed down, especially with the 7"s. I don't know, it's hard to find the Agathocles splits that really "wow" me these days. This is one of those recordings that falls into that "okay, but nothing great" category. The recording is putrid sounding, obviously. The cymbals really wash over everything and the snare is barely audible, making it kind of a slog. The guitars have a nice dirt bike buzz to them, and Jan sounds great as always over these simple riffs. There's a couple moments here for sure, but nothing that's really outstanding.

Definitely more so, I bought this record to hear the Deche-Charge side, and boy did their half deliver all the goods! This is the kind of DC recording that I love. Just the complete destruction of music, blown out to the absolute max! No riffs, no fidelity, just ugly sounds and Chainsaw's grunting. It sounds like the microphone was literally placed inside one of the amps, it's that kind of super hot low end. There's some great short traxxx moments with more pauses towards the end to keep it flowing and engaging. A lovely recording from these legends!

I absolutely love this cover art. It's a beautiful illustration, I wish I knew who drew it but no information was given.

So yeah, Deche-Charge and Agathocles finally did a split 7"! You already know if you need it or not.

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 Records, Grindfather 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

Mutilated Regurgitator

Anyone who collects grindcore should have at least 1-5 Agathocles records somewhere in their stacks. I myself have about 30, mainly sticking to their 7" split releases. Reviewing their records seems pretty superfluous in 2016 though doesn't it? Their best material has been re-re-re-recorded over countless releases and bootlegged records. Is Agathocles even a real band anymore? It's hard to tell how serious the members take the band now, at least in regards of writing new material. Regardless, their releases are usually always fun and I try to pick one up whenever I can. Agromosh Records recently repressed a great double 7" collection they released years ago entitled "Keep Mincing"! 2nd press on purple/dark blue vinyl 33 RPM.

These recordings were originally released on their first press of this record back in 2002. Half studio and half live recordings all done in 1988 (arguably around their best era). The A-side is all studio tracks recorded around the same time as classic recordings like "Cabbalic Gnosticism". It's a brutal recording, loud and violent. One of the best recordings I've heard from the mincecore legends. All the classics are here, like "Christianity Means Tyranny", "Lay Me Off", "Mutilated Regurgitator", and "Introtyle". The live recording has it's charm, but like too many Agathocles recordings, it's pretty painful to listen to. The (awesome) vocals bellow over everything else in the mix, the drummer can barely keep time, the riffs are buried in fuzz. I wouldn't be surprised if it was all recorded with one microphone 50 feet away from the stage. It has charm, of course, but I'll stick with record A more often then not.

Both records come packaged in a fold over, double-sided sleeve with all the info you would want to know about this record. Class.

You can probably find this in any good distro anywhere. FFO staying true to your roots.

~VII

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

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

Surgery Addict

Here's a mincecore release that I've been eager to get my grubby mitts on for a few minutes now. TLAL joining on releasing this really brought it up to "gotta have it" territory. Here's the Archagathus/Pizza Hi Five split 7", transparent green vinyl, 33 RPM.

I'm a fan of Archagathus, but I never really could handle more than a few minutes of them Before getting totally bored, which is why 7"s are so perfect for them. More of the same mincecore stuff from them, nothing new for the band at all. Kinda of a clean recording, but the vocals just wash over everything. Not much more to say outside of that.

The Pizza Hi Five side is where this release truly shines though. I've been a fan of these guys ever since 2009, and seeing them get all this attention is great. They still got it, and their jams on here are great. Total pulverizing, grimy, gutter sludge mincegrind. I fucking love it. The guitars are super think and chunky and the drums got a heck of a lot faster. Love this band!!

Pretty sure the green vinyl was limited to 100, not that sure though.

Buy this, or forever suck.

~VII