The Mechanics of Failure

First up, I know, it has been a long time since I posted on this blog. It kind of slipped my mind for a minute there, mostly because life has been pretty good! Lots of new changes and different shifts in my life. Good excuses as to why I haven't paid attention to my vinyl/cassette review blog. However, I have gathered quite a lot of new releases over the months that I would like to talk about. Some were gifted to me, and I really need to get on those. So let's not waste time and get down to chewing the meat. I have here a brand new release. from a brand new label, Cult of Nine Records based out of Syracuse, NY. Their first release is this split/Vs. CD from two incredible bands in the USA underground. Fed Ash, also from Syracuse, and Landfill, who's main members mostly reside in the midwest. Digipack CD, actually this is the first CD review I've ever done on here!

If you're familiar with either of these bands, you know what you should be expecting. Two words: Sheer Brutality. I was so excited when I heard these two were doing a split together. I've known members of each band for a while, and hearing that there was going to be another union of Upstate NY and midwest bands was tremendous. Each band here is a fantastic representation of their to different styles of fast, heavy music. Landfill going for the straight up, blast beat infested, skeleton disintegrating grindcore. No flashes or extra splashes of technical prowess here, just in your face, relentless blasts, with the right kind of punky grooves and gory vocals too boot, stirring up the pot a bit and helping make their songs diverse. They get three to four song chunks per section, and they just shred!!

I've seen Fed Ash fine tune, and expand their sound and delivery quite a lot the past year. Nowadays they perform with three guitar players, and it's absolutely insane. They play a style of grindcore that takes influences from a swath of different genres. From sludge and doom metal, pure electronic noise, good 2000's metalcore (trust me it makes sense), and maybe even black metal. The sound they are able to conjure is something altogether sinister and crushing. The pure pain and misery of existence composed into music. This is some of their best recorded material.

The Vs. style formatting of this split works really well in my opinion. Landfill's songs go by lightning fast, completely bonkers. Fed Ash adding the finishing moves and more pain right after, it's a pretty intense listen actually.

This is the first release on Cult of Nine Records, please pick this up. I think these are two of the most promising bands around at the moment and I'm very pleased with this release.

~VII

New Orleans Is A Hole

I think most of us at one point tried to keep up with the tyrannical musical output of Thou and buy all of their records. I did around the time I saw them in 2011 or so. Gathering up modern essentials such as "Summit" and some of the various splits they've done. Recently, mostly thanks to their collaboration with The Body, my interest in the band has been rekindled, and have made the bastard insane decision of hounding for their records again. Their output in 2014 already has my savings on it's knees begging for mercy. Will I realistically pick up most of these records? I do hope so, "Heathen" already seems to be a little elusive. Thankfully I at least managed to pick up this excellent 12" EP, "The Sacrifice". I believe it's their 3rd EP for Robotic Empire, who have done an amazing job yet again. Clear vinyl, 45 RPM.

I wouldn't be surprised if this lands in my top 10 EP's of the year. This is a mammoth record in sound, and packaging. We get three new songs, a guitar drone, and as is standard now, a Nirvana cover. These songs sound massive, earth-stomping. This is by far one of Thou's most consistently heavy records yet. Going for very little melody and relying more of the thicker strings for the majority of the time here. "The Pill" is a real highlight, opening with a fantastic sludgy tromp and a memorable lyric that I hope to scream out at a live show someday ("VACANT EYES MEET VACANT EYES"!) Thou decide to cover Nirvana's classic "I Hate Myself And I Want To Die", putting the expect Thou flavor on it. Great vocal work too, pretty different stuff for the band.

Wonderful packaging job from Robotic Empire as usual. That label really treats these guys well. Thick, wrap-around, tip-on jacket with a glossy matte finish. Kind of too tight for the record, but it looks beautiful. Lyrics and all credits are on the back. There's no spine labeling though, which is a real bummer for me.

All records on on extremely clear vinyl, I am unsure how many were pressed. A cassette with different artwork was also released by Robotic Empire. I'm still after their collab with The Body, and would love to get the 3xLP split collection that was put out.

~VII