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

Another Song About Dicks

This tape came out back near the end of 2016, when Sedem Minut Strachu really started propelling into their solid status as one of the best noisecore bands doing their thing. I was really happy to find it out in the wild this past April while I was on tour. At the very excellent Torn Light Records in Kentucky. Trashfuck Records is responsible for putting this tape out, not sure how many were made.

Sedem Minut Strachu as you all should be aware have been pretty much dominating noisecore over the course of several years. Consistently putting out true, ugly, proper noisecore from tape to record to tape again. And of course constantly releasing splits with many amazing and fascinating bands from all over the world. Their side here is a 163 track effort, so there's plenty of short bursts and stops on this one. Jan is really blasting hard. It sounds like one of their practice room recordings, so the bass isn't that blown out and more in the background. Not as much ping in the snare as I normally like either, it actually sounds like a real snare drum here. Pretty awesome stuff, as usual.

Bullshit Market is a long going, genre bending band from Detroit. Patrick, one half of BsM, also runs Trashfuck Records. This is some seriously whacked out noisecore fuckery. Super fast and tight blasting, harsh noise in the vein of Nikudorei, and some left in band member banter with very tight cut up/editing. The vocals too, I love how they sound on here! Not so much screaming, more like loud moaning and grunting, but with some SUPER heavy delay or echo on them in a way I don't hear very often. There's also an amazing part in the middle where there's a reverse playback of the band chatting, and then this reversed cymbal decay just starts rising up, until there's a sharp stop into harsh fucking noise blasting. This side is just great, I really really like this a lot. 

We got a proper, old school style, whole folded sheet of paper for the cassette art. Including an iamge of the poster from when Sedem Minut Strachu and Bullshit Market played together on the American 7MS tour. The tape dub sounds superb and crispy too.

This tape is long since sold out. But if you manage to luckily find it in the wild like I did you definitely should buy it. Both sides are winners!

  ~VII

Systematically Slicing Achilles Tendons

It took me WAY to long to finally get this split, like seriously way to long. I was finally able to buy one from Suicide of A Species, and finally hearing the whole thing in full my expectations were totally met. I knew this split was going to be brutal, but holy fuck this is some next level grind. Sulfuric Cautery from Ohio, one of the bands impressing me the most these days. And Incinerated, a low-end worship, Mortician style grind band from Australia. Released on a large amount of labels, mostly familiar faces. 33 RPM.

I'll start off with Incinerated, since they won my imaginary coin flip. This is a band that I had never heard of until Sulfuric announced this split with them months ago. I'm not sure why they've done such a myriad of splits with groups from Australia (outside of Australia's trait of producing nothing but insane bands), but they've all been pretty exciting new finds. Incinerated's music just lays waste to everything, this is just complete and total iron-fist-to-face, merciless, brutal grindcore. The low-end will make your guts rumble if you listen to this loud enough, it feels like just about everything is tuned down. The vocals stay consistently guttural, nothing but lows as well. The great thing is that Incinerated actually throw in some insane grooves and slower parts that really knock your shit around. Obviously, there's a ton of Mortician worship on here; the incredibly detuned guitars, constant hyperblasting and breakdowns. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with that right? Completely savage music, goddamn.

Now normally a side like Incinerated's would smoke any other band who shared the record with them. But Sulfuric Cautery without question hold up on their end with six tracks of some of the fastest, chaotic grind I've ever heard. SC wisely/frustratingly don't put any of their recordings online, aside from a lone track give or take. So that special kind of eagerness to actually listen to this whole thing was very aggressive. This is probably my favorite recording of theres to date. It's loud, beefy, the drums are as annoyingly loud as they should be, it is really some of their best. Captured by Doug Long actually. The snare pings out so loudly, and the bass drums almost turn into just a low tone because of how fast they're going. It's chaotic, speed gore at really some of it's finest and most enjoyably fucked up. The real deal right here.

The cover art and design of this package is wonderful. That's some great original art right there. Can't tell if it's a painting or what, but it's a real joy to see and hold.

I feel like this record will be hard to find once it's properly sold out, so buy it now. One of the most brutal records I own! Check out Acid Redux Productions, Misanthropic Ignorance, Lysergic Meltdown, Blast Addict and Grindfather to score a copy.

~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

Bathing In The Excrement That Is Your Contrarian Opinion

This is a nice and rowdy split from a couple of super sick bands that always bring a walloping amount of pure grind fury. Indiana's own Flvx Capacitor and one of Lima, OH's nastiest bands, Landfill. Released on these sick orange tapes by Riotous Outburst Records, limited to something like 200 I think!

Flvx Capacitor are up first, serving up 9 new tracks of warp speed grindcore, plus a cover of Extreme Noise Terror's "Deceived". This side is awesome, and some of the shortest and most urgent sounding songs the Flvx has made so far. I think Chris told me that the riffs were written over improvised blasting that was recorded earlier in time. This band has riffs for days, both familiar and more modern sounding, but without sounding techy. Basically these three just know what the fuck their doing when it comes to grindcore. The very high quality recording is also top notch, everything sounds powerful and clear, though their is a noticeable drop in volume and umf on the "Deceived" cover. Great side overall though, just vicious!!

If you haven't heard Landfill yet, you're most definitely fucking up hard. Spearheaded by Will Otler (Methlab Explosion/Faction Disaster/Hot Babes/etc.), Landfill has been one of my favorite projects of his yet. Their side is completely disgusting, brutal grindcore with all the fixings you would need. Deep, gurgled vocals, thick down tuned guitars, a pingy snare, and head-to-concrete riffs. Like the Flvx side though, after track 3 it sounds like a totally different recording, way more raw. Landfill is a somewhat swirling ensemble of members, so this is nothing really new or problematic. No matter what Landfill is always brutal and I dig all of this.

This is a nice looking DIY tape, I adore the orange cassette shell. My copy got just the taddest bit fuzzy in the dubbing I think. The cymbals kinda have that washed out sound. However when you're doing 200 tapes on your own it's pretty dang forgivable.

This is a sick little split, you should definitely give it some ear time. Both these bands are definitely putting out stuff you should own , what are you even doing??

~VII

Chopped and Slopped

The mash up of Australia and the American Midwest is a beautiful combination. While these regions may be separated by thousands of miles both have scenes that want to create the most punishing grindcore known to man. On this split we have Sulfuric Cautery from Dayton/Lima, OH who have been crushing the goregrind/grindcore game the last few years. On the other side we have Take That Vile Fiend which consists of Brad of Radical Blarghst and has played in bands like Internal Rot, Holy Boner, Super Happy Fun Slide, and more. 

The TTVF side is goregrind to the max. The guitars and bass are a bit muddy but regarding the overall sound it helps, as it gives the recording a super gross sound. The vocals are pitch shifted well and are very deep without getting too lost in the mix. Drumming is on point with tight grooves and mince beats countered with hyper fast blasts. The snare has a nice ping to it that cuts through just right. Each song begins with a sample and because of this I wish there was another song or two as the songs on this have exactly what I am looking for in goregrind. Overall a solid chunk of music that plays through really well. If you haven’t heard their full length "Excreted Brain Matter" it is worth checking out.

On the other side we have Sulfuric Cautery bringing 6 tracks of their signature, over-the-top gore/grindcore. The tracks flow together really well just like the TTVF side. Their side kicks off with a drum fill with possibly the most ridiculous snare drum tone. I say ridiculous but it works well with that sound being pushed so far up in the mix compared to the bass and guitars. Listening to this I wish the guitars and bass were a bit clearer but their tones overall sound great for what they are doing. The songs are jammed packed with riffs and within a short time which gives the songs a very spastic nature without it sounding like disjointed. These boys are on top of their shit and are not holding back at all and it really shows on this recording.

Several great labels helped put this out including Radical Blarghst and Blast Addict which are run by Brad and Isaac respectively. The record is a nice dark blue and plays great. Overall this is a fantastic record and definitely worth checking out. Sulfuric Cautery are making huge waves in the US scene and Australia pumps out tons of great grind. 

~Tyler Hammer

Human Garbage Disposal

I was after the Sulfuric Cautery/Suppression split for longer than I wanted to be. Every day that I didn't have this tape in my hands I died a little more inside. It's hard for an east coast boy like me to find releases from bands like this in the wild. I haven't been able to find any of the recordings on the internet too which made my interest in it all the more extreme. Now I finally have it, I was able to pick it up when I saw Suppression in Detroit, and it's a thing of beauty. 

Sulfuric Cautery are probably underground grindcore's most beloved band right now, and for good reason. They really do take speed and brutality to a whole other level. Some of the craziest shit I've heard in years. I think their side is one of the first that had Trashy from Pizza Hi Five in the line-up. It's fucking great, obviously; noisy, brutal, the perfect fix for a blast beat junkie. Trashy and Ryan spew their respective vocals constantly in a wash of chaotic roars. Issac does what Issac does, the most insane blasting you've ever heard. It's a total slaughter fest from the beginning, to the ending batch of noisecore songs. Sulfuric's mix of complete chaos and precise song structure is in a league of it's own, and this side is a great example of all their strengths. 

Suppression are the supreme lords of their craft right now, a fucked up and lo-fi noisecore/powerviolence/noise rock hybrid. I have no idea how they are able to write this many songs at such a rapid pace, but they do, and here we get 16 total bangers. Legitimate, composed songs with lyrics, each one distinguishable from the last. From full on noisecore, to riffy, fuming stompers. What other band can put pitch-shifted vocals over a twisted Minutemen/Lightning bolt style bass riff and a blast beat and have it be amazing? Another real stand-out is the track "Art in Death"; I adore how the drum rhythm matches up with the delayed and looped bass hits. Seeing how perfectly they pulled the track off live only cements their perfection. It also ends with a wonderful 2 second track, a wonderful final hit.

I love the cover art on this. A wonderful Pettibon style/"The Burning" mash-up. This tape was a joint release by Chaotic Noise Productions, Feel Good Grind, Blast Addict, and Grindfather for the overseas crowd. I suspect Jason from CNP/Suppression had the biggest part in assembling them, as the general layout and packaging is pretty familiar. I also love the groovy, textured boarder on the cassette itself. Little details like that help make releases stand out to me.

In closing, you should already know.

~VII

Organic Refuse

A couple weeks ago while I was on tour, my buddy Ben slipped me a copy of this here tape that he helped release on his label Craniophagus Parasiticus Records. Later on the trek, while we were all chilling in Chicago, this tape was put on in the background. Amongst the clatter, hilarious conversations, and heavy intoxication, the music on here went straight to my ears like a heat seeking missile and I was blown away. Now officially released (also by Septic Brain Tapes and Misanthropic Ignorance), here's the Cystgurgle/Vomitoma split tape.

This split is wet, brutal, hyper blasting gore to the limit! Everything I love about ridiculous goregrind is on this tape, it's all just so good! Cystgurgle, a drum/bass duo from Thailand, are up first for a crushing A-side. This was my first exposure to them and DAMN, this shit is boiling lava hot. This is that supremely fast, super tight, Inopexia/LDOH-style goregrind right here. The drummer is absolutely insane (yes, these are real drums), everything is just impossibly fast. This is one of those rare times where a professional recording actually made this sound a lot better than it would have otherwise. The kick drum and snare hits are pulverising! Same with the vocals and bass, there's obviously credit due there. The bass is a little whishy/washy sounding, I would have liked it a little more pronounced, but when Cystgurgle are blasting away I don't really have a complaint at all. I could listen to this every day!

Vomitoma should need no introduction to people who know gorenoise/grind. Now on it's 10th year, the Vomitoma project has no signs of slowing down, and apparently will only release recordings with real drums now! On this split, the drums were supplied by Adrian from Putrefuck, who does a pretty great/appropriately sloppy job. This whole side is just disgusting, as anyone would expect. Jen's toilet water vocals are some of the best in the game, it literally sounds like the noises melted, human viscera would make going down a rusty drain. WHile the impactful speed and viciousness of the Cystgurgle side isn't quite matched here, the dirty/medical atmosphere on Vomitoma's half is on another level. This is that kind of gorenoise you want to listen to when you want to watch sketchy internet dissection videos, just fabulous!

Everything about this tape was done 100% pro, and it completely looks and sounds that way! The dub is crispy, loud, and certifiably dank. I'm super happy for Ben for helping put out such a beauty!

Any of the labels I linked above should have this available. Don't skip on this, it's my favorite tape of the year so far!

~VII

Smashing My Faith

I recently made a purchase that I never thought I would be able to make. It's a big one, I've been after this tape ever since I got into Seven Minutes of Nausea. The legendary split cassette with the Brazilian grindcore band Necrose. Released on Sem Nome Tapes in the mid 90's. They're all hand numbered, I'm not sure how limited this was.

This was one of the very first 7MON recordings that I got to hear, thanks to good ol' Youtube. It was pretty instantaneous love for me, it's everything I was looking for in fast music at that time. The drumming, the way the drums sounded and the no-fi fidelity of the whole thing was intoxicating. I still can't figure out how the drums are really being hit, to this day. It's like a Crass drum roll mixed with a blast beat. The way every song was just a sudden, sharply edited burst of noise with the gnarled vocals of Mick. This recording is a definite stand-out in their discography.It's up there with the true classics like "Thrashbora" and the Sound Pollution split. Just a constant, raw and crushing blast of short song brilliance. One of the last really, really, really great ones for a while.  I just really wish this came with lyrics. None of the 301 tracks have titles or lyrics, which is unusual for them. Regardless, it's a ripper, total perfection.

 Necrose was a fairly prolific grind band in the mid to late 90's. I'm honestly not very familiar with their material outside of this tape, but the 26 tracks on here (three of which are covers) are very nice and gross. Primitive, raw riffs and playing, but it's just so damn pure and earnest. There's a big Celtic Frost tinge to the riffing, definitely lots of good ol' metal influence here. The drummer is just slamming away as fast as he can, you can feel how hard the snare is getting hit. The vocals are totally putrid and gargled, the mic was cupped for sure!! This is the kind of raw grindcore that's easy to make, but hard to pull off in a captivating way. The urgency and punk as fuck attitude this band has make the songs a lot more powerful. I definitely find myself going towards the Seven Minutes of Nausea side, but that's not to say Necrose's side should be ignored. This is quality primitive grindcore!!!

Great layout on this, doubled sided with a very tasteful blue tint. Again, I just wish there was a 7MON lyric sheet.

If anyone one else has this release, I'd like to know what your cassettes look like. Both sides are dubbed quite well, I got to say.

Who knows when I'll ever be able to find another 7MON cassette split. This thing rules, having it makes my life a little more fulfilled.

~VII