CATACOMBS BENEATH THE FROZEN SEA

Probably my most valued recent acquisition is this new self released promo tape "Frozen To Death" from the mighty Innumerable Forms out of Boston. I would assume that most who are farmiliar with this blog would know about this band, but for those uninformed, this is the solo death metal project from Justin Detore of the Boston hardcore elite (Mind Eraser, No Tolerance, Mental, Rival Mob amongst about a million others). Six tracks in total here, on the A side, three new offerings in a keyboard intro and two totally new, crushing numbers, and on the B, remastered versions of the three songs from the IF 7" EP from a few years back. The new songs here are to be a part of a planned upcoming split release Blessed Offal, also from Boston. Channelling many of the Finnish greats of the early 90's, Detore has gone on record to state that he draws most influence from the group Demigod but I also hear massive similarities to the masterful Convulse. I can't really say anything without sounding like a broken record, this is just pure, crushing Finnish death metal that puts many current genuine long hair bands to shame. Even the reissue of the old tracks are stunning. They suffered for numerous reasons in their first incarnation, with this releases they've been given a whole new, and massively heavy breath of life/death. This was sold at Chaos In Tejas, but I secured this from an online American distro. I have a feeling a few copies may have been distributed around this way.

And the new promo/mix tape from everyone's favourites Rival Mob. "Mob Justice" presents five new songs, a cover and a cool/weird remix thing of "Hardcore For Hardcore" overdubbed with Phil Anselmo live sound clips. The new songs are pretty cool. I've had to gradually ease into them, they weren't immediate bangers to my ears, but with every listen I develop more of an interest. The intro is pretty fucking great, my biggest gripe with the whole thing though is how similar the Paincave recording sounds to the bands last EP. Like almost identical. I kind of expected a slightly different sound maybe. Regardless, this shits all over just about every other band trying this gruff NYHC sound at the moment. From what I can tell this is basically a taster to the new LP the band have due out on Revelation Records before the end of the year. Not sure if these exact tracks will feature on said album or if they will re-record. I grabbed this direct from Rev HQ a few weeks back.