PESTILENT EXCRUCIATION

We all know I lord Insect Warfare. No secret there. This is their split EP with Carcass Grinder pressed by Psychocontrol Records. I specifically picked this record out of the handful of IW stuff I've never had the chance to post about on here because of the track "Pestilent Excruciation". It would be my absolute favourite track of their's for a couple of reasons. For one, the mid paced, groove heavy intro complete with a few of Rahi's perfect grunts and groans is one of the best things in heavy music ever. Secondly, the track never appeared on any of their other released recordings. Third, the recording on their side of the EP as a whole would be one of the most perfect recordings coupled to a modern grind record. It's loud, clear and heavy. It's certainly the biggest recording the band achived over their entire discogarphy too.
Carcass Grinder from Japan don't grab me in the same way. But what really could?? Their contribution here is fun in it's own right. It's borderline fast core though, they rarely hit moments of grind, but of all of the stuff I've heard of theirs, this would be my favourite. The recording is the loudest, and the songs seem the most tight. It's just really hard to stack up to a band of the utter power of one like Insect Warfare.

CRUTCH

Digging into the archives and I've found that I've never posted properly about my copy of the Crossed Out s/t 7" pressed by Slap A Ham in 1991. Probably seems a bit odd I guess considering that the bands stark and obvious influence resonates in around 60% of the stuff I post about here. To me this is THE Power Violence record to measure all other Power Violence records against. I feel that some others may rate the MITB split over this one, but when I think about what typifies perfect music of this style, it's all the tracks here. The droned, repetitive chords offset with blast beats. The downtrodden recording tone. Dallas' harsh, yelled vocals. This groups sound can be heard in all of modern day's best PV bands to some extent. A couple of the their iconic songs in "He-Man" and "Crutch" can also be found on this slab, the recording would arguably be their tidiest, and you can't go past the instantly recognisable cover art. Depressing music.

HORRIBLE MESS

I recently posted about their new LP, so here's the debut s/t 7" from Hatred Surge. Black vinyl, pressed by 625 Thrash. The band have made subtle use of varying styles over the years, but I'd have to say that this stuff is my favourite. At this point it was just all Alex writing and playing on his own, and all you get here is hasty, rough grind spiked hardcore.

BURDEN OF EMPIRE

I've recently heard some (unsubstantiated) rumours about Texas' masters of cross-over metal mayhem Iron Age being back together, playing some shows and having some new material to unveil. I read it once on some American forum and nowhere else so I have no idea how true something like this is.
The band obviously took a much more obscure metal path over the course of it's life and those last few recordings before they split up were clearly a far different beast from the early days of the bands demo. This "Burden Of Empire" single came out around mid 2007 in various forms for various market places. Discogs does nothing to help, but I remember seeing a photo of someones collection once and there would have easily been 10+ differing covers. All with a red sleeve and black ink. Some red vinyl versions are floating around out there, but I have no idea how many. Mine are black. The versions I've got here are the "OZ" press (the band never toured here, but had a local distro print up an unknown amount of Australian specific covers) and the 'Virgin Sacrifice' cover of 50 copies that was sold at Youngblood Fest. I know that specific UK and EU covers were also produced along with other various limited variations (likely sold in the USA). Recorded, pressed and distributed out of singer Jason Tarpey's own back pocket using his previous cassette tape specific label Next Level to finance upcoming proper recordings.
 The single title track from the slab was of a considerably rougher recording than anything the band had done previously, but in this incarnation was always my favourite release of theirs. Before this single came about I was already quite familiar with the LP that came before it, "Constant Struggle" and the demo tape, but this version of the track was by far the bands crowning moment of glory for me. As noted, it had taken even more of a metal edge than earlier stuff, Jason's vocals were getting really deranged, and the rough as fuck, blown out recording was pure genius. The version of the track that followed on the bands second album was still quite good, but never really grabbed me like this version did.

LIGHT IN THE DARK

For the first time in a long time I am completely out of new records to post about. Previously I've dabbled lightly in posting about older pieces of my collection that were acquired before this blog existed, but tonight I've commenced drafts of nine EP's that have either only seen brief mentions here before or never any attention at all.
First up is the brilliant debut 2004 EP, "Look Alive" from Belgium's Justice. It's a pity that the majority of this bands good output really happened a few years before I started Skull Fucked, but I knew I'd always get around to posting about this record. I'd argue that this release is probably one of the best (if not THE best) examples of a modern hardcore band doing true Justice to the 80's NYHC sound. Pressed by Complete Control Records and Get Wise Records, I don't think this black variant was an overly small edition as it's still pretty easily obtained. As far as I know a smaller press of green was also done at the same time. Every song here is executed perfectly, the recording is concise and pin-point, and Switch's vocal style with his cool European-doing-English twangs make everything perfect. Mix in Spoiler's iconic artwork and just the general attitude that the band conveyed during this period and you've got a prized part of my EP collection. This 7" and the Iron Boots demo would have to be the two best examples of a modern band trying their hand at the true early to mid 80's New York sound. Perfect.

LONGEST WINTER

I think you'd be hard pressed finding any genuine Australian hardcore kid who wouldn't be extremely fond of Melbourne's Mindsnare and their second album, "Hanged. Choked. Wrists Slit." An active unit for 20 years now, the bands have always utilised a fairly metallic sound, gradually taking on a heavier approach over the years. I've said it on here once or twice, but I've always been baffled as to why these guys haven't made a larger impact abroad. Originally pressed by Drug Bust Records in something like 2001, this is a reissue of the album pressed in the last few weeks by Midnight Funeral Records. Differing artwork, but you get a nice thick slab and a gatefold sleeve. Good stuff.

CASHING IN

Another day, another post about a Northie band. This time it's about Obstruct from Yorkshire and their debut EP, "No Life". Pressed by Northern Wisdom Records, my copy is on this hell-thick one sided black wax. I was initially turned on to these guys by a recent post Dustin made on his blog. I'd never heard of them before that. Kinda surprised really, as this is the stuff that's really typical of my regular hardcore tastes. Pit worthy 80's USHC rehash. Most obvious influence for these guys is clearly early Boston, though I'm hearing them display some light NYHC tendencies. I'm willing to bet that the VxR demo and EP play a heavy part in this bands lineage also, and I'm reminded a couple times of mid era Think I Care, though I doubt that was intentional on the bands part.

SHIFTLESS

Like Liverpool's Violent Reaction, The Flex from Leeds are part of the current crop of 80's USHC styled bands reigning down from The North of England. Also like VxR, with this debut 7" of theirs, "Scum On The Run", pressed by the bands own label Milk Run Records along with Video Disease Records from California, they take a pretty pointy stab at Boston '82, employing a relatively similar style to that of their brother band, though utilising less of that Oi! sound. Noticeably cleaner in recording qualities than their 2012 demo and their "Flexual Healing" promo tape from earlier this year, any band from the USA recording and releasing music like this would surely be met with a huge amount of hype and excitement, whereas (and possibly because of the amount of attention the VxR LP has drawn in the last six weeks), this 7" hasn't been recognised on a wider scale the way it probably should have been. That's the way it seems to me anyway. Fantastic record though, and a shining example of how The North seem to be ruling it at the moment. Red wax of 600.

STOMPED OUT

Here's one for the bloggersphere, this time the Australian tape version of the new VxR album. Put together by Rain On The Parade Records in Canberra. 50 copies. Artwork by Jack Dyer, the guy who did the cover for the tape version of the  bands EP from last year. I preferred that art, but this one makes references to some classic 80's hardcore.

JUDGEMENT DAY

English press of the new Violent Reaction LP, "City Streets" thanks to Quality Control Records. As mentioned recently, I managed this time to land the limited press on blue wax of 100 copies.

HEADLESS DAWN

I'm fully aware that terms along the lines of 'shameless worship' and similar are put to use on this blog somewhat often to describe certain bands and their releases. I won't dance around it, most of any new music from new bands that I tend to develop interests in these days generally always lifts heavy influence from various groups from the 80's and early 90's. This is a rule that blankets across pretty much all styles and sub genres that I post about. I like to think that most people who read this crap (and other similar blogs from around the place) would say the same about their own tastes. I don't think this is a bad thing. Maybe it's the pessimist (I prefer realist) in me, maybe it's an age thing (I will turn 30 this year) but I no longer really hold faith in any human being able to create something original that is actually worth my time, effort and money these days. I find that I just simply don't get a kick out of anything with a new style or sound. Though I still find that I get excited about new bands doing old things all the time. Such is the case, that whenever a new album comes about from any band doing their interpretation of the utterly brilliant early 90's Swedish Death Metal sound created by legends like Nihilist, Grave and Dismember, I'll always take the time to investigate. Don't pretend that I haven't made many posts about the style on this blog over the years.
The new Entrails album, "Raging Death" is a funny one in that technically the band are a first wave Swedish group, though they've only made a name for themselves internationally in the last three or four years. The story goes that the original line up were active for a chunk of time over the early and mid 90's, never releasing anything, disbanding in 1998. Central member and songwriter Jimmy Lundqvist then decided to reform the band in 2008 with a fresh line up. With his leadership they recorded and released a couple demo tapes, caught the attention of F.D.A. Rekotz and released two LP's, and then Metal Blade Records decided they were interested. The result is this new LP. I've mentioned it previously, I held no real enthusiasm for these guys before I heard a preview track on the Metal Blade site months ago, but this album is amazingly top shelf Swedish Death Metal revivalism, and possibly the best contribution to the style since "Into The Grave". Big call I know, but there are no flaws with "Raging Death", regardless of how borderline plagueristic various aspects of it seem to be. Anyone even vaguely familiar with Entombed's opus "Left Hand Path" should be able to pick many of the similarities I am speaking about. From smaller aspects like the virtually identical logo and the likeness in the artworks style, to the more obvious things like the hugely familiar riffs, tremolo picking, hints of melody, and of course that Sunlight Guitar Sound. We all know that the sound is a prerequisite of the style, but I'm confident in saying that the tone the band achieve here is probably the best any band has sounded in the last 15 years. It's crushing. So impressed I am with this album, that I am back giving the bands earlier stuff another go. All of it is noticeably rougher in nature, but it's not without it's own charm. I find I'm paying the most amount of attention to the bands debut album, "Tales From The Morgue".
Maybe it's again the pessimist in me, but I can't help but feel that a good chunk of Metal Blade's interest in financing this album would be based in this style of Death Metal's resurgence in popularity over the last two years or so. That shouldn't detract from how great "Raging Death" is though. If there's any one band that could be responsible for really introducing this style of metal to a younger generation, Entrails would certainly be one of the front runners.