SO BORN TO DIE

New band from Melbourne, Chain Gun featuring members from other various popular Melbourne bands, most notably I suppose Matt from Mindsnare. This is their first release in their s/t LP pressed by Midnight Funeral Records. Only four songs, as I think this was originally intended as a demo recording but Craig was interested enough to commit the music to wax. Black wax of 200 copies. Vastly different to that of Matt's other endeavour, the stuff here is of Kyuss styled stoner jams; rounded riffs, big recording.

KILL THE PEACE

Another one from the vaults, the infamous s/t 7" from Infest, more widely known as the "Mankind" EP. A record that this blog owes a lot to, and a record that I doubt I need really try and describe. Probably my favourite stuff of the bands, the original press of this thing first came about in 1991 on various colourways and sleeves. This version with the orange sleeve is a later subsequent pressing that floated around 1995 or so.

GIRLFRIEND GRIND

New tape release, "Under The Mushroom" from Melbourne degenerates Headless Death. Developing further with the sound they hinted at with their original demo tape, and underpinned by the ultra blastability of Christoph Winkler, the band continue with an obvious mixed bag of style and influences. Where they covered Swedish Death metal greats Grave on the demo, here they make a successful attempt at an (American) Gehenna classic. Obviously they're taking influences from both of those bands, along with groups like Terrorizer and Repulsion. Fiends for speed apply here.

STONE AND DIRT

Against are one of the Brisbane bands that introduced me to local hardcore on a live basis in the early noughties. They always seemed to be pretty popular within the local South East Queensland scene, achieving a kind of luke-warm/moderate reception on a national basis though, due mostly I suspect to a constantly revolving line up, slow release rate and transient touring schedule. Apart from the odd hint at brilliance here and there (thanks mostly to a former mid term member that went on to form Abraxis), I could never generate a huge amount of personal interest, and I almost suspect that the bulk of their local popularity could be mostly attributed to the very fact that they were one of the only bands at the time to have achieved recordings with vaguely high end studio sounding qualities. They've always played a pretty solid (and arguably now dated) style of metallic mosh hardcore that takes heavy cues from bands of the day like Buried Alive, Despair, Until The End and Cast Aside. Maybe it's my ignorance, but I can't think of a single other band playing this style of hardcore right now, except maybe for Terror.
This is the bands fourth album, "Bring The End", and their first foray into vinyl thanks to my mate Craigos at Midnight Funeral Recordings out of Melbourne. 100 copies on this 'random' coloured wax, another 300 on black. Predictably, and regardless of another new line up compiled by only remaining original member and vocalist Greg, they take another stab at the exact same style of mosh that the band has always played. The most obvious differences would be the fact that this is probably the most 'studio' they have ever sounded (without sounding overdone I'll add), and the stark, and perhaps welcome progressions in Greg's vocal snarl. Those familiar with the band will likely understand what I mean when I say that his style in the past has always been of the unique and identifiable. His higher pitched approach has all but vanished at this point, replaced completely by a more suiting and tolerable low hardcore growl akin to Scott Vogel and his contemporaries. To be honest, I didn't expect to love this album, and I don't, and I don't think I ever will, but it definitely sounds great through my headphones right now. Certainly the most solid and concise release the band have constructed at this point, and a good example of heavy, semi polished metallic hardcore. I rarely attend shows in Brisbane anymore, and I never hit the places this band plays, but I can imagine a lot of local guys getting pretty rowdy to this.

ELECTROKUTION

I think you could attribute a lot of the sound, attitude and aesthetics of the current Australian underground metal scene to Sydney extreme Death Metal group Sadistik Exekution and this album of theirs, "We Are Death Fukk You". Brisbane in particular seems to be undergoing some kind dark, edgy, quazi mysterious, deliberately politically incorrect fad of late. No doubt Sadistik Exekution were expert proponents of such ideals, and the Blackened Death sound that they had a big hand in creating in the early 90's has arguably peaked at it's full potential on an international scale over the last few years. My real knowledge of the band is minimal at best, when these guys were hitting their full stride I was just a young boy and their patent on brutal, extreme, barbaric metal scared the shit out of me to be honest. Research suggests though that this album was originally meant to be self titled, but for one reason or another the label pressing it, Osmose Records out of France, misconstrued a message sent along with the master and ended up pressing it with that name. This is a reissue from Osmose from last year, black wax and gatefold sleeve.
As stated, real knowledge about the activities of this band over the course of it's life escapes me, and a grand understanding of their wider history and sound is something that I am without, but I can say that this is some pretty brutal, heavy and demonic Death Metal. History has more or less painted these guys as a through and though black metal band, a fact which could possibly be attributed a little to their long standing ties with various members of prominent bands of the 80's and early 90's metal scenes in Norway and Sweden. There's a stark blackened feel to the bulk of the music here too, most notable in the rough nature of the recording, the ratio of driving blast beats and tremolo picking to anything else, and the image the guys in the band portrayed in photos and the like. Examined closely, and for long enough though and it's obvious what kind of sound these guys were really going for. Heavy tuned guitars, some monster riffs and much more low end vocals are utilised throughout the music, all stand points of proper metal of Death. The very fact that members of the band have always maintained it's Death Metal status should be enough of a pointer too.