SLIT YOUR GUTS

I think I may be going a little mental as I was almost positive that I had posted about Cryptopsy before. I've been in possession of their mammoth third LP, "Whisper Supremacy" for a couple of years now, and nearly everything that comes through my door makes it's way onto this blog at some point. Various searches via the search tools on Blogger and Google have turned up nothing though, so I guess I haven't? Maybe at some point I did, but then the post got deleted somewhere along the line? I don't know. I will make a post about that LP in the next few weeks to fill the void. In the meantime, here's the bands second album "None So Vile".
For the longest time I ignored this album and their debut before it "Blasphemy Made Flesh", in favour of the stylings that they developed with second vocalist Michael DiSalvo on Whisper'. With my growing interests in all things more brutal though, a factor which I'm sure has been noticed on the blog in the last two years or so, I've taken a serious interest in this album and the vocal stylings of the bands original growler, Lord Worm. Disregard the metalcore that the band have adopted in the last few years with later albums and new vocalists, this early stuff, along with the other two albums I've mentioned in this post are where it's at. Originally released as a CD only in 1996 by Wrong Again Records from Sweden (and subsequently reissued in the digital medium a handful of times over the years by various other labels including Century Media), this red and black mixed vinyl version wasn't pressed until 2012 by War On Music Records out of Winnipeg. What I know about that label is minimal, though discogs displays a relatively impressive catalogue within a few years including the likes of Razor, Gorguts and Slaughter reissues.
Driven largely by the massively proficient drumming abilities of long time skinsman Flo Mounier, this album is a total lesson in semi technical, blast dominated, abrasive Death Metal. Generally speaking my tastes within the genre develop around more punk influenced styles ala Autopsy and the like, I've never been a massive fan of bands like Morbid Angel, but the torpedo like onslaught that early Cryptopsy is well known for could arguably be some of my favourite within the genre. Coupled with Worms excruciatingly guttural bellows and the stupid riffing of Jon Levasseur and Éric Langlois on guitar and bass respectively, and you've got some of the best Death Metal anywhere in the world.

I HATE CHRISTIANS

For a relative new comer like myself, to conquer the entire Nunslaughter catalogue could be likened to climbing Everest. Fast approaching 130 individual releases since 1987 including tapes, EPs, live releases, splits and LPs, the sheer volume of music to scour has always seemed somewhat intimidating to me. Perhaps a good reason why it took me more than a couple of years to really begin to sift through it all. Though I do believe that it would be very possible for just about any new comer to the band to check out just their full lengths and perhaps a few of their EPs to get a proper feeling of what the they're all about. That's something that I've done, and of the stuff I have had the time to inspect, I'm confident that this LP of theirs, "Hex" is easily their best material. Recorded and released in 2007 by none other than the mighty Hell's Headbangers, in relative terms, this would have to be the bands 'cleanest' recording. The oldest of the old school Death Metal would be the order of the day here, influences clearly drawn from a myriad of late 80's proto groups. Elements of Toronto's Slaughter shines through immensely, as do hints of Venom, and even Slayer (R.I.P. Jeff). Don't let the epic black metal styled logo and hedonistic name fool you as I did; these guys play some catchy as hell, fun, tongue in cheek Death Metal with a secret thrash metal vibe.

MANIPULATOR

Generally speaking, Record Store Day never really does it for me in terms of essential, must-get-at-any-cost, want-that-so-bad releases. The closest I've come to that in years (and perhaps ever) is this new split 7" picture disc from Napalm Death and Insect Warfare. The spanner in the works here though is the legitimacy behind the record. Given Earache Records questionable history when it comes to issuing and reissuing records from bands of the label's past, I'm highly suspicious (and I suspect I'm probably not alone) as to whether either band actually approved of, or is receiving any kind of royalties for sales of this 7". I'd bet my left nut that neither are actually. Still, I set my alarm for some ridiculous hour to make sure I was awake to buy this record when it went up for sale in the labels UK webstore. In retrospect, I guess that I didn't really need to, as there's copies listed at around $15 a pop on Discogs now, not too much different from what I paid directly from the label.
No new material from either band here I must inform, though I knew that before I bought it. No new artwork either. Just the bands logo in white on a black pic disc in a plastic sleeve with a skinny sticker. I knew that also. The two Insect Warfare tracks come from World Extermination (of course they do, Earache wouldn't have rights to anything else from the bands discography), and Napalm Death's contribution come in the form of 'rough mixes' of two tracks from Scum. Hardly worth chasing I guess unless you're a gullible fan boy like me. But hey, at least I can admit it (fuck you Earache).

TIED TO THE STAKE

It's with a reasonable amount of enthusiasm that I post about the latest vinyl offering from Olympia's Bone Sickness. Regular readers of this blog will know just how overly, and perhaps obsessively (Strange Obsession?) fond I am of the band and their brand of scrappy, deranged, trend dodging American Death Metal. I hold no doubts that those sharp on the trail have likely read in many places in the last few weeks various websites likening the band to a decent take on Michigan's Repulsion, and I'd certainly have to agree with those comparisons. They certainly don't utilise the discipline of the blast beat as much as that crucial American grind band, but they definitely bear many similarities in general aural approach and depth. With this new 12" EP of theirs, "Alone In The Grave",  pressed by 20 Buck Spin, they have managed to ever so slightly pull away from the stark Autopsy parallels that I have recognised in the past also, though I suspect that the recording qualities put down here, thanks solely to one of the bands guitarists, Rusty, have a lot more to do with that than anything intentional during the writing process. The main culprit I suspect is the mix used with Mitch's vocals. They're way in the back, drowned heavily by the guitars and recording hiss, and as a result they're severely impacted. On the demo, his pipes were still developing, but by the time the bands debut 7" from 2011 reared it's festering head, they had hit a pretty amazing peak, bearing many similarities in scope and range to those of Chris Reifert. I've struggled to really hear anything on this record that's comparable in terms of bone shaking power that his work on the 7" induced. His kick drum also suffers the same fate, which is completely bearable, but note worthy none the less. In contrast, to my knowledge, Sam's vocals get their first proper recording here on the title track, and they're unbeatable. His deep, guttural gurgle dominates the entire song; a total droning, low tempo doom fest. It rarely climbs beyond a crawl and it's probably the highlight of the album. The band have gone on record to state that they will never write a song this slow again. Another slight disappointment (for me anyway) is the fact that of the seven songs presented here, two of them have already seen the light of day once in the form of the bands fantastic demo tape from 2010.
I love this band, I've made that quite clear, and regardless of the faults I've pointed out previously, I love this record. They have a new 7" due on Iron Lung Records due before the end of the year, and obviously I'm really looking forward to it.

TERROR OF THE COSMOS

The last post I made about Dublin's ZOM was more than a year ago when I spoke about their debut demo tape. Since then the band released another three songs in the form of another cassette in limited numbers for Hell's Pleasure Fest last year (never got a copy, somebody help me out), and now we've been cursed with their debut s/t EP pressed by Iron Bonehead. Two tracks that I (and I would assume that most) hadn't heard until now, but they both originally appeared on the previously mentioned limited cassette. With this record it seems that the band have certainly settled firmly into their purist death metal approach. All remnants and hints of members previous hardcore inclined projects are nothing more than a memory now, though I wouldn't necessarily say that that's such a good thing. Yes the recording on this thing is noticeably better quality than the demo, and Andy's vocals are drowned in even more reverb than before, but the stuff here just doesn't quite offer the hardcore punch that I enjoyed in earlier material. I also suspect that the reverb is used to mask the fact that Andy doesn't quite posses the chops vocally to front a big death metal band. Don't get me wrong, I can enjoy this, it's a great example of a modern approach to old sounding metal, I just suspect that if the band's members hadn't already set such a high bench mark with previous groups I would probably like this a lot more. It's possibly also got something to do with the fact that years of hardcore has ruined my attention span for the vast majority of dense music like this. It's only two songs though, who knows what a whole LP could bring.

GIVE ME WAR

Another great new band out of Boston is The Combat Zone and this is their demo tape released with the help of Twerp Records. A new bunch of young men playing a burly mix of traditional TIBNLA vibed hardcore perched over a pretty solid OI! base. Basic, catchy powerchords ride a simplistic mid-to-higher paced tempo, while all barking duties are handled by another angry Bostonian with a penchant for all things Choke. This thing actually reminds me a little bit of the Reckless Aggression Demo from a few years ago, except not as good, but recorded better. Willing to bet that these guys bite much the same influences that Meatdog and co. were riding when they penned the bulk of that tape. Good, solid hardcore.

CANDY SEX

New four track, s/t 7" from Arizona's now defunct noise pricks, Avon Ladies, pressed by Fashionable Idiots and Distort. Green wax. A band put together by Chris Ebra of H100s fame, I suppose this would be a record that you'd expect Dan of Distort to have a hand in pressing, given how heavily he's lauded Ebra and his many works over the years. The hardcore you get here probably isn't quite as A.D.D. as some of his previous bands, but just as sloppy, and with much the same attitude. Fans of that wider 90's scummy Clevo sound will certainly dig these guys, though there's a noticeably darker vibe going on here. As you'd expect from DX and co, minimalist packaging is the name of the game, with a 45 hole 7", and a simple folded, one sided sleeve. No inserts, no liner notes. Not even a track list.

SWIMMING IN SHIT

To top off the short run of Roskopp releases from the last few days, I've got the American band's split 7" with Doubled Over from Melbourne. Black vinyl, pressed by Give Praise, Psycho Control and Nuclear Ass Records. I'd have to say that this is my favourite of the American Roskopp's material. Again, it's relatively straight forward, no frills grindcore, but the recording is probably one of their better, and their vocalist is at the top of his game. Relentless blasts top it off. The Double Over side is also great. More great, no frills grind with a loud recording, this was the bands demo originally, then they put it to this split. And if it couldn't get any more confusing, Doubled Over's drummer, Christoph is actually the original drummer for the Australian Roskopp. This split was originally meant to be a Roskopp/Roskopp split 7" but then the Aus version broke up, so the work was turned over to Doubled Over.

YUPPICIDE

Another Roskopp related release, this time the American incarnation's split 7" with Superbad. Pressed by Ragerizer! and 303 Records on black wax. To be honest I'm not really that interested in the Roskopp stuff, the recording is pretty pasable, though the Superbad side is much better. Both bands play pretty A-typical, minimalist grind here.

HOLES IN FLESH

In terms of essential Australian grindcore, Melbourne's Roskopp would have to be near the top of the pile for me. For the longest time though, I didn't realise that there is actually two grind bands with the same name. One version managed to release this s/t 7" here, along with a split 7" with Agents Of Abhorrence (posted about here a few years ago) and a CD LP, then they broke up. For those who may not know (like I didn't), the remaining records released by the band of this name have been released by the band from Colorado, who are still active. Anyway, as far as I can tell, this is a recent repress on black with green smudges, pressed by Crucificados Records. This was originally meant to be a demo, but Crucificados liked it so much that they approached the band about pressing it to wax. Six tracks of loud, crushing grind, recorded at the bands rehearsal space back in 2005. They also do a brilliant job at a Phobia cover.

NAGROBKOWE KURWY

Since my last bout of posts concerning Polish grind freaks, Suffering Mind, they've been somewhat busy. Four releases since then and recording for something like an additional eight, these guys would be one of the more prolific groups within grindcore. This is their latest EP, the "Gates Of Suffering" 5" on green wax of 500 copies, and with a gatefold sleeve. Released by Crucificados, 625 Thrash and I Feel Good Records. New EP may be a bit of a misleading statement though, as there's only one new song here, the opener, "Bramy Cierpienia", the remaining four tracks originally appearing on the bands ultra limited s/t 2" and "Death To False Grind" 3" records from a few years back. Those familiar with the band will know exactly what to expect here: ruthless, no frills GRIND. Nothing more.

CUT OFF

Byron's blast tyrants, Shackles continue with their relentless sabotage of the popular Australian hardcore scene with this brand new s/t 12" EP. Clear wax of 100 copies, again pressed by Arrest Records Australia. Further proving that you don't need to play some moshed up wigga core to gain popularity in this countries mainstream scene (though I'd say that the band is likely only one of two current examples of this), the band delve further into their messier tendencies with this new music, utilising what could possibly be their roughest recording to date, thanks in large part to the filth drenched mastering job courtesy of Will Killingsworth. It would seem that newish drummer Ben's superior blasting abilities also contribute a crucial factor in the bands clearly growing penchant for the hastier and dirtier. Their best stuff yet, I am very interested to hear the new 7" they have due on Urbn Rage Records in the next few months.

CHUMPS

Debut s/t 7" from Toronto sluggers, Violent Future. Black vinyl of the wider press, put together by Slasher Records. More of what you'd expect from this band; mid paced, 1-2-1-2, blue collar hardcore. Not quite up to the quality of the bands demo, but it's good enough.

MORAL DECAY

There's hardly much point trying to find new qualities to cover when posting about new Vaccine records. From their demo, through a number of EP and (one) split releases, to this new 7" of theirs, "Dead Inside", they haven't progressed an inch from their original patented brand of furious, whirlwind, blast violence. Here's the American, Painkiller Records press of the EP on black vinyl. As I've mentioned maybe a couple times in the past on here, I question how much longer a band of this nature can continue before participants get to the point where they're stuck for new ideas. I can't imagine this band ever being able to put enough material together for a full length. As it stands now, though they've penned something in the vicinity of 35 tracks, total recorded output barely extends beyond a total of 15 minutes, all of it of the fantastically violent, cyclonic, brutal persuasion.  It seems somewhat appropriate then that before ever getting the chance to 'progress artistically' and go on to ruin their brilliantly nasty reputation, the band have actually decided to call it quits, having played their final show a few weeks back. One more post mortem release is due, in the form of a split 7" record with No Faith in the coming weeks.