Aural Damage Retrospective Reviews, circa 2002 from the old THC Zine website and from the long-deleted Scrawlshop zine online site. [by the THC & SS Zine Team 420/666]
Deranged
Plainfield Cemetery
Listenable Records
There is no other way to put it, but Deranged plays brutal death/grind (and they are a trio too) and they just plow, hack and kill their way through with huge sick riffs and a solid, killing rhythm section that goes to fast and faster (in that order) and just accelerates more as the song progresses. They combine this with mid paced power riffing and then blasting, and then sometimes adding a fast, slamming thrashy part – with disastrous killer results.
Like fellow countrymen of killing and hacking bad habits, Insision, they offer nothing pioneeringly new or super original – but they play with this ferocious fn passion and intensity that they destroy and make teh grade and catch on to the list of top bands that kill – sounding more like a US brutal death metal band than a band from Sweden, home of teh melodic death metal institutions. They are the sicker, more brutal alternative together with Insision and several others now carrying the torch of anti-melodicism, pro-brutality in their parts. If you call yourself a death metal fan that is well played and great – this is a great addition to your metal CD rack.
Dislimb
Bleeding Anxiety demo
Don’t wait for too long. The line up from this demo has reconvened for massive killing and are now working on the full length. With scraped-throat vocals and piercing dislimb destroy with a lot of mid-paced and oddtime structures, using blastbeats to accelerate from the slowest point and then back to the slowest point, build up tension and sometimes break it off with a stop and go or slowdown part. They also like to involve a lot of fast parts where everything breaks off and then the riff changes along with the speed. I like that the bass is audible and steady with the fast brutal drums to give it a good sounding bottom. They employ more of the slower pacing blood curdling sickening crawl pace that builds up with driving double bass diga-diga action. Real good quality stuff from your dealer. Spark em up moFckaz.
Extreme Noise Terror
Being and Nothing
Candlelight
I haven’t heard from ENT in a long time – this album is a surprise, as ENT drops the crust/grind of old and add, skew, and stitch together death metal and slamming groovy riffs to make them sound new and improved. Of course some line up changes didn’t hurt either (like Gian Pyres of CoF now in the line up), of course purists will scorn this, but a good listening to this shall silence em.
Sick vocal rasp screeching, huge bellowing crust vocals and faster metal riffs now destroy in a more gnarly fashion, with breakdowns and slower grooves to add variety and killer flowing songs. The new ENT sound and attitude crosses them over to 2003 and beyond – think Disrupt getting drunk with some death metal records and using a lot of metal drums, more double bass, blastbeats and killer switches, then mix em up molotov cocktail style – it works. They use familiar grind motifs of old, but with phatter, destroyed production and an updated killer sound that kills their old stuff – the old-school stuff rules too but this slays with the production that they should’ve had.
Goatwhore
Funeral Dirge for the Rotting Sun
Rotten Records
Destroy in the name of teh horned and hooved one, bayou goat cult style as only Ben, Sam, Pat, and Zak do it the second time around – mixing in the oldschool Frost, Bathory, Venom with the hardcore/crust pacing. This time around the mixing of styles aren’t as abruptly structured, there’s a smoother flow and they didn’t need to change a thing really, other than a few more low gravel style vocals by Ben with the gargoyle and black metal vokills, and then small doses of clean but depressed vocals ala later Frost.
Everything is still the bayou-black monstrosity we all love, and it sounds less black metal and more uhh, I dunno, a blackhardcorecrustdoom rattle concoction but still with emphasis on fast grooves and old school black metal riffs, most certainly still invoking the spirit of Frost and Venom when it comes to the mid paced churning rhythms. Many won’t really rush out and buy this soon, but it’s a CD for the minions who enjoyed the previous CD.
Misery Index
Retaliate
Nuclear Blast
With the new Dying Fetus out, my boys MI step up to the fn plate to prove they’re still on par, but now featuring new kid Matt Byers on drums destroy with heavy pulverizing grindcore, threatening Nasum and Groinchurn to dare for the current grindcore championship. MI though are much more straightforward than the sometimes crust infused riffing and rhythms of both, though these guys also use occasional fast crust parts but not often, as well as catchy (but no, not melodic) riffs sometimes some huge dropping grooves that kind of remind you of DF but are still different in their own way of course, and Netherton’s overpowering vocal assault.
Sure Dying Fetus proved that they can catch up with the older line up and produce the same deathgrindgroove they’re known for, but Misery Index have their own voice, their own sound, their own brand of destruction, both bands are different – but they both play and destroy well so it’s kind of pointless comparing them. Two different forms of brutal deathgrind that flies off tha ground. watch out for the Brutal Truth cover of “Birth of Ignorance”.
Exhumed
Anatomy is Destiny
Relapse
Having a slightly dirty (or maybe because it’s a digital promo?) but still rotten sound, the raw dynamics of “Gore Metal”, the low and high screech vocals and a slight nod to Necroticism-era Carcass, you get Anatomy is Destiny. The mayhem is not as instant as the previous CD, but Exhumed know how to structure a song well – the f’n chaos doesn’t totally hit you at first, but each repeated listen opens them up. This may be in part due to abundance of totally catchy, slamming parts on the previous one, which all mostly build up to an intense blast-o-rama before going back to the double speed mayhem.
You might be expecting that here, but I think it’s still on that level, only that they just don’t stick to repetition that much here, as they have more parts that jump around to the next riffs to speed up your brain’s picking time. Like a fn swerving drunk driver, trying to lose the f’n police on his tail, haha. I dunno if that was an accurate description, but I feel like it is, as I feel like they’re more sporadic and spontaneous here. If anything, this could have been the follow up to Necroticism if Carcass never thought of mixing in the NWOBHM style melodicism and retained the double vokills. Exhumed fans check this F’er out.
Enslaved
Below the Lights
The End Records
Enslaved are masters of Norwegian psychedelic metal, and try as they might to shun the black metal tag – there are undoubtedly still some elements in their sound, but only traces of it. Becoming an even stranger mix of strangely melodic, psychedelic, atmospheric ambience, 70’s prog rock structuring and mentality, a dash of well placed thrash riffing, Below the Lights further plods into this mindset without ever losing their metallic aggression, now more balanced, almost like a 50-50 half cut deal here, only that the guitar sound, though retaining the certain heaviness, is now much more suited for texture than over the top heaviness, but it perfectly suits their ever evolving direction now culminating with their present sound.
Enslaved has only become more schizophrenic and experimental, add to this the textural playing of Ivar and his weird chordings and idiosyncratic chord progressions and psychedelic riffs. Roy Kronheim is sadly now out of the band and has been replaced by the enigmatic Arve Isdal, but he doesn’t disappoint, and the old and familiar motifs we have come to expect from Enslaved are still there. The use of more keyboards (performed live by Oyvind) for enhanced panoramic tripping is welcome to Enslaved fans, and is used sparingly and cleverly, to build up the layers.
Seven majestic, grand epic songs in here. The overall sound might not be that perfect but, hell you don’t need to give Enslaved the most flawless slickest engineering – they can churn out a demo quality album yet still come out great. Also out of the band is Dirge Rep, and this is his swansong performance for Enslaved, gracefully bowing out with a solid performance on the whole album.
Ancient Necropsy
s/t
Mutilated Records
Just what the F is this strange strange anomaly?? Reign of local band As Angels Fall urged me to listen to this relatively unknown drum machine-led goregrind infection and so I gave it a try… Turns out these fckrs are from Colombia and one thing immediately comes to mind. drugs – well known for the Colombian drug cartel; I want to go there, but if anything there are a lot of hot chicas and beaches and the sun and more action but once you cross the path of a colombian drug cartel drug lord you’re f’d bigtime. Goddamnit I haven’t even been there or met any f’n druglord what the hell am I ranting about?
Ancient Necropsy is just one man: Ivan Jaramillo – so what do you do if you can’t find the members you need to bring out that music spinning in your head? Do everything by yourself: hyperblast goregrind with the right kind of ultra low (albeit cheesy and generic but still brutal) vocals and sick riffage. I enjoy this once in a while, and although the real and more brutal bands can easily destroy this, there’s this certain charm that comes from being in Colombia and the fact that it’s a sick one man goregrind band. Nothing new but very enjoyable, a beer, or 12 plus colombian drugs and this shit is gonna sound much more brutal, like roto rootering a toilet or a sewer when you’re drunk on the job. It stinks but it rules. http://ancientnecropsy.i8.com
Zyklon
Aeon
Candlelight Records
The blazing, engulfing entity known as Zyklon now arrive in full fn force – we reviewed their last CD last issue and they return, carrying the torch of Morbid Angel on steroids style death metal with now a considerably less blackened path and more death metal focused infected disease. The results are still killer (take note that this was recorded at Studio Fredman with Mr. Fredrik Nordstrom at the helm – which makes things more interesting), although the sound’s a bit drier, slicker and leaner compared to the dense and chaotic but still digital aural nightmare of their previous work.
It seems Zyklon wants to focus on purer death metal songwriting here as they drop a few blackened ideas for a more brutal and less atmospheric approach. New blood Secthdamon on vocals/bass gives a new perspective on the Zyklon sound, more guttural and growl styled for more emphasis. If the last CD gave the metal scene an unsuspecting barrage of discordant blackened death metal mayhem, this one is a more focused destructive campaign, retaining the aura of their previous work, but more focused on the death metal side in its aim for total f’n destruction. Members of the Norge moFckers Red Harvest appear here as well as Daemon from Limbonic Art support the campaign as well. If you liked the last album and were curious where they’ll stand on this new one, this just might be what you are expecting.
Insision
Beneath the Folds of Flesh
Wicked World/Earache
At first listen these guys might sound like a generic death metal band, but after repeated listens the riffs and straightforward no mercy attack come to the fore.
Insision pepper their sound with well arranged and brutal flowing riffs. They don’t have to blast all the time nor do they have to be so overtly ADD-technical, but they play well and have enough truckload of good riffs to sever and dislimb everyone who crosses their path. “Temple of Flesh” calls to mind Domination-era Morbid Angel, seen through their dirty and eviler Swedish sound. There’s a good balance of catchiness and brutality here enough to make the grade and appropriate production to give it justice as well.
A surprise release from Earache’s sublabel. Maybe they’re trying to redeem themselves these days by putting out more good metal albums? I haven’t listened to that much exceptional death metal nowadays, mainly due to the lack of anything new and fresh, but once in a while a few will offer a really devastating blow to the head. Although few, there are still some bands who play this genre well and can catch the death metal hordes’ attention, so far like those on our review lists that I’ve heard – them, Bane, Harakiri, and prolly a few others who do a good/decent job in this damned genre.
Quell
Sleep Soundly
advanced promo CD
Quell solders together piece by piece each of death, black, grind, math metal, noisecore and hardcore to come with something complex yet engaging on their 7 song CD, Sleep Soundly.
Don’t let the title fool you, as Quell stitch together a surgically precise three guitar attack to prove their point. Not only do you get a well rounded wall of sound, you also get three part harmonies and counter riffs, they either join as one or one guitar will play a different counter riff while the two others are busy plodding away inch by inch into your brain. In the middle of the song structures they always cleverly insert a melodic three part riff that breaks the plod and the tech parts to drill further into the brain. And sometimes, all three are cross cutting their way into different paths, chaotic but in one stream, making the mid and high frequencies more interesting to hear again and again.
Production is good, well balanced as to not bury the rhythm section, but make it sound solid underneath all that chaos metal tech riffing and math style erupting patterns and the acidic, bile spewing vocals. It is like crossing old At the Gates and DEP soldered to a spazztic, ultra fast but still oddtimed math metal framework but with a lot more aggression. You could also see a more emotional ambient side on two tracks, 9/11 and Piano Song, on the former, a tribute of sorts to the tragedy of 9/11, it’s a series of collage noises of media reports and lo-fi noise, while on the latter, it’s a slow, trippy piano interlude started by several shards of glass being broken and agonized screaming, some sort of insane noise therapy before it lulls you to sleep. / angelsrequiem@trustkill.net
Gaeldorn Jhan
Eidjhan Metal
Independent Release
Our ally in the cold, grim North, the one man blasphemic mayhem overlord Gaeldorn Jhan has finally released a new full length of dirty, raw, cold and grimm kvlt black metal, and me being a fan of this particular style (in the tradition of old Ulver and Dodheimsgard sonically) I immediately liked it, drinking cold alcoholic beverages and feeling the cold undead blackness all throughout. Although all tracks utilize a drum machine the beats are still dead on and the throat ripping vocals are done well, and the guitars are noisy, trebly yet retain that certain clarity yet still raw enough to invoke that old spirit. more info: http://gaeldornjhan.cjb.net / lucricio@hotmail.com
Blueprint for Disaster
2002 demo
This is crazy, screeching, crash and burn grindcore from mothafn Oregon, for those who dig caffeinated trashing intensity and insane (sometimes black metally even) vocals. And yes they are a trio. Everything you love, want, need is in here – f’d up oddtime parts, stop and go “powerviolence” like shifts, fast paced hardcore overdrives, chugg/single string bend fcked up swagger grooves and of course all out blasting grind. The balance of the elements keeps things interesting, rather than sustain the grind rage and then lose the energy and the attention of the listener when halfway through listening everything just sounds the same. 17 tracks. More mp3’s and info available:
http:blueprintfordisaster.com
Immolation
Unholy Cult
Olympic
I didn’t really “get” Immolation until I had the chance to listen to Here in After and the first album years ago. Everything fell into place, and Close to a World Below and Failures for Gods were next and I just shot it all up mainline. Ragged, jagged downward spiral zigzag riffs / idiosyncratic chord fills / harmonics and eerie downtuned NYC city style deathdoom parts just get better each album, and Unholy Cult retains of all of these trademark elements. But while this doesn’t top everything else, it’s on equal billing with Here in After and the excellent Close to a World Below.
Unholy Cult also marks the arrival of none other than Bill Taylor, formerly of Angelcorpse, and now a member of NYC’s sons of darkness, I am not sure if he was involved in the songwriting but this is a hellish welcome addition indeed. Production is good, the rhythm section sounds solid undearneath all the chaotic riffing and low hellspawn vocals. The title track itself fn kills with this merciless descending riff punctuated by their infamous evil pinch harmonics at the end and propelled by deep thundering bass and drums. I am surely coming back for more listens and if you’re an Immolation Legion you need to pick this up and Celebrate the Fall; This goes down as one of the top metal albums of 2002.
Harakiri
Twilight of the Idols
Willowtip Records
Another brutal and violent slab comes this way from Indiana’s fn pissed and gnarly Harakiri, delivering their tech death grind here in shorter, sharper doses of murderous and downtuned killing sprees, like the DC sniper’s assaults. Harakiri also balance out the riffage by adding slow downs to catch your breath in the stabbbing and cutting phases, some oddtime stop and go knife stabs here and there, and prying in the way of the killing are some discordant minor scale lead solos, not too wild and frantic, mostly psychotic and wailing a bit until it resumes into unrelenting blasts. Favorite tracks here are: opener “You too can have your own Cranklab” (heheh), “Ad Infinitum”, “Hungry American”, goddamnit almost the whole album. A start to finish murder spree with a smirk, not with a smile.
The Red Chord
Fused Together in Revolving Doors
Robotic Empire
Some great annihilating killer techmetalgrind when there are those days that things aren’t just right and the whole world feels like shit. Riffs abound in shards and projectiles; one minute, thick as a concrete wall slamming, huge slowdown rhythms and oddtime phrased structures, a small snippet of a clean guitar jolt here… until all of a sudden everything erodes into a blinding flurry of disintegrating grind to incense your pissed off mood. A really good release, nothing new but well played and written songs, one of the best brutal metal releases this year. Search this out.
Centurian
Liber Zar Zax
Olympic Records – Listenable Records
Lber Zar Zax continues the infernal death/black/thrash assault as previously shown on Centurian’s past two releases yet maintain a solid, tight and disciplined sound that sees them sticking to their style without any deviations but keeping the tight tremelo speed picking at about 80% of the parts of each song while the speed varies from total blinding blastbeat scourging to more evil slowdowns.
Total death metal chaos is what you want and what you will get as chaos erupts at every turn as you feel the flames of Lucifer eliminate each and every trace of holy divinity from your soul. This is the band that will burn and destroy slipknot and mushroomhead and any and all takers who claim to be brutal and metal these days. If it doesn’t barrage your already blown out speakers and bang your head it is not brutal metal you feeble mall metal and numetal wussies. Fire up the bong and join me as we travel through the nine gates with Centurian as our guide to the realm of the choronzonic chaos gods.
Bane
Vehemence (The Cathartic Remnants of Chaos Virtue and Time)
Independent Release
Finally the new Bane is out so the hardcore one who also uses the same name can finally be pulverized into shreds (the death metal Bane has already used it earlier than the HC one) hehe. It’s been close to 2-3 years and the underground hordes have been waiting for this. Bane pulverizes new school LA, CA-style technical death/grind but use idiosyncratic and insane arrangements to control the chaos into divided segments in one song and jar the senses of the listener. Explosive freakout super tech deathgrind for the insane fckrs out there.
Listening to Bane is like watching a brutal city riot from the top of a building, everything is seen and heard at the same time but there are so many different acts of mayhem and violence that you don’t know what the F you’re going to do when it eventually reaches you. It’s like asking Immolation and Cryptopsy to take acid and taunt each other to a fight. All the members of Bane are quite technically skilled and they have cut their teeth in various underground shows and opened up for the major players in the scene for years now, and they deserve to have their full length out now. Those hardcore kids who keep on threatening the band on their guestbook can just buy this CD and listen to their stereos in disbelief. Visit their awesome webpage at http://welcome.to/bane
Phobia
Serenity Through Pain
Deathvomit
This killer grind album starts with an outlaw doom-y Johnny Cash vocal intro foretelling doom on some barren, dry desert land, you know it’s just Phobia trippin on the intro for a cold wasteland like feel, as the album suddenly erupt the grindin’ festivities into full throttle. The production is less dirtier than previous albums, still raging West Coast power grind, and Shane is doing the vocals a bit clearer and guttural than the full blown low growl with some insane screams backing up ala Doom and older angry crustpunk. There are also more beatdown grooves in between and some abruptly inserted lead solos in here. 23 songs to bash out in the fn pit and bash your head against the wall as you search for answers but find nothing. It is Phobia and it kills, just like always. Pick up a copy now.
Vomitory
Blood Rapture
Metal Blade
The last one, “Revelation Nausea” killed with its fast Dismember style thrash paced tempos and the on the money riffs. Yeah these dudes are from Sweden, but don’t utilize any melodic twin guitars and high pitched vocals, opting for a more oldschool approach hearkening to Grave and Entombed but with some American death metal tinges as well.
This new one sounds a bit cleaner and polished than that one, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad, I just personally liked the rawer mix of the guitars and bass on that last one. On this new one though, they pushed the vocals a bit higher in the mix, and it helps since they have only one style and that of low bellowing growls, unlike the last time that it was lower in the mix. It would help if they had other vocal styles to complement it and add to it. There seems to be more grind in here as well, and not a bad thing, it will please those who lean more into the brutal death/grind side. Blood Rapture continues the assault from the previous album no real surprises here, but the quality of the music is still on par.
Impaled
Mondo Medicale
Deathvomit Records
Hell yes the new record from these goregrindin’ malpractitioners. I like The Dead Shall Dead Remain so now I’m totally into these moFckrs right here. Mondo Medicale features a growing interest in some melodic riffs and more melodic solos, but don’t take this as a Swedish thing, though. It’s still brutal death gore grind, but with a rocking edge only accented by the addition of these harmonies. It’s not used on every breakdown and grind part and it’s still basically the same all through out so don’t go bitchin about it.
The result is still the trademark Impaled splattering fn mess but with a rocking melodic edge which is a bit reminiscent of Heartwork-era Carcass when they go the melodic path, but more concentrated on the goregrind horror and having the low growl and scream vocal tradeoffs. I also like the way the melodic lead solos break in and add color to the grinding and halftime passages here. Andrew Labarre himself mixed this monster, so you know what you’re getting here. 10 aural grindrockin songs of gore. Next time you’re drunk driving alone on a weekend put this on and crash the fn car into the emergency room entrance of your nearest hospital or better yet chase some unsuspecting mall metal kids in your truck with a gun with this on for more fun.
Destroyer666
Cold Steel for an Iron Age
Season of Mist
The last assaults of this awesome Australian cult have been really solid and crushing so I’ve been anxious to hear what their new release would be. Although not as totally merciless kvlt as Phoenix and Unchain, the new opus is still very much in that vein and still has a balance of the oldschool throttling death thrash/speed metal assault with their incendiary black metal sound.
But it seems that the older death/thrash and speed metal sound is more evident here. And there seems to be more emphasis this time on slower, crushing tempos here interspersed by some short bursts of blastbeating mayhem, unlike some of their more epic songs from the past two albums. it just gets better with every listen. Production is still raw, dirty and unpolished enough to bring the oldschool feel all throughout, but clear and well mixed enough to bring out all elements into the mix. raise your fists in the air oldschool fn death black thrash for those who believe in real metal, without going the trendy retro thrash trip.
Enslaved
Monumension
Osmose
I’ve been an Enslaved fan since the Hordanes Land split, and although I don’t have all their albums, I have seen their sound evolve towards a more progressive slant without losing base of their Viking Metal roots. with that said, their two previous albums, Mardraum and Blodhemn have shown a new progressive direction, even having a few psychedelic touches. Roy Kronheim’s addition to the lineup also helped shaped the direction this band was going as well in those periods.
When I saw the artwork for this an remembered its style being very similar to 70’s prog rock covers, I knew the direction was going to be more major. Enslaved retains their trademark Viking vocal styles and the reverb heavy spoken word vocal styles here but with an added slower psychedelic sound and a more snarling vocal style for Grutle; Each song is like a journey of textures and moods. They have the melodic and intricate melodies, the more brutal and thrashing riffs, the slower space metal jams and tripped-out passages well balanced than on the past two albums. Monumension starts out aggressive and thrashing, and then slows down for the more atmospheric songs, and then build up back again to the heavier and more aggressive songs, before it ends with a slow, doom metal sludge noise track, “Outer Self”.
Although the past two albums are more cohesive and solid, Monumension is a successful experiment for Enslaved, and I can see them incorporating more of the atmospheric/prog/psychedelic elements that they used here on the next album, but not at all getting rid of their heavier side and their Viking Metal roots. They are working on the new album as we speak so look out for that on.
Agoraphobic Nosebleed
Frozen Corpse Stuffed with Dope
Relapse
Goddamn that’s a cool album title. I’ve always been into ANb, even if I don’t own any of their albums, previously, but mostly from compilations/samplers. Frozen Corpse… just adds to the overall anti-social, anti-society feeling you have, it’s what you’re supposed to do: get f’d up on drugs with grind, and do all sorts of shit.
Whatever their grind does for you, no matter how much you’ve had, no matter how many bands, no matter how many songs per album, even if sometimes all of them sound like one big blur, you still come back for more and this new slab is a must have for every grind fanatic who wants to smoke pcp and and just destroy. It took long for this new one to come out though, but I think the wait is all worth it.
The mess you’re in on this album gets varied though; there’s much more different ways to F shit up, more samples, machine gun hyperblasts, slowdowns, even slow techno beats and ever dueling low/hi/gruff/raspy vocal mayhem. You gotta love the Gatling Gun hehh. Guitar tones seem to change every goddamn song too, it’s chugga heavy on one, trebly noisy on the other, total noise in some. Some good grinding fun for all, and watch out for cool guest appearances as well. Excellent art by the prolific Aaron Turner of ISIS on this CD rounds it out.
December Wolves
Blasterpiece Theater
Earache/Wicked World
They’ve made their mark on Completely Dehumanized, playing fast thrashy black metal but having a different imagery and sick F psycho lyrics. Combining those odd elements worked well for them. These guys definitely stand alone in the black metal scene; they don’t wear corpsepaint or armor, don’t sing lyrics about the horned and hooved one, and they use tons of samples in a cut and paste collage style to mindF the listeners with a steady stream of seemingly unconnected soundbytes to add to the atmosphere to their songs. Hell they even used drum machines on this one but not in a single minded hyperblast grind way.
It’s still the deranged U.S. Black Metal style we heard on Completely Dehumanized, but this one focuses more on the internal struggles and the inner workings of the already sick individual behind the lyrics, and a purer, blasting black metal sound, and makes for a good follow up. Although not as thrashy as their first CD, December Wolves replaces the tempos with grinding drum machine madness and interjecting samples, and the riffs here are more intricate and phrased much differently. The vocals are still in the Satyricon/early Ulver vein, with lyrics that could belong to any sick non-black metal outfit. They are all written from an inside looking out perspective, thoughts of a madman observing a futile world. They did it on their great first album, and continue to do it here.
It’s hard to just pigeonhole December Wolves, lyrically they are set apart from the others, sonically it is mostly black metal, but there are also fast thrashy and death metal parts, tons of samples that confuse the listener and deviate the attention until the blasting continues/ commences, and cold, inhuman drum machines that grind, halt and kill. A different approach this time, but still keeping the intensity to their maximum.
Hemdale
Rad Jackson
Relapse
Yes, those legendary sick f*cks from Ohio finally have the complete discography CD out from where else but Relapse no less. When I first heard their songs on an Extremist Records compilation years ago I knew this was the shiznit.
37 career spanning tracks of ridiculous gore infested death grind with absolutely crushing lo-fi sound. Mayhemic tag team gorecore low blow bellow growls and insane screaming vocals, detuned guitars, grind on grind off rhythm section-you know it’s cool and you must have it. If you missed out on the split Ep’s, the comp tracks, and yep, that infamous split of gore with Exhumed (like I did) this is the CD to buy.
Origin
Informitas, Infinitas, Inhumanitas
Relapse
Absolute and utter fn chaos erupts on this sophomore release. This is much better and more focused than the first record, and features more chaos riffing and over the top drumkit devastation from our hero John Longstreth, who’s certainly one of the most solid and technical drummers around. Pile after pile the riffs jackhammer into a busy cacophony, drilling inch by inch into your brain, all the while being jarred by the rhythm section and the sick triple vocal styles. Having too many parts and techie sick parts with this does have the risk of sounding cluttered though, like with the last Cryptopsy, even if it is mostly great and sick, but hopefully Origin wouldn’t go too far out and maintain the focus and balance on the brutality and technicality. Great CD.
King’s-Evil
Deletion of Humanoise
Worldchaos Productions
Holy fn sh*t man this is a surprise kickass CD. When I received this CD in the mail I forgot about it on my desk and remained unlistened to for like 2 months, so when review time came, I put this fckr on and lo and behold, some intense Japanese speed/thrash, crossbreeding Kreator, Slayer, Overkill and tons of your favorite alcoholic beverages into a hellblender spun to the speed of 666 mph.
Yeah so it’s been done before, but if done right, and from a metalhead’s heart and soul, the oldschool can be properly done and resurrected once again. All the patented elements – raspy style thrash vocals, breakneck menacing riffs, sudden outbreaking wild trade off insane solos and drunk headbanging rhythms – it’s all in here, I felt like a fool for not listening to it earlier, almost laughing in disbelief how tight and intense this band is, as back then I was in full speed/thrash metal mode, digging into my old worn out Intruder, Overkill, Nuclear Assault etc. tapes. Yes, tapes, the good stuff, and the great ones. This is perfect for that afternoon of nothing but pure coffee overdose insanity (or drunk headbanging-your choice).
Tripalium Issue #3 Compilation CD
This bastard comes free with each copy of issue #3 of Tripalium zine. It’s an excellent musical accompaniment for the zine and helps you decide which releases to buy from bands you haven’t heard yet so you will have a good idea what they sound like in addition to the thorough interviews. 30 tracks from the sickest, ugliest and most brutal.
Standouts? there are a lot: Watch Me Burn are fn killer, Freund Hein of course, Pigsty, Effluvium, local mofckrs Al Iblis, Decapitated (who have improved a great deal from their first recording which really sucked, although their track offers nothing totally outstanding they kick ass on it, most especially when they grind with high pitched vocals), Gaeldorn Jhan, the brutal Intervalle Bizarre. I believe this is already out in the underground crust punk store in Recto, and in local underground gigs. If you can’t find it anywhere, check the site for more info, http://go.to/tripalium
Towards Harmonious Civilization Zine 
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